Editor's note: 'Choice nuggets' is a new feature we introduced on Monday. It's what we're calling occasional platters of noteworthy items that may not merit a post by themselves.

Flexibility and the future of charter schools

While most school district officials oppose charter schools that have corporate ties, Nancy Beal, a Florida school district administrator who is resigning to run a new charter school for Charter School USA, says being part of a charter school system is a plus.

"They run such an efficient operation and do so much for teachers that the staff can concentrate on teaching," Beal told the Bradenton Herald. "Public school teachers are mired in paperwork, but Charter Schools USA has all that in place for teachers. They've taken a lot of the load off of teachers so they can focus on teaching."

The economy of scale means that in the future most charter schools will be part of larger charter school systems. How this impacts the autonomy of individual charter schools will determine the long-term value of the charter school movement. If charter school systems become as bureaucratic and authoritarian as traditional school districts, then the charter school movement will have failed.

Money talks in public schools

Competition for entrance into Miami-Dade County’s top magnet schools continues to intensify. The affluent community of Key Biscayne recently offered the school district millions of dollars if the district would give Key Biscayne students priority admission into the district’s renowned MAST Academy. But many non-Key Biscayne parents objected. Raul Sanchez de Varona, whose daughter is an incoming MAST freshman, told the Miami Herald, “What I was against all the time was preferential treatment to Key residents just because they willing to pay the School Board $10 million dollars.” (more…)