As California deals with the local impacts of the global economic crisis, we need to think about our future leaders -- our youth. If we are serious about maintaining our country’s status in the world, we need to invest in our kids. And that means all of them.

We’ve allowed our students’ achievement and college preparedness to dwindle, with large gaps leaving minorities and students from poorer families at a disadvantage. As a society, we can’t afford to miss out on the potential of these young people. Our next great talents need to be nurtured, not left to fall through the cracks of a failing public school system.

The underperforming public school is practically a cliché, but a new option has emerged – charter schools. California’s 750 charter schools are typically small, focused academies that serve roughly the same mix of students enrolled in public schools. The state has added an average of fifty per year in the last decade, and charters currently serve about 276,000 students.

Charter schools are run more like businesses than like public institutions, which tends to make them more streamlined and freer to select the best teaching talent. If students are judged on the merit of their work, shouldn’t teachers be subject to the same? The clout of teachers’ unions has led to undue protections for teachers who don’t teach well, and charter schools have found a way to circumvent their influence.

From my own experience, I can definitely see the logic of this. I grew up in a good public school system, but I ran into the occasional Very Bad Teacher. I have distinct memories of one teacher who told stories about his life for more than half the class. We wondered why we even bothered to do the homework if he wasn’t even going to discuss it. He seemed completely disinterested in the students, and my guess is that he had institutional protections that let him keep his job. But for us, the 14-year-olds who were there to learn trigonometry, the class caused us to waste 45 minutes a day and feel unprepared for the next level of math.

In a charter school, that teacher would have been let go, just like an underperforming worker would in a private company.

Once they recruit passionate, top-level teachers, charter schools prioritize one-on-one time with students, often utilizing highly talented graduates of top colleges who are willing to work for relatively low pay before going on to other careers. There’s just something about the energy of a charter, the feeling that you really can make a difference in a child’s life, that motivates these young teachers. For example, the Match School in Boston, a star of the charter school movement, convinces graduates of top universities to live in a dormitory and work for a minimal stipend in order to give disadvantaged urban students a chance to go to college.

But demanding more doesn’t necessarily smooth your path. Last year, Match had problems with students leaving just before graduation for a public school because they were not going to meet the charter’s tougher requirements. This led to questions of whether the school was asking too much of its students, even if, by and large, it paid off.

By going against the grain, California’s charter schools will undoubtedly face similar challenges, but their record so far is impressive. Studies show that charters do a better job of improving students’ Academic Performance Index (API) scores and have made more progress toward closing the achievement gap between African-American and Caucasian students.

In addition to working more closely with students, charter schools tend to bring parents into the loop. They keep in touch with families and let them know if a child is not performing at his or her potential.

Because of this support network, students at charter schools are more likely to absorb the values that their adult role models are imparting to them, learning to be self-reliant and responsible.

They may not be for everyone, but the charter school is a great alternative to the traditional public school. By escaping the bureaucracy and red tape of the current system and running more on merit and innovation than on seniority and age-old practices, these new schools are surprising parents, children and legislators by showing a new possible path toward closing California’s educational achievement gap. More funding for these innovative academies would be a step in the right direction for the state’s most disadvantaged youth.

My blog is part of a month-long series on education in California,
published in partnership with the University of Phoenix and The WIP's publishing platform
Six Apart. WIP Executive Editor Katharine Daniels is also participating.
Be sure to look for both of our articles, as features and Talk blogs each Monday in March.