I understand its a charter school and all, but charging kids for simple rule breaking is just really dumb IMO. And before anyone drops the "go to public school then" line, there's plenty of public schools that don't fine their students for breaking the smallest rules and they don't have issues. I don't even think colleges do this type of stuff, unless you damage your dorm room.
You don't like it, don't do business with them. Or, are you a liberal who wants to force them to do as you want. Unlike a public school, a charter school has to have customers.
Says who? Oh, wait, you can't fine people and have an excellent functioning tax system. You can't fine people and have an excellent functioning healthcare system. You can't fine people and have an excellent functioning recycling system. That's ridiculous, isn't it. Fines are routinely used to force compliance with rules.
Fines seem to me to be a good idea, although I think the example is a bit severe. Looking at current punishments in schools I've seen, high schools in particular, they don't do what they're meant to. Suspension rarely caused the kids much harm, in fact they seem to love it more than they hate it. Detention isn't much better, just a place to put the kids where they do mostly whatever they want, and wastes the teacher's time. In some schools, kids find detention preferable to going home - depending on the state of their home life. Besides, it would prepare them more for the real world, where fining is the most common punishment for breaking even minor laws.
The effectiveness can be judged by the outcomes. If discipline increases than it is effective and this practice ought to be adopted everywhere. And charter school are optional so your complaint is largely moot. Parents can take their business elsewhere or go to a public school, they have the freedom to do so. Personally it would be cheaper and more effective to just go back to the days of paddling a student in my opinion. But now we have to worry more about a kids self esteem than his educational quality and the environment it takes place in. A big mistake with decades of evidence.
http://www.mangareader.net/113-4017-1/death-note/chapter-1.html Long story short, Light (Main character) can kill anyone he wants to by just writing that person's name down. He decides to kill criminals to make the world a better place.
These little issues only avoid the bigger more serious problem with charter schools and public schools in the USA. But paying fines is a form of accountability if it's your money. And accountability is not what the public education system is about.