Should Amy O’Rourke, Beto’s wife, send a thank-you note to Betsy DeVos?
Betsy DeVos has awarded a huge grant of $116,755,848 to the IDEA charter chain to open 20 new schools in El Paso. IDEA opened its first El Paso charter last fall.
In 2017, DeVos gave $67 million to IDEA.
IDEA has received a grand total of $225 million from the federal Charter Schools Program.
The size of this grant is unprecedented, so far as I know.
Congress should ask DeVos why she gave such a staggering amount of money to the IDEA charter chain.
This rapid charter expansion is likely to swamp the underfunded El Paso public schools, if not eliminate them.
The grant will be funneled through CREED, where Amy O’Rourke plays a leading role. Amy is Beto O’Rourke’s wife.
CREED’s charter program, which is part of a larger gentrification project, has previously been supported by the Dell Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Hunt foundation, and the Gates Foundation.
The superintendent of a neighboring district, Jose Espinosa, warned parents to be wary of charter schools like IDEA that boast of a 100% college acceptance rate; what they don’t tell parents is that you can’t graduate until you have been accepted by a four-year college, some of which are open admissions colleges that accept all applicants.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“This rapid charter expansion is likely to swamp the underfunded El Paso public schools, if not eliminate them.”
Oh, Diane, you know ed reform’s position on public school students. The students in El Paso public schools will just take the hit while ed reform transitions to a completely privatized system. This generation of public school students are the generation who sacrifice during the planned transition. They just had the bad luck to be in a public school when the Best and Brightest decided their schools had no value.
The public school students will be the dead-last priority when plans are laid. They’re already the last priority. Now the disinvestment in them and their schools begins in earnest.
It’s a raw deal for public school families and students, but sacrifices must me made to realize ed reform’s vision, and they’re the sacrifice.
Watch the ed reform coverage of this and try to find a public school mentioned. The public schools will be completely omitted. You’ll wonder what happened to them.
One can read entire analysis of ed reform in Indianapolis and not find a single mention of a public school. There ARE public schools in Indianapolis. But one would never know it reading ed reformers. The ONE purpose public school students serve in these “reform” cities is as the comparison population to charter school students. Other than they receive no attention or investment. Our kids are simply used to promote charter schools. Other than that they have no value.
I really hope Beto O’Rourke isn’t the Democratic nominee.
We have now had three US Presidents in a row who did not support public schools or public school students. All three had an ideological bias against public schools, and public school students suffered for that bias.
Don’t give public school students a third. It’s brutally unfair to them for them to remain the lowest priority, the disfavored and much-maligned students. Enough. Three anti-public school Presidents in a row is enough. They really don’t deserve that.
Make that four. Clinton was pretty big on privitazation as well, and it was under his watch that charters started in the first place
Thanks for reiterating that we have had at least three presidents who did not support public schools. Pres. Obama was the quintessential neoliberal. TFAers & KIPPsters are busy getting federal grants to save children from monsters like me, a 35-year-Union-member public school teacher. They also ally themselves with the donor class which loves to support these non-profits. Their charters are coming to a town near you, America.
Beware of geeks bearing grifts.
If you throw in the heavy support from Silicon Valley, you have to beware geeks as well.
Well-state. Let’s hope Randi and Lily don’t sell us out yet again.
There are public school students who will graduate high school this year who have never had a President who supported public schools.
Let’s not let that happen to the group who graduate in 2021. Nineteen years of an anti-public school federal government is long enough.
It is a good thing, that public schools are a state/municipal enterprise. And it is also good that 90%+ of the funding is state/municipal. This “wall of (almost) separation”, ensures that the influence of the federal dept of education, and the feelings of the president and/or SecEd, will have minimal influence.
Many people, all across the political spectrum, have advocated and continue to advocate, for the abolishment of the dept of education.
If the feds closed the department down, and devolved public education back to the states/municipalities (where it belongs), then the attitude of the president would be meaningless.
Once again you are incorrect about the role of the Dept of Ed & the Federal Govt’s involvement in public education. Without both, children with disabilities and children from marginalized groups would be excluded from attending public schools. Arriving at a societal attitude that separate is not equal has taken hundreds of years to evolve, that privatization will undo in less than a decade.
https://www.cec.sped.org/Policy-and-Advocacy/IDEA-40
http://www.ncld-youth.info/index.php?id=61#
I am not incorrect about the funding. The feds provide about 10% of funding at the K-12 level. The balance is provided by the taxpayers of the states/municipalities.
