Jersey Jazzman wrote to thank the taxpayers of New York, whose dollars subsidize his blog via advertising by Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy network (formerly known as Harlem Success Academy).
JJ notes that this charter chain spends millions of dollars each year on recruitment, advertising, public relations, and marketing. This is a necessary business expense to drum up thousands of applications for a small number of seats. The lottery–and the drummed up demand–makes a case that more charters are needed. That seems to be the business plan.
The lottery is a clever marketing tool. It occurs to me that it’s the same marketing approach used by Teach for America. The more applicants they have, the more they can turn down, and the better the brand looks. There is a certain snob appeal to having a few winners and a lot of losers.
Not like those public schools that take any student who walks in off the street.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The hiding of TFA attrition is also an issue in studies using data provided by TFA. There “seems” to be no attrition– no dropouts. However, in his blog, former TFAer Gary Rubenstein alludes to how unusual is is for a TFA class to end with all participants. The La study comparing TFAers to traditionally trained teachers has a small data set– fewer than 200 participants– and this from a major organization that boasts of thousands of recruits a year.
Diane, my undestanding is that Columbia University, with which you have been associated, also spends money on recruiting and publicizing the value of its programs, and then turns some applicants down. Many suburban districts spend substantial sums trying to convince real estate agents and others that their districts are doing a great job. Are you criticizing Columbia and suburban districts for such efforts?
I worked as Superintendent in five different states in the east from 1981 through 2011 and know of no districts who spent ANY money convincing real estate agents their schools were doing well let alone spending “substantial sums”… affluent districts don’t need to spend money on advertising: real estate agents say something like “Wealthy-district-schools” in their ads to attract prospective buyers… and less affluent districts can barely scrape together money to pay for the “frills” like art and music that make affluent districts attractive to home-buyers… but maybe the east coast is an exception…
Wgersen, I have worked with school districts and real estate agents all over the nation. Many real estate agents show me multi-color brochures that they create and distrbute. I’ve see adds in various theater and music programs from school districts. I’d encourage you to call real estate agents in Westchester County or Long Island, or suburban Boston. I’ve seen these brochures.
As to urban districts, many prepare and send out info to families about their programs. I’ve contacted many cities about their schools and received beautiful brochures. Again, check out NYC, Boston, Chicago, Providence, etc. etc. Some of this now has migrated to websites that districts create and update.
Finally – have you checked out magnet schools in many large cities that have very substantial waiting lists, and also conduct lotteries?
Not sure about that, but it seems like when they take over districts, rephormers spend lots of $ beefing up their spin machines. Certainly happened here in Charm City under J Klein (who I believe was notable for a high powered spin cycle) acolyte Andres Alonso. Chicago also seems to throw lots of $ into PR, and of course M Rhee hired a very pricey PR firm in DC.
The lotteries conducted by charters also create the impression that there are an overwhelming number of parents who want to get out of their public school… If a TRUE lottery were used to populate charter schools ALL parents— even those who are disengaged from the schooling of their children— would participate… as it is now the public schools are getting a higher and higher percentage of disengaged parents making the challenges of the REAL Supermen— public school teachers— even greater…
“There is a certain snob appeal to having a few winners and a lot of losers.”
In our Sunday School discussions we call this exclusivity. Being part of a so-called chosen group makes one feel as though they are better than others.
I think this perfectly describes the lottery process and TFA PR numbers.
Two points:
Public schools have strict admission criteria based on school district zones, so they will not admit anyone who walks in the door.
I was under the impression that charter schools are required to hold a lottery for admission in NYC. If so, it seems odd to blame or praise the charter schools with simply complying with the regulation.
Well…
We have to take any kid who can vaguely claim to live in our attendance area.
These claims are often very weak.
It takes a lot of time and resources (that we do not have) to check out check out if indeed this adult really is your legal guardian or if you still live at this address on last months gas bill, or if your family really is living with this other family, etc, etc.
