The school day is calculated to the minute. Pay schedules are rigidly defined, and compensation is unrelated to merit or the need to attract teachers in high-demand subject areas such as math and science. Contracts often allow good teachers to be bumped if a teacher who has been around longer wants the job. Teachers rightfully want to be treated like professionals, but their unions often bargain as if they were assembly line workers. Neither is fatal, but some worry that they represent the beginning of a campaign to subject charter schools to a death of a thousand regulatory cuts.
Charter schools thrive on the commitment of teachers, parents and students to the school's mission.
According to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, half of charter school teachers say they chose to teach at the school because of its distinctive philosophy. Charter schools often require large investments of teachers' time. Spencer Blasdale, director of the Academy of the Pacific Rim charter school in Boston, worries that we are drifting back toward the very status quo charter schools were meant to challenge. He fears that the state might next require standardized teacher certification or other encumbrances. To keep the Academy competitive, Blasdale must hire creatively, attracting teachers experienced in various fields and styles of work.