Katie Osgood refers obliquely here to the famous John Dewey quote that what the best and wisest parent wants for his children is what we should want for all children:
“Here is the fundamental question: If low-income parents were offered fully-funded neighborhood schools with all kinds of “choice” offered within the schools like arts, music, sports, technology, supplemental services, libraries, world language, special education services, small classes, experienced/stable staff with low-turnover, etc (like what kids in Winnetka are offered)-would they EVER choose the charter school with inexperienced teachers, harsh discipline, long “rigorous” school days with little access to music/art, prescriptive curriculum, non-unionized/exploited and overworked staff–>high turnover? If the answer is “no” then what we need is equity, equal access to quality learning environments, and not “choice”.
“As an aside, parents in Chicago came out by the thousands to beg, plead, yell, and protest to keep their underfunded neighborhoods schools open, but the school board still voted to close 50 of those schools. We don’t even have “choice” here, we have sabotage and a privatization agenda.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The mayor is following the same Broad plan in Chicago that Philadelphia, NYC, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans and other cities are. The plan all along has been to dismantle the CPS district and the unions. There are charters to profit from, poor people to push out of the city and land to reclaim for developers, and profit opportunities for edu-preneurs in tablets, databases, and tests, test and more tests.
The constant litany of lies that the CPS spokeswoman and CEO BBB utter makes a complete mockery of the people’s right to know what their government is doing and why.
Reblogged this on Save Our Schools NZ and commented:
” If low-income parents were offered fully-funded neighborhood schools with all kinds of “choice” offered within the schools like arts, music, sports, technology, supplemental services, libraries, world language, special education services, small classes, experienced/stable staff with low-turnover, etc (like what kids in Winnetka are offered)-would they EVER choose the charter school with inexperienced teachers, harsh discipline, long “rigorous” school days with little access to music/art, prescriptive curriculum, non-unionized/exploited and overworked staff–>high turnover?” ….
Such a loaded question I have never seen. It is not far from
‘have you stopped beating your wife’.
How did we get away from the high school I grew up in that had all the
stuff mentioned and was a public high school? Between 1970 and today,
things have changed a lot. Diane has written books on education history, but
I don’t know which one to read or if any of her books addresses that question.
Parents in DC watched their public school and chose the DC Opportunity
Scholarships — until Obama shut them down. Who was right in that situation —
the parents or Obama?
You’re asking exactly the same “loaded” question as Ms. Osgood.
I don’t understand how that is a loaded question. I was simply trying to point out how charters, despite the marketing out there, are not quality schools. The reality is that a vast and growing number of charter schools follow the pattern I outline above: uncertified teachers, ‘no excuses’ discipline, no democratic voice, etc. Parents from certain communities are NOT given true choice when their option is a grossly underfunded neighborhood school or ‘no excuses’ charter. Why can’t parents have a fully-funded school in their own neighborhood? Why can’t they have democracy? Why can’t their kids have music and art, but only are offered “rigor” and “grit”, never beauty or magic or laughter?
My city of Chicago has no intention of offering REAL choice. Here’s an example: after hearing 50 schools were to be shut down, CPS said that parents could enroll their child in “any school that had space”. So a group of parents and community members from our city’s southside, all African-American and low-income, drove up to enroll their kids in a school on the north side serving middle-income children. According to CPS’ utilization numbers, there was space at these schools, but parents were turned away saying there was no room. (See http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130531/wicker-park/south-side-parents-stage-protest-front-of-wicker-parks-pritzker-school/slideshow/393884/1 )
This is reality of “choice”. It’s not about quality options for all kids, it’s about segregating and continuing low-quality schools on the cheap for certain people’s children. It’s about gentrification, about displacement of low-income communities of color (forcing families to move after there is no affordable housing or neighborhood schools left in a community), it’s about segregation (giving children of color charters instead of integration or equitable resources), it’s about racism, classism, and inequality.
Why can’t every child in our country have access to fully-funded schools? Is that really a radical question?
Yes, that’s a really radical question, Katie. Why can’t every kid have a good school. The immediate answer is because not every kid’s parents can pay for one. Why does that surprise you? Do you have a different assumption about how schools are to be funded?
