Matt Wyatt is president of the school board in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He knows that the new Republican governor and Republican legislature are eager to launch charter schools, using the same tired promises that have failed everywhere else.
No, charters will not close achievement gaps. No, charters will not produce innovation. No, charters are not public schools.
Charters will drain resources from public schools, waste money, and close if they choose in mid-year.
Invest in public schools, says Wyatt.
When the Eluzabethtown school board declared their opposition, the free market ideologues at the libertarian Bluegrass Institute attacked the board for its devotion to public schools. It produced data showing that there is an achievement gap in Elizabethtown. But it did not produce data showing that charter schools had closed the achievement gap anywhere: not in Detroit, not in DC, not in Milwaukee, not in New Orleans. Nowhere.
Ignore them, do what’s right for your children and your community.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Communities need to realize that they stand to lose a lot more than they will gain from privatization. They will not save money; they will spend more as they disperse their resources on less efficient system of splinter schools. At the same time they will diminish the capacity of the public schools as funding in drained from them. Due to all the waste and fraud in charters, they are gambling with their tax dollars. Some charters receive public money, and then disappear. Communities will lose local, democratic control of their tax dollars that will wind up in corporate pockets. Corporations main goal is to serve the parent company, not the local district or students. They should not be sucked into glossy presentations from private profiteers whose goal is access to local tax dollars. These pitch artists are no better than used car salesmen that want to close a deal. Often the reality is a far cry from the presentation. Once the privateers set up shop, the local community may having a hard time getting them out as charters are often backed by big money interests. Wise communities that want local control of their education dollars invest in strong public schools for a better future for all.
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