The writer makes excellent points. Thank you for giving the readership a student's experience and viewpoint of the effects of diverting public monies to charter schools.

Newton North High School costs 194.4 million dollars to build. It offers a gleaming 76 page course catalog that puts most colleges to shame. When are we are going to demand the same for our kids in the city? My students do not have music. Charter schools are parasites upon the traditional system -and do not play by the rules (student attrition is criminal). They actually lobby to CLOSE down schools. They have a pr fund to die for - so the perception is that charter = better. Absolutely not true - they just have more commercials! Some charters require elementary students to take a test - really? They claim to be public but are only public cherry pickers. If traditional public school teachers and charter school teachers went toe to toe as to who "educates" ALL students better - we win! We have more EXPERIENCE, more SCHOOLING, and work with a more diverse population of students - regardless of Special needs, ELL, parental involvement, oppositional defiant disorders, post traumatic stress, low test scorers, homelessness, health disparities, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, and parental neglect. It's time folks get off the charter bandwagon and start supporting traditional public schools. Charters get more money through venture philanthropist foundations (i.e. Boston foundation) while they ATTACK us constantly. FUND TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS - tell Boston's large nonprofits to pay a more equitable property tax (i.e. Northeastern pays around $35,000 annually-when they should pay millions). Tell the blue bloods up on Beacon hill that tradition schools count too - we need help - not school closings, attacks, and budget cuts. Let's stop this testing mania! Tests cost money - billions of dollars annually in the US. This money could be spent on quality programs for our traditional public schools (sorry Pearson). Finland, #1 in the world, does not have a standardized testing system. In fact, they are not "tested' in this way until near graduation. Lastly, some food for thought - the top performing education states in the US are unionized. The non unionized education states are almost exclusively at the very bottom (Virginia is outlier at 16). No doubt - there is power in a union.