So let’s fund our public schools based on need, not local property values. What if the Federal level Department of Education were concerned with equalizing opportunity instead of pushing agendas like charters or Common Core? What if we stopped having unnecessary, very expensive wars, and shrunk military spending to increase education? What if districts and states did not throw money away on testing, consultants, data-systems, and canned curriculum? What if the Feds actually funded IDEA at full levels for once? What if we taxed corporations and used that money for schools instead of divvying it out to politically-connected contractors to build basketball stadiums or new condos like with Chicago’s TIF funds? There are so many ways to increase education funding and to make sure that money gets to children, not private entities, consultants, administrators, or anyone else looking for a piece of the pie.
So I read that article. If the aim is to show that Rahm wants segregation, why are the community organizers targeting the school that is racially integrated?
Have you actually visited any high performing charter schools?! Such biased comments. You are part of the problem, spreading lies to parents. Parents want good schools for their kids: charter or public. The lies you are spreading about charters just shows how narrow-minded you are. Disgusting!
The community organizers are targeting integrated schools because those are our high-performing schools in Chicago with the most resources. KOCO wanted to highlight the stark inequalities between schools in the district and I think their action did just that.
To Juliana, I get much of my information on charter schools directly from the 100s of students I have worked with through my job as a teacher on an inpatient psych unit. The truth is that charters are marketing something much different that what actually is happening in the schools. I wish more people would listne to the students. They know the reality of charters.
If you want to even the playing field for schools, it is not the Chicago or New York City schools that require the most resources, it is small rural schools.
Parents-whether low-income, middle-class, or wealthy-want a great education for their children. Parents are choosing what is best for their children, whether it is charter, private, or public. All charter schools are not the same. Some have highly qualified teachers, and some do offer arts, sports, music, etc. Let’s stop assuming that all charter schools are “bad”. I teach in a public magnet school. Some parents are choosing charter schools next year because they were not happy this year. Yes, even low income parents are choosing what they feel will be better for their children.
When you work in a psychiatric hospital and meet dozens of charter students a week telling horror stories of their experiences, it is hard to think otherwise. The only charters I have ever seen that do well are teacher-run, have significant extra revenue resources (money matters!), and exclude the toughest kids-MY kids-in order to keep their heads about water. (See my post here about a visit to one of these schools: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130531/wicker-park/south-side-parents-stage-protest-front-of-wicker-parks-pritzker-school/slideshow/393884/1 ) I honestly think in the current political and fiscal climate here in Chicago, relatively decent schools like the one I describe in my post won’t succeed much longer. (It was no miracle, but did ok.) Soon all that will be left are the charter franchises. And those are using such cruel discipline polices they are sending kids to the psych ward.
I would never begrudge a parent for choosing a charter when their neighborhood school is being sabotaged and starved of resources. The school where I worked was completely overwhelmed. And the sad thing is that is being done on purpose. Starving neighborhood schools and favoring the politically-connected charters is the new normal here in Chicago. This is not choice! It is an agenda, a neoliberal agenda of privatization and profiteering.
The charters are junk. The discipline is ridiculous and the curriculum is narrow and pitiful. I can’t believe that these schools have been backed by politicians and the media. What a joke.
So you are saying that charters exclude your kids (whoever they are), unless they don’t, in which case they show up at your psych ward having been damaged by the charter?
Not sure whether the eligibility for the psych ward came first or not in your view, it seems to be both ways depending on your point.
Juliana, let me clarify. I work with many kids, neighborhood, charter, selective enrollment, suburban, etc. And the kids coming from the charters, nearly without exception, are kids with less disruptive behaviors and stronger academic abilities (stronger before entering the school.) The charter kids I work with are almost all in the hospital for depression/anxiety/cutting, serious problems, but never for the outward aggressive behaviors that disrupt the learning of other students. Those kids with behavior disorders get kicked to the curb within the first few months of attending the charters. I have heard SO many stories of pushout, that I am convinced it is an epidemic. Charters are creaming kids, at the expense of the sickest and the neediest. These kids are then being concentrated in neighborhood schools that cannot possibly meet their needs due to underfunding, destabilization, and sabotage. The choice movement is severely hurting my students with behavior problems and significant learning difficulties. And what is being offered the kids who remain in the charters is oppressive environments that contribute to anxiety and depression.
