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Does charter school expansion make sense?

By GREG PECK ( Contact ) Friday, January 4, 2013 - 12:16 p.m.

The Janesville School District includes two regular high schools, three middle schools and a dozen elementary schools. It also has four charter schools, which offer alternative programming. These four are the Janesville Virtual Academy, the TAGOS Leadership Academy, the Academy for International Studies and the Rock River Charter School.

The latter charter school offers alternative programs that help teens who are at risk of dropping out. It also provides programs to help dropouts get high school equivalency degrees.

The Rock River Charter School now serves about 150 students, ages 14-21. It also has a waiting list. As Frank Schultz reporter detailed in the Dec. 27 Gazette, Superintendent Karen Schulte has numbers suggesting the district could expand this charter school and, because of state aid, come out ahead.

Does this make sense? We’ll share our perspective in our editorial Saturday.

Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook

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(5)

RetiredAirForce
Jan 4, 2013 at 10:58 p.m.
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Limiting choices, for students and parents, is never a good idea.

analertcitizen
Jan 4, 2013 at 8:52 p.m.
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I posted this on the earlier articcle and still believe it:
Any time we can get young people into an educational setting- it is a good thing. There are vast numbers of kids who, when it was legal, dropped out of high school. Laws and society have changed and, for the good of all, these kids need an education. I'll give some of the naysayers that it might not be the high high quality one would get to be able to enroll in Harvard, but in any school environment, learning accurs.I say do it.

wislady
Jan 4, 2013 at 7:44 p.m.
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vnvet7071

I agree.

vnvet7071
Jan 4, 2013 at 3:20 p.m.
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State aid should NOT be the focus here. Helping those lost students should be the main objective.If you could save one, just one of those kids, it would be worth it.

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