Charter schools have become a new buzz word in education.

Charter schools started up in 1991 and have been getting a lot of media attention.

So what are they exactly? And are they worth it?

Charter schools are publically funded elementary or high schools that have been freed of some of the rules, regulations and statutes of other public schools in the U.S.. In exchange, charter schools are held to some type of  accountability for producing certain results. Student requirements can vary from school to school or state to state, but they are laid out in each school’s charter.

In other words, they are schools that are formed by parents, business people or educators who are sick  of the rules in the public school system, but still promise to make sure students succeed.

Are these just empty promises, or do charter schools offer an alternative form of education that can actually prepare students for college?

Evidence seems to be unreliable. Most studies have been inconclusive, but there seem to be two main arguments:

Charter schools that have been around for awhile can be quite successful offering small class sizes, opportunities for low income families and alternative teaching methods that help students that would not fare well at a regular public high school. These types of schools have been excellent stepping stones to college.

But newer and less established charter schools can be a bit shaky and have closed by not living up to the charters standards.

In February 2006, the Center for Education Reform released a report on charter school closures. At that time they found that 436 of the 4000 charter schools has closed for reasons ranging from district consolidation to failure to attract students. The report states that the “majority are closed for financial or management deficiencies.”

The charter school trend is definitely catching on. There are 1.2 million students at charter schools and numbers are growing. So if you go charter over public you’ll probably want to do your homework–about the charter school itself.

More and more students are enrolling in charter schools–public schools that are formed by parents, business people or educators who are disillusioned by the mainstream public school system. We’ll tell you more about this trend and whether charter schools are a good option for preparing students for college.

Students are also saving costs on textbooks by reading textbooks online for free. They are called ‘open textbooks’ and they are licensed to allow users to download, customize and print any part of the text. We’ll tell you how this up and coming trend can change the whole textbook industry–and more importantly lower your college costs.

Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school here. This is a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for these students. We’ll tell you more about these changes and how they affect you.

Barack Obama is proposing the students have to serve or volunteer to graduate.

He wants to make federal funds contingent on schools requiring students to perform community service. He proposes 50 hours a year for middle and high school and 100 hours for college students.

Do you that requiring volunteering defeats what volunteering is all about. Aren’t we supposed to choose if we volunteer?

Another tricky part of this plan is what would be defined as volunteering? Does a school bake sale count? What about work in a church? Or is volunteering more official like joining the peace corp or Teach America or doing army service? One more thing, is this a ploy by Obama to get students to join the military?

And what about stress? Between studying, extra-curicular activities and working do you think that students already have enough on their plate, without making volunteering a requirement?  Do you think that this proposed idea could affect students’ grades?

Also, if volunteering is mandatory would it be as a rewarding? Maybe students will just see it as another graduation requirement and won’t learn from their experience—lessons like compassion and team work. They might just go through the motions to make sure that someone signs their hours sheet.

So what do you think? Are you for Obama’s plan? Do you think that volunteering should be a requisite or do you think it defeats the purpose of what volunteering is all about?