High School Senior on Charter Schools

Here's an excellent letter to the Tribune's editors critiquing their position on charter schools in Chicago. Written by a CPS high school senior. It's pasted here in its entirety.

I am a senior at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. Having been a student in the Chicago Public School system since kindergarten, I take issue with the Tribune's continuous glorification of the charter school system.
"Alderman relents over NW Side charter school" (News, Dec. 22) is a prime example of this. The article quotes people describing Ald. Nicholas Sposato's decision to create a charter school in the 36th Ward as "great news," "best for the community," and a way to "alleviate school crowding." The fundamental flaws in the charter school system are not even touched upon in the article.
The charter school system is one of the biggest problems with our current education system. Charter schools are allowed to be privately operated yet publicly funded, which is a paradox. Instead of public tax dollars going solely to public schools, they are now split between the authentic public school system and the quasi-public charter schools. In a time when the public school system is heavily underfunded, this makes no sense.
Most charter schools prevent teachers from unionizing, leading to an overworked, underpaid work force. Although the media frequently demonize the Chicago Teachers Union, public teachers' unions are some of our most necessary institutions. Children cannot be educated properly if their teachers are not receiving adequate wages or guaranteed the rights all workers deserve.
The worst part about it all is that these charter schools are doing no better than the public schools. In general, charters score no higher than average neighborhood schools. A school like Whitney Young, which is admittedly a selective school, far outscores every single charter high school in the city. The top-scoring high schools in the state on the 2011 PSAE were Northside, Whitney Young, Walter Payton, Jones and New Trier. Those schools are not charter schools.
I challenge the Tribune to look carefully at the charter school system and the negative effect it has on CPS. Instead of publishing articles which essentially celebrate the creation of charter schools, why not publish articles on the need for more resources for existing neighborhood schools?
Clearly the public education system isn't perfect, but the solution is not to give up on it entirely and replace it with a potentially corrupt, more corporate-controlled alternative. We need to dedicate more time and money to CPS, especially its neighborhood schools, not to charters.
— Diana Rosen,Chicago