Editor:

The Virginia Department of Education writes that charter schools provide options for parents and students while allowing communities and educators to create innovative instruction programs that can be replicated elsewhere in the public school system. All charter schools in Virginia are nonsectarian alternative public schools located within a school division and under the authority of a local school board.

Prince Edward public schools have been in performance difficulty for years. We have had outside “experts” assigned to help but without any real measurable success. A Virginia Education Department comparison of all Virginia school systems places our school system in the bottom 10 percent. Why not take a look at a charter school as an attempt to improve?

We have a study of area charter schools available to us. On Oct. 7 2010, The Farmville Herald announced “Charter School Initiative Unveiled.” The Moton Museum has won a grant to begin a regionwide discussion that could take education in rural Southside Virginia into unchartered waters — charter schools. The Moton Museum was eligible for $159,103 per year for the next three years from the department of education.

I suggest we take a new look at the Moton Museum findings of their three years of discussion and look at the charter school as a positive education addition. We have nothing to lose and it should be considered in the discussion phase of the next school budget hearings.

Bob Philbrook

Farmville