Donald Cohen, who runs an anti-privatization website (“In the Public Interest”), writes here about the damaging effects that charters in Detroit have had on public schools.
According to the corporate reform ideology, competition is supposed to be good for everyone. Wrong.
Emergency managers er shave created a large charter sector to compete with the public schools. But both sectors are struggling.
“This sort of competition — a zero-sum game — only helps some students and the management organizations and investors that profit from charter schools. Because charter growth has gone unchecked, DPS is struggling–and for no good reason. Charter schools have not performed better. In 2011, they were graduating 50 percent of their students while traditional public schools were graduating 75 percent. Despite this, Governor Rick Snyder and the state legislature passed a bill that lifted an important limit on the number of charter schools allowed in the state.
“Detroit’s schools need to be fixed now. But too much of DPS’s revenue is going to paying high interest rates instead of fixing buildings and paying teachers what they deserve. If charter growth continues unchecked and traditional schools lose more students, it will be even harder for DPS to pay down its debt and afford fixed costs, like buildings, maintenance, and administration.
“Wall Street agrees. The credit rating agency Moody’s recently downgraded DPS’s credit rating citing “a growing charter school presence.” Their outlook was bleak: “Absent enrollment and revenue growth, fixed costs will comprise a growing share of the district’s annual financial resources and potentially stress the sufficiency of year-round cash flow.”
“While Detroit’s charter schools continue to increase in number, there are some students they’ve avoided. Students with special education needs make up 17 percent of DPS enrollment; but for charter schools, that percentage is 9 percent. This difference further destabilizes DPS, as these students usually have higher costs associated with their education.”
Detroit is not unique in how unchecked charter proliferation can hurt the majority of students in public schools. When large numbers of students are deducted from the enrollments of public schools, there is a significant impact on the diminished operating budget of public schools. This is even more significant if charters cream the top performers, and leave the expensive classified and ELL students in underfunded public schools. We have seen a school district in Chester County, Pennsylvania on the verge of bankruptcy due to charter proliferation. In free market theory, the public school should rise up due to the influence of “competition.” How is this supposed to happen when the school district is depleted of funding and staff due to the onerous economic impact of charters? The reality is that the poorest, neediest students remain in impoverished public schools that now offer large classes and fewer services.
I would like President Obama to explain how this represents the promise of American democracy at work. America should be about trying to offer everyone the chance to succeed. While public schools are not always equitable, they are founded on the belief that opportunity is for everyone, not just a select few. We should be looking for ways to improve on making public schools more fairly funded and better integrated as these beliefs represent a core values of democratic principles. No other nation is as irresponsible as America is today. Public education built our nation; yet we are trying to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Why are we wasting resources to create a gravy train for corporations and billionaires, when our responsibility is to do our best for all of our young people?
Ellen Degenerous organized a “send the school a book” campaign for a Detroit School. The school named the library for her. Next contribution to a charter school, $500,000 for roof repairs and about $50, 000 for computer gear. So, that is how Detroit “public” in name onlygets fixed up.
Ellen is Santa Claus, but sets a terrible example on how to fund schools.
Videos are at her website.
Competition is the way businesses build success. I despise the tv shows these days where someone has to lose. Wonderful young cooks prepare marvelous dishes but only one can win. One person is better, and the rest are losers. One school is better and the other is not?
In a competition there are losers. The idea is not to beat anyone, but to rise to the benchmarks. Everyone who meets the criteria is a winner… there are NO losers!
Learning comes from practice and effort, and all who put in genuine work are winners. That is effort-based education here is Resnicks Principles of Learning for Effort-based Education – http://ramsey.spps.org/uploads/polv3_3.pdf