Peter Greene, a master of metaphor and analogy, has written a field guide explaining how to recognize a charter school fan.
For example,
“If every time your car gets too full of fast food wrappers and empty drink cans, you go buy a new car (and kept the old one so you can make payments on both), you might be a charter school fan.
“If ice cream cones cost a dollar and you only have 75 cents, so you decide the solution is to buy three, you might be a charter school fan.
“If you think it’s a shame that some schools have gotten worse since they let Those People in, you might be a charter school fan.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don’t forget the use of language: if you’re accustomed to using vapid talking points and glittering generalities, in a fawning and insipid tone, you are most certainly a charter school fan.
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Are you willing to accept more than a quarter of a million dollars a year “salary” to bury public schools in the shallow grave of privatization – then you are one of the biggest charter school fans, the CEO of a charter “operation”.
Are you willing to turn a blind eye to the many lessened “opportunities” of actual public schools and the majority of kids in your city so you can call charters “poverty-defying opportunity schools” then you’re a charter fan, i.e. willing to BS everyone – maybe even yourself, in the interest of making some money.
Do you not care if your actions today help to erode Public Education in the U.S., and couldn’t care less about what happened and is happening in other countries that already privatized public education, like Chile? Then you’re a glassy-eyed charter fan, rooting for the wrong side but only caring that you don’t spill your beer when you do “The Wave”.
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Do you believe that no charter school can “win” without making sure there is a struggling public school educating at-risk students that “loses”? Then you are a charter school fan! Do you care less about establishing new charter schools than you do about establishing new charter schools that take the MOST money directly from public schools? Then you are a charter school fan! It’s never worth opening a new charter school — even if you have millions of dollars — if it means you aren’t spending public money that could go to public schools. If you agree, you are a charter school fan.
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Just posting a reply on Peter’s blog:
teachingeconomistMay 31, 2015 at 11:58 AM
I would add that if you think that Waldorf, Montessori, progressive, and other more specialized educations can benefit children who live in relatively poor households just as much as the children who live in relatively wealthy households (and thus can afford private school), you might be a charter fan.
If you post like you live far out in left field on Waveland Ave then you must be TE.
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Just funnin ya TE! (if you’re out there)
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“I would add that if you think that Waldorf, Montessori, progressive, and other more specialized educations”
That’s the thing though. Charter schools aren’t “more specialized education”.
The charter schools in Ohio are just privatized versions of ordinary public schools. They don’t offer anything unique at all. We were told they would have all this freedom to “innovate” and it would be wildly inventive – where’s the innovation? Where’s the “Waldorf and Montessori and progressive” schools?
Instead we got for-profit charter chains that don’t do as well as the public schools they replaced.
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If you have no clue about legitimate statistics and actually believe that VAMs are a reliable, valid way to evaluate individual teachers (despite what ASA and others have said) you might be teachingeconomist
If you believe that Raj Chetty showed with his chetty picked data for 28 year olds that a single bad teacher can have a significant impact on lifetime earnings, you might be teachingeconomist.
If you make errors in logic and when called on them try to change the subject instead of admitting your mistakes, you might be teachingeconomist.
If you constantly generalize with comments like “the orthodox position of people on this blog”, then you might be teachingeconomist.
If you say that you will not post on this blog if Diane Ravitch does not want you to and then dishonestly sneak in a comment after she has banned you, you might be teachingeconomist.
Feel free to add your own.
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If you like the idea that school authorities in CO outed a gay student, then took away his valedictory honors and there’s apparently nothing anyone can do about it…you might be a charter school fan. (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/colo-school-yanked-student-coming-graduation-speech-article-1.2240521)
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Here’s a question for the sake of discussion (which will probably yield all kinds of emotional venom) BUT:
While the ghettos were growing due to our norms from Jim Crow to real estate practices, was a culture of “education rats” also growing? Is that the perception among those NOT in education? That somehow those who are in education reside in a self-serving ever-deepening pool that increasing becomes separated from the rest of the economy and ways of conducting business and government in this country?
(I know this is a painful subject for those who have dedicated their lives and their resources to serving in education, but understanding any rationale anti-public education folks might come up with is worth examining in order to offer up strong arguments).
So? Anyone? (Remember: This is for the point of discussion. I’m not calling teachers rats. I am a teacher).
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increasingly, rather
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“While the ghettos were growing due to our norms from Jim Crow to real estate practices, was a culture of “education rats” also growing?”
Please explain what you mean by that statement. I have no clue as to what your are talking about.
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Something like this:
” outsiders view the institution of public education as a “beast” that has taken on a life if its own. Testing is a great example of how it self-serves. Specifically, it simply games the testing as a way to raise funds. Not really surprising that the rich, white neighborhoods are better than the poor hoods at gaming.
Also, education is billed as some kind of guarantee that having a degree = more money. More money, in turn, is billed as the path to happiness AND EQUALITY. Our schools perpetuate the myth (directly or indirectly) that education is the path to happiness. See how it becomes self perpetuating?
Suppose education is not the great equalizer, nor the path to happiness. It is a tool. A great tool. However, it is not the panacea that it presents itself to be. In fact education is not even a guarantee for more money, much less happiness.”
So are those who believe all the things education is supposed to be therefore a sub-culture if they build their life around that notion?
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Duane,
IMHO, the culture of “education rats” (aka “charter rats”) is definitely growing:
The billionaires with the usual names
Did lie and dissemble in the press:
All flimsy were Reformer claims,
And the charter rats did nest.
‘Beware the Jabbertalk, my son!
The laws that bite, the Cores that catch!
Beware the Coleman bird, and shun
The felonious charters, natch!’
From “Jabbertalky” (in “A DAMthology of Deform”)
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I don’t know what an “education rat” is, either. Please explain!
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Oh, wait, I thought that’s what Bill Gates calls unionized public school teachers when he doesn’t think anyone is listening.
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I actually adore rats; they’re my favorite pet. Somehow, though, I don’t think “education rat” is supposed to be a term of endearment.
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