But, because the church membership is good and generous in tithing does not necessarily mean they are able to reach out to others. I have seen this and it is sad that the pastor overlooks this.

In terms of parents caring – first let’s keep in mind that those same caring parents were once in a traditional school and could not get results. Secondly, there are plenty of examples of charter schools where parent participation is low and charters have created programming to account for this.

Oh, and there over 400,000 children on waiting lists for charter schools nation-wide. Keeping in mind, charter schools are a new development and many states are only coming around to passing laws that even allow them so I’d say 400,000 in that respect is alot.

No one has said that low parent participation and other problems are part of the condition of our failing school system – the point is – charters are showing many examples of success – despite barriers that everyone else use as an excuse for failure.

Caring parents, teachers, school board members and activists have been trying to fix the traditional school system and its impact on these communities for decades.

Charters are not the silver bullet, nor do they propose to be – they are one part of a massive reform to develop a new system that will get results – and caring people need to be present at community meetings and in the legislative process to make sure that they are assessing which schools and policies are best for their communities – without loyalty to systems – but instead – to kids.