What Is The Big Deal With These Charter Schools?
Colorado Springs has a lot of charter schools. The Classical Academy in school district 20 is arguably one of the most successful charter schools in the country, larger than many of the smaller school DISTRICTS in the area with over 3,000 students and somewhere in the vicinity of 7,000 students on the waiting list. Today at Grandparents Day at the Central Campus, Jim Kretchman, co-founder of the school and owner of the Preschool Partners pre-school, gave a very good overview of what charter schools are, and how they differ from each other. The video quality isn’t great, but here is Jim’s talk:
In interest of full disclosure, my wife teaches at The Classical Academy, 2 of my 5 kids graduated from there, and 2 of my grandkids attend there. But I’m not biased 😉
The main thing that charter schools have in common is that they are tuition free, publicly funded, schools of choice. They are not religious schools or private schools.
There are many other charter schools in the area as well, including but not limited to the following:
- Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy and Vanguard School (12)
- Monument Academy (38)
- Rocky Mountain Classical Academy (49)
- Imagine Classical Academy (49)
- Banning Lewis Ranch Academy (49)
- Thomas Maclaren School (11)
- James Irwin (2)
If charter schools sound like an interesting option for your child, you should explore some of the links above, visit the schools, and see what makes the most sense for your family. There are no perfect schools, just the best fit for you.