Valerie Strauss notes on her blog “The Answer Sheet” that charters are losing their luster. With the ascent of Choice Champion Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, Democrats are losing interest in charters.
Almost 90% are non-union, and Democrats are not as keen about charters as they were when Obama was president. DeVos has made clear that her goal is privatization, and charter schools advance her goal. Today, Democrats running for office are backing away from charters.
The number of charters is not growing as it once did.
Most embarrassing are the escalating charter scandals. The public has begun to realize the absurdity of giving out public money without oversight or accountability.
There is most definitely a backlash. The NAACP call for a moratorium was part of the backlash. So was the referendum in Massachusetts in 2016, where voters overwhelmingly rejected an effort to lift the cap on charters.
Part of the backlash stems from the realization that more money for charters means less money for public schools. Another part is the public revulsion against the billionaires behind the charter movement, whether its DeVos or Bill Gates or the Waltons or the Koch brothers.
No matter what lies are spread, most Americans don’t want to abandon their community public schools to entrepreneurs and corporations.
This process could have been greatly enhanced had the leaders of the two largest teacher unions not been in bed with the billionaire boys club.
Have the union leaders left the beds of the billionaires?
Poorly stated by me. I’m sure they haven’t.
and they’re still holding office; the reason for this escapes me
“Part of the backlash stems from the realization that more money for charters means less money for public schools.”
No kidding.
As Stephen Colbert said after Betsy Devos’ 60 MINUTES interview, the idea that you can improve struggling public schools by taking away some of those schools funding and giving it to a private education industry… he says “That’s a system called ‘Stupid.'”
He ridicules this notion, saying something like, “You see, if you take away medicine from sick people, that will incentivize them to get healthy on their own.”
Here’s that Colbert monologue:
As for charter school scandals, it doesn’t get any better than this seminal John Oliver video:
(which has over 10,300,000 views … there’s nothing on the pro-charter side even close to this … forget 10 million … they don’t have anything reaching even 10 hundred (1,000):
Thank you, Jack—I LOVE Stephen Colbert (& John Oliver, too–in fact, he was S.C.’s only guest–talked the whole show, except for musical #–last night–I recommend it).
It’s beyond great that talk shows have taken up REALLY discussing politics & grilling politicians & legislators; did you see Chris Christie on Colbert last week? Colbert did a fantastic job of hardballing C2. (I felt embarrassed for him, even though I’m sure Christie doesn’t know the meaning of {being an} embarrassment.) These programs, surely, have higher ratings than the news, are watched, probably, by many who don’t read newspapers. As such, the less informed are now being informed (w/the truth) by Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel &, to a lesser degree, probably (because it’s cable), Bill Maher (C2 was on his last show, & have yet to watch that but, hopefully, Bill put a thorn in C’s crown, as well). I haven’t watched Fallon for a long time-(& I used to watch him all the time)–I understand he’s been pretty soft, but correct me if I’m wrong.
That having been said, it’s kinda sad when The Onion (given as representative of all those hosts I’d mentioned) becomes the true story, rather than simply satire…
Two questions-
(1) Is Valerie Strauss’ column read by charter-loving, Rep. Susan Davis, who is both DFER listed and a recipient of AFT donations (Davis’ 2nd largest contributor was AFT)?
It appears Davis has joined the initiative to privatize higher ed. (BiPartisan Policy Center, Sept. 2018 session funded by Gates and Arnold, “…changing landscape” in higher ed)
(2) Will AFT and NEA leaders delay their response to privatization of higher ed until their collaboration with it is no longer tenable, similar to privatized K-12?
They have already started a claim to try to discredit community colleges, which provide many students with job training at a much lower cost that for crooked for profit institutions.
On ABC nightly news there was a segment praising a public university in the Nashville area. Good for ABC in going against the billionaire propaganda.