Many (not all) public schools are not equipped to provide adequate educational services for learning disabled, and “special needs” children. That is why the Supreme Court, ruled that school districts must pay the cost to educate these children in private venues. Because of the “all inclusive” nature of publicly-operated schools, marginalized groups have to be excluded (from being educated in the public schools). see
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2016/15-827
Separate is certainly not equal. It costs more to educate a special-needs child. I am glad that these children are now going to get the extra attention and financial resources that they need.
Charles,
You have it backwards. Children with disabilities have federally guaranteed rights only in public schools, not in private or religious schools. If you really cared about these children, you would support public schools, not choice for private schools.
I must stand with the Supreme Court, on this one. If private schools, which are better equipped to provide educational services to special-needs children, are so bad, then why did the parents of Endrew F. sue the public school district of Douglas County, Colorado, to get their child OUT of the public school system (where his rights are protected), and get him INTO the private school, where his rights would not be protected? Don’t the parents know best?
The solution, to the (potential) rights problem should be solved through legislation. I feel that the child’s right to a proper education, supersedes any potential disregard to the child’s other rights.
And so do the parents of Endrew F.
Charles,
Children with special needs have no federally protected rights in private schools.
I agree with you, about the lack of protection of student’s rights in non-public schools. This problem needs to be solved through legislation. I am going to write my congressman, and see if legislation can be introduced, that will correct the problem.
Before you write to your Congressman, make sure he/she has received no campaign contributions from the Koch brothers, any member of ALEC, the Walton family or Bill Gates, et al.
If your Congressman belongs to the corporations and billionaires, you are wasting your time.
And, there are 435 members of the House. Even if you managed to convince your Congressman to agree with you, what about the other 434 and what about the 100 in the Senate.
One Congressman is not going to change course for this country.
My congressman is independently wealthy. His family owns a chain of auto dealerships in the Metro DC area. He was once an ambassador. He is impeccably honest, and not for sale. (There are some advantages to having wealthy people in public office). He is an ultra-liberal democrat. I always vote against him. His seat is so safe, that the Reps never put up any serious challengers.
I understand that it takes a majority in both houses of congress, to pass legislation.
I believe that if legislation were to be proposed, supporting expanding rights protection for special-needs children, who are enrolled in non-public schools, that the congress would consider such legislation favorably.
Did you hear me crash to the floor roading in laughter? Is this congressman your brother or child?
BEAUTIFULLY SAID!!!
Actually, it’s been 36 years the US hasn’t had a president that supported the public schools. Reagan started it all in 1983 when he released the flaws, misleading, fraudulent “A Nation at Risk” report that officially launched the war against the public school and not one president starting with Reagan has done anything to support the public schools and publicly reveal how misleading that report was.
Instead, “A Nation at Risk” is still the gospel used to demise public school teachers and public schools in the United States. That report is the foundation behind everything that has happened since.
All it would take is one president to step up and publicly and point out repeatedly that a few years after “A Nation at Risk” was released, the Sandia Report revealed the truth.
“The idea that American schools were worse just wasn’t true,” says James Guthrie, an education professor at Lynn University in Florida. Guthrie published a scholarly article in 2004 titled “A Nation At Risk Revisited: Did ‘Wrong’ Reasoning Result in ‘Right’ Results? At What Cost?” …
“A Nation At Risk” got the national spotlight.
The Sandia Report got something very different. Its publication was delayed for many months. It’s been cited as a famous case of censorship.
Diane Ravitch, then a Department of Education official under President George H. W. Bush, wrote an op-ed critical of the Sandia Report headlined “U.S. Schools: The Bad News Is Right.”
Ravitch later publicly renounced this position and others, and became a bestselling author and advocate focused on educational equity. When “A Nation At Risk” came out, “I thought, oh boy, this is going to shake everybody up. It’s a good thing,” she tells NPR.
“Now, I think it sounded an alarm that was misguided, because the schools were not sunk in mediocrity.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/29/604986823/what-a-nation-at-risk-got-wrong-and-right-about-u-s-schools
I looked at Mayor Pete’s plan. Has he actually implemented any of it? It seems premature for him to try to run for the White House.
Exactly.
The last time a president showed any real support for public schools was in 1965. That was before my students’ parents were born, before I was born. Almost my entire life has been dominated by trickle-down Reaganomics. We’re nearing the end of generations of intolerable rising inequality. Go Bernie.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was anything to distinguish Bernie’s position on public education from the DFER position?
I may very well vote for Bernie, but I will vote for him knowing that he will probably appoint his new best pal Corey Booker as Secy of Education and will be doing even greater harm to public education by providing progressive credibility to the entire “non-profit” charter movement.
