The leader of the North Carolina Charter Association, one Lee Teague, referred to the report on charters by the state’s Department of Public Instruction as “garbage,” because it cited the study of three nationally renowned Duke University scholars. The Lt. Governor Dan Forest is trying to withhold the report because it is too “negative.” He was hoping for something positive. The report found that charters are more segregated than public schools and less diverse.
For those who might be unfamiliar with the term “chutzpah,” it is a Yiddish word that means arrogance, or a combination of arrogance and ignorance.
P.S.: By using the term “scholars,” I am not referring to students in charter schools. I am referring to academicians who have a Ph.D. in their field of study.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Totally a “chutzbadid” response to such a critical and important report. But “chutzpah” is more accurately defined as “shameless and audacious … as nervy” … all accurate descriptions of this response … although I guess people who are “chuzpadik” are also “audacious.” I know … picky, picky, picky … but all these descriptors hold true.
Avi Poster
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Oh, yes, many of us are familiar with the Yiddish word “chutzpah.”
And many of us are also familiar with the Yiddish word “schmuck,” which is not exactly a very nice word, but one which I would apply to Lee Teague, Dan Forest, and others.
(Sorry about that.)
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They are all a bunch of corvas . . . . .
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I assume that you are talking about the Yiddish “curveh” (and the Polish “kurwa”), both of which mean the same thing (and both of which can be spelled many ways in English transliteration).
Yes, they’re that, too.
Also, like “schmuck,” not a nice word, but appropriate.
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Yes, I was referring to that not nice expression . . .
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Thought you were, and you’re right, they deserve the epithets.
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Zorba,
They deserve much worse . . .
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All one needs to do is look at the NCDPI enrollment data. It confirms the segregation that is pervasive in NC cheater schools. The NCVPS is equally as segregated with abysmal results.
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The article in full:
[start]
A state report on charter schools is probably wrong about the wealth disparities between charter school students and traditional school students, a charter advocacy group said Thursday.
The report likely overstates the difference, said Lee Teague, spokesman for the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association. It’s hard to say definitively because the charters self-report the percentages of economically disadvantaged students at their schools, Teague said. The problem is that the state Department of Public Instruction can’t say for sure either, he said.
Not all charters offer free or reduced price lunch and don’t know how many low-income students they have, Teague said.
Some estimate or purposefully under-report the numbers, he said.
The report says that nearly 55 percent of students at traditional public schools last year were economically disadvantaged, while 36 percent of students at charter schools were. Seven charters said they had no poor students, according to the report.
Similar numbers have been reported for years, Teague said in an email. “They all suffer from the same ‘garbage in, garbage out’ problem,” he wrote.
Adam Levinson, interim director of the state charter school office, said it has started using a different system to improve data collection.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest convinced the State Board of Education on Wednesday to delay a vote sending the report to the legislature, saying it was too negative.
[end]
Just note part of the “defense” offered by Teague: charters don’t know how to accurately record and collect data, plus some estimate or “purposefully under-report” the numbers.
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So when he says GIGO [“garbage in, garbage out”] he is slamming what he is trying to defend, i.e., charters aka 3DM [Data-DrivenDecisionMaking] Centres of Educational Excellence. And, by implication, bad-mouthing the pro-charter state agency that should be [one can only hope!] acting in a professional, ethical and responsible manner.
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And using modifiers like “probably” and “likely” isn’t exactly a firm defense of charter procedures. What happened to all those charter best business practices and doing more with less and efficiency and the like?
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But the one takeaway from the report that makes tungsten carbide look like mad dogs and Englishmen in the midday sun: “Lt. Gov. Dan Forest…saying it was too negative.”
😎
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Charter schools do NOT discriminate against poor children.
They discriminate against children whose parents aren’t willing to do everything that is asked of them in order for their children to get a good education. They discriminate against any student — rich or poor — who is not able to be taught by inexperienced teachers and do fine. It just so happens that charter schools find the children who are “acceptable” to teach far more frequently in middle class and affluent communities than they find them in poor communities. And of course, affluent parents will hire tutors if their kids are struggling and if they do, the charter will be happy to keep their child. Poor students are out of luck if they don’t make the grade.
Very large cities have more students overall and it is possible to find many low-income kids who meet their strict criteria (children who are easy to teach and parents willing to commit to all that is asked of them). But even in large cities, notice how fast that charter schools eager to expand could not wait to get special permission to drop lottery priority for low-income kids! I guess they just could not find enough of the “acceptable” low income kids to fill their schools and you can’t expect them to fill their empty seats with the unacceptable ones, can you? Not a chance.
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NYC public school parent: while I would quibble with a few words, I think overall you make a very good point.
As I see it, another way of pointing out that in Rheephormish “choice” means, in general, that a few adults get to pick the “right kind” of students in order to enhance their chances of eagerly dipping their hands in that pot of $tudent $ucce$$ at the end of the charter rainbow.
But, to be honest, I know that some will disagree with my above observation and assert, a la Lt. Gov. Dan Forest of N. Carolina that “it was too negative” [see my above comment in this thread].
The key to miracles is Happy Thoughts! Rheeally!
But here on Planet Reality, not really.
😎
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KrazyTA I agree.
Choice means that the student has the “choice” to be the kind of learner that the charter school operators find acceptable to teach in their school! If the student makes that “choice” not to be that kind of learner, it is, of course, all because it is the student’s fault. It is ALWAYS the fault of the student when you talk about charter schools.
People who defend charter schools — there are a few who post here — truly believe that a 5 year old “chooses” to be a “bad student” when he could just “choose” to be the type of excelling, well-behaved student that the charter school demands! See, when all those (mostly low-income) “not up to snuff” children are made to feel misery in the charter school, it is always because those 5 year olds CHOOSE to be the type of children who want to be punished.
Charter schools are like abusers. They excel at making the children they drum out feel as if it is all their fault, due to the “choices” they make.
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They’ll make sure they have the votes and funding to open more charter schools before “looking at the data”. Okey-doke. So much for “data driven”.
Ultimately, though, the fault lands on state legislators, does it not? No matter what the charter lobby chooses to show them, they’re adults with agency and they could do their own work instead of sitting around waiting for someone to deliver a favorable study.
No one is holding a gun to their head demanding they read only “approved” studies. They have a duty to do their own work.
We have REALLY low expectations for lawmakers. We always start with this assumption that they are these passive recipients of charter lobbying, helpless to resist. It’s nonsense. THEY are responsible for the decisions they make and of they’re captured by lobbyists that’s their fault.
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“putzpah” might be more apt
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