What? But all the statistics I see say they are a boon to education. Why is this article about how Charter schools are killing public education?
Charter schools are mostly for profit institutions that are not governed by the same laws that govern public education. That is very important to remember as we delve into this subject.
Any statistics you see on the success of charter schools are outright, bold face lies. A charter school can accept students into their programs as they want, mostly without oversight, public schools must take everyone. A charter school may push out lower performing students, and they do, and then the local public school must take those same students into their classrooms. So how could you possibly make a comparison between the 2? You cannot, unless you are willing to outright lie to the general public. A truly valid statistical study must compare 2 similar items. You cannot compare a public school and a charter school, they have too many differences in how the populate their student body. You cannot honestly compare unequal populations, Charter schools are gaming the system, this is not a level playing field. If the charter school pushes out the 10% lowest grade earning students out, and those same students end up in the pubic school system, any data comparing the 2 systems is completely bogus. The data is stacked in favor of the charter school every time. They will always come out ahead, shown as a shining example of success, because they are literally picking and choosing their prime population. Public schools cannot do this, by law they must take in every student. Why is this never part of all of the Charter school articles that are published?
That is how Charter schools show higher graduation rates. It is the truth behind how they get to those rates that rarely gets publicized.
DO NOT BELIEVE THE CHARTER SCHOOL LIES!
Charter schools are run by profit making corporations. Have you seen what happens in America when corporations are allowed to grow unchecked? They begin to do whatever they must do to make a profit. So these private concerns will make money because they are saving money by not hiring unionized teachers. They are not saving the tax payer money by hiring non union workers, they are creating extra profits for themselves by hiring non union workers.
As we have seen time and time again, to increase profit margins, corporations must cut costs. What costs will end up being cut in the charter schools? Education costs! Down the road these wonderful, high performing charter schools will soon turn into institutions for channeling money to shareholders at the students expense. And if they don’t cut student costs they will require more funding from the government. And YOU all need to ask, why the hell would the government be giving money directly to profit making corporations?? I ask myself that all the time when I see our tax dollars going to the Billion dollar oil industry, but starving Americans can’t get their food stamp funding allocated by the government.
The privatization of the American public school system, which is being attempted all across the country, will set up vast class differences and change the nature of our society. We must not allow any public school money to be taken out of the system and put in corporate hands. It is up to each of us to pick up the gauntlet and let our voices be heard, or be lemmings being led out to sea. Only time will tell who will succeed here.
My inspiration comes largely from Diane Ravitch, a brilliant education blogger who seems to be leading this fight. She collects and shares articles from all over the country illustrating how the public education system is being destroyed. Find her blog here. I have included some items directly from her blog:
“When New York State Comptroller Tom Di Napoli informed Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain of his intention to audit its financial records, the corporation sued to block the audit of public funds on grounds it was unconstitutional. ” Yet, they receive public funding to educate our students, what could they be hiding?
And my other favorite link: This is a stunning research job by Jersey Jazzman about the money tree that is turning canny businessmen into multimillionaires by investing in charter schools.”
I will add that Charter schools do educate a lot of wonderful students, they can be a great addition to the public school system. All I want is honesty, do not print statistics that are inherently a lie to try to fool us, the general public.
Lastly, do not believe a word I have written. But, look into this for yourself. The number of articles that talk about how ultimately Charter schools are failing us are turning up everywhere, and with more frequency.
WELL SAID. Not only are they hiring non-union teachers, but they’re hiring non-certified teachers… so the government is now supporting teachers without equal training (and, in reality, discounting the certification program as a whole.)
“And YOU all need to ask, why the hell would the government be giving money directly to profit making corporations?? ” — unfortunately, I ask this question often. Not only in education, but in decisions like sponsoring the Olympics (USPS–which is not tax goverment funded, but is still a government agency).
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have avoided writing about Charter School because of how upset the topic makes me. Your post has been shared and will continue to be shared because you put it perfectly. We need accountability in education, educators running things, and as a community we need to demand that kids are taught to THINK not simply take tests.
That’s interesting.. I honestly never paid to much attention to this issues, but you have some great valid points. Charter schools shouldn’t hold so much leniency.
I joined you on GFC (Chris Alejandro)
Yes. Yes.Yes. This is exactly what is happening. The “No Child Left Behind” policy and the rise of charter schools is a massive shift of tax payer education money away from public schools and into the profits of private corporations. The recent bashing of teachers and teachers unions–along with all unions–is about shifting power and profits to corporations and away from the public, the people.
Julie, the government (at least a specific party) wants to give more money to them, because they themselves are profiting from them. All you need to do is look at the giant prison industrial complex and follow the money trail. The exact same people are doing the exact same thing with the charter schools.
It is killing two birds with the same stone. Break up a union that (mainly) supports one party, and make a profit while you are doing it.
The negatives far outweigh the benefits to charter schools. The motives behind them (even though many parents are fooled into thinking they are for the benefit of their children) are far less altruistic than that. It is money, profit and greed.
Not to sound corny, but children are our future. Their education is the most important thing we can invest in. Charter schools should not be that investment. That is not the direction this country needs to go in.
We have a fairly new charter school that was built downtown and I hate it. All they do is lie to make parents believe they are the better school choice when they simply and obviously are NOT! Thank you for this post…I hope many will read it and finally learn the truth!
I think all children should receive the best education possible. I do not believe Charter schools are all they think they are. I dislike the fact that many hire non-union teachers.
Thanks for posting this. A relative that will remain unnamed managed to get both her son & daughter enrolled in charter schools in her school district. The son is younger and I’ve seen his textbooks. He seems to be getting a more traditional, well-rounded education. The daughter is in high school and that school is very focused on one academic area. I understand the argument that this will help her to get into a college with that major. But I’m concerned there’s a lot of things high school kids learn that she won’t learn, with her school having such a narrow focus. My relative can’t balance her checkbook to save her life. And her daughter will probably end up bad with money too, since a personal finance class is so totally not within the charter of her school! 🙁
Interesting statements…