So we have a successful public school that spends less than half per student compared to our traditional schools, and is willing to accommodate hundreds more students–  but has been rebuffed and suppressed by our school board. Does this make sense, in a time when we are repeatedly told that we are in a budget crisis? (And here I haven’t even mentioned the educational merits of charter schools, which are not the focus of this post, though evident enough in the size of City View’s waiting list.   How many non-charters anywhere in Oregon have a waiting list of 147 students?   If you’re curious for more general info on charter schools, look here or here.)

It’s also important to recognize that City View is not some unique outlier among charter schools: long waiting lists, budgets that are a fraction of the traditional schools’ budgets, and enrollment caps enforced by local school boards are common characteristics of charter schools throughout the state.  If you are in another district, chances are that your own local school board is unnecessarily limiting charter schools in order to protect the union-dominated and expensive traditional public schools– even as they cry about their lack of budget. So regardless of what area you live in, you should call or email your local school board and demand that they create real long-term savings by expanding charter school opportunities for the children of your district.

- Erik Seligman, Hillsboro, OR