Duncan: Charters Have Role in Turnarounds

“The charter movement is putting itself at risk

by allowing too many second-rate and

third-rate schools to exist.”

-- Arne Duncan

This from Politics K-12:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this morning asked charter school operators to play a major role in turning around the nation's lowest-performing
schools.

"Today, I am challenging you to adapt your educational model to turning around our lowest-performing schools. I need you to go outside your comfort zones and go to under-served rural communities and small cities," he said to the attendees of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' ninth annual conference, which kicked off this morning at Washington's convention center...

And the New York Times reports Duncan warned advocates of the charter schools that low-quality institutions are giving their movement a black eye. “The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist,” Mr. Duncan says in prepared remarks.