Nancy Kaffer, writing for the Detroit Free Press, assesses the failure of School Choice in Detroit.
Charters, like public schools, underfunded. Large classes. Teacher shortage.
Well, the good news for billionaires is that their taxes stay low instead of funding good schools for all students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charter schools are no magic bullets. If a state and city opts to disinvest in education, it is not going to matter whether the school is a charter or public school. Buildings will continue to crumble and class size will continue to grow if not enough money is allocated to do a good job. The main difference in a charter, however, is that the people at the top are being paid six figure salaries, and they are generally top heavy in administrators. In either case, it is a ticket to failure.
I enjoyed the cartoon about DeVos’ security team. It points out the flawed reasoning behind “anything for choice.” DeVos should get a rent-a-cop. While we are at it, how about a voucher for the Trumps for some rent-a-cops too.
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Not surprising that those all in for a bidness approach to education seem to conveniently forget some of their own nostrums, vacuities and diversions when clarity is required.
What happened to such hard-nosed adages of by the pro- privatization/profit crowd as “you get what you pay for” and “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and “money doesn’t grow on trees”? [Usually meant for private confabs with likeminded folks, not for public consumption.]
Then again, when in pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing [riffing off of Vince Lombardi].
The silence and lack of clarity now makes ￠ent¢…
😎
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Does anyone know why Summit charter schools are so celebrated in ed reform- why they promote the schools constantly?
I understand why they promote the Success charter chain- test scores. Summit doesn’t seem to have great test scores.
“The tech mainstay of Summit’s model is an online platform that the network developed with engineering help from Facebook. It comes loaded with a comprehensive, teacher-created curriculum, ideas for student projects, and assessments for grades 5 through 12 in core academic subjects.
Students master academic content through personalized learning, choosing from “playlists” made of such learning tools as Khan Academy videos, BrainPOP animations, guided practice problems, interactive exercises, websites, and texts. They take tests when they feel ready, moving on to new content when they’ve achieved mastery. A blue line on the student’s dashboard shows whether he or she is progressing at the expected pace.”
This is a full-court press. The whole ed reform Big Shot Choir are selling the hell out of this approach- DeVos smears anyone who questions it as a “flat earther” and Jeb Biush has a whole multi-million dollar lobby shop devoted to pitching this product to public schools. Where did this come from? What’s the end goal?
I ask because while no one talks about it anymore, Eli Broad’s reforms in Detroit were all about computer-directed learning. That was the plan. They bought some garbage program and stuck it into schools. In my opinion, they got brutally ripped off but that’s neither here nor there- the question is why are they still selling it?
http://educationnext.org/pacesetter-in-personalized-learning-summit-charter-network-shares-model-nationwide/
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I know why Summit is the big idea of the moment.
It was developed by Facebook and Mark Z is pushing it
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/technology/tech-billionaires-education-zuckerberg-facebook-hastings.html?_r=0&referer=
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cross-posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-broken-promises-of-sch-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Betsy-Devos_Broken-America_Education-Vouchers_Funding-170618-600.html
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WAIT!!! Before we declare these charters in Detroit as a failure, we should look at the operation of schools through the eyes of business. In the business world getting similar results for less money equates to higher productivity and greater profits! Therefore, if we want schools to “operate like a business” we should not be characterizing these newly created for-profit enterprises as “Failures”. We should be hailing them as “Successful” for their improved productivity! For those voters who believe that government is the problem and that “starving the beast” will reduce their taxes without compromising “quality”, Detroit’s charter are not a problem at all. Particularly if those voters reside in the leafy suburbs outside of the city.
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Broken promises, or lies from the very beginning?
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