Oops, I mean kitchensinksalive
Oops, this is the correct link for the charter school visit: http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/miracle-school-ha.html
What are the children saying? I do not know -please tell us
I would like to think that parents, regardless of income level, prefer quality charter public schools and government-assigned traditional public schools.
Better said. Thank you. I respect Katie’s point of view, but there some really good charter schools in operation. Parents are choosing high-quality charter schools instead of poorly functioning public schools. Parents do have the right to choose what they deem best for their children. North Carolina has excellent charter schools, public schools, and private schhols. Yes, the opposite is true as well.
Katie, I respect your opinions about chater schools. I just re-read your post at 10:11. I do understand why you feel the way you do. It is a disgrace that any school would make students terrified of school. That is AWFUL!
*charter not chater
Ms Dee, I’d like to believe it when you say there are good charters, but I’ve heard that claim too many times before only to find it untrue later. What I have found here in Chicago is that much of the hype is spin, lies, manipulation of data, and exclusion. I used to think charters sounded wonderful, until I dug deeper and discovered the sick under-belly: racist discipline policies, cutting corners on costs with technology/class sizes, crazy executive pay, cronyism and nepotism, lack of democracy, student pushout, cultural assimilation, uncertified teachers, union-busting, etc. The people pushing charters are by and large not interested in education, but in financial opportunity.
Besides, don’t parents deserve truth and not targeted marketing strategies? Don’t they deserve transparency of where their public money goes instead of the shady insider deals and high executive pay happening among the rich and powerful charter operators? Don’t they deserve voice, instead of being silenced if they dissent or disagree with the school?
I’m sure there are some decent charters out there. But that is not enough to justify the dismantling of a public good.
Yep, goddamned gubmint schools are the problem, especially since they took god out of em!
Yep! When they took God out of the schools and let them d*** godless socialists in, that was the end of it, because, as everyone knows, gubmint imposes rules fer the sake of rules ‘n control rather than to solve problems. If God was supposed to be in control, at least folks kept their grubby non-effective problem-solving hands off of stuff. People had a little humility. A little more prayer and a little less supervision. Out of the mouth of sarcasm, truth at last.
I encourage everyone to read the work of Dr. Pauline Lipman and her research regarding the neoliberal restructuring of public goods around the accumulation of capital: http://monthlyreview.org/2013/06/01/the-rebirth-of-the-chicago-teachers-union-and-possibilities-for-a-counter-hegemonic-education-movement and http://monthlyreview.org/2011/07/01/neoliberal-education-restructuring and her latest book “The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City (Critical Social Thought)” http://www.amazon.com/Political-Economy-Urban-Education-Neoliberalism/dp/0415802245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371349601&sr=8-1&keywords=Pauline+Lipman She goes much deeper into the charter movement, purposeful destabilization and disinvestment in communities of color, and manufactured crises to promote privatization.
Katie, I have worked in urban charter schools and can completely confirm that your description above is completely on the mark. The saddest part is that this garbage has been promoted to people in low-income areas as if it is a better “choice”. Terrible.
What charter school have you worked at? And more importantly, stop spreading lies about “harsh discipline.” Telling a student to sit up straight, don’t talk back and tuck in their shirt is not harsh discipline, it’s teaching respect. I worked in plenty of district schools where teachers just yell all day because student behavior is out of control. Is that preferable to a structured environment? Nonsense!
Also, thanks for providing the links to the well written articles. It’s hard to believe that the privatization movement was promoted by Chicago Democrats. What a bunch of greedy sell-outs.
All Democrats are Chicago Democrats now.
Sure seems like it HU!
You are completely overestimating the competency and even good intentions of the “typical district school” in poor neighborhoods.
From my experience, having chosen to work as a teacher in not one but two of these schools (and then fleeing for the hills because of the working conditions, not the lack of resources!), I know better.
There are terrible schools in these neighborhoods.
There are people who have no business being in front of children working in these places.
Defenders of the status quo would do well to visit some of these places and sit in classrooms, listen to how teachers and principals talk to children there, how they talk to each other. It is often simply unacceptable, and you can forget the arts when you have adults inflicting trauma on children.
Militaristic charter schools are an important safety valve for parents in these hell holes. Running a truly healthy charter is much harder, but a lot easier than turning around a hell hole. And they are out there.
