The loss of white students to charter schools in Durham contributes to the resegregation of the District.
“New Superintendent Pascal Mubenga warned Tuesday night that Durham Public Schools will resegregate itself if it continues to lose students to charter schools.”
Durham parents want assurance that the public schools will continue to offer the arts, IB, and other specials. But the drain on resources puts these courses at risk.
It is expensive to maintain a dual school system.
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article195112159.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Charter drain inhibits a school district’s ability to serve all students well. Charter schools interfere with the ethnic-racial balance in public education. Many times, as in this case, white parents opt for a selective charter instead of remaining in the public schools. Charter drain results in eliminating program options in public schools due to reduced revenue. Public schools become last resort schools as a result of lost funding. It is unrealistic to believe that a community can run a good public school along with parallel systems for the same amount of money. No states should be encouraging or contributing to enhanced segregation through so-called choice. The free market is no solution for education, which should remain a function of government responsibility that can support equitable, not market based, strategies.
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AMEN, retired teacher,
We know that “Market-based” strategy is a BUSINESS term and model. Makes me sick that schools have become no more than another market to USE for profits.
There are some things that are PUBLIC GOOD and should not be monetized.
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“The free market is no solution for education. . .”
The supposed “free market” is not a solution to/for anything. The term itself is just a description of a certain type of human economic interaction. There never has been nor ever will be a “free market”, especially as envisioned by those who use the term as a statement of economic fact and we should just “succumb” to those who benefit from the usage of the concept of the “free market”.
Since the “free market” is just a description made up by humans and has no physical or other type of embodiment in reality, it cannot do anything, NOTHING at all. To insist that the “free market does this or that” is the height of stupidity and is ludicrous and risible.
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You only get one shot at my kid. If you can’t provide the rigor, electives, arts and sports to fully round her educational journey, then I’ll take her elsewhere. Not a moment to waste as the fed and states continue to underfund public education.
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You are likely to find those offerings in a public school than in a religious school or a charter. Or pay $25,000 or more and get them in a good private school.
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If we stick to the actual definition of rigor (and not the fake one created by the far-right, extremist propaganda spewed by the Alt-Right lying, conspiracy theory generating media machine), religious schools and most if not all corporate charters offer abusive “rigor” by the ton.
Definition of rigor
1 a (1) : harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity
(2) : the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness
(3) : severity of life : austerity
b : an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty
2 : a tremor caused by a chill
3 : a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold
4 : strict precision : exactness
5 a obsolete : rigidity, stiffness
b : rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli
c : rigor mortis
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rigor
I think that any parent that wants their child subjected to “rigor” (if that parent knows what the definition is for rigor) is an abusive parent.
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“If you can’t provide the rigor,”
What do you mean by “Rigor”?
Definition of rigor
1 a
(1) : harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity
(2) : the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness
(3) : severity of life : austerity
b : an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty
2 : a tremor caused by a chill
3 : a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold
4 : strict precision : exactness
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rigor
I do NOT think “rigor” is the right practice to use in a classroom. What David and Louise Turpin did to their 14 home-taught children is an example of what rigor means.
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ZINN: https://zinnedproject.org/2017/11/forgotten-history-government-segregated-united-states/
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Thanks for the link, Yvonne.
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“Durham parents want assurance that the public schools will continue to offer the arts, IB, and other specials. But the drain on resources puts these courses at risk.”
Just tell the public school families they’re getting “great” schools to replace their public schools once this privatization plan is complete. Say “great!” and “choice!” a lot.
Why are they still in public schools anyway? Haven’t they figured out politicians have abandoned those schools yet? They better figure it out quick. It’s true.
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This is from Betsy DeVos’ latest stump speech promoting charters and private schools:
“Schools should be open to all students – no matter where they’re growing up or how much their parents make.”
Really! So all private schools should be open to all students, no matter the tuition?
Can I exchange my 5k edu-voucher for a year’s tuition at any K-12 private school and they have to accept that as payment in full? I can enroll my son in the same private school as Donald Trump’s and I won’t have to pay for it?
Wow. Do elite schools know this yet? Maybe she could flesh this privatization plan out a bit. She’s making promises she can’t keep with this magical fairyland she’s describing. Maybe invite someone from outside the echo chamber to ask her some real questions.
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I’ve chosen the school where I want to redeem my edu-voucher.
“Maumee Valley Country Day School remains one of the priciest in the area with tuition at $13,350 for grades six through nine and $14,350 for grades 10 through 12, which is a 5.5 percent increase over last year.”
I picked it because MIchelle Rhee went there so it must be great.
I’m planning on bringing my son over and demanding they enroll him. I’ll need a voucher worth $13,350, or, roughly 4X times what the state of Ohio pays my public school for each student.
Betsy DeVos says I should be able to attend any school I want with my “backpack voucher” and that “the money” follows “the child”.
This is the one I want. Now I need “the money”. It better be more than 5k, is all I can say or she misled me.
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According to the LA Times (Aug 15, 2017) about 1 in 4 Americans would follow Trump to the end.
“Asked if they could “think of anything that Trump could do, or fail to do, in his term as president that would make you disapprove of the job he is doing,” about 60% of Trump supporters said no, according to a new nationwide poll released by Monmouth University in New Jersey. That’s equivalent to about one-quarter of all Americans overall, given Trump’s current level of support.”
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-roughly-one-in-four-americans-say-1502815844-htmlstory.html
How many children do these deplorable Americans have? After alll, even idiots grow up and can have children.
The New Republic answers a question about this.
“Are Donald Trump’s supporters idiots?”
“Jonathan Chait has a theory about why Trump’s success took him and other pundits by surprise: “The Republican Party turns out to be filled with idiots. Far more of them than anybody expected.” But this idea is singularly unhelpful. It actually helps absolve Trumpkins of responsibility: Idiots are usually not held accountable for their acts. …
“Rather than characterizing them as losers who are easily fooled, Trump’s supporters—who amount to at least a plurality of the Republican primary electorate—deserve to be looked at in their own terms. Trump’s essential appeal is based on racism.”
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/133447/donald-trumps-supporters-idiots
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