We have kids that bounce back and forth between schools (sometimes even between different districts) so often it would make your head spin.
So, yeah…pretty anyone who can walk in the door and lay any claim to living around here gets in.
Maybe in the nice parts of town it is strict, or perhaps it is strict on paper but in practice it is an open door policy here at the low income school serving inexpensive apartments inhabited by mostly by recent immigrants
So there is school choice for those that game the system, at least in your district. What about the students and parents who obey the rules?
You are right. Diane was going too fast when she said “anybody who walks off the street.” But that’s not really the point. The point is public schools do have to take accept any student who lives within its attendance zone; charters don’t. That matters a lot especially in urban areas with fluid populations. Charters typically have discrete entry grades (K, 6, or 9, usually). Anybody who moves to the district or changes schools generally ends up in neighborhood schools.
Yes, all they have to do is move into the school’s area. That simply reinforces the high rate of SES segregation in housing. Another way to think about charter schools is that they can not keep students out of their school just because their parent(s) can not afford to live in the right part of town.
@ TE – Charters do not solve segregation, which happens mostly between, not within, school districts. Parents with other options do not send their kids to charters with lots of poor brown and black kids. At best charters offer more motivated parents & students an option to be schooled among others like themselves. Not necessarily economically advantaged, but with at least the means & savvy to navigate the system for something better. This is the skimmng the Petrelli spoke of. It’s a screening device. Kind of like magnet schools, but with strictly academic qualificatios.
And public schools do solve segregation?
Lets think a bit about this skimming that you are concerned about. Who does it hurt, who does it help?
TE, Why don’t you read The reports of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, which document that charters are MORE segregated than their surrounding district? It is good to be informed.
Actually I have read it. I ctrd a reference to it back in September of last year in this thread: https://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/30/what-charter-schools-do-best/
@ TE. No, residence-zoned based public schools probably do not solve segregation any better. so that’s a tie. Whom skimming hurts and helps — well, that depends . I would think there are many variables and unknown parameters in that particular social welfare function. But I think one thing certain is that to the extent that the skimmed group became favored, the other would be hurt — as seems to be the case in NYC and other big cities that have embraced charters.
Joe,
Would you agree that “skimming” helps some students and hurts others, so not “skimming” would hurt those helped by “skimming” and help those hurt by it?
Should students who might be helped by the skimming process be held hostage in the hope that their presence will improve the situation for those that would remain?
@ TE – Nope, I never said I was opposed to charters for the fact that they serve a self-selected group. What I do have a problem with is the propaganda that surrounds them, their false claims of great success when their results are mostly due to skimming, and the attendant downgrading of public sector which ends up warehousing the hardest-to-serve and neediest cases with fewer resources. If there were recognition of the fact that a strong public sector is needed to backstop the boutique charter sector, that would be fine — but you hear little of that from reformy types.
Joe,
I apologize for reading more into your posts than you intended. I am more tolerant of exaggerated claims as I think it is inevitable in most human activities. Perhaps my expectation of exaggeration comes from my many years of fishing.
Most who post here object to the idea of students and their families having choices outside the assigned school building. The condemnation of “creaming” seemed to fit into this category of objections.
Many charters are in poor neighborhoods. The parents send their kids because it is nearby. Not much unlike living in a public district. I think you overstated the bit about charters having no geogrpahic area. Maybe on paper but not really in practice. I know charters will screen applicants too. I know people who have seen this. I’m tired of the propaganda about charters.
Public schools geographic areas are on paper and in practice. Perhaps at worst, a tie?
The sad irony is that when I clicked on the link to Jersey Jazzman’s website, the ad at the top of the page there was for Teach for America.
Charters often put out a lot of propaganda about waiting lists. It is just a marketing ploy to make it appear as though everyone wants to attend the sub-par school. I’d like to have tax money returned for the stupid ads I hear promoting charters, etc. I can’t help but wonder how much money is being wasted in this way. Another crock.