Many readers were upset to learn that Randi Weingarten was speaking at the Teach for America 25th reunion at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C., last weekend.
Randi appeared on a panel with Howard Fuller, who advocates for charters and vouchers. Fuller founded the BAEO, the Black Alliance for Educational Options. He goes around the country promoting school choice to black leaders and communities. Many years ago, he was the superintendent in Milwaukee. When he became a choice advocate, he was funded by the rightwing Bradley Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and others.
Randi points out in her article that vouchers have been a failure in Milwaukee, but she wasn’t there to debate Fuller. She explains here why she decided to appear at the TFA event.
My purpose was not to debate Fuller; it was to have a conversation about a path forward, to end the ridiculous debate in reform circles that poverty and greater economic issues don’t matter, and to debunk the notion that individual teachers can do it all.
I caught some flack on Twitter and Facebook for even attending a TFA event. The AFT and TFA disagree on a number of fundamental issues regarding education. I believe that teacher preparation should reflect the complexity and importance of this work, and that a crash course simply doesn’t cut it — it’s not fair to corps members or their students. Further, I think that TFA’s model of inadequately prepared teachers and high turnover deprofessionalizes teaching by design. And it’s dead wrong when districts use austerity as the excuse to hire TFA recruits as replacements for experienced teachers.
Read on.
No, you don’t participate in the propaganda fest that was #TFA25. We build movements that draw people away from TFA before they enter and chip away at the lies this organization is built on through resistance. The people in that space represent the past, current, and future destroyers of public education. They aren’t our chat partners, they are our enemies.
Randi’s presence legitimized the whole damn event to the eyes of anyone watching and probably assuaged doubts for the few TFA folks left who have a conscience and a brain. Imagine if instead of participating, there was a strong protest happening outside??
Randi helping all our enemies all the time
I can’t even get the last knife out and in goes another. She is dreadful. Go away Randi.
I went on twitter myself and was unable to express myself adequately in 140 characters. Angry at union leadership and HRC for public education taking a beating. I am grouchy and out of sorts after engaging with a Randi/AFT supporter. Didn’t mean to come across that you, Dr. Ravitch, said union leadership was in bed with ed reform. My opinion only. Over and out, going to bed.
Diane, from reading your blog I know you are friendly with Randi. She is nothing short of a cockroach IMO. No offense. She is gearing up for her big charter career and will leave you, teachers, parents and countless students eating her dust. Please don’t defend what is defenseless anymore. Parents need truth and Randi is nothing but a mouth who only cares about her political future. I wish she would move to another country already – I am sick of reading about Randi!
As if Randi couldn’t have predicted teacher pushback? Please. I don’t believe anything she says. TFA and Randi have at least one attribute in common..promoting themselves while using and abusing the front line workers.
Bernie raised 6 million in 18 hours. #FeeltheBern #Imnotwithher
#imnotwithher…. love love love
The fact that Randi wanted to have “a conversation about a path forward” is THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!
That she somehow thinks that the teachers she “represents” are somehow NOT THE PRECISE TARGET and MEAL for TFA, and the entire reform movement is proof that all of the criticism she receives is well-founded and correct!!!
That Randi honesty thinks that our side is somehow IN CONVERSATION with the reform movement is sickening to hear and proves all of my worst fears about much of teachers union leadership.
There is no conversation. This is a war. It’s a war being waged against us. We didnt ask for it. The stakes are the absolute highest. Our only task is to destroy the reform movement philosophically, politically, and economically. That’s how we get to continue having our jobs and paychecks and pensions. Finding middle ground. Seats at the table. All that nonsense is how and why we will lose and lose those jobs, paychecks, and pensions.
Randi has proven every criticism against her here. In fact she and those like her ARE A HUGE ELEMENT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. She deserves our scorn and contempt because her most solemn duty is to at least understand the threats we face. She does not. She is unwilling to call this by its proper name. War. And it’s an existential one for us. She is unwilling to call it that……unwilling to even do what is necessary rhetorically……because of either a profound lack of an ability to perceive reality or AMBITION. I’d argue it’s probably both.
That her sitting in conversation has not had her summarily removed from her position by membership, outside of elections, is the exact reason we will continue to lose.
Sad times.
Your comments capture the frustration and anger that so many teachers feel as well as the disconnect with the membership Randi exhibits in her comments and deeds. Teachers continue to compromise on a daily basis. If there is nothing but compromise on the table, at some point teachers will be left with nothing.
Thank you NYSTeacher!
