What that Stanford CREDO crowd says now about charter schools – Louisiana

Legalize School Choice

By now, you probably would have to live on another planet – or strictly confine your reading only to what the Kentucky Education Association publishes – to not know about the huge charter school miracle going on in Louisiana. These public schools have created a post-Hurricane Katrina miracle. And, even the crowd that published some rather negative statements about charter schools back in 2009 is now taking notice.

In its recent update report on charter schools in Louisiana, The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University published some incredibly impressive statistics on what happens to students in Louisiana charter schools as they spend more years in these traditional public school alternatives.

Here is the relevant graph from the CREDO 2013 update report on Louisiana.

CREDO LA Report - Charter Impact by Years of Enrollment

Imagine that! By the time a student spends just three years in a Louisiana charter school, he or she gains the equivalent of more than 100 days of extra instruction in both reading and math compared to traditional public school counterparts! By the time the student has spent another year or two in charters, they are almost a full school year ahead.

It’s no wonder that somewhere around 80 percent of all the kids in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans are now in charter schools.

What is a wonder is how Kentucky’s legislators have steadfastly refused to allow the Bluegrass State’s children an opportunity to experience this sort of really high quality education.

C'mon, Kentucky. I know you care about kids. Isn’t it time for us to give Bluegrass State children a new chance with solid charter school legislation like Louisiana has?