All parents desire to provide their children with a well-rounded education. No one wants their child's education to fall in the category of the negative statistics. Where can a parent turn to find a school that meets their needs? One answer could be a charter school.

A charter school is a tuition-free public school. In Alaska, these schools are funded by the Legislature. Parents pay no tuition. Each school offers its own unique curriculum, with different areas of emphasis, policies, procedures and even calendars. Anchorage has three: one serves home school families, one is for Kindergarten through 6th grade, and the one I selected for my children, Village Charter School, serves Kindergarten through 8th grade. About half of the children enrolled are between Kindergarten and 3rd grade; 35% are in the 4th to 6th grader; and about l5% are Middle School students.

Village, in mid-town Anchorage, offers a well-rounded basic skills education in reading, writing, math and science. It also offers Norwegian, Spanish, and an excellent music program, with the arts integrated across the curriculum. The calendar offers choices for families, which is ideal for us. We appreciate the longer days Monday through Thursday, thus making three-day weekends possible. We like the fact that we can keep our children home for two weeks while our fifth child is born this month, without consequence. Village offers June Intensives, so that our children don't miss a single day of school as a result.

Village's multi-age classrooms are designed to encourage all students to progress at their highest ability, including acceleration, or gifted instruction for all children. As a former home school mother who wants an excellent, well-rounded academic foundation for my children's education, I am very happy that the Legislature provided for charter schools.