Yes Retired Teacher and NY Teacher…..and also we must remember that Randi, and then Lily, endorsed Hillary long ago, way before it was reasonable to endorse her, and without the input of membership. BTW, doubt that she is planning on being a charter billionaire…more likely her goal would be head of the DoE.
It is almost as though she does not care that she is pissing off her constituency to whom she owes her loyalty and her paycheck.
I don’t understand why you continue to support her actions, Dr. Ravitch. . . our children are in a heap of trouble and tell me when compromise has worked in our favor???
She does not speak for teachers or children, but for the power she hopes to gain in the next White House.
So disappointed.
Tutucker, I was not supporting Randi’s decision to go to the TFA meeting. I wasn’t invited but if I were, I’d go and tell them what they should do differently. I would tell them to send their corps members to be teacher aides, not teachers. I would tell them that their recruits are not prepared to take on the responsibility of being a professional teacher. I would tell them what they do now undermines the profession. A few years ago, I was invited to speak in Houston at the invitation of KIPP and TFA. I used the opportunity to take them both to task. I think the video is still online. I agree with you on this point: When people are trying to undermine the teaching profession and privatize public education, there can be no compromise. When TFA sends inexperienced young people to work in classrooms where kids have high needs, they are doing a terrible disservice to those children. Period.
thank you, Dr. Ravitch,
On behalf of my children and my profession, I thank you. . . this seat at the table is just not working. . .
Compromise doesn’t work when it favors those who are hurting our children.
Will Randi be speaking next at a Success Academy event? I wouldn’t be surprised at all. She represents herself, not the dues-paying teachers she regularly betrays!
All should remember that both Wiengarten and Eskalon-Garcia don’t have time for attending the NPE conference this year.
They know they would be pitchforked for relying so much on their forked tongues.
Is this scenario like Apple, having a day,to celebrate its gains,in market share and revenue, and sending an invitation to Microsoft’s president?
If Microsoft’s president showed up, it would mean he contributed to Apple’s success.
A puzzler.
Well, it’s simple why she went. She had a long layover on her way to her next Eli Broad meeting with Hillary.
Liz, TRUTH -thanks for the chuckle!
Indeed the case, since the Broad Foundation has referred to Weingarten as one of its “assets” in the effort to privatize the schools.
Shameless, lying opportunist…
The AFT Convention is this July in Minneapolis
The latest from Fred. Poor Randi..we were all supposed to love her friend.
TFA=SCABS
This speaks to something I read by the California teacher who is allowing herself to be used in the lawsuit to undermine unions. Her defense was that if teachers could choose whether to pay dues, the union would have to be more responsive to them.
I do think that having a strong union is of vital importance, but It is very concerning to see the leadership so willing to do what is best for them personally and not for the working teachers. Yes, the leaders can supposedly be voted out, but that is far harder than a movement to simply stop paying your dues if you don’t like what the leadership is doing. I suppose it is the same way that the opt-out movement could have a huge influence after years of trying to vote in politicians who cared about the testing industry and how it was corrupting education.
I still strongly oppose the anti-union legislation and lawsuits that are being underwritten by right-wingers, but I am afraid that actions like this are part of why there is more support than I would have ever believed.
With all due respect to the owner of this blog and those commenting on this thread and others that post comments on this blog—
I await further info before venturing an opinion as to the wisdom or folly, helpfulness or harm, of Ms. Weingarten’s participation in the TFA25LoveFest.
More than anyone else, I look forward to Gary Rubinstein’s evaluation of the event and its participants.
😎
Me, too, KTA.
2old2teach: I once wrote that I think I would have worked well with you in the classroom as your TA since we are so often, almost eerily so, on the same page.
Your comment doesn’t surprise me.
But it gladdens my heart to see that we are on the same page again.
😎
KrazyTA: “I once wrote that I think I would have worked well with you in the classroom … since we are so often, almost eerily so, on the same page.
Your comment doesn’t surprise me.
But it gladdens my heart to see that we are on the same page again.”
I couldn’t say it better.
Ravitch is still too in touch with her old “reform” buddies and thinks they mean well. Weingarten has always been one one to hobnob with the wealthy and famous, no matter what they think of teachers and public schools.
When Randi gets some free time from promoting let’s close below average public schools HRC and conversing with TFA, she should come to Newark to assist drowning teachers like me.
ouch! 🙂
Mike in Texas, I long ago lost touch with my “reform” buddies.
