Thank goodness the Massachusetts colony established public schools back in the 1600s and they have been the backbone of this great nation ever since. I am grateful to all public school administrators and teachers who get degrees in the field of education to continue this great tradition. Thank goodness we still have choice in this state and we can choose not to get involved with arrogant, no-nothing parents who run "schools" like this.

I would hope that the parents of these 6th graders and all other parents of MVA students simply pull your students. Without students this school has no funding.

Instead of firing teachers who actually teach students it's time to eliminate management and these pathetic board members. Anytime something like this happens it wreaks of poor ethics. What happened to leaders who were honest. The gray area politicians (leaders and administrators) of America today have brought our country down to its knees through their dishonesty and lack of knowing right and wrong.

I live near this MVA school and I will never have my kids attend!

This is a classic textbook example of getting egg on your face. In this case, it is the charter board that is unwilling to even accept $40,000 because of their own vanity. Back in my home state, we had a little saying "beggars can't be choosers." Apparently this charter school isn't hurting enough to reject a viable solution. If parents can raise this kind of cash this fast, they will probably come through for the rest of the school year. This charter board wants things their own way or its the highway.

The state requires that at least 25% of a charter school board members be parents (not elected by parents). Only one board member needs to be elected (though a school's bylaws could expand beyond the minimum required). The Mountainville bylaws contain a provision that if any member (whether elected by parents or not) leaves the board before the expiration of their term the remaining board members select a replacement for the balance of the departing member's term. To encourage parental involvement in this process, the board could just as easily have voted to amend their bylaws to provide for a special election. This summer the board had three applicants for two positions.

Let's let our wonderful legislators come up with more laws that will "fix" this problem. They started the experiment on our kids so they could "privately" build the schools for profit.

The sad part is that there is a population of parents in this state that fall for this garbage, hook, line, and sinker!

Your kids need stability. That is why we have local schools.

This has been a disaster from the start.

What we are learning from this is that the legislators were wrong in regards to public education. The public schools really do know what they are doing and the many years of experience pays off in ways we didn't understand.

Just fund our local schools at a decent level and get rid of all this garbage so our kids can learn and feel safe.

Re: Parent (11:19 p.m.)
District public schools have had more than their fair share of problems with governance, administration, and instruction through the years. Many students have been poorly served by our educational system. The charter school movement is still very young and there are bound to be issues that need to be addressed as the movement expands and matures. Competition and the resulting choice it provides within the public school arena will serve us well in the long run. At present there are roughly 50,000 students attending charter schools in Utah. Many of the parents of these students were not satisfied with their previous public school option, and the overwhelming majority of these parents are now satisfied with the education their children are receiving at charter schools.

Public Schools | 6:40 p.m. Dec. 20, 2008

Your information is incorrect. Mass. had a private school system. Look at the state quarters for a man named Wood who started the first public schools.

Charter schools have been in Utah since the 70's when the Salt Lake City School District began chartering. They have been around for a long time, and will continue.

If parents pull the older kids, spots will open up. Next year the school will add lower grades and shelve the middle school. Those who think that pulling kids out will close the school do not understand how easy it is for Charters to adapt. They could have just as easily rolled the middle school program into an elementary one and had one teacher for 7th, and one for eighth who taught all the subjects. Yes that would make them unqualified to teach under NCLB, but that would have been a viable solution.

The shananigans going on at MVA take place at many charter schools. Yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is all by design. If it were an isolated school, then I would chalk it up to other factors. But it is not. So, this leads to the next question. How can the governor appoint people to the charter board who look the other way at best, and worse, intentional institute language to accommodate this kind of behavior? Clearly the powers at be are suppose to represent the people, yet how can this be so? Certainly from reading the postings it is clear that the MVA charter board DOES not represent the folks, but rather its own interest. This is how most charters do business. Then the players (financial company, construction company, consultants) all profit along with the boards whose wives/friends, etc. line their pockets. The true educators and parents have no say in the way these schools are run. By simply upsetting a child's education by removal is not the answer. There must be a method that represents the will of the people and the funders. This is gov't at its worst.

I blame the legislature for creating this mess.

I look to them to fix it this next session.

Why Is This Tolerated | 10:18 a.m. Dec. 21, 2008

Easy answer: We vote Republican!

Not so simple an answer: Public school boards act like this and aren't put in the news as often because there are more Charter boards than District ones now.

Another not so easy answer: The Governor appoints who runs for the state school boards and he didn't give us a choice this year. It was a pro-voucher guy and another pro-voucher candidate. I didn't vote for that race opting to leave it blank.

A law enacted in 1647 in the MA colony required that all towns with 50 or more people establish a school for its children. These were the first public schools in our nation. I don't believe this information is incorrect.