In addition to its headmaster, who for ten years served as principal of Boston s James P. Timilty Middle School, The Boston Renaissance Charter School employs at least ten former BPS teachers. Many more BPS teachers applied for positions in the city s charter schools. The responses to the survey, which were anonymous, shed light on why so many teachers want to teach in charter schools. When asked the top five reasons why they chose the charter school, more than half the teachers listed the school s philosophy or mission. Comments that accompanied the responses also helped explain the schools appeal.
Charter schools are independently managed public schools.
First, they demonstrate the importance of a clearly defined mission and philosophy of teaching. Second, they illustrate the desire to escape numbing bureaucracy and work rules that place countless layers between teachers and their students. Charter schools receive the same per-pupil funding as the schools their students have chosen to leave. But unlike district schools, charter schools must pay both operating and capital costs from that money. They are not provided with a building.