I have no problem with “staying in touch” with those who disagree with my positions. I view that as positive. Many of my lifelong friends have very different views from me. We don’t let that come between us-at the same time we don’t have influential positions either.
I think Diane has adequately “lost touch with my reform buddies” by a long shot. What is the saying? Hold your friends close but hold your enemies even closer.
As I’ve said elsewhere, Diane has come a long way in the almost four years of this blog. I’ve seen many positive changes in thought and action by her. Go back and read the first year and compare what she says and what was posted with now and I think you’ll find an astonishing change in the right (at least in my mind) direction. Do I think it is far enough away from her prior thinking? No, but I wouldn’t expect anyone’s thinking to be totally like mine on any of these issues.
Keep at it Diane, it’s a pleasure participating in your blog, especially when we disagree on different points of the teaching and learning process, politics, and policy. When not used in the proper context I abhor standardization, especially of thought!
Diane Rativich ,
So the special election for the NY 9th district seat is this April . The old Skelos seat . Todd Kamisky a young exciting democrat who’s running for the seat and supports public education . We need your help . This can change the culture up in Albany if the democrats control both the house and senate .
Thanks
C Sullivan
Randi has already shown herself to be a tool of the corporations with her anti-democratic endorsement of Hillary Clinton. It comes as no surprise to me that she has slippery ethics regarding charter schools. Nothing surprises me anymore, when comes to the power of corporations to corrupt individuals and institutions.
Shelley – I concur. Randi is as corrupt as they come. Lose her Ms. Ravitch. Do us all a favor. What has she done for teacher lately????? Her mouth spews lies every single solitary day. It’s annoying to see any support for that woman and/or to wait “until all the data is back” – right!
Wow, moodl!
“Lose her, Mrs. Ravitch”
Really?!?! Someone forgot to send me the memo (unless they sent it to my cell phone-ha ha!) that says that we’ve regressed to middle school and that we can be so uppity as to tell another person with whom he/she can interact. Ay ay ay!
She should hold a public school forum in DC and see if any of them will come.
She’ll find out fast if this reciprocal or if it only works one way.
I;m betting one way, she only goes to them and not the reverse, but maybe one or two will surprise me.
Sun Tzu, who wrote “The Art of War” about 2,500 years ago in China, says, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”
West Point cadets study “The Art of War” and so do corporate CEOs.
Is it possible that Randi is only following Sun Tzu’s advice?
Lloyd, could be.
I hope so…
No, Randi Weingarten does not look at TFA as the enemy any more than she looks at the Broad Foundation as the enemy. Far from it! http://goo.gl/QMpZIG http://goo.gl/e8H7uS
Your work on exposing the political connections between Eli Broad and those who benefit from his money is exceptional.
I don’t believe so, Lloyd. . not for a minute. Randi is destroying our profession. She is in this for her power. . .
I fear that you are right and that she knows nothing bout Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. But we can always hope while fighting back against the forces of avarice.
Thanks Phil.Ken for posting what is probably the most important link anywhere. Please everyone, read it and remember.
Lloyd and I seem to take turns recommending Sun Tzu and The Art of War which should be mandated reading, and discussing, in classrooms around the nation. In my public policy classes, I use it as a core book for almost every subject. It is now taught in most of the Graduate Schools of Business and Management…so if you haven’t read and digested it, do.
It was certainly the reason Obama chose Hillary as his Sect. of State.
If the U.S. had paid attention to Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” America would have never started a war in Vietnam or Iraq.
Ellen and Lloyd, I had Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” in mind when I wrote my recent article about the drive to privatize Philadelphia public schools. “The Siege of Philadelphia Public Schools is Now a Full-Scale Assault” http://goo.gl/jaUE2F
Just to be clear. My previous comment had two links. I neglected to separate them with “and”.
http://goo.gl/QMpZIG and http://goo.gl/e8H7uS
“A company union is a union located within and run by a company or a national government”
This is what Communist China does. So Eli Broad, and the rest of the corporate public education demolition derby, wants to turn the United States into another one-party authoritarian state like China where no one is allowed to express a political or religious opinion in public.
I see nothing at all wrong with Randi Weingarten speaking at the TFA function.
What Randi has done as UFT and AT leader, how she has directed policy, and how she has channeled the politicking, however, is part of why we are in the mess we are today.
Many of her actions are reprehensible, and she, having had a monopoly over her position, her power, her grip on Unity, and her behemoth salary as President, add up to someone who will now only begin to fight as the Friedrich case chases her like a mother lion with hungry cubs going after a zebra.
