Charter schools aren't fixing public education. Here's what is.

Charter schools, private school vouchers and other market-based reforms to public education are not working. They are like a medication that only treats symptoms, like Prilosec for heartburn or Advil for arthritis. They look good in shiny brochures and work for some families and students, but they don’t address the root cause of the problem. And sometimes the side effects make the problem worse.

We know the root cause: Whether in rural Oklahoma or the southside of Chicago, we don’t invest enough in public schools in low-income ZIP codes. Market-based reforms ignore this problem and instead merely hand over control of schools to private organizations. This siphons away funding meant for traditional public schools, many of which are already starving for dollars.

What low-income students and their families need is what those from wealthier neighborhoods already have: enough funding and a say in how that funding is spent. In other words, those closest to the classroom – students, teachers and parents – know what they need. We just have to listen.

The good news is that there are schools that are listening, in diverse places such as Hillsborough County, Fla., and the Washington, D.C., suburbs. They’re called “community schools,” and they aim to support the entirety of a student’s well-being to ensure they are healthy, well-fed, safe and in a better position to learn. Most importantly, they empower those closest to problems at school to guide the solutions to those problems.

Because it is a community school, Gibsonton Elementary near Tampa, Fla., was able to help its students and families shoulder the worst of the pandemic by expanding on-campus food offerings, giving away school supplies and installing a campus washer-dryer. These were vital for the school’s predominantly low-income student population. 

But what really showed the community school strategy’s transformative power was when Gibsonton organized an effort to have the local government install new streetlights near campus. Staff had asked parents what they needed and heard that many students felt unsafe walking to campus in the morning and evening. This immediately increased attendance, which, among other things, eventually helped improve test scores.

In Montgomery County, Md., Wheaton Woods Elementary became a community school in 2019 and now is partnered with over 30 organizations to support students and families. The school has an active Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and parent engagement committee. Meetings and communications are carried out in multiple languages to accommodate the high proportion of Latino families. There are also after-school programs with additional learning opportunities for students, including classes in art, Spanish language and soccer. Parents are offered driving classes, English language classes and food safety classes.

Wheaton Woods is a Title I school, meaning the federal government has determined that its enrollment is mostly for students who struggle the most in school — namely, low-income children. “We weren’t listening to our families,” the school’s principal told journalist Jeff Bryant last year. “We started off thinking our families needed things like food assistance and English classes — providing what we assumed families in poverty need. When we started listening to our families, we found out that what we didn’t have was enough out-of-school time and activities for their kids, not enough athletics.”

There are countless other inspiring stories around the country. President Biden recently doubled federal spending on community schools, and several states have begun investing in the strategy in recent years, including California, which is spending $4 billion. In fact, research shows that community schools that adhere to best practices not only improve student educational outcomes, but they also reduce racial and economic achievement gaps.

Market-based reforms like charter schools and vouchers can’t match these results because they are fundamentally different. They simply change the adults in charge rather than listen to and empower students, parents and teachers. Many supporters of market-based reforms say the reforms offer parents more choice. But they don’t mention that charter schools and vouchers take away a parent’s ability to have a voice in what’s offered at the public school in their neighborhood.

Community schools, on the other hand, honor the public in public education. They acknowledge that a school is connected to the broader community around it. They recognize that much of a student’s life is lived outside the classroom and that students living in low-income ZIP codes may need more support. Most importantly, they respect that students, parents and teachers know what their problems are and how to solve them.

We need to stop focusing on symptoms and address the root cause of our public education system’s dysfunction. And now we have a proven, evidence-based tool to do so.

Donald Cohen is founder and executive director of In the Public Interest and author of "The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back."