Intensive literacy training and discipline saturate all 49 IDEA school campuses in Texas and Louisiana, including the libraries. While the IDEA libraries feel consistent with the rest of campus, they are often different from most school libraries. This isn’t unusual. The libraries at charter schools—when they exist—often reflect the unique philosophy of each school.The library at IDEA Monterey Park, a charter school in San Antonio, TX, isn’t just quiet. It’s silent. The students wear earmuffs to block sound and communicate with hand signals if they need to get up to use the restroom, take an Accelerated Reader (AR) quiz, or select a new book. The rest of the time, their heads are bent over their books in private carrels.
Bolstered by school choice advocates at the local, state, and federal level, charter schools have proliferated in the past 20 years. They stand to expand further under Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The National Charter School Association estimates that 3.2 million students attended around 7,000 charter campuses in 2017–18. The appeal of charters, for many, is the flexibility to waive certain requirements of traditional schools and embrace varied models, curricula, and educational philosophies, ranging from the rigorous “no excuses” models, with strict dress codes and discipline policies, to Montessori and language immersion. READ MORE
