Regular readers of this blog might find this article amusing. Public school activists in Florida are angry! The charter fans in the legislature want to allocate $200 million to encourage charters to locate in close proximity to schools with low grades. The extra $200 million will allow the charters to offer extra services that the public schools can’t afford. Meanwhile, the state plans to raise the passing scores on state tests, meaning that tens of thousands of students will be labeled “failing,” setting up more schools for takeover by charters.
The article calls this analysis–that the purpose of the $200 million “Schools of Hope” package is a giveaway to the privatization industry–a “conspiracy theory.”
Like if you see a bandit holding up a bank and call the police, you are really just indulging in a conspiracy theory.
Who are you going to believe: the people writing this dreadful legislation or your own eyes?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Schools of Hope” are an extortionist plot to funnel more students into charters and more public funds into private pockets. Once again testing and manipulated ratings would be used to help corporate vandals deliver another financial blow to public education. What is even more disturbing is that some representatives like Corcoran and Diaz are invested in the charter industry. This used to be called an unethical conflict of interest. Now it seems like “to the victor belong the spoils.” http://charlotte.floridaweekly.com/news/2017-04-06/Opinion/The_privateer_legislators.html
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It’s standard ed reform.
Standardized testing schemes
more money for charter schools and private schools
There is no “# 3”.
One would think they would at least make a token effort to offer something to the kids in existing public schools WITH the endless promotion of “choice” schools, but they never do. It’s as if the kids in those schools don’t exist.
DeVos in Ohio last week told public school parents her choice obsession won’t harm their schools. That’s the best they can do? They promise not to actually harm kids in public schools? Wow! Thanks! So incredibly generous of you!
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Well, as you know Jeb Bush still decides what happens in the Florida Public school system and he’s the King of charters. The surprise is that it wasn’t more money. It looks as if the bill for money and the bill to raise the test scores will not make it through. But there’s still a couple of weeks to go in the session.
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The headline really says it all: Plan to Help Charter Schools
How did they think public school parents would react? Maybe at some point they could come up with SOMETHING of value to offer them?
Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican, made a pitch for $200 million to lure charter school operators to set up shop in neighborhoods of schools the state rates “D” or lower.
Bean called one charter operator’s performance “extraordinary.”
“It’s a D school,” Overholt exclaimed. “My kid goes to a D school. Why don’t they get the money?”
Good question! Rather than answer it they call her a conspiracy theorist. Good job with the “community engagement”, there guys. I can see the ed reform outreach effort continues.
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The logic would be to provide extra funding for D schools to better serve needy students. This proposal is about widening the net to capture $20 million more public dollars for the charter industry. There is no evidence to prove that this will this move will help poor students. The assumption is that a charter will do more than a public school, even though we know this is untrue. Changing schools cannot erase impact of poverty while public schools get to provide less to the majority of students.
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Sorry: $200 million
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People can see for themselves if Jeb Bush is an “agnostic” or not.
Try to find a positive statement on public schools in anything he writes or says. If he isn’t sneeringly dismissing public schools as “government schools” he’s referring to all public schools as “the failing status quo”
For some reason public schools are fair game for any pol with an an agenda and access to a microphone and this is A-OK in ed reformland.
Why is it acceptable for a national ed reform leader to bash public schools daily? Why should public school parents support a “movement” that offers NOTHING to kids in public schools other than stern lectures and loss?
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Bush is a member of “chiefs for corporate control,” or maybe it should be called “crooks for corporate control.”
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Mercedes has a piece about Fordham (Ohio) charters. I don’t care that much that they’re all C and D schools but since they ARE C and D schools why do Ohio lawmakers spend so much time promoting them? Shouldn’t they be treated the same as any public school C or D school? Why do they deserve all the attention that is lavished on them by the legislature and governor?
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We all know the real reason some kids don’t do well in school is the lack of family structure and support, which relate to socioeconomic status (though lack of family support is not solely contingent on wealth levels, as if rich families cannot have high divorce rates or high dysfunctionality).
So, there is a clear relationship between what happens at home (in supporting schools and educational goals, or not) and academic success.
So, how is “choice” going to surmount and overcome the problems and limitations that students bring into the classroom that were formed and reinforced by family-problems and lack of support. Can a charter school meet and reach the needs of challenged students better than a public school? NO, unless one funds the charter school to have smaller class sizes, better remediation and a more relevant and enriching curriculum (that does NOT have to be proved valid by some end-of-year exam).
Yet, why not just give better funding to a public school, to allow it to become a school of “hope”, because apparently public schools getting low grades on standardized tests are “hopeless” places to be?????
Why rely or require an outer private agency (with no track record of success, and no real pedagogues running it) to bring “hope”? As if, hope can never be found in better funded public schools?????
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