To think about charter schools in America today, you have to separate the rhetoric from the reality. It helps to have a guide, someone who sees the man behind the curtain. Blowing smoke in the eyes of the media and the public. Fortunately there is such a man in North Carolina. His name is George Hartzman. He is a financial consultant. The smoke machine doesn’t blind him to the reality.
The rhetoric tells us that charter schools will save poor minority kids from failing schools. The reality is that charter schools produce no better results and make their sponsors rich with taxpayer dollars.
Look at North Carolina. There, the red red legislature passed charter legislation. Not all charter teachers need certification. Some people with good friends are getting very rich, like Baker Mitchell, who is on the board of the libertarian John Locke Society, which was created by zillionaire Art Pope, who happens to be state budget director. Mitchell collects rent on charters, which provide him with a few millions a year. Nice. He also sits on the state advisory board on charters.
But here’s another happy charter story. The president pro tem of the State Senate is Phil Berger Sr., who is responsible for legislation authorizing charters, vouchers, and the virulent anti-teacher legislation that is causing many veteran teachers to leave the state. You might call him North Carolina’s one-man wrecking crew of public education, except he has plenty of helpers in the legislature. When Berger’s obituary is written someday, that’s how Phil Berger will be remembered: the man who tried to destroy public education in the state and nearly succeeded until parents and citizens rebelled.
So who do you think is opening charters and getting in on the ground floor of the biggest new education industry opportunity in North Carolina? Phil Berger, Jr. No conflict there. Daddy passes the law, and junior cashes in.
I know there are a few decent charters doing the right things. But they are being overtaken by a racket. The racket is about scooping up taxpayers ‘ money while providing schools with uncertified low-wage teachers who turn over with high frequency. There is nothing idealistic about what is happening in North Carolina. It is all about the Benjamins. The politicians turning education into a money machine for their friends and relatives should hang their heads in shame.
So, since charter schools are attended by the choice of parents, why don’t parents ask about the qualifications of the teachers, etc.?
On another note, the ads for Ohio k-12 online learning has changed their definition of teachers from “highly qualified” to “certified educators”.
Parents don’t realize that they NEED to ask about qualifications. Because the charter school herd keeps mooing that they’re public schools, parents assume that this includes certified teachers, as regular public schools do. Parents also don’t ask about special education and English Language learning needs because they aren’t aware that they need to ask. They’re not in the thick of this stuff every day and don’t realize that they need to ask the questions. I’ll bet if schools because publishing the number of teachers with certification, or the length of experience of teachers at these schools, that parents would really get an eye-opener. As a former student who had gone to a charter school told me, none of his teachers there looked “a day over 22.”
Threatened out West: extremely important point.
The charterite/privatizer crowd loves to play on people’s assumptions, hoping that no one will notice that when they say “choice” they really mean “choice not voice” or that when they say “high performing” they mean “turn your kids into little test-taking machines.”
Then when someone objects that they were sold a lemon when they were promised a world-class racing car, they are blithely informed that “maybe you and your child are not a good fit here, perhaps you would like to go back to your local neighborhood factory of failure?”
When students and parents are treated like customers and clients, keep a mental picture in your head of what so many fast food places put in plaques on their walls: “We refuse the right to refuse service to anybody.”
Just don’t expect the charterites/privatizers to make that explicit—until they’ve collected their $tudent $ucce$$. Then, as recounted on this blog, we get to experience the annual “mid-year dump.” *See comments in the thread of the posting immediately below; the second link has follow-up comments.*
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/18/new-york-comptroller-releases-charter-audits-not-a-pretty-picture/
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” [Frederick Douglass]
Let’s get unfit for the blandishments of the charterites/privatizers.
😎
same reason people didn’t ask enough questions before they took out second mortgages on worthless pieces of dirt in the mountains. . .because a website made it look promising and capitalized on their vanity.
Look at this website, for example:http://investcollegiate.org/imagine-campus/
Are they going to go on family whitewater rafting trips?
Marketing drove the real estate boom and bust. I think the same things plays in here. People feel special ordering uniforms from Land’s End for their free private school-feeling experience.
Seduction. That’s what it is.
I believe parents who choose these schools should bear some responsibility if these schools end up being rackets. The whole charter argument is that parents will do their research, pick the best school for their child and bingo all problems are solved.
It is the responsibility of the parent to do quality research on each school.
The concept of “buyer beware” is indigenous to business. A tenet that, at its foundation, encourages targeting the most vulnerable people, has no place in the vital function, of education of children.
Many people in my area choosing charters are not vulnerable. For example, in my area many parents choose for-profit charters, Gulen schools etc. They know the issues around these schools and don’t care.
I do hold the individual responsible for doing research and accepting the consequences if and when their school of choice fall apart.
Children suffer the consequences.
Citizens suffer the consequences when politicians, from both parties, represent the 1%. Privatizing fills the coffers of oligarchs, who then buy politicians.
