Want to claim your place as the one responsible for your kid’s education? Charter schools help you do that.

Today on The State of Education with Melvin Adams, we’re once again talking with Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Nina has had a lot of experience in education, but she’s especially passionate about the opportunities and ideals that charter schools hold up for families. What’s one reason why she thinks charter schools are highly sought after? Parental involvement. Charter schools help children—and, by extension, families—flourish.  

“[P]eople don’t make decisions about where to send their kids to school in a random way. It’s usually a very personal matter. You don’t just pick up your child and move them from one school to another because you felt like it…You make those decisions when you’re really frustrated, or you’re really seeking something that’s better..” — Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

In this episode:

• Melvin points out that traditional public schools are failing—and funding is not the answer
• Nina talks about a key difference between traditional and charter public schools: charter are closed down if they aren’t performing
• She also gives some great tips on finding and applying to a charter school and discusses
  • The characteristics of a good school
  • Charter schools’ “lottery” method of choosing students to fill empty seats
  • How to attract charter schools to your community and generate interest among other families
• Nina outlines the history of her organization, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and talks about some of the oppositions charter schools have faced in the past twenty years
• She also answers the question, “Why have charter schools outlasted all the opposition?” and speaks to the future of education and where she believes schools should focus their attention in a world that looks far different than the world of yesterday

If you like what you’re hearing, stay tuned for our next episode on The State of Education with Melvin Adams.

If you’d rather watch the video version of our podcast episodes, subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified every Wednesday when new episodes launch. Here is today’s conversation with Nina Rees and Melvin Adams: