The Obama Race to the Top (RTTT) demands that states remove limitations on the establishment of charter schools. States are further required to provide funding and facilities to support charter schools.

Otherwise, Federal funding is withheld. All this is, as Obama and Education Secretary/Czar Arne Duncan say, premised on doing “what works”.

The problem, though, is that the premise is false. Nationwide data show that charter schools do not work well. The few that produce “outlier” results on the high side usually fall prey to central tendency and revert to average (or below) performance over time. Only about 1 per cent of the highest performing charter schools maintained their rankings three years later.

A recent Stanford University study of 16 states’ charter schools’ students showed that they did not do any better than traditional public school students. About half did the same and just over one-third actually did worse. Only about one out of six charter school students performed better. The last ten years’ research has shown time and again that charter schools do no better than traditional public schools. This is substantiated by the U.S. Department of Education’s own studies, as well as those of several universities.

Although Obama and Duncan site innovation as a basis for altering public policy, one of the reasons that charter schools fail to raise the performance bar is lack of innovation; the very reason for their existence in the first place.

Both Obama and Duncan advocate closing thousands of low performing public schools, but fail to note or recognize that failed charter schools are seldom closed or, even, subject to anything approaching the scrutiny or oversight to which traditional public schools are subjected.

The Central Government’s push for more charter schools will most likely result in virtually no benefit to students and a general waste of energy and taxpayer money. This generalized public policy direction is both misguided and based on misinformation. I can see not good coming of it. In fact, the charter school movement further diverts funding from those areas of education that have a solid track record of student attainment and achievement.

A negative and, I hope, unintended impact of charter schools that is little discussed involves the destruction of the fundamental precept of public education. We need only look to our neighbors in nearby states for examples.

In one suburban school district that has enrollment similar to Ohio County Schools, charter schools have been around for about five years.

The cost to the school district is staggering. For the 2009-2010 school year, payments to charter schools exceeded $8 million in that district alone. That amount is scheduled to grow to more than $11 million for the 2010-2011 school year. The district is also required to provide transportation for each resident student to and from each charter school.

In addition to the financial cost, the effect of the charter schools in this instance is to create de facto segregation based on race and student disability. The charter schools end up recruiting and attracting predominantly white students; they have virtually no students with significant disabilities.

The charter schools advertise “free tuition” and are clearly using public funds, taxpayer money, to segregate public education and circumvent what has been the law of the land since 1954.

American public schools grew to become not only unique on this planet, but were the envy of the rest of the world. Their very egalitarianism meant that most of us grew up in a school environment that brought everyone together. Despite frictions and differences, we all rubbed shoulders, learned together, played ball together and learned to get along or tolerate each other in ways that carried over into adulthood. This is now being sacrificed and your tax money is funding it.

Charter schools are the wrong response to challenges facing our public schools.

The results are in. It is time to end the experiment before we blow up the laboratory.