Community Public Charter School Archives - North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools

Photo credit: National School Choice Awareness Foundation.

Coalition Executive Director Lindalyn Kakadelis has a new op-ed out today in Carolina Journal. The editorial, which highlights the fundamental importance of parent choice in education, coincides with celebrations across the nation this week for National School Choice Week (NSCW).

Here’s an excerpt from Lindalyn’s new commentary:

I have a feeling most people involved in education policy intuitively accept the conclusion that parents should be the final word on what’s best for their child. But I also believe some don’t really understand its implications. You see, if we accept as our guiding principle that final authority rests with parents, then the answer to many of the debates roiling education policy becomes patently obvious.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over school choice. Should all children have one schooling option, determined by a family’s address? Or should children have multiple schooling options, determined by parents and based on what they think is best?

If our guiding principle is that final word rests with parents, then it stands to reason parents should have options for where to send their children to school — and the more options the better. In this way, the public school system supports, rather than supplants, a parent’s decision-making by offering an array of options for parents to choose from.

That’s what public charter schools offer: another option, often with a curricular concentration, such as STEM or the arts or even a classical focus.

Read the rest of Lindalyn’s editorial here. In addition, if you missed it, you can view the winning video from the Coalition’s dance video contest for NSCW here. It showcases the dance moves of students and faculty from Community Public Charter School. Read more about the winning video in this Coalition blog post.