HD 6 Joshua Sharf

Home Membership and Services Public Affairs Overview Charter Survey for 2010 Candidates HD 6 Joshua Sharf

1. Do you support a parent’s right to choose the best public school, in their judgment, for their children? Why or why not?

Yes. Parents have primary responsibility for their child's education, have the right, and ought to have the ability, to choose the school and program they think is best for their child. They know their children better than anyone else, and will, all else being equal, have the best sense of what's best for their own children.

2. In your view, what role should charter schools play in the effort to provide parents and students choice in their schooling options?

Charters should be allowed the greatest possible latitude in the development of curricula and program design, obviously with the assumption that they will be able to meet basic educational criteria.

3. Do you support charter schools getting and keeping the autonomy to make key decisions that affect a school’s daily operations? Why or why not?

Yes, again, within established national standards for the same. Operations inevitably affect the implementation of the programming, and binding charters with the operational rules they exist to get out from under could unnecessarily limit their ability to generate new programming ideas.

4. In your view, do charter schools help improve the educational opportunities or harm the educational opportunities for students in traditional public schools?

I believe that, inevitably, they enhance the traditional public schools by providing models that work (and, of course, some that don't), and by encouraging traditional schools to lessen administrative overhead, and reduce unnecessary regulation.

5. Do you believe that charter schools should be eligible to receive facilities funding from state and local capital budgets to address their critical facilities needs? Why or why not?

Yes, although at the moment (and I stress, at the moment), that would probably force an increase in the overall school budgets that we can't afford. We could certainly encourage school districts to allow charters to share facilities, such as those used for sports and other extracurricular activities, with existing neighborhood schools

6. In your view, how do teachers' jobs in charter schools differ from teachers' jobs in traditional public schools?

Fundamentally, they are the same - to provide the best education to the children in their charge. However, charter school teachers will probably have more input into curriculum design, as well as other aspects of the school experience for the children.

7. Please feel free to provide any additional comments or view points regarding choice and charter schools in the state of Colorado that you were not able to cover in your responses above.

No Response