Sometime in the past few decades school systems started to care more about the people running them than the students. As Davis Guggenheim of "An Inconvenient Truth" fame points out in the 2010 documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" per-pupil spending in public schools has doubled since the early 1970s while student performance has stagnated.

His film highlights how many U.S. schools have become "dropout factories," dooming students to a life of low-wage jobs and poverty. For many, their only hope is winning a lottery to achieve a coveted spot at a high-performing public charter school where applicants outnumber spots, sometimes by 10 to one.

Frederick Classical Charter School (FCCS) should be given the chance to be one of those high-performing public schools next year. For that to happen the Board of Education must approve the school's application when it meets today.

FCCS' exhaustive, 1,600-page application clearly outlines its philosophy, curriculum, job descriptions and budgets and was drafted with the help of some of the nation's top education thinkers. It even has facility drawings whereas most charter applicants do not even have a building identified.

Its board of advisers includes locally and nationally recognized education innovators, including Nick Diaz, a former FCPS math teacher and winner of The Washington Post's Outstanding Teacher Award, and Sandra Stotsky, who is professor of education reform in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and holds the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.

Proponents of FCCS, whose students will study Spanish and Latin in elementary school, have not rested on their credentials, however. They have reached out to hundreds of local organizations and neighborhoods to educate parents about the school. And as the president of the FCCS board of trustee, Tom Neumark, said, the school plans to serve students of every socio-economic background and expects every child to succeed under its curriculum and instruction.

Not everyone is excited about the proposed school, though. Gary Brennan, Frederick County Teachers Association president, said the charter would prevent teachers from getting raises and should be done during a time when the school system "is able to make strategic improvements."

First, approving the school does not preclude raises for school employees. The two are separate from each other and should not be used as an argument for or against FCCS' approval. Maryland's charter law provides that charters should be funded commensurate to other public schools. Resources flow with students, so starting a charter means the school system would have to shift resources according to student enrollment, not increase them.

Second, funding is only an issue because the school system has created an unsustainable path for itself. Like districts around the country, Frederick has been on a hiring binge despite only modest increases in student enrollment. Since 1999 the number of students enrolled in FrederickCounty Public Schools has grown 11 percent, but the number of full-time employees has expanded by 34 percent. If the same student-teacher and other employee ratio were held at 1999 levels, the school system could save $36.4 million annually, according to an analysis of school system data by FrederickEducationReform.com.

The Board of Education should not hesitate to approve Frederick Classical's application. Doing so will send a message to county families that the success of their children is the top priority of public schools.