• Reduce the excessive mandated curricular items at the elementary schools
• Increase total classroom time - year-round-education or extended year
• Require parental involvement and cooperation, with legal penalties for violations
• Reduce class sizes
• Equalize facilities/funding levels between districts/schools
• Reduce administrative overhead/personnel, redirecting funds saved to curricular materials, such as workbooks, computers, etc.
• Provide reasonable methods of parental choice between schools, especially within a given district
• RESTRICT AND FURTHER REGULATE CHARTER SCHOOLS, because they are unfair competition to the public schools and are sucking the life out of the public school system.

  Level the playing field, making charter schools subject to the same regulations and standards that public schools are. Charter schools should only be added in areas where the enrollment in the public schools is exceeding capacity. The Charter School movement has arisen out of a "manufactured crisis", as opposed to a real one, and is backed largely by such enemies of Public Schools as the Religious Right and other politically conservative entities pushing for vouchers and other misguided attacks on what they perceive to be politically "leftist" teachers unions.

  Charter schools are really a stealthy (sneaky) way to implement vouchers, a BAD IDEA that the right wing has never been able to sell to the public any other way, so now they are sneaking it into our society under the guise of charter schools.

  DON'T BE FOOLED when the Republicans produce Black Americans from urban areas who are happy with vouchers...they are being USED by the enemys of our public schools. We shouldn't simply "rescue" children from "bad" schools. We should devote the time, attention, and resources necessary to fix those schools! But don't expect to hear that from the Republicans!

Click here for the Frequently Asked Questions about vouchers answered by the California Alliance for Public Schools.

Click here for a good analysis from Canada of some of the myths of Charter Schools, from an international viewpoint.

The NEA Charter Schools Overview

Virtual Charter Schools
A new threat to public schools has been concocted by the anti-public-education crowd: "Virtual Charter Schools." A chief proponent is William J. Bennett, an arch-conservative who has now found yet another way to attack the existing public school system. Here's a link exposing some of the pitfalls: Fact Sheet: How Virtual Charter Schools Threaten Public Schools