Chartered Financial Analysts

Chartered Financial Analysts

Chartered Financial Analysts

A charter is a lease and the word is used most frequently with private transportation: Buses, planes, boats. It is confusing to associate the word with public schools, but charter schools have been around since 1991, and President Barack Obama loves them. In the 2008 third presidential debate against John McCain, Obama said, “Sen. McCain and I actually agree on charter schools. I doubled the number of charter schools in Illinois.”

Obama doubled the number of charter schools in Illinois? That would make the state a Magna Charter, funding scores of chartered public schools authorized by the legislature and paid for with tax-payer dollars. Theoretically, organizers, usually businesses, submit their educational plan to a school board where they are presented with a “charter.” Once these schools receive their charters they are classified as a separate authorized school body - or a nonprofit business. They are not accountable to any district or the state. There is no more accountability than there is at any other independent school; which is to say it’s strictly voluntary.

In fact, a law, promoted by then-governor Jeb Bush and passed in 2006, allowed Florida charter-school chiefs to consult a self-made agency; The Florida Schools of Excellence Commission , which permitted even more relaxed accountability and approval for starting charter schools. Is it worth it? To determine the answer, take a look at President Obama’s charter school models for the country.