President Obama proclaimed National Charter School Week, in keeping with his loyalty to them.
Paul Thomas asks: What is there to celebrate about charter schools?
He writes:
In his proclamation for National Charter Schools Week, President Obama asks us to accept a truth as yet unproven. He writes: “Today, our nation’s very best charter schools are gateways to higher education and endless possibilities, lifting up students of all backgrounds and empowering them to achieve a brighter future.”
Obama is not the only one building the hype. Political praise for charter schools emanates from both sides of the aisle; nearly every conservative call for education reform extols charter schools, with said accolades usually accompanying calls for the holy grail of free-market thinking in the educational realm: more parental “choice.”
But no amount of proclaiming and rallying can upend the evidence, which is not good for the charter school camp. Considering that under Obama, the basic framework of education reform has hewn closely to the deeply flawed template created by George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act (and, arguably, raised the stakes even higher), perhaps we should use this week less for celebration and more to seriously consider the evidence. What, exactly, are we meant to celebrate about charter schools? What have they achieved?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So what does this say about President Obama? Hint: puppet for the ……….
LikeLike
Celebrate this! Only in America or shall I be specific and say only in Floriduh. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/todays-buzz/sfl-florida-school-principal-pot-20150508-story.html
LikeLike
Florida also had two charter schools close today. Acclaim Academy in Duval and Orange county. Teachers haven’t been paid since mid-April.
http://www.wesh.com/news/wesh-2-investigates-acclaim-academy-charter-schools-closure/32874362
LikeLike
“Today, our nation’s very best charter schools are gateways to higher education and endless possibilities, lifting up students of all backgrounds and empowering them to achieve a brighter future.”
Only the very best charters? I think that can be said of *every* public school, even the so-called “failing” ones. I don’t think there’s any school in the nation that doesn’t send at least some kids on to higher education, endless possibilities and brighter futures.
LikeLike
That’s what drives me crazy.
Surely there’s someone in DC who can find a good public school that isn’t a “wealthy suburban school” , and since when are all schools either “wealthy suburban” or “failing”? It’s a big country. We have lots and lots of public schools.
Why not “celebrate” all schools? They can hardly call themselves “agnostics” if they exclusively promote one sector, and they do.
I read an ed reformer who predicted that the Obama Administration would be the leaders of a “golden age” for charter schools.
They call themselves “ed reformers” not “charter school promoters”. Seems like the “golden age” for charter schools hasn’t gone so hot for public schools. They might want to look into that.
LikeLike
“Surely there’s someone in DC who can find a good public school that isn’t a “wealthy suburban school”. . . ”
They could come out to my rural poor district (we spend around $8,000/student/year) to see pretty decent schools that graduate quite a number of highly motivated, intelligent (although our standardized test scores wouldn’t show it) young men and women.
But we could be doing a hell of a lot better if we didn’t have to waste so much learning time, effort and monies in chasing those almighty test scores and put those resources into lowering class sizes and get back to more humane teaching and learning processes.
But then I don’t think that those politicians* really give a damn about what goes on in the many, many small rural districts that cover the majority of this country.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgOxOwPtszY
LikeLike
And yet, the more we know of charters, the more we see corruption, racism, elitism, lower test scores, and a high rate of expulsions of students demonstrating even minor behavioral problems. They do not take special needs children or ELL students (except fr a very small token few), and they divert much needed money from public schools in the name of corporate profit. Why are we even having this debate? Charters should be banned!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I forgot to mention that we see underpaid teachers who do not have the benefit of a Union, teachers who can be fired simply for teaching something that the corporate finds objectionable, and teachers who are generally unhappy with their service in a Charter. Such is Obama’s dream.
LikeLike
90% of charters are non-union. Charter teachers work very long hours and have no rights.
LikeLike
Almost all teachers work very hard and very long hours. School site administrators are basically on call 24/7. One math teacher and one English teacher I knew put in the hours on site, although the night custodians felt it was unsafe. Others put time in at home.
Many are constantly in night school upgrading credentials and skill base. One colleague’s wife left him because he was so tired after teaching all day that he refused to accompany her to the networking parties held by her employers. Teaching is a physical job as much as it is cerebral. What were these finance people doing during the day that they were not collapsing by 3:00 p. m.?