You only change minds by speaking with the folks whose minds you want to change … if Randi, or Diane, or any of these thread writers are invited to speak with folks with whom you disagree – GO!!! Try to change minds –
I agree . . .
Yep!!
Met2006 – I’ve been speaking since 2012 – what about you? How many petitions have you signed? Gimme a break already.
And I’ve been speaking out against “data driven decision making”, the underlying theme to all this standards and testing nonsense since I first heard of it while being professionally developed before this century, and have paid the price in all kinds of ways for fighting against it. But you know what? That doesn’t mean jack$h#^!
I try to engage any and everyone who will listen and/or wants to debate the state of public education these days (my son warns people “Don’t get him started on that”). You might be surprised at how many public ed supporters from all over the political and ideological spectrum are on our side, especially once they find out the facts. As Diane points out, we have the numbers and the truth on our side and if we would utilyze that strength in numbers telling/disseminating the truth about what is really happening we will win this fight.
Curiously I find it relevant that the AFT organizes Green Dot Charters here in Los Angeles – basically a company union. My daughter worked for Green Dot for four years when there were no District jobs. But the benefit goes to the AFT in the form of dues paid. My feeling is that the opportunism exhibited by our union leaders is some of the most reprehensible behavior I have seen or read about in all my 69 years. My father risked his entire life in the fight to build unions in this country (and had it destroyed in the process). Neither AFT nor NEA act as unions. They do not defend their members as they should, to begin with…and at this point they are just trying to build the coffers. Thank you Robert Rendo for the word ‘reprehensible’ but maybe it isn’t strong enough. Traitorous is more like it.
Did Randi say that at TFA? I doubt it. The AFT’s collaboration with the forces of privatization and the destruction of public education make me wish my fellow teachers would decertify the AFT and either go with the NEA(not much better) or create a new union, led by the Chicago Teacher’s Union.
In the conversation about superdelegates above, Diane wrote, “I am terrified of a Republican victory. Imagine a Supreme Court nominee by Trump or Cruz or any of them” I agree.
I am likewise TERRIFIED of a country without unions.
Don’t think I haven’t been critical of some of the things NYSUT and the AFT have done in recent years. But I just find it difficult to really rake them over the coals in public. Not now when unions are up against the wall. Of course, case in point is what happened to organized labor in Wisconsin, a state that had a long history of progressive reforms.
Back a few years ago when the Common Core crap really hit the fan, I’d write to Dick Ianuzzi, former NYSUT President, and he get right back to me personally. Diane would write back to me. They were very busy but the listened to me. That meant a lot.
Governor Cuomo, NYS Ed Commission John B. King…..not a word in reply. They could care less about me. Bill Gates….Barack Obama…fat chance…I’d never get even close to them.
I don’t know….maybe Bernie is going to be right. There will be a “political revolution” in this country. And, all those people on the left who wanted to compromise, who were just hoping to get a seat at the table will look foolish, in hindsight. I hope Bernie is right and things really do change.
As for now, I know too many teachers, teacher assistants, aides and custodians who have gone WAY OUT ON A LIMB helping out our union -meaning my school and my students as well as me and my own family.
I do understand the anger and frustration of teachers. This is just how I feel.
I would like to point out that Randi is “too busy” this year to speak at the NPE conference again. But she could squeeze in TfA. In case anyone has any lingering doubts about her.
Dienne,
It is not true that Randi was too “busy” to come to NPE in April. I invited both Randi and Lily to discuss the court cases. Lily was too busy but offered to send a substitute. Randi had a conflict but offered to speak if we could change the schedule. We are still trying to work it out.
I’ve said this before on this blog, but it bears repeating.
Randi Weingarten is and has been such a a big part of the problem, that it’s very difficult to see how she’s part of the solution.
I agree; while those who are leading teachers often “go along to get along,” there has been a painfully incremental weakening of teacher respect, teacher voice, and teacher power. They’ve simply slowly but surely written us (teachers) out of the picture.
Weingarten is the leader of one of the largest unions in the country. She doesn’t have to show up at TFA events to be part of their conversation. She should be leading the conversation and framing the issues from the point of view of her members.
Exactly: Weingarten has from the very first accepted, and continues to accept, the premises of the so-called reformers, enabling them before ever accepting a dime (which she then duly did).
Whatever she might say in opposition to the hostile takeover of public education is deception and mis-direction, intended to inoculate herself from charges of collaborating with those who would destroy the careers and livelihoods of the people she is well-paid to defend.
