Silver Chips: "charter schools would bring variety to public education"

What Montgomery Blair's student newspaper Silver Chips said about charter schools last year:

Silver Chips Online:  Chartering an innovative route to excellence in MCPS

...Special education students are struggling at every school level, but charter schools have the capacity to serve special education students effectively in all grades. According to Jen Hales, Associate Head of School at Washington Montessori Public Charter School in Washington, NC, the Montessori program's unique instructional methods cater specifically to special needs children; in fact, 54 out of the 263 students currently enrolled at Hales's school have disabilities. Montessori charter schools also specifically target low-income students, according to the Montessori charter school mission statement, written by educational consultant Norman Lorenz. Some schools even offer housing, career counseling and parenting resources to low-income families.
Teachers and school systems aren't charter schools' only fans. Student satisfaction with charter schools is higher than with regular public schools. According to a 2000 survey by the Journal of Educational Research on Texas charter school students, students who had attended both public and charter schools were at least as satisfied with their charter school as with their former public school. Not only do students like charter schools - these unconventional learning environments also increase student retention rates. The same survey found that students who would have dropped out of public school had they not transferred to a charter school gave their charter school a higher grade than did students who were at no risk of dropping out...