Conflict-of-interest prosecutions simply do not exist any longer. They are sooooo 20th century. Heaven help us, should someone try to enforce them, we’d lose our global competitiveness.
Racketeering permitted under the banner of forwarding parental choice, addressing the civil rights issues du jour, and purging the ranks of teachers by about 33% per year or some other “target” for impactful RIFS. Judgments the result of long inferential leaps through thin air.
Exactly. Why isn’t the RICO act being enforced to stop all of these self-serving, corrupt and incestuous charter schools? It is truly criminal, and the politicians are in cahoots with the criminals. Up is down. Down is up.
Since moving to NC almost 1 year ago I often ask if this state is real? The powers that be have it so good that they don’t even do these things secretly. The destruction of public education is happening right before everybody’s eyes and not enough people have noticed. So if people don’t notice then they sure can’t be outraged.
On another note, that taxpayer voucher was unblocked. The demand was so high that theres now a lottery for it. And all people seem to be concerned with is that the voucher go for a private Christian education.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/25/3964841/lottery-drawn-for-the-opportunity.html?sp=/99/102/110/
Maybe I’m in the wrong part of Wake County but when I talk to other parents about whats happening in education people look at me like I’m crazy. All they seem to be concerned with how good their local school is. North Carolina is a scary place to live right now.
“All they seem to be concerned with how good their local school is.”
If they’re public school parents, though, you have to talk to them about public schools. Their school.
They don’t hear anything but negatives about public schools from the ed reform side and (sometimes) all they hear from the public school advocacy side is “charters and vouchers”. Charters and vouchers don’t apply to them. I mean, I know they do because public education is a system and each piece affects the whole, but I think you’re going to have to tell them why they should care about a discussion that seems very focused on charters on vouchers, when they are PUBLIC school parents.
You’re going to have to explain to them how this laser-like focus on expanding “choice” at both the federal and state level is affecting their public schools.
Public schools are political orphans. That’s not fair to public school parents and students. They have an absolute right to representation and advocacy from the lawmakers and others that they are paying.
Which lawmaker is North Carolina is working on behalf of public schools? I know which ones are working on behalf of charters and vouchers. I got that. I’m wondering where my advocates are. It can’t just be teachers unions. That’s nuts. I’m paying a lot of people in government. Which ones are working to support and improve existing public schools?
So, for example, with this lawmaker and his brother, as a public school parent in that state and district my question would be “what are you doing for existing public schools in this state and district?”
That’s a fair question. It’s more than “fair”. That is his JOB. Anyone who responds to that question with offense or some line about “great schools” is dodging. “Great schools” includes schools that exist. If that’s MY school I want to know about that. If my school is next door to the new charter, I can ask how the new charter impacts my school. Lawmakers SHOULD be asking that, but since they’re not, I have to insist on asking it, and getting a response that isn’t a bumpersticker. Funding, operations, community, all of it. These are valid questions.
I’m glad I am as old as I am! I retired from teaching when there were still those in authority who were trying to improve education. Too bad those people sold their souls to the cry of the rich, anti-tax politicians.
I hope the young families wake up before they find their children uneducated and unable to catch up with the rest of the country. NC will still be able to field a basketball team, though.
And cook barbecue.
Basketball, banking and barbecue. That’s what we have.
In my area of NC, parents are contributing to the destruction of public schools with their demands for vouchers, more charters, etc.
Great post, thank you, Diane, very direct and strong in exposing the criminal looting and cronyism of charters. Conflict-of-interest is a vulnerable spot for the looters and privatizers, so it’s good to dig up the facts. A board member of my district is now being investigated for ethics violation in voting for a contract to a charter outfit on which her husband sits. Conflict of interests are easily grasped by parents and a good way to argue for why all parents should opt-out.
Well it just gets funner and funner. The senate wants to give teachers an 11% raise (like that would go over well with the public especially other state employees) but cut Medicaid funding and our teaching assistants! http://www.wral.com/today-nccapitol-7-11-veto-threats-and-budget-gimmicks/13803799/
The house wants to give teachers a 5-6% increase with money I’m not sure we have. The governor waffles every time the wind changes so there is no telling where we are headed. To make things even more interesting the senate wants to repeal Common Core without any back up plan. Talk about egregious fiscal irresponsibility! We are in a sad State of affairs – pun intended.
“Political theatre didn’t cause our teacher pay crisis; Governor McCrory, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger’s handouts to the wealthy and special interests did. And more empty rhetoric and political theatre now won’t solve this crisis. It’s time for these folks to tone down the bluster, acknowledge their failed priorities and pass a plan that puts teachers and students first.”
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exactly.
Call them. Get everyone you know in NC to get on the phone and email and let them know what North Carolinians want.
corruption, intolerance, there’s a little bit of everything from our elected leaders in Raleigh these days…(note the headline is slightly misleading, but there are some details in the article that are true and very disturbing to me.)
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/charter-schools-could-refuse-to-admit-gay-transgender-kids/Content?oid=4197204