More perfect than Union

The Oklahoman editorializes today:

David L. Kirp, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, recently wrote an op-ed for The New York Times headlined, “Who Needs Charters When You Have Public Schools Like These?” The column focused on Union Public Schools in Tulsa. Yet some Oklahoma charter schools outperform even Union. In 2015, according to the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, the percentage of students in Union schools who passed various state tests was markedly lower than the share passing those same tests at Harding Charter Preparatory High School and KIPP Reach College Preparatory School (both in Oklahoma City), even though the latter two charter schools both have higher minority student populations than Union and large numbers of low-income students. It's welcome news any time an Oklahoma school receives positive recognition, and some Union schools are doing fine, but that doesn't mean the closest public school always provides a quality education for every student or that charter schools aren't needed.

Indeed, one could argue that a school district spending $11,566 per student and paying its superintendent nearly a quarter-million dollars annually should actually be doing better than it is now. The average student in the Union school district performs better in math than 38 percent of students in other developed economies.