Could that be because of all the dual enrollment being pushed in public high schools? Or because of the every child must take AP classes and test so that they can bypass college credits? I live in a VERY wealthy district outside of DC and this is continually pushed in our high schools due to overcrowding issues and the fact that developers have bought up all the land in areas where schools are needed. Imagine living in the 3rd wealthiest county in the nation, paying really high taxes and having your child attend school in moldy, unheated/un air conditioned trailers and still be over 150% capacity . Of course the parents will buy into this.
Charter supporters make a habit of lying like Trump does.
Trump claimed he had an audience of 35,000 in El Paso and O’Rourke, 300. Estimates for both were audiences of 10,000 each.
High needs public schools overwhelmed with challenging students will never be able to eliminate the charter threat until those in charge provide a real solution for dealing with chronically disruptive and even dangerous students. This is not a PC stance so it unlikely that such a conversation will ever take place.
Totally agree. Retired teacher.
You have raised an important issue. We used to send recalcitrant students packing. It was not good for them, but it saved everybody else. When the nature of students began to crumble some years ago, our school found a way to help some of the kids, but there were still some who refused to do the basic stuff. Soon they were gone.
The school reformers used this to suggest that we had failed the kids. This was false. The layers of administration that funded and allocated had failed the kids, either by underfunding the schools and eliminating successful programs, or underpaying the parents, causing the stress that led the kids to be unable to perform in school.
So what they did was to require that we have a certain graduation rate. Now all students stay in school, and that may be good. Still, their classes are adjusted to fit their needs and some test, leading us to get less for more work.
The solution is that we are funded in a way that allows us to help the kids, but not held at gunpoint when a child is taking away from his classmates with his behavior. Alternatives to traditional class must exist for a fairly large percent of the students who are not capable of fulfilling normal expectations.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The corrupt-and greedy-era of publicly funded corporate charters schools is hopefully dying a timely and deserved death.
Lloyd,
I must disagree. If politicians i.e. representatives who care nothing about the 99%, had said “no” to privatization of America’s most important common good when the disgraced and greedy Milken first hawked the idea, it would have been timely. That timing would have prevented Ohioans from being bilked out of $1 bil. and, in Michigan, enabled Black families to escape the brutality of charter churn.
Milken knows how to make a buck!
Are you talking about Mike Milken the jailed junk bond guy & owner/promulgater of K-12 Virtual Schools or are you taking about Milkie, head of Noble Charters (& recently disgraced, as you’d said)?
I had somewhat of an argument in a temple class I was in w/several people who think Mike Milken is a wonderful philanthropist (I told them he’s not even a villainthropist!), all because he’s given money to various causes, esp. for prostrate cancer research (well, that’s because he’d had it). I mentioned there was recently a picture of him palling around
w/Munuchin & his wife (& about what THEY’D done), & these Milken defenders seem to thin Minuchin is also okay–?! (But the woman does NOT like Trump.) Grrrrrr!
Anyway they–like so many others–hadn’t a clue. &–people need to understand that in so many cases, those who have done wrong “give” money away as they think it will erase any bad they have done & will open up the Pearly Gates to them later, & that would be the only reason for their charity.
Grrrrrrr again…
RE: talking about Stephen Colbert–Bill & Melinda Gates are his guests tonight; hope he rips ’em.
I wish I felt similarly. The charter school industry did such an effective job with pr, that many people take it as gospel that Charter Schools help poor kids of color and are better than public schools. You can tell someone that NAACP and Black Lives Matter have called for a moratorium on charter schools, but they are already set in their thinking.
If they’re “set in their thinking”, they like charter grifters getting their tax dollars instead of the local community.
The same set of people would think it made perfect sense for profiteers to take over the municipal water supply through a system of bribed politicians. And, “the thinkers” would drink high-priced toxic water.
Kamala speaks clearly. Most of the rest of the democrat candidates either downgrade the importance of education as an issue, or speak in mush filled sentences leaving them the option to turn tail if and when necessary.