Nebraska is a remarkable state. It is one of the few states in the nation that has not authorized charter schools. All of its publicly funded schools are public schools. Yet now there is a renewed push by far-right extremists to introduce charter legislation. This is a terrible idea.
Charters are based on false promises. They do not “perform” better than public schools.
Charters divide communities and erode public support for public education.
Nevada doesn’t need charters. It is one of the top-performing states in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. On the latest NAEP, Nebraska came in 9th in the nation in fourth grade math, 12th in the nation in eighth grade math, and 11th in the nation in reading in both 4th and 8th grades. Nebraska had higher scores on NAEP than all but one of the 18 states that won Race to the Top funding (Massachusetts).
The low-performing schools in Nebraska are the schools with the poorest children. Please, Nebraskans, direct your reforms at root causes and do not destroy your state’s effective public schools.
Don’t be lemmings. Stay independent from the crowd that is rushing to privatize and destroy your treasured public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Nevada doesn’t need charters. ”
Whoops!
True none the less, they are a disaster here.
Katie Linehan’s biography is interesting. A teaching “fellow” with less than a few years experience? I’m curious what that means. She seems to fall in line with all the other come-and-go educational grifters in the reform movement. Hopefully Nebraskans will ignore this girl or help her find a job that is worthwhile.
Preston Harris appears to have no classroom experience either. The only educational studies major I could find was at Concordia U in Montreal, Canada.
Thank you so much for posting this! I really want us to be able to get the word out to the lawmakers in Nebraska why this would be a horrible decision! Sincerely, Dawn Mathis
Dawn Mathis Learner, Achiever, Woo, Restorative, Includer ELL Resource Teacher Bellevue Public Schools Bellevue, Nebraska
I sure would be researching the people behind this push. Linehan’s remark that shifting funds from public to charter schools would have no effect on taxpayers is an out and out lie. Either the community rallies around an d raises money to fill the budget gap or services are cut in the public schools. Since charters like to feed off of the most vulnerable, you can bet the drop in funding will affect public schools adversely.
Dawn,
Email me at evandistrict7@gmail.com
I’d love to chat about public education in Nebraska.
“2old2teach
January 6, 2016 at 1:11 pm
I sure would be researching the people behind this push. Linehan’s remark that shifting funds from public to charter schools would have no effect on taxpayers is an out and out lie.”
Central to selling ed reform is telling people there are no trade-offs involved.
No cost. All benefit. It’s nonsense of course, but it’s easier to sell “educational excellence” that involves absolutely no sacrifice instead of telling people they might have to pay for “choice” by possibly losing something.
“Plus/and!” as if each “sector” of schools has no effect on the whole. It’s a fantasy and they know it, because schools are systems and it doesn’t matter how many times they deny schools are systems.
Thanks for bringing attention to this new initiative to a broader audience. You did a great service to educators and education advocates in Nebraska when you were here last year. A couple of clips (with more promised to be posted soon) of your interview with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications can be found here –
http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/learning-services/conversation-dr-diane-ravitch