School of science and engineering.

I find most discussion of charter schools specious. They differ from state to state. In my experience near Houston they're of three types. Schools that pull in kids that want to excel or have parents that enforce discipline; slacker schools to avoid the rigor of education in level classes, even in failing schools; avoidance schools, to force kids away from unapproved friends and concentrate them by belief or ethnicity. The last sounds racist but includes mostly black, Latino, or Asian schools, so good luck with that claim.

Average them together and you get close to average. But many of the "excel" schools pull kids from below-average schools and help the kids a lot. Slacker schools remove hindrances from gen-ed classrooms. Concentration schools cut both ways, but provide the ethnocentric or religio-centric with a place to be themselves.

Most discussions focus on the all-important $. My school has a RIF next year because of reduced enrollment. Fewer students, less money for staff. Then again, fewer students means less need for staff. Go from 900 to 600 freshmen, those average class sizes go from 28 to 21. We talk students, but the real pain is losing high-paid public school jobs and replacing them with lower-paid charter jobs. Even if, for example, our RIF is easily handled by retirements and resignations.