When the history of this vicious era is written, she will be seen as a key figure in permitting the social vandalism and looting that is so-called education reform.
The problem of Randi Weingarten is the problem of cancer.
Here’s how:
One of the most confounding problems of cancer is that the body’s immune system doesn’t recognize it as a threat, and it thereby grows.
To draw the parallel, unions are working people’s immune system. Their role is to recognize threats, round up resources, and collectively assemble a counter-attack.
Some of the main advances in the fight against cancer have to do with therapies that force the immune system to recognize malignancy and then thereby kick-in and fight it. Our own immune systems, it turns out, are wildly ferocious, adaptable, resilient, and aggressive once pointed at a target.
Randi Weingarten, as the most prominent teachers union leader, is absolutely THE PROBLEM. She doesn’t recognize the threats we face, and therefore that threat grows, redoubles even, and as our entire profession gets compromised, she acts as if nothing is happening (at best) and enables our threats (at worst).
Much like our biological immune systems, our socio-politico-economic immune system (our unions) are wildly ferocious, adaptable, resilient, and aggressive, once pointed at a target. In this I have no doubts. The problem is our unions fail in recognizing the target, and therefore fail at the appropriate response. We can win if our unions SIMPLY FUNCTION AS THEY SHOULD…..but that requires a leadership that is up to the task.
Randi Weingarten MUST step down. Now. That may begin the resurgence of teacher morale and lead to awful state unions leadership to get with the program of leave. (I’d love to see that here in NY with NYSUT and UFT leadership being as abysmal as it is).
VWW!
Very well written!
Gracias.
The bottom line is always outcome. Do the majority of Americans know that their public education has been privatized? An answer of “No”, regardless of motive, means failure by Weingarten. If she’s in Israel, on Labor Day, exhorting her base back home, to fight, she is not leading.
The privatization takeover isn’t on the radar of Weingarten’s colleagues in other unions. From an outsider’s view, if Weingarten can’t get traction with a sympathetic audience, she doesn’t have the skills to make a difference.
Wow, I can actually agree with a statement posted our here: The bottom line is always outcome.
So that said, when teachers and school admins care enough to ensure that ALL (or we’ll settle for at least the majority) of their students are not routinely falling through the educational cracks in their public schools, especially those identified as Special Ed students, as a Special Ed classification seems to be analogous to the Hotel California song lyrics, “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device & (once you’ve entered here) you can never leave! ” What is needed is for ALL teachers to be mandated to go back and receive training on how to teach children and youth and adults, how to read, write and do math from a foundational perspective. Which means using proven methods, such as OG:
The Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading instruction was developed in the early-20th century.
It is language-based, multi-sensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive, and flexible.
The Orton-Gillingham Approach has been in use since the 1930s. An intensive, sequential phonics-based system teaches the basics of word formation before whole meanings. The method accommodates and utilizes the three learning modalities, or pathways, through which people learn—visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Unlike some scripted and rigid reading programs, the Orton-Gillingham Approach is a system that allows for flexibility.
Maybe if we used a proven method such as O-G so many children and youth would not continue to be lost to generational illiteracy. (The same goes for teaching math numeracy skills too.)
IE- There is a video going around on FB showing an older teen or young adult who has no clue on some very fundamental math concepts (how many quarter cups are in a cup, how long will it take somebody to drive 80 miles if they drive the speed of 80mph, etc.)
And, after volunteering with some children who have ended up in Special Ed into their teenage years, this seems to be a common issue, not the exception.
So forgive me for not feeling quite as empathetic towards the educational field currently, but as a foster-parent, a taxpayer, and an advocate for students, the supposed caring educational professionals responsible for preparing students to become productive members of society after leaving high school, are failing big time! In the school district we left, even the kids that were not in special ed, felt like they were being taught down to, so if they felt that way, how do you think the teens that were struggling learners feel about that fact? Does anyone even care that this is happening? It does not seem like the schools care very much from what we have seen and experienced personally.
So, maybe Randi will finally do something productive to help those in the schools who are routinely being left behind. The students, those that are struggling as well as those that may not be struggling, are also getting short changed in the public schools, by teachers that do not know how to teach to the entire breadth of students in their classrooms, and how to engage all of their students, as well as work with them, their families and the other teachers to ensure that their areas of weakness are scaffolded AS WELL AS REMEDIATED!!!
