AUSTIN, Texas – A new study shows the major advantages of charter schools are helping to accelerate learning for low-income, disadvantaged and special needs students.

A report released by Stanford University shows test results of charter school students are on the rise compared to four years ago, in part because about eight percent of underperforming charter schools in the university’s 2009 study have been shut down, Texas Insider reports.

“The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average, and that charter schools are benefitting low-income, disadvantaged and special-education students,” Center for Research on Education Outcomes Director Margaret Raymond told the news site.

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The increases in student learning are most evident among black and Hispanic English-language learning students. Black charter school students gained about 14 days worth of learning over their peers in public schools, and for poor black students the improvement was even more dramatic: the equivalent of 29 days of extra learning in reading and 36 days in math, according to Texas Insider.

“Hispanic English-language learners saw even higher gains, though Hispanics in general scored similarly to Hispanics in traditional public schools,” the news site reports. “The average charter school student showed reading gains equivalent to those that would be expected from an extra eight days of school, compared to traditional school students, the study said.”

The analysis compares data in 2009 and 2013 on charter schools in 25 states, the District of Columbia and New York City, which represents 95 percent of the nation’s 2.3 million charter school students, Texas Insider reports.

In the 2009 study, charter students reportedly lost learning days, so the new test results are a remarkable improvement. That’s likely due to the fact that poorly performing charter schools are far more easily shut down than traditional public schools, which means the better charter schools will generally trend toward improvement while public schools stagnate.

Charter schools also have greater flexibility to adapt to special learning needs because they’re not required to consult with organized labor, which is far more concerned with work hours and rules than students.

Teachers unions and others vested in the traditional public school monopoly typically fight against public school closures, no matter how badly students are performing, or how long the school has failed the community.

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American Federation of Teachers President Rhonda Weingarten is one of the top advocates for keeping horrible public schools open because traditional unionized public schools generate revenue for her union through teacher union dues, while charter schools are typically not unionized.

So it comes as no surprise that Weingarten is using the most recent findings to badmouth the competition. Despite very impressive gains, particularly with students who struggle the most in normal public schools, Weingarten isn’t impressed.

“ … Weingarten said the findings show that charter schools have failed to live up to ‘the leaps and bounds that were promised’ in student performance,” the news site reports.

“We should use the CREDO findings as an opportunity to pause and ask ourselves why we keep pitting charter schools against neighborhood public schools – a strategy that has created little more than a disruptive churn,” she said.

That’s certainly a good question, Rhonda. Perhaps the best course of action would be to give parents the choice of where they want to send their children to be educated, and let them decide for themselves which option is best.