The teachers union and the association of local school boards misunderstand the current effort to improve Maryland's charter school law ("New effort underway to change Maryland charter schools law," Jan. 20).
Charters are independently run public schools that have autonomy over their operations in exchange for being held accountable for results. The current movement to improve the law is about improving autonomy while keeping accountability the same or higher.
Opponents of charter school autonomy tend to confuse issues of autonomy — such as such as staffing and hiring decisions — with issues of accountability and transparency. These are two different sets of issues.
Charter school operators in Maryland want to continue to be accountable for results, but they need the freedom to operate the schools they start.
In 93 percent of the charters in this country, employees are allowed to be employees of the non-profit that started the school. Most charters operate in states with laws that guarantee autonomy, have multiple authorizing bodies or both.
In Maryland, charter school boards should be called "charter school idea providers" instead of "charter school operators." That's because Maryland's law makes a mockery of the charter school concept of autonomy in exchange for accountability. It needs to be substantially re-written.
Until Maryland's law is within the mainstream of charter school laws across the country, charter schools here will not be able to provide the level of operational innovation and performance that charter schools in other states take for granted.
Tom Neumark, Frederick
The writer is president of Frederick Classical Charter School Inc.