Ask any parent and they’ll agree that not much is more important than a quality education for their children. Good schools are not necessarily a given anymore and sometimes, where we live presents a problem when it comes to achieving the best educational outcomes for our children. This is why charter schools like Rocketship Education have continued to gain popularity in recent years, as it allows you greater choice in your child’s education, regardless of where you live.
Parents are introduced to the charter school system in a variety of different ways, but a positive outcome is something that almost all families who enter into a charter school like Rocketship Education experience. Charter schools like this offer high quality, accountable education for your children, even if the public school system in your area is not as good as you would like it to be. The federal government even helps to subsidize these schools, allowing low income children the opportunity to receive a high quality, private education, even though their parents couldn’t send them to a private school without assistance.
One of the reasons that parents seem to be flocking to charter schools wherever possible is that they see that educational outcomes from places like Rocketship Education are incredibly high and they also see that these charter schools offer specialized education that you just don’t get at a public school with huge class sizes. If you have an option in your area, you can often send your child to a charter school that specializes in something like music, giving your child a focused education that will help them hone their skill and knowledge.
Charter Schools Don’t Just Help the Kids
Though the reason parents often choose a charter school like Rocketship Education is for the better education that their child will receive, their own experience is often better as well. Charter schools become like small families, as parents and children get to know the teachers and staff, and they come together to help and support each other, even outside of the classroom. This makes for a much different experience than at a public school where you are lucky enough if the teacher can remember your child’s name in the midst of the massive class sizes they have to try to manage.
One such story actually stems from a tragedy. A young, working class immigrant family from California have children that attend a Rocketship Education charter school. In February of this year, the family suffered a huge loss when their home of eight years was flooded and all their belongings destroyed as a result of a flood from an overflowing local creek. The family, in panic, had to be evacuated from their home, leaving everything they owned behind, to take refuge at a shelter.
Once at the shelter, their predicament really started to set in with the mother, Dulce. Living in East San Jose, the rents are incredibly high and the apartment they’ve called home for the previous eight years were some of the few rent controlled, and thus affordable, places to live. This led Dulce to worry about where her family would live after the flood receded and how they would ever manage to replace all their belongings. She got help from an incredibly unexpected place, people from the Rocketship Education charter school that her son attends. Rocketship itself, in describing Dulce’s story, shows just how much they care about the wellbeing of the family’s of their students.
As she was interviewed about her experience, she proudly shows the reporter a picture of her son in his Rocketship Education uniform.
As Dulce, and 30 other Rocketship Education families in the area, faced an uncertain future, staff and teachers from the charter school swooped in to provide hot meals, clothes, and a lot of love and support, something that Dulce had definitely not expected from the place where he son attends school.
Moved, she joined with fellow “Rocketeers” to provide the type of help she and her family received the kindness of Rocketship Education staff and teachers. Their efforts led a mobilization of support for affected families in the community. They raised money by establishing a fund with Catholic charities that would help pay insurance deductibles to make flood claims, as well as deposits for families that had to find a new place to live. They raised over $62,000 in their efforts and made a huge difference in the lives of people in the community whose children attend the charter school.
Dulce’s story is rare, but not an aberration. It goes to show just how different the experience is for both children and their parents when their child attends a charter school. Parents have the ability to get and stay more involved with their children’s education, while also knowing that the overall quality of the education their child is receiving is of the highest order. Another thing that parents like Dulce get from charter schools like Rocketship Education is an institution that has a firm commitment to the community and the families of the students they educate. Charter schools have proven time and time again, like this case illustrates, that they are great assets to their community, providing help and assistance to families when they need it most, in addition to a great education.