So if one of the other candidates actually stands up for public education instead of mouthing the DFER propaganda, he or she is likely to get my support.
It’s sad that contrary to what some of the very same people who voted against the Democrats in 2016 keep claiming, Betsy DeVos is NOT enough to make a progressive politician like Bernie Sanders realize why charters are harmful. All it does it let people like Bernie and Corey Booker and DFER Democrats seem “progressive” on education because they oppose DeVos while embracing “public charters”.
Go whoever in the Democratic primary is willing to stand up for public education. I hope that turns out to be Bernie but the jury is still out.
Never thought of it that way. This should be a major talking point for anyone serious about running for president.
Anyone who states he was BORN TO RULE scares me.
Agree vociferously, Yvonne.
Better to be wild.
lmao
And this is what people who think they were born to rule think about the rest of us.
There waddin much fiddlin on that one. And they didn’ sing ’bout no mule, neither.
Punk music is so misunderstood. So many of its songs speak to issues that matter to young people unlike any other form of artistic expression. The song “Do Anything You Wanna Do” by Eddie and the Hot Rods (and covered wonderfully by the German group Die Toten Hosen) comes to mind immediately. Won’t post the videos, but hope some of you will read the lyrics:
Gonna break out of the city
Leave the people here behind
Searching for adventure
It’s the type of life to find
Tired of doing day jobs
With no thanks for what I do
I’m sure I must be someone
Now I’m gonna find out who
Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you are gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do
Don’t need no politicians to tell me things I shouldn’t be
Neither no opticians to tell me what I oughta see
No one tells you nothing even when you know they know
But they tell you what you should do
They don’t like to see you grow
Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you are gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do
Gonna break out of the city
Leave the people here behind
Searching for adventure
It’s the type of life to find
Tired of doing day jobs
With no thanks for what I do
I’m sure I must be someone
Now I’m gonna find out who
Why don’t you ask them what they expect from you?
Why don’t you tell them what you’re gonna do?
You’ll get so lonely, maybe it’s better that way
It’ain’t you only, you got something to say
Do anything you wanna do
Do anything you wanna do
See there. Ain’t no mule in that at all.
Beto’s candidacy is toast, deservedly. The Hill reported two top aides have left the campaign.
Other candidates should take note about voter backlash against a candidate with a spouse who has a vested interest in the destruction of a common good.
He went from being the golden boy to billionaire pawn in two years. Pete Buttigieg seems to be the media’s new fascination. He is smart and likable. CNN is doing town hall’s on some of the leading Democrats tonight.
I believe there are consecutive nights this week with individual candidates, beginning tonight. This offers a good opportunity for each person to answer question.
Take a look at this and remember that the Center for American Progress is pushing Mayor Pete:
Our shiny boy seems to be ready to translate McKinsey ideas into public education.
https://www.drucker.institute/programs/city-of-lifelong-learning/
#NoBookerBetoBidenHarrisButtigiegEither
When Beto, Mayor Pete, and the rest of the Wall Street backed gang drop out of the race, and they will drop out because their candidacies are all unfunny jokes based on nothing more than pretty smiles and photogenic hair without a voting record or campaign platform to stand on, they will hand over all their flash in the pan, bandwagon enthusiasm-based campaign funding and donor lists to Joe Biden. I draw that conclusion after watching recent primary elections in California, where the top two candidates regardless of party affiliations go to a runoff if no one gets more than 50%. The current LA School Board election is similar to the presidential race, having a huge field of candidates drain votes from the progressive candidate in the primary, and then the ‘center’ candidate gets all the funding in round two. If Bernie doesn’t get 50% in the first round of the primaries, superdelegates will anoint Biden.
Makes perfect sense. Also an excellent argument for ranked voting.
I almost forgot, if Biden wins, he will continue the flow of money to charters, like DeVos, and like Duncan.
Joe Biden is 76 years old. He looks good for someone his age, but it is time for his generation to step down and let those who are in their forties and fifties start to fill elected positions.
Our current systems are designed to make democracy as indirect as possible, and not just gerrymandering in red states.
How long will it take for the federal taxpayers’ money to find its way into the pockets of El Paso grifters?
In Ohio, it didn’t take long for the charter operators to buy politicians.
The target in El Paso is poor, Latinx students. How can anyone believe that privatization is not about race and class when they target certain groups this way? It is so obvious.
IDEA, masters of “massaged data,” is setting up shop. People should realize that signing on with them is a disinvestment in their own community.
Exactly. Wall St planning docs on charter school investment opportunities in the late 1990’s and early oughts recommended targeting impoverished areas of cities to minimize public opposition. They stated explicitly that communities of color would be more easily persuaded to adopt charters than the wealthy suburbs who could afford to pay lawyers to oppose plans to open charter schools. Implicit racism is a feature of reformer sensibilities.
