I've read that KIPP has a habit of preference to students and families whom they believe have a greater chance of academic success. One would think this is detrimental to the public high schools and students where the KIPP students would've attended.

Awesome

Let's drain even more resources from MA.

where does it end

Many people highlight the efficacy of charter schools, but unfortunately:
* There have never done any studies done with true randomized admissions. Random lotteries of motivated families are not the same as real randomized studies.
* Most studies of charter experiments show mixed results. Some schools and students do better. many do not, which is troubling given that typical charter school enrollment comes from much more education engaged families.

@MPer, given all of the doom and gloom about M-A overcrowding, shouldn't this help?

KIPP targets a pretty specific demographic. I don't think you will see a massive drain from M-A given things like the extended school day.

KIPP also seems to be pretty successful with their target demographic.

MP Resident
If MA receives funds based upon the number of students in attendance then yes MA would suffer loss of funds.

And KIPP's target student for admission is the student with the best chance of success and the best family support. So yes this will hurt the public schools they would've been attending. And this in turn skews the KIPP results in KIPPs favor.

If charter schools - which are PUBLIC schools and NOT ALLOWED to discriminate - are really no different in terms of results, then why do people fear giving families that choice? Eventually the truth will win out and they will disappear.

But the truth is that the number of charter schools is growing, not diminishing because there IS a difference. That's why there's a waiting list to get into charter schools and why there are increasing numbers of empty seats in traditional schools.

Students are voting with their feet.

Those who claim that charter schools "steal" funds from public schools ignore the FACT that charter schools ARE public schools.

Imagine a traditional school with 500 students which rightfully gets funding for all 500 students. If 250 of those students opt for the charter school next door, do you really think that traditional school should still get funding for 500 students when it's enrollment is just 250? That would be absurd. The funding should be split between the two schools.

No one is stealing funds. The funds stay in PUBLIC schools. It's just that one of those schools is now a charter.

" It's just that one of those schools is now a charter."

And one of those schools actually produces results.