Wendy Lecker here describes how public schools and charters are judged by different standards in Connecticut.
Part of the hype and spin comes from Connecticut’s State Commissioner of Education, who founded a charter school that is now a “failing” school. (New York State also has a state commissioner who was a co-founder of a “no excuses” charter school, which should be known not for its high test scores but for its high suspension rate.)
At some point, the public will get wise to the games that charter advocates play. Hopefully, that will happen before the charter promoters have managed to wreck public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
too late …
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Look at this Editorial in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Sub-par options: Charter schools as a class don’t measure up
“Charter schools are publicly funded education alternatives to the conventional schools offered by a district. But it’s not enough for them to have smaller class sizes, require uniforms, offer a themed curriculum or attract a more focused student body. They must deliver on academic performance in the same way that parents, pupils and taxpayers expect traditional schools to deliver.
These numbers show that the great majority of charter schools just don’t measure up. While half of the traditional public schools falling short of AYP is nothing to boast about, it is difficult to argue that charter schools as a class perform better than their conventional counterparts.
Certainly a successful charter school is a choice well-made for its students. But it’s galling to know that so many subpar charters are diverting public dollars away from traditional education.”
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/sub-par-options-charter-schools-as-a-class-dont-measure-up-672177/#ixzz2JB08DLRl
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I guess this has been noted before, but I was surprised to learn of Gov. Malloy’s learning disabilitiy: http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/AP-Interview-Malloy-overcame-dyslexia-physical-112920.php
Now, would a kid with similar challenges (and without Mallloy’s supportive family) be welcome in a charter?
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Malloy has mentioned experiencing poor treatment as a boy from one or more teachers due to this learning disability. It may partially explain his well-known, open hostility towards teachers, although it doesn’t excuse it. After all, I don’t think that all governors are vicious, corrupt bullies because of a few.
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Education of spec. needs kids has improved since Malloy was a lad.
I’m not sure how his ed policies will help his 2013 counterparts.
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Yep. It’s pretty obvious to most teachers that the charter school movement is being used as a union busting tool. A means of privatizing our education system. We’re seeing it first hand.
The problem comes, of course, with the general public’s perception. Most people don’t spend a lot of time sorting through the propaganda that’s so prevalent in our media. We had a huge rally at City Hall, here in NYC, a couple of years ago. Combined unions. Tens of thousands of people. There was absolutely no television, radio, or newspaper coverage that day, the day after, or ever. None. It was, frankly, a frightening display of political power.
So the charter schools roll on…
I can’t help but note that part of the movement is fueled by gentrification. It used to be that a good school was a major factor when deciding where to live. Now you find people buying or renting in marginally safe neighborhoods because the real estate is so much more affordable. When they have children, they start to worry about the schools. I’ve taught in those schools. The kids are very tough, so the worries are not unfounded. Enter the charter schools. The appeal is obvious….both for new home owners and long time residents who want something better for their kids.
But the charter will push the majority of kids from the closed public school into another school which is already overburdened. And that school will fail. Etc, etc…
Such a shame and such a sham. Instead of the politicians putting a serious effort into bettering the existing schools, they close them. For the benefit of a relative few and the detriment of the majority. And the people who are benefitting will definitely not want to rock the boat.
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If the public school teachers had not bought into the corrupt union model, this wouldn’t be happening. The auto workers thought they had it made as union employees in Michigan, and you know what happened to them. Michigan is now right to work. Why should unionized public school teachers expect anything different from what is going on. As gitapik points out, the “neighborhood school” is not a nice thought for gentrifiers when the neighborhood is dangerous. That’s about 50 major urban centers, the core of the Obama support. They may vote for him but they want schools like he’s got, and if they can’t afford them, they’ll steal from the public schools to set up charters. And so it goes, as Vonnegut says.
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The vast majority of teachers that I’ve worked with in all of my jobs (dangerous and safe neighborhoods) have worked hard both in and out of school. I’m no fool about unions in general, but this concept that the UFT has hand tied the administration and created a majority of slackers in the classroom is just one example of how effective the negative publicity has been.
I was a manager for 10 years in a large company. There was more dead wood in that management setting than I’ve seen in my 20 years of teaching with the UFT.
Here’s an example of when it started (for me, at least):
About 17 years ago, there was an article on the front page of all the NYC newspapers, stating that New York City’s state exam scores had us ranked dead last among all cities in the state. The teachers were blamed. “Throw them out!”. “Vouchers!”. “Charter Schools!”. The outcry was huge and fueled by the media.
This continued for a couple of days until it was disclosed that NYC was the only school that had included all of it’s special education student’s scores. When those scores were omitted, NYC ranked 3rd to Rochester and another city that I’ve forgotten the name of. I was only able to find this information in a small blurb on page thirty something of the Post. But at least the headline bashing stopped. For a while.
You will believe what you like, Harlan. But you’re not in the trenches and, quite simply: you don’t know. The problems with our inner city schools are not isolated to the teachers, by any means. Students running through the halls, throwing bottles against the walls, tearing down bulletin boards while teachers, students, and administrators hide behind locked doors, waiting for the police, are not problems that will be solved by firing lazy teachers. It goes way beyond the UFT.
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