Because believe it or not, these students will one day end up out in the real world (vs the pseudo-world of K-12 education) where they will be expected to be able to read, write and figure out basic math concepts with a level of proficiency. But unfortunately, this does not seem to be a priority of the public schools. Instead we lower the bar (calling it a “safety net”, which in reality is a safety net for the teachers more so than the students- because now the teachers only have to reach a low bar set at 50% vs the higher bar of $65%.) And now that the bar is set low, they only have to ensure that the student hits that lower skill level now so the heck with providing effective instruction to close the gap and bring the students skill levels up to the 65% bar, and it snowballs each subsequent year after, and then by the time they are 2 or more years behind, students and their families are told, oh it’s not our fault that they fell behind, that should have been taken care of before they got to me. Like seriously? No friggin kidding. But the reality is that it was not fixed because it was ignored, and allowed to continue. So, guess what. It now is your issue to deal with, even if you do not feel that it should be. And what are you going to do about it? Just pass the kids on year after year and lower down the instructional level to the least common denominator? And then what happens to the quality of education? It continues to fall, correct? To the point that the non-struggling learners are now being taught at 2 or more grade levels below where they should be, and the non-struggling learners are now being taught to that level as well. So that means that pretty much all of the students are losing out then. And more often than not, the schools are not closing the gaps for those needing it closed, and for the other students, they too are being short changed by the teachers choosing to teach down to the lowest common denominator rather than raising all of the students up to reach the higher bars.
And hence how you get the horrific stats about close to 80% of high school students are still not proficient at the end of 13 or more years of attending public schools! Greater than 75% of our high school students are unable to start college without at least 1 if not all 3 areas requiring remedial prep classes which they will have to pay tuition for but never receive credit for those classes due to them being remedial classes and below the level considered to be college level. So they have to prove that they have a basic level of skills in place before they can even start college. And this is for students that actually stayed in school and obtained a high school diploma. If we were to add in the number of students that dropped out, the numbers would be even higher than 75% and that is insane and negligent and educational malpractice, yet it is allowed to continue year after year.
So forgive me for not seeing the big issue with somebody attending a Teach for America Convention, when the public schools are failing to educate the majority of students in a manner that engages them and helps them to work to achieve to their potentials routinely!
At this point, I’m thinking that parents could do no worse if they were to home school or unschooled. Because too many times we as parents are being pushed out to the private sector to get our children the appropriate instruction on our own time and dimes, so then once that happens, we really have no need to stay in the public school setting. And once parents realize they have options, they will begin to use those other options. And that is what really probably scares school admins and teachers. Because once those flood gates open, there will be (as Ross Perot so aptly noted) “a tremendous sucking sound” as the schools lose students to other instructional and educational alternatives.
TFA Convention aside, you need to do some research into all of your pronouncements on public education. I don’t even know where to start in debunking your ….I don’t even know what to call it. I happen to like my public schools, and I know many others who have felt the same way. They are not perfect; they didn’t always serve my children as well as I would have liked, but, hey, I couldn’t afford to send them away to private schools (nor would I have wanted to), and even if they were available, I would not choose a charter that was sucking funding out of someone’s public school. The public school system tries to educate everyone however inadequate you found yours. It is a public good to offer education to all our children and a responsibility of our society. You can choose whatever alternative you like for your kids as long as your choice does not interfere with the rights of the overwhelming majority. Since our government, federal or state, seem to have been focused on defunding and attacking public education for more than a decade, I find it amazing that it still manages to function at all. Charters have had plenty of time to prove their superiority and overall have failed miserably. It is a shame that their blatant abuses have overshadowed those that have stayed true to the original mission. I tutor at a urban school with close to 100% low income and free lunch. Their test scores will be nothing to shout about, but it is a well run school with a dedicated staff. Every year their funding is cut; this year they lost their librarian. The other day I noticed they have a toilet paper dispenser OUTSIDE each bathroom! There is no question there are incompetent administrators as well as teachers. Cities seem to breed mismanagement and corruption, or at least their corruption makes better sound bites than that in smaller arenas. I even understand why some parents have chosen a charter over what is left of public schooling if there is any in their neighborhood. Before you start cheering for the dismantling of public education, though, you might want to look at those free market experiments in foreign countries. You will have to look very hard to find success other than in someone’s PR campaign.
“. . . vs the pseudo-world of K-12 education. . . ”
When I see a statement as that one I have a tendency to disregard the whole post.
K-12 education is very much a “real” world. Is it the business world? No, and it shouldn’t be as they are two different realms of human interactions with different purposes, means and ends.
Ay ay ay!