Listening to the charter school teachers’ revelations about work demands sounded no different than my own in a public school. And most teachers do not need to be made to do this. We do it because teaching is more a calling than a job.
LikeLike
Charter School teachers also do not have to be certified. Indeed, I know of several such teachers who do not even possess a Bachelor’s Degree.
LikeLike
Obama is rehearsing and refining the education line Hillary will pursue to win and then administrate schooling in the Presidency–continue supporting annual testing, subsidies and exemptions from oversight for private charters financed by looting the public school budgets and seizing public school properties, disguise this shameful private war on the public sector with lofty rhetoric, hide behind cosmetic changes to NCLB/RTTT in the ESEA reauthorization endorsed by Hillary’s promoters at the Center For American Progress and the two teacher union Presidents, Weingarten and Eskelsen, whose most important task in these coming months is quieting opposition and disciplining teachers into the Hillary camp no matter what she says about the terrible assault on our schools, teachers, families, and kids.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ira shore,
I remain undisciplined.
LikeLike
As do I.
LikeLike
Good news, thanks! You and the next defiantly “undisciplined” teacher are the worst nightmares for Randi, Lily, Mulgrew, Duncan and Cuomo. What we need now is for tens of thousands of undisciplined teachers to launch their own opt-out movement nationwide to join the hundreds of thousands of parents who have already unhinged the govt./billionaire/Pearson alliance for plunder. The teacher union leaders will not organize their massive memberships to oppose, refuse, and transform the official sabotage of public education, so parents and teachers will have to do it on our own, from the bottom up.
LikeLike
I agree with the sentiments here with one reservation. I want to give Lily Garcia a chance. I have hope for her doing the right by teachers and public education. Her campaign against high stakes testing is certainly on target.
LikeLike
Democrats will be irrelevant on public schools if they keep losing state races. They’re down to something like 20 states and they’ve lost most of the upper midwest- OH, IN, MI, WI.
They deserve irrelevancy. They don’t have a single idea for public schools that they didn’t take right out of the Jeb Bush primer.
Their single position seems to be “we oppose vouchers” and they’re even folding on that. They got nothing. They take conservative positions on public schools and tweak them slightly. That’s not an “idea”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chiara: IMHO, you are simply stating sober verifiable fact.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I did in the 60’s and 70’s I’ll be voting for third party types if Bernie doesn’t win the nomination.
LikeLike
Has anyone else noticed the irony of Obama’s declaration of National Charter School Week during Teacher Appreciation Week? What a slap in our collective faces! No industry has been so damaging to teachers as the Corporate Charter School scam!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Irony??
NO! It’s not irony, it’s outright hostility tinged with a heavy dose of “piss on public school teachers”.
LikeLike
Duane,
Please read my full post . . . I believe that I said the same thing. 😉
LikeLike
I know, I just wanted to put a little more “piss and vinegar” into the words.
I have a tendency to be a bit more uncouth and “uncivil” than most who post here. Civil discourse only allows the edubullies to continue even more abuse on society and I call them out for what I see them and their actions to be.
LikeLike
To say that people are “full of piss and vinegar” is to say that they are brimming with energy. Although many speakers assume the phrase must have a negative connotation, this expression is more often used as a compliment, “vinegar” being an old slang term for enthusiastic energy.
Some try to make this expression more polite by substituting “pith” for “piss,” but this change robs it of the imagery of acrid, energetically boiling fluids and conjures up instead a sodden, vinegar-soaked mass of pith. Many people who use the “polite” version are unaware of the original.
From: http://www.public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/pith.html
LikeLike
I also love how they’re carefully “agnostic” on public schools yet they relentlessly promote charter schools.
Charter schools get passionate advocates in government. We get the useless, potted plant “agnostics” who are afraid to offend any of their friends and associates.
LikeLike
He is just making it clear that he does not appreciate us. I know, not that there was any doubt, but they don’t even pretend to appreciate us any more. They know we won’t vote for their opponent, and they think they don’t need our votes.
