Jersey Jazzman has done his usual thorough job of researching the New Jersey Department of Education’s job of importing Democracy Prep to Camden.
Here is his conclusion (but read what leads up to his conclusion):
Democracy Prep’s practices includes more spending per pupil, a rigid “no-excuses” culture, high rates of attrition, and segregation by poverty, special need, and English proficiency.
This is your future, Camden – imposed on you by state-officials and outside CMOs. Don’t even think about fighting back.
The only point he overlooked was that Democracy Prep got poor results in the recent Common Core testing in New York, worse than the much maligned public schools.
And never forget, the reformers want you to believe that their decisions are irreversible. They say the train has left the station. No, they are not. No, it has not. Every decision can be changed by new leadership.
So from where will the “new leadership” emerge? Camden, and so many other communities, would look where to find individuals not brainwashed or complicit in the madness? I really wonder. Will that leadership emerge from places where educators and parents have been so traumatized by the privateers that light finally bleeds through the fault lines?
Appreciate your comment about “the train leaving the station.” I even hear that from teachers I work with to fight ed deform policies. They argue fighting charters are impossible to fight for the same reason. I usually respond that if you aren’t fighting charters then you aren’t fighting for public education. I
Even if the train has left the station, it is about to jump the track! When it does we can walk back to the station and rebuild with a better foundation that works for everyone. Eventually the public will have it’s fill of these policies. It is hard, but keep fighting. Charters are a solution to a problem that has nothing to do with education. Charters are all about profit and control of people. Orwell should have invented charters.