Edward F. Berger describes his experience as part of a team of parents and educators who created one of the first charter school in Arizona. At that time, in the mid-1990s, charters were held to high standards of accountability.

 

But then the charter movement changed. Instead of working to strengthen public education, it began to see itself as a competitor and received funding from enemies of public education.

 

Charter schools, he writes, like district schools, are designed to fail. However, unlike district schools, they have become a vehicle for privatization and undermining teacher professionalism.

 

He writes:

 

The Koch-ALEC machine saw ‘school choice’ and ‘charter schools’ as a vehicle to carry out their mission. Within a short time they were able to control legislatures, by-pass or infiltrate the state school boards, and set up appointed (not elected) boards/organizations to “supervise” charter schools. These new boards stripped away accountability.They opened the gates to a chaos of partial schools with little accountability to children and taxpayers.

In most states, the politicians in charge followed the direction of corporations controlled by The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the parent of this organization, the Koch-funded continuation of the John Birch Society and its tenets. (Google ALEC, and verify this information). These powerful, well-funded politicians have several guiding tenets:
1) To destroy public education (not just district schools).
2) To destroy all forms of worker representation (associations, unions);
3) To “privatize” public tax dollars for their own use and profit
4) To end Representative Democracy in America.

 

This is a post you should read.