LikeLike
We should vote for the opponent on occasion. There are nearly 5 million teachers which could swing a national election. That would let leaders know that teachers can affect political careers and should not be taken for granted. I advocated voting against Obama last time fully realizing that Romney was just as bad, or worse. But it certainly would’ve taken care of Obama whose assault on teachers has exceeded anything Republicans did.
LikeLike
I advocated voting against Dannel Malloy here in Connecticut for his anti-teacher and anti-public schools policies. But, most teachers became sheep, voting just as Union leadership told them to do. With their help, Malloy was reelected and his assault on teachers has continued unabated. This sickened me.
LikeLike
I know, huh?
Republicans will tell you that they are coming after you, and then they do just that. Democrats will tell you that they are on your side, and then they come after you. I’m not sure which is worse.
Bernie is looking pretty darn good right about now.
LikeLike
I’d rather fight the enemy I know anytime over those who profess friendship but stab you in the back.
LikeLike
Let’s have a celebratory week for all the schools that have successfully taught poor students in urban areas in spite of the boulders dropped on them by Arne Duncan and his profiting puppet masters.
I have never heard a description of the reformers’ long-term plans for USA education. What does Obama claim it will look like and accomplish in the long run? Clearly, his “reform” is focused on profit, segregation and disenfranchisement but I don’t see him admitting that.
The clip John Oliver showed of Obama’s “heart felt” campaign speech to the NEA in which he damned bubble tests makes me gag. He has done tremendous harm to public education in spite of being fully aware, before his election, that Linda Darling-Hammond’s path was the one we should have taken.
LikeLike
But why did labor unions endorse him again, after it was clear his administration is anti-public schools? The entire Duncan crew is stacked with “ed reform movement” members.
Working people probably won’t believe labor unions will be great advocates for them if labor union leaders can’t even stick up for themselves.
LikeLike
We need to seek middle ground Diane. I have to say charter schools are wonderful alternatives to children who need more personalized attention but can not receive it at the public schools. There are also cases where children who are being bullied at their local public need a safe alternative. As I’ve stated before I spent at least a hundred volunteer hours at my son’s previous public school and I witness lots of subtle bullying. Alternatives are saving graces for many children. Let’s keep the charters but regulate the numbers and require their financials to be accessible to the public. As for unionizing the charters I’m wary of this because it is obvious to many that the unions have protected poor performing teachers. I have become skeptical of unions for this reason. I would not want to get rid of the teachers union but I certainly would like them to address some very serious issues about accountability. LA county is notorious for protecting some very twisted teachers. I know you are aware of recent news stories. I think Diane it is a trend for everyone to claim charters are the answer. In time the pendulum will swing back and the focus will be on improving our schools. In the meantime sadly our public schools suffer. I agree it is sad. I am the product of a public school and I am still in contact with dozens of my diverse public school friends today. I adored the diversity of the social climate then and now. I am a better business person because I was able to grow up with such a healthy diversity of people. The Common Core is killing them and it breaks my heart.
LikeLike
Roxanne,
Actually, the Unions do not protect bad teachers. On the contrary, we also want to rid the profession of its deadwood. However, we also have to protect our precious rights to due process in the face of political pressures to fire good teachers who address controversial subjects, good teachers who have run afoul of vindictive administrators, or good teachers who have angered a parent.
Unions cannot protect a bad teacher who has been given chances to improve and haven’t. We cannot protect bad teachers when the administration has documentary evidence of unsuccessful attempts to improve that teacher’s performance. I have sat in as the Union representative for teachers who were being fired by an administrator with his/her “ducks in a row”, unable to interfere with the process because the teacher’s due process rights had been followed.
It is a real myth that Unions protect bad teachers.
LikeLike
I help out part time in a friend’s charter school. It actually comes close to Shanker’s idea. It is authorized by a small impoverished urban district. It is in a minority neighborhood. As it is under 300 students, she can, with great effort, manage negative interaction. She provides as much instructional support as possible. Because she is a charter, she can require Saturday school for failing students.