The “typical” district schools in Chicago, have been historically underfunded, disinvested in, and sabotaged. I too worked at a school that struggled, where there were constant fights, where staff was simply overwhelmed. It wasn’t until after I left the school that I learned that the school sits in a prime area just outside the Hyde Park bubble (only 2 blocks from Obama’s Chicago home) that had been targeted by the city for gentrification. Only a few years back they had leveled the former Robert Taylor homes, and many of the students at my school were part of the population left behind. And now the city wants that low-income population to leave to make way for middle class families.
And so they starve the school. When you kill a school, you kill the neighborhood. After years of extreme disinvestment, large classes, no libraries, cutting of all but most basic classes, broken buildings, many neighborhood schools are literally falling apart. This has been done on purpose in order to justify privatization and displacement. (See an example here of a school they targeted for destabilization: http://www.uic.edu/educ/ceje/articles/Fact%20Sheet%20Dyett.pdf ) There is a running joke in CPS: “Watch out if you’re school gets air conditioning or a new playground, they are going to shut you down and hand the building over to a politically-connected charter or turnaround operator!”
CPS officials have actually admitted they don’t plan to invest in any buildings they might shut down in ten years. And they are getting impatient in their business plans. They keep changing the reasons why they MUST close schools, sometimes its “underperforming”, sometimes it’s “underutilization”. They don’t care, they just want the public system to die. Despite obvious lies about budget shortfalls, the city is set to close 50 neighborhood schools, all in low-income, minority neighborhoods while simultaneously opening 60 new charters. This is not about education, this is about agenda.
We could revitalize those schools. Parents have made it very clear in our city that they want their community schools, but want them to be fully-funded. It would take serious investment, more teachers, support staff, resources to help them. We would need ways to meet those struggling kids’ needs, more specialized services, clinics in schools to meet their physical and mental health needs. In an equitable education system, these schools would automatically get the most resources, but in our warped system, they get the least. THAT’s where I wish you’d focus your anger. Schools don’t fail, they are destroyed. They are abandoned. And they need support.
By the way, those “hellholes” are where my students with disabilities are being concentrated in. Since charters view certain kids, kids with behavior disorders, kids with significant learning problems, kids who are not proficient in English as liabilities, they are being left in neighborhood schools which are completely overwhelmed. Starving schools full of our neediest students is immoral. Choice has only made this phenomenon worse. We need some equity, NOW!
Katie…you make so many valid points with which I fully agree…shutting down mainly inner city schools, motives to gentrify, motives to privatize, etc. You also mention the children in the mental facility where you work are mainly depressed and self destructive, not the students who are disruptive and act out in class.
In California, and I believe in the rest of the country, the youth who act out generally are undiagnosed, and untreated, ADD/ADHD sufferers. Schools here do not test for these learning disabilities at an early age, but wait until the student, usually in middle school, can not longer hide their disability and start acting out. Some of these students even test in the gifted range but have actual brain anomalies that cause their disability.
Then too often they are tossed out of the classroom and are put out of the school on suspension. Again, too often, particularly with teen boys, they wander the streets during the school day until they get in trouble with the law. Then, off to the Juvenile Justice System which now includes long term sentences to private prisons who want to keep their cells filled for profit. That is far worse than those who get some early on treatment at a mental facility.
This creates for these youth a lifetime self fulfilling prophecy of no self worth, limited education, and failure. It all stinks and it is most prevalent in our inner cities!
Katie…I am with you on how the system is failing our kids and our society.
The topic of whether ALL children can have a quality neighborhood public school (with sports, arts, music, world language, and quality academics) is hotly debated in Denver as well. With all respect to the important charter-versus-public school debate, can I take a step back to ask a question?
Why are we willing to absolve public school administrators of their responsibility to provide a quality education, in every neighborhood, for every child? Is it the concept of public schools that are “broken”, or is it the school district administration that is “broken”?
In Denver we have seen talented principals successfully improve neighborhood schools with relatively high levels of free and reduced lunch students (e.g. Lincoln High School, Skinner Middle school to name two recent examples.) The principals in question were very effective at partnering with the community, providing programs in greatest demand/need by the neighborhood students, and also supporting a grassroots marketing campaign to tell the story of the good things happening at the school. These talented principals were amazing at attracting, mentoring and retaining talented teachers, and the schools attracted their fair share of proficient and above students as a result.
