Earlier today, the Rocketship charter chain, known for saving money by putting kids in front of computers and using Teach for America, has withdrawn its proposal to open two charter schools in Morgan Hill, a town of 40,000.
Credit goes to local activists, who organized to support their local public schools.
Meanwhile, Rocketship has targeted Memphis, Milwaukee, and other cities with their special brand of low-budget schooling for poor kids.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great news. Rocketship’s oppressive little cubicle farms are a scene from some dystopic movie brought to depressing life. Let’s hope activists in other cities chase them away, too.
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We REALLY need to take down charters, especially those like Rocket Ship! Remember this?
[image: Inline image 1]
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I’d love to find out what they did and how as my district in Northern California has been besieged by charter proposals and the county approves most of them.
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Contact the Stoprocketship site for ideas from local activists.
http://www.stoprocketship.com/
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Rocketship states that crowding ten times the amount of students is okay because they are looking to be licensed under “daycare” regulations not education. Wow.
So they should not be calling themselves a school and competing with public schools for money.
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I am not understanding what parent would send their kid to such a school. Is the only reason as an escape from a war zone public school that can’t guarantee safety? Or is it just ignorance? Kids in front of canned computer lessons, overcrowding, uncertified teachers–not rocket science for any parent to figure out.
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As a parent, I would find a guarantee of safety for my child a very compelling reason to choose one school over another.
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CONGRATULATIONS, Morgan Hill, CA. activists! The same thing happened in Illinois, when K-12 attempted to move into 18 suburban school districts–pushback from activists (led, in no small part, by John Laesch of Aurora) caused a real clamp-down, tough Q-&-A from those district school boards & administrations, leading to the denial of charter approval from all 18 districts & legislation (which passed) that conferred a one-year moratorium on virtual charter schools in Illinois.
Yes, WE can…and we WILL!
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Great News.
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Rocketship!!! Great idea. Put all their “way out” ideas on their rocketship and blast off. They may already be “spaced out” but this would put their “blasted” ideas out into space with other “nebulous” ideas where they belong.
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ANYONE aware of how common core is going to ruin our public schools? That not all kids learn the same way? As parents, we deserve a choice and I can guarantee the only reason MHUSD doesn’t want charter schools is due to money, not their strong desire to make each child’s school experience unique and personal. My daughter is at K-12 after Sobrato HS totally failed to work with her through an illness and is loving it. It is definitely not the environment for everyone, but shouldn’t we have the choice?
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Julie, if you have a concern about the direction of the Morgan Hill School District, you might want to attend the Tuesday, January 28 Board meeting. The Board is scheduled to give Interim Superintendent Steve Betando a three year, $225,000 annual contract. If you wish to speak before the Board, arrive before 6 pm to pick up a speaker’s card from the Supe’s Admin. See you there, we hope!
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This video may be of interest to you. San Jose neighborhood takes courageous stand against Rocketship chain and WINS! http://youtu.be/V7M_TXwFPwE
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