Has anyone worked in a Charter School? I am getting interview calls from them. What is the difference between a charter school and public school? I hear they work 12 months, no unions nor tenure jobs. Any information will be greatly appreciated. Shikshak
It truly depends on the charter school and the state that it is located. Charter schools have applied (with a charter) to become a school that has a bit more freedom than traditional public schools. Often they are still a part of the district in which they are located (this was the case for TN, but not OH in my experience). Charters may have a focus, the two I have worked for had extended school days and an extended school year...but it was not year long. I was paid about 20% above the school district, but this is not true of all charter schools. Some charters, if connected with the district charter school teachers may be a part of the union, maybe not...it depends on the school. The charters I worked at were at-will contracts.....research charters in your state. For CA, I know that KIPP, GreenDot, Aspire, and schools run by Building Excellent Schools fellows are pretty good ones.
I have heard of Charter school going year round, but they are on a 3-month on, and 1 month off schedule. As far as tenure and unions, they usually follow the district they are in, so if there is a union in the district, charter school will also have a union... I know several people who work for charter schools, and that the way they work. I would actually prefer working for a charter school in stead of public school because the pay and benefits are equivalant to public school, but class sizes are significantly lower.
I'm in MN. I have heard that charters originated here. I don't know this for fact. This is just what I have heard. But here, they (charter teachers) are not organized. Transportation is usually provided for students via their resident public school district. That is, of course, if the student lives within that district. There is no tenure. The school could close during the middle of the year and you could be out of a job. At least here, they do not pay higher than the traditional public school districts. Here charters tend to be run by different private organizations, which are completely separate from the public schools. You also don't see one organization running more than one charter school. All of them do, however, have a core area specialty as to why they were founded, e.g. creative arts, math and science, etc. I have had a few colleagues that have worked in charter schools, and it was ok, but they had a perferred the local public school dist. But, the education system here is different than in other places, so it is like comparing an apple to an orange when talking about CA.
