Lisa Haver, retired teacher in Philadelphia, points out that that families in Philadelphia have experienced closures of their local public schools, leaving them no choice but charter schools.
“Two years ago, Superintendent William Hite allowed parents at two North Philadelphia schools to vote on whether to allow a charter company of the district’s choosing to take control of the schools. Parents at both schools voted overwhelmingly to remain public. Thus, in 2015, parents and students at three more district schools were given no vote, but simply informed that their schools were to be placed in the Renaissance program. The choice had been made for them.”
The goal of “choice” is to give parents no choice at all.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All students should have the right to attend a free public school. If this choice is not an option, it seems to me that students’ rights are being violated. If parents truly want a choice that offers comprehensive education, free, democratic public schools are the best choice as Peter Greene points out in a recent post. Not every child is a good candidate for a “no excuses” type school. Public schools often accommodate students to provide the match for students’ needs. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/10/when-charter-closes-and-choice-is-not.html
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“. . . it seems to me that students’ rights are being violated.”
Exactly, rt!!
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“The goal of “choice” is to give parents no choice at all.”
And “The goal of “choice” is to line the charter operators and hedge funders pockets with taxpayer monies.”
Theft is what it is.
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Student’s civil rights are being violated in Philadelphia…
when:
The Public Schools no longer teach Social Studies and Science as subjects with their own curriculum, in the elementary grade classrooms But, instead, in an attempt to avoid being closed or turned around, schools devote all instructional time to teaching the tested subjects of math and reading. This is Campbell’s Law in motion
when:
Surrounding districts pay, on average, $18,000.00 annually per student to support their instruction and enrichment, while the Philadelphia School District pays $9,000.00 per student. And yet both school districts are evaluated by, and held accountable to, the exact same state test, despite the fact that Philadelphia has one the highest poverty rates for children in the country. With this reality comes real challenges that won’t be addressed without comprehensive support. When we standardize the tests, but not the funding and resources, the civil rights of Philadelphia students are being violated.
when:
In order to accommodate the state tests, which are given at the end of march. the pacing, scope, and sequence of the math and reading content are squeezed into a 7 month teaching cycle, instead of the full 10 month instructional year. The quality of the learning experience is changed from one where the pace of teaching can match a student’s rate of learning, to a kind of pressure cooker where content is force fed to student’s at an inappropriate pace. It’s unrealistic, unreasonable, and educationally negligent to pretend that the needs of every student can be met under these conditions.
when:
one third (870 million dollars) of the districts budget goes to charters, who don’t compensate fiscally by removing one third of the districts costs to operate. So, contrary to the puffed up, self serving claims made by Superintendent Hite, last June, there is no budget surplus in the Philadelphia School District. Their is instead (after almost two decades of state control) an egregious lack of funding and resources that directly and severely diminishes the learning experience of thousands of children. Rather than celebrating some fake accomplishment (budget surplus), the Superintendent should be advocating for the parents, students, and teachers he is paid to serve, by increasing awareness of this crisis, not obscuring it.
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Well stated, Jonathan! What has happened in the Philadelphia schools is a tragedy. I graduated from a Philadelphia high school fifty years ago, and that education has served me well.
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The selective magnet schools in Philadelphia are still excellent. Despite being underfunded and having an un-mowed look about them, they provide the kind of benefits unique to large, diverse comprehensive public high schools.
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Newark, NJ. Cami Anderson (certainly not the brains behind it) “apped” Newark schools with the OneNewark app and sent kids from the same families to different schools, when they could have attended the same school, and sent them all over town, many riding public buses through unfamiliar parts of town, placing them in charters that their parents did not want, nor choose. What choice have you when you are forced to used a “one” app that pretends to take your choice for your child into consideration, when in reality, it forces placement “asses in seats” into charter schools that really do not have a waiting list? Then, lo and behold, the pundits state “SEE? EVERYONE wants charters.” Choice. Its a trick.
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