She has to pay district wages, she follows district policy, and she treats her teachers per district contract. She even has above the recommended percentage of special education students, including learning disabilities and emotionally disturbed. We have placed two students in special schools for which she must pay. Other charters had simply counciled them out.
So what might happen when her scores don’t rise to the levels demanded. The parents send their kids to her charter because of the behavior issues at public schools which no one wants to touch because of law suits.
I have always felt, although I know the historical reason, that education being a right rather than a piviledge has totally intimidated politicians and by extension the courts and made it extremely difficult to provide safe neighborhood schools in some neighborhoods. This seems to me the crux of the entire issue of public vs charter schools.
LikeLike
Unions protect teacher rights, not teachers.
Administration is responsible for conducting a level of supervision and record keeping that will stand up in court. Human nature being what it is makes legal contracts necessary. As a child two of my best teachers were fired for supporting the loser in an election for school superintendent. I can only imagine what happens in some charters that are not unionized.
Unfortunately, school sites are so underfunded the administrators are at best cursory in evaluating teachers. As a mentor teacher I received a one day workshop on how to evaluate teachers and work with them for improvement. Coupled with an article I read on the same subject and having some idea of how courts work, my own evaluation of all but two aassistant principals with whom I worked, was that many administrators were flat out incompetent in the area of teacher evaluation.
And then there are calls by courts that stupidly. There are calls by district officials that are a mess as well. The board’s doctor returned an obviously schizophrenic aide to one school I worked in.
One principal stated it was better to deal with a poor teacher he knew than to be sent another poor teacher he had to get to know. Another sort of mildly harassed a teacher into changing schools. Principals were known for exchanging problems, opportunity transfers for teachers. Sometimes this actually worked.
Interestingly, I’ve also seen this in the business world. Nepotism often rules. Cronyism keeps people employed. Businesses that could be great are average though profitable.
And those twisted teachers? That is an admin problem, not a teacher problem. We can’t walk around during the day. We barely get a bathroom break. As soon as it really came to light it was dealt with in what to some teachers was an overreaction branding all teachers at the school. To me it was an attempt to control mass hysteria among a population of highly superstious adults. Many in the neighborhood believe in witches, magic, spells, and other medieval ideas.
Nothing is as simple as it looks on the surface.
LikeLike
On the Democracy Now program I mentioned in the other blogs it was stated that Obama is pushing some huge amount of money for charters in the budget. The exact amount I do not remember, only that it was huge.
What a disappointment in so many areas has Obama been. Such opportunities squandered and wasted. He has listened to so many wrong people.
LikeLike
Here’s the link to Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/8/as_obama_admin_seeks_more_funding
LikeLike
Not all charter schools are created equal. I recognize that there are many issues around the country with charters, but let’s all admit that there are some really bad tradition schools out there too. The question that was asked in this blog post was Why Celebrate Charter Schools? I am sharing just some of the reasons I celebrate the charter school I work at:
“This school has literally changed my life. I’m a successful, smart, innovative person now. I’m going to school to be a lawyer. This school gave me so many opportunities. I was able to leave the country on an expedition to China in March 2014 where I graduated early and received my diploma on The Great Wall! The teachers here are amazing”
“This school gave me a once in a life chance and change that I thought I’d never have. It’s the best school I ever went too. I felt like a family and like I fit in and became friends with everyone even the shy ones who no one would ever talk too. I loved going on the expeditions.”
“I wouldn’t have ever graduated if it wasn’t for this place. And that’s all because of Chuck. He helped me so much and I’ll never be able to thank him enough.”
“I love this school. They don’t tolerate bullying and make it feel like a safe environment. They let you call the teachers by their first names and you get to go on some really cool once in a life time expeditions and they’re paid for. I graduated from here in 2013 and wouldn’t change a thing. I made a lot of friends who are still my friends today and still make contacts with this wonderful staff. They’re a life changing experience and open your eyes to what an alternative school really is.”
“Very impressed with the level of kindness the staff has for the kids, wonderful individual attention, and very helpful to the parents!”
Before anyone jumps on the “skimming the cream of the crop” argument – these are not those kids. My students are what Kirsten Olson would describe as Wounded by School. So before we make a blanket statement that there is nothing to celebrate in charter schools maybe it would be worthwhile to ask the students and parents who have struggled to fit in and find a place to be successful why they celebrate their charter school.