I’m sorry to to say that the talented principals at Lincoln and Skinner were happy accidents in Denver, rather than the product of a robust district program to produce talented principals for public schools.
Shouldn’t we demand that a district administration have a robust program to attract, mentor and retain talented principals? If the district fails to put the right leadership in the right school, isnt it the administration that has failed, rather than the concept of public schools?
“would they EVER choose the charter school with inexperienced teachers, harsh discipline, long “rigorous” school days with little access to music/art, prescriptive curriculum, non-unionized/exploited and overworked staff–>high turnover?”
Bleagh! This is so inaccurate I don’t have a more articulate response.
Are there charters out there that fit this description? Sure. There are also traditional public schools and private schools with many of the same issues. There are problems in lots of schools… but I don’t think painting charters with a broad brush like this is helpful.
The key difference, having now taught in 3 traditional public schools, one inquiry based charter school, a KIPP school, and a private school, is the level of parent involvement and commitment. In the charters and at the private school, parents are engaged. They actively chose the school for their kids and they have an investment in it that doesn’t seem to be there when kids are just districted to schools. By definition, charter parents had to do SOMETHING to get their kid in the school– they start by being more connected because this school was their choice.
Again, the point is that I find it highly unlikely that any parent would “choose” a militaristic, prescriptive, “no excuses” KIPP if they were offered fully-funded schools offering the same types of educational opportunities as more affluent schools in their own neighborhoods.
Chicago had to literally starve school for decades, destabilize, dismantle, disenfranchise, allow to fall into disrepair, redline and segregate, purposefully let them crumble until the truly low-quality, education-on-the cheap charters did look better. I get why some parents are going charter given the way neighborhood schools have been sabotaged. And even after that history of inequality, 10s of thousands of parents still came out to fight for their neighborhood schools, the anchor of their communities, from school closures. And despite the city of Chicago doing everything to push parents to charters, charters have to market heavily (to the populations they want), offer incentives like free computers, hold massive propaganda-laced “New Schools Expos”, and use gimmicks to lure parents away. And many parents now are experiencing the disappointment of discovering just how poor the educational experiences are at many of these charter schools, especially parents of exceptional children.
Why can’t low-income communities be given the “choice” of high-quality, fully-funded, progressive education in their neighborhood school? Oh, I forgot, equity doesn’t offer massive investment opportunities, displace low-income communities of color to make space for gentrification, or break the unions.
Diane check out this letter a friend wrote to her school admin, Horizons Science Academy. Expressing concern over their new discriminatory hair policy in the student handbook that prohibits natural African-American hair textures in students.
I guess we don’t deserve an education at their school unless our hair is “fried, dyed, and laid to the side”
No diversity wanted here.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/amber-la-shae-pettaway/new-discriminatory-policy/10151409338931618
Sent from my iPhone
I am an educator in a not-for-profit charter elementary school in an area in SW FL that offers school choice. Parents are the foundation for our children’s success, and have allocated their time and honorable commitment in placing their children in our school system, volunteering to support every aspect of what our school endorses for every family within our community. Our school provides art, music, science labs, two days of physical education each week, and have access to classroom computers that enhance our core knowledge curriculum. Our ESE department is also top notch, integrating the best known researched practices of interventions and teaching strategies to accommodate all of our special needs students from PreK – 5th grade. Our ESOL program is also inclusive, supporting each and every student on an individual basis. Yes, we are underpaid, and Yes, we are highly qualified, and there is little turn-over. Our particular school has a waiting list of 60+ as we are in high demand. We are an A+ school, opened since 2007. Not all Charter Schools fall in line with the statement made in this blog post, or in the following comments. There are educators who have chosen to commit to their communities’ needs in order to support the children and families who are seeking appropriate educational needs no matter SES. And, again, we are very much underpaid.
My heart bleeds for those teachers, families, and their children who are not able to receive what they deserve from their educational systems all around our nation. Hopefully, that will change as it is quite evident that there is a movement supporting the actual developmental needs our children require to reach success in all avenues of life. Personally, I am right there with all of those who are educating themselves in the ways to provide the proof necessary and the funding to support appropriate, free education to every child in the US. Don’t give up! It will happen, only if you believe, and turn the negative comments into a statement of positive return on the BS sent down to us from the legislative command posts located in each state. Be aware of what it happening, and make those calls, and write those letters. It is never too late!