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Charters head west — 58 independent schools open doors this year

"This school offers something very different and very unique and brings choice to this particular population," said Joel Wright, a State Charter Board member. ( RACISM ?)
The K-6 charter school is the first of its kind in the state and opted to forgo federal start-up funding, around $150,000, so it could give preference to Spanish-speaking students.

I wonder how much good press would be given if the statement about enrollment was "SO IT COULD GIVE PREFERENCE TO ENGLISH SPEAKING (non Hispanic) STUDENTS"

Ditto ex lib.

At the same time, I applaud the school for forgoing a little in federal funds so as to run things as they see fit, even if it isn't exactly as I would run things.

I think local control and local funding are ESSENTIAL if we hope to have good government schools.

In any event, so much for the allegations that charter schools only serve "the rich." Similarly, there are many lower income and/or minority parents who care enough about education to make the sacrifices to pay for private school.

I believe the particular population Joel was referring to was the population of Glendale and the West side, of which group, my caucasian children are a part. (SO NOT RACISM!) unless perhaps your perspective is skewed towards racism.

The statement by Joel "so it could give preference to Spanish-speaking students" may have been misquoted or misunderstood, but I assure you it is not accurate. The dual immersion model requires a 50% balance between primary English and Spanish speakers. The school did not forego the funding to give preference to anyone. The federal funds mentioned were not sought after so that the school could stay true to the dual immersion model, which would have been almost impossible to do under the requirments of the federal funding.

"This school offers something very different and very unique and brings choice to this particular population," said Joel Wright, a State Charter Board member.

I'm happy to clarify my comment above. The population I was referring to was the Glendale and West Side neighborhoods, which have relatively fewer charter schools to choose from than other parts of Utah. Charter Schools need to offer an "alternative" to the typical public school in their surrounding neighborhood. The "alternative education" that Dual Immersion has chosen to offer is a unique opportunity to be educated in a bi-lingual atmosphere that should allow their students to become fluent in both Spanish and English. This is a skill that will be very useful in our global economy, and will likely also be very useful in Utah given current demographic trends. I strongly support the idea of parental control of schools, and allowing a wide variety of approaches so long as they also adequately teach the Utah Core Curriculum.

One additional correction that should be made is that the school opted to forgo federal funding of 150,000 for the first three years. that is a total of $450,000. That is a more than just "a little federal funding". Good government schools should be watching all the parents who desire choice in education. After all isn't it about freedom of choice here?