LikeLike
Hooray for your boutique “educational experience”. While your kids are basking in the luxury of a specialized environment thanks to their advocates who got them in to your world, and the people who go out of their way to give brochure quality “experiences” to the-few-remaining-at-graduation students, mostly so people like you can write glowingly about your successful business model, take a moment to find it in your heart to feel a bit of empathy for the schools and the students who now get by with MUCH less so they can bankroll your what, paycheck? investment? ego-trip?
I saw a charter who “requested” (complete with home phone calls from the CEO) families to write letters of recommendation, just like the one you’ve posted here, every time the charter’s renewal was due. If the families letter was not forthcoming (because no one dared consider writing anything negative) it was noticed, and there was bullying, from the management who didn’t like anything that threatened their bottom line.
This is why I cannot celebrate the commodification of public schools, nor do a victory dance to celebrate their demise.
LikeLike
Paz,
No disrespect, but you’re off base with your portrayal my “boutique” school. Nothing could be further from reality. We serve some of the most “at-risk” students in the area, including double the special education numbers of the district schools. We don’t turn anyone away and the brochure quality experiences you talk about are provided for all students at no cost to parents and at no additional cost to the tax payers. We have no foundation or private donor backing, we simply believe that all students regardless of background or family situation should be able to have learning experiences outside of their zip code. As far as the recommendations go, they all come off of our Facebook page and are unsolicited. There are also some less positive reviews – we don’t hide those, we use them to improve our school.
LikeLike
I’m curious to know precisely what you mean when you say, ” . . . double the special education numbers of district schools . . .”. Such statements are a famous ploy by no less an arch-reformer as Stephen Perry, who is frequently quoted as saying that his corporate schools serve precisely the same population as the district schools, when in truth, his school in Hartford, CT, only served 2% special education students and another 3% ELL. My own Hartford district school, in contrast, serves 33% ELL and 31% special education. We additionally receive over $10,000 less per student per year that the district funds the Magnet and Charter Schools within the same district. It is a reprehensible system that has been ravaged by the corporate education reform movement.
So, please provide the numbers and sources showing that your own school isn’t more privileged than district schools.
LikeLike
Of course there are perfectly good charter schools, just as there are perfectly good public schools. There are perfectly good banks, too. But that is NOT the issue. The issue is that such celebrations of charters are part of a campaign to substitute privatized for public education, “free market” ideology for community institutions, profit-making for democracy. When will Obama propose a week or two celebrating TEACHERS and the hard work we do? Without, it should be said, $475,000 salaries.
LikeLike
I agree but I’m not too sure about the pretty good banks out tthere as I have yet to deal with one.
LikeLike
Work with a small bank. The one I do business with, Jonesburg State Bank, has two locations, one in Jonesburg and the other here in Warrenton have been wonderful to work with. The folks at the branch know who you are, almost always have a smile, will stop and chit chat about what’s going on in our small town, etc. . . . I’ll never go back to a bigger bank, if anything I’d also advise looking at credit unions.
LikeLike
You are correct Duane I switched to a Credit Union and the difference has been night and day. The problem is the big banks are acquiring small banks and taking over the scene. I have never seen so many Wells Fargo ‘ s and BB&T’s in my life. As little as three years ago there weren’t any in South Florida now we are completely saturated with them.
LikeLike
This article recently found from 2013:
http://www.alternet.org/education/who-profiting-charters-big-bucks-behind-charter-school-secrecy-financial-scandal-and
And current tales from the dark side:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-schools-baltimore-needs/2015/05/07/afefefca-f42f-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-magnolia-charter-20150507-story.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-college-prep-20150506-story.html
LikeLike
Maybe President Obama and Secretary of Education (reform) Duncan should proclaim Screw the Public Schools and Public Schools Teachers week. Oh, wait, what? We have that EVERY DAY, forget weekly. We have it DAILY.
LikeLike
I think you meant Obama/Duncan should say screw the public schools/teachers even more for teacher “appreciation week”.
LikeLike