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Despite their attraction to many parents and educators today, some charter schools have received a bad rap for cherry-picking the best students in the area to provide the schools with top-notch performance scores. However, a number of recent studies have suggested that the students who benefit most from the charter school structure are not the privileged students after all. In fact, many low-income and minority students are also reaping the many advantages charter schools can offer.

What is a Charter School?

A charter school is funded with public money and offers an alternative to traditional public schools. In most cases, a private group of individuals submits a charter for approval, and they are then granted the ability to run their own school in exchange for promising improved academic results. Most charter schools are given a set period of time, ranging from three to five years, to prove themselves as a preferred academic institution. If the charter school does not perform up to expectations, the charter may be pulled and the school closed down.

Charter schools have become a popular option for many parents and students today, primarily due to the alternative choice charters offer. Because the schools have greater influence from teachers and parents, the curriculum can often be structured around the specific needs of the students in the school. This might explain why charter schools are a particularly viable option for students in low-income or high-minority areas, where kids might need a

A new trend in public education is sweeping the country: the introduction of teacher-led schools that put teachers in the driver's seat of both the classroom and the daily operations of the schools at large. Teacher-led schools have begun operating in cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, and Milwaukee. Recently, a new teacher-led school was introduced in Detroit as well, according to an article in Detroit Free Press.

Bye-Bye Bureaucracy

The concept of teacher-led schools started with the idea that teachers were better equipped to meet the needs of students than administrators ever could be. Teachers work with children and curriculum every day, but in traditional campuses, still need to get modifications and new programs approved by principals and school supervisors before they can put them into action. By eliminating school administration, teachers put themselves in the position of adjusting curriculum and adding programs to meet the specific needs of the students in their schools.

Many of the teacher-run schools starting today have been located in low-income neighborhoods, where students already have many socioeconomic hurdles to overcome. For example, teacher-governed schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin consist of a high number of low-income Latino students, and one school in the area boasts a 100% Native American population. Another serves gay and lesbian students who were bullied in mainstream schools, according to a report at The Free Library.

This video reports on schools without principals.

Despite the budget cuts that have hit school districts nationwide over the past two years, recent numbers released for 2008 show that education was surprisingly healthy in the financial realm before the economic slowdown.

A recent analysis of showed that public school systems spent more on education per student during this year than in the previous 16 years of education spending. An article in Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that the average spending per student across the country was $ 10,259, with some districts spending more and others spending much less.

What the Numbers Show

The Bloomberg report was calculated for the 2007-2008 school year, and it included all 50 states. To get an accurate picture of education spending over the last two decades, numbers were adjusted for inflation. The results showed that this particular academic year boasted the biggest spending increase since at least 1992, the earliest year this type of data was available.

In a Georgia Education News blog report, Lisa Blumerman, chief of the Governments Division at the U.S. Census Bureau, said, "This report on public school spending shows us how taxpayer money is being spent on education. Public education is the single largest category of all state and local government expenditures. These data provide a detailed picture of how available resources are spent within the public education system."

School funding comes from various local, state, and federal sources. In 2008, public school systems received $582.1 billion in

Most kids approach summer vacation with gusto, filled with plans to enjoy the summer months without giving school a second thought. However, some parents and educators worry about what children won't be doing over the summer – such as math and reading activities that keep their minds sharp and ready to hit the ground running when school arrives again.

Summer learning loss is a very real phenomenon that has been documented by many reputable education and health care organizations. Fortunately, parents have options to prevent summer learning loss, ensuring their children are ready to hit the books again in the fall.

This video offers some ways to prevent summer learning loss.

What is Summer Learning Loss?

Summer learning loss is a phenomenon that occurs when children are out of the school environment for a significant period of time. During that absence, children can lose some of the skills they gained during the previous school year, particularly in the areas of math and reading.

According to an article on , facts about learning loss, as studied by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Summer Learning, include:

• Students suffer from learning loss when they do not participate in educational activities during the summer.
• Students lose an average of about 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in math computation skills over the summer.
• Low-income students suffer from greater learning loss than those students in higher-income