On the one hand, I support charter schools.\u00a0 They are the only real form of school choice available to people who don’t have the money to send their kids to private schools.\u00a0 They are the only alternative to the failed inner-city public school systems for most low-income students.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, charter schools are supposed to follow rules – and in the case of Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy (in Blaine and Inver Grove Heights), there have been credible allegations <\/a>that TIZA broke <\/a>a big one<\/a>, the Establishment Clause.\u00a0 Charter schools use public money – each student’s allotment of state ed money – to operate; the law says that money can’t support religion.\u00a0 Other charter schools in the state use the parochial school model to get excellent results, while scrupulously leaving actual religious instruction for times and places outside school; TIZA may not have, and may have reacted poorly to the allegations.<\/p>\n On the third hand, TIZA gets the kind of results <\/a>that many charter schools, and all <\/em>urban public schools, should envy.\u00a0 With a student body that is 80% low-income and 2\/3 of whom speak English as a second language, TIZA gets math and reading test scores <\/a>that shame most schools of all types, everywhere in the state (and nationwide).\u00a0 They are obviously doing something right.<\/p>\n On the fourth hand, they are allegedly doing something wrong; the American Civil Liberties Union took TIZA to court<\/a>.<\/p>\n