'Classical' schools could bring charters to the suburbs

Classical charter schools are proving popular with parents who want a traditional, liberal-arts education, writes Daniel Buck. The model's appeal to middle-class suburban parents could help the charter movement in future political battles.

Urban charter schools are a success story, he writes. Their students, who disproportionately come from lower-income black and Hispanic families, are outperforming similar students in district-run schools. "But in the suburbs, where students tend to be white and middle class, charter schools rarely do better than the neighborhood school and often do worse."

A Great Hearts Classical Academy student dressed as Prince Caspian from the C.S. Lewis book for Literary Character Day.

Classical charters expand the constituency, creating a "suburban strategy" for charters, Buck writes.

Classical education "now encompasses more than 1,500 public, private, and charter schools serving nearly 700,000 students," write Robert Pondiscio and Annika Hernandez of the American Enterprise Institute. "Families are flocking to these schools because of their rigorous liberal arts curriculum, their commitment to moral and intellectual formation, and their rejection of faddish pedagogies in favor of enduring works and ideas."

The Achilles Heel of Classical Education is the shortage of teachers prepared to teach a classical curriculum.

Not all classical charters are suburban. South Bronx Classical which runs four schools in one of New York City's poorest areas, boasts very high test scores, notes the New York Post.

CBS has taken aim at Optima classical charters in Florida, because the four-school chain is run by Erika Donalds, whose husband is the Republican frontrunner in next year's Florida governor's race. The real issue has nothing to do with classical education. Optima is a nonprofit that contracts with for-profit vendors to handle payroll, IT and other back-office expenses. Donalds holds a stake in two of the firms providing services.