“They stated explicitly that communities of color would be more easily persuaded to adopt charters than the wealthy suburbs who could afford to pay lawyers to oppose plans to open charter schools.”
ROFL- the Wall St version of “providing equal access to quality education.”
Acceptance at a college is not a guarantee that those students will graduate from college.
Most of the students that are not ready for college, because they are like Donald Trump and hate to read, drop out early just like the “dumbest student” that finished college, Donald Trump.
I put quotes around “dumbest student” because one of DT’s professors in college said he was the dumbest student he ever had or taught.
I wonder if Trump kept his daddy’s KKK robes and sleeps in them every night.
In fact, looks like all you have to do is get accepted by one of the accepts-all-comers colleges Diane mentions, then never matriculate.
But as Espinosa says in the linked post, the key stat is what % of a cohort actually graduates from the charter— citing a study of an unnamed “100%-college-acceptance” charter network where only 70% of incomers graduate, hence 100%=70%. How to lie w/statistics 101.
“Politics K-12
More
Betsy DeVos’ team will host an event on Monday at 10 a.m. on “Rethinking Education for Incarcerated Individuals.” Those scheduled to attend include Deputy Secretary Mick Zais, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and the executive director of Five Keys charter schools.”
Is this also the ed reform position? That public schools should be barred from events involving public education?
Can one really call oneself an education expert if your ideological constraints exclude 90% of schools, students and families?
Why not just be straight with people and call yourself “a charter and voucher advocate”?
That’s accurate, although truly terrible if one is paid by the public.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Oh, the irony of the notion that ‘government schools suck’. These charter school fiascos would not exist w/o federal funding—straight from the government.
That’s a good one. Will have to use it. “If you’re against government schools, why is yours trying to become one?”
I had a recent argument with anti-public school person on Facebook. He kept calling government schools socialism. I mentioned that it is a common good service like police, fire fighters or the military. I live in a military community with lots of military contractors in the area. After my military comparison, this person had nothing left to say. There’s no bigger hypocrites that anti-government, government workers!
I am 1000% pro-public schools. The public schools here in Fairfax County Virginia, are some of the finest in the nation. (some exceptions). The federal government is by far the largest economic driver in this area. I have done a great deal of contract work both overseas and here in Metro WashDC. Contracting, is a cost-effective way for the feds to get good talented workers, and not have to pay the costs for a full-time federal employee.
I am pro-government. Governments are established to protect and ensure our rights.
Government-operated schools are a top-down socialist enterprise. This is not a bad thing! The government operates the FBI, and the Centers for Disease control.
When someone says 1000%, it means a negative.
When I say 1000%, that means ten times 100%. I strongly support public schools.
Sorry, but I call BS.
How many times have you posted here in favor of private school choice using public funds meant for PUBLIC schools?
Maybe Charles is is changing his thinking 360 degrees … :o)
360, yes; 180, no.
Do we know what goes on in an IDEA charter? Would we veteran Teachers recognize it?
I suggest you search Google for: “What is wrong with IDEA charters”. I say that after only looking at the first page of a Google search that came up with 112-million hits in less than half a second
For instance, “A dozen problems with charter schools – The Washington Post.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/20/a-dozen-problems-with-charter-schools/?utm_term=.4ba1831b7df3
Two things. CNN is devoting the whole night to five one-hour town meetings with five democrats running for president. The marathon begins at 7 pm Eastern.
Also, the comments for the following important post are in “error 404” whatever that is
https://dianeravitch.net/2019/04/22/julian-vasquez-heilig-did-the-waltons-steal-the-parents-union-from-black-parents/
Thank you, Diane, for calling out the bs, day in and day out: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2017/09/04/our-boadicea-our-jeanne-darc-is-a-79-year-old-grandmother-an-existence-proof-of-the-stupidity-of-ageism/
On a completely different note:
The Muller report looks at 10 instances of obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump and finds that in six of these, all three criteria for obstruction were met. It also says that, according to DOJ guidelines, it is not within the purview of the DOJ to make a prosecutorial decision with regard to a sitting president. Mueller makes it clear that his job is simply to lay out the evidence, which he does, and it’s clear.
Attorney General William Barr said, in presenting the report, “Special Counsel Muller did not indicate that his purpose was to leave the decision (about whether to prosecute the President for obstruction of justice) to Congress.“
Utterly false.
Here’s what Mueller’s report actually says: “The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.” –The Mueller Report, Volume II, p. 8.
“Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office.” You can’t get much clearer than that.
Aie yie yie. Typos. Mueller, ofc.
I refuse to share this as I am sickened about this. I could see if DeVos gave an equal and fair chance to public schools!!! This is over the top and really helps me know what to do at the next election. In what world is this woman qualified to head up education in our country? 😢
I so agree with Tammy Edwards!! DeVos has No qualifications to Head education in Our Country!!
“In what world is. . . ”
In the tRump world!
If you are reading this comment, mosey over to SSIR (Stanford Social Innovation Review) and add comment to the paean to TFA (Spring 2019). The premise is that TFA makes those with White privilege more empathetic, “Empathy Through Service”. Kind of runs counter to Mercedes’ report (4-16-2019) about the Global Silicon Valley panel discussion, “No Struggle, No Progress: An Argument for a Return to Black Schools”.
Diane. TN, after a long 10 year battle to keep vouchers out of our state, passed legislation this week and now TN will join the privatization crowd. Just some insight as to what is happening here. Our new Governor, millionaire Bill Lee hire American Federation for Children (Betsy DeVos founder) TN chapter Director as his campaign policy director. After Lee won the election he brought the same guy into his administration as his policy director. Betsy DeVos comes to town 2 weeks ago to show support for her old buddies at AFC and our Governor’s voucher legislation. In your post you mention IDEA Charters. Well, it just so happens our new Governor hired Paul Schwinn’s (VP of IDEA) wife Penny Schwinn to be our new Commissioner of Education for the state of TN. How cozy is this??? It is my expectation that DeVos will be awarding a grant to TN for the expansion of Charters (our Governor has already said he will expand Charters). I am so tired of doing research and warning people of what is to come only to be completely ignored. Vouchers and Charters are the vehicles they will use to privatize education with profit the top priority and training workers instead of educating future Americans. The intimidation, threats and bribery that took place to get this voucher legislation passed was a disgrace. No wonder Americans have no confidence in their government any longer. As an example. When the legislation went to House it failed. The speaker (Glen Casada) held up the finalization of the vote for 40 minutes while he took members of the House off the floor to get them to change their vote. Needless to say his arm twisting worked because a vote was changed and the bill was passed. That is just one example of the garbage that took place. But I have every reason to believe DeVos made promises to Lee for big $$$$ to come for his support of her agenda.
Although I am for school competition, grants for charters are not needed. Let taxpayers put their school tax funds wherever they want and the best schools will win. I don’t care if that’s public, private, or charter schools.
Frater,
When taxpayers decide, they don’t close their community schools and give them to corporations.
We can’t predict what they’ll do. They might give them to private schools, religious schools, stick with public, etc. It’s their choice for their kids.
If folks are confident parents will choose public schools then school tax portability isn’t a threat.
I will suggest people don’t have to be forced to do what they already want to do.
Frater Jason, you might be confident that every parent/guardian is capable of making the best decisions for their children, but I am not.
That is why over time, the majority of American citizens put their trust in a public school system that was monitored by voters at the local district level.
Voters at each district level decide who sits on local school boards and legislation at every state level protects the public’s investment and children by holding them accountable through transparency.
If elected school board members prove that they cannot be trusted, then voters have a chance every few years to vote them out and vote someone in they think they can trust.
That does not happen in the private education sector and when K-12 private schools are supported with the same public money that should have gone to real public schools, that means the system that was put in place according to state and federal constitutions is being dismantled.
The United States is a Constitutional Republic and not a corporate/billionaire kleptocracy wrapped in an opaque barrier to hide from the public what is being done with the public’s money.
All of those state and federal constitutions were written to protect the people from oligarchs and autocrats that might try to buy their way into power. Once publicly funded but private sector schools are removed from that constitutional protection, then there is a much higher risk of the horror of a kleptocratic fascism taking over.
Take Finland for example. Finland allows parents to put their children in publicly funded private schools … BUT … those private schools must follow all the same laws that the public school in Finland do. That is why less than 1 percent of the school in Finland are in the private sector because they have to follow all the same rules and procedures that the real public school follow.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
Two things on this part:
1 – I do believe parents are capable of making this kind of choice. If they weren’t then they probably shouldn’t be breeding.
I didn’t claim they could make the best choice, whatever that might be. I mean, what if the feds decide you didn’t marry the best wife, buy the best home in the best location and drive the best car?
I want you to have the right to choose those things for yourself and your own offspring.
The majority does this because it is the default. Cf. Sunstein’s Nudge. FUD is also a factor.
So we don’t trust the parents to decide what school their kids goes to, but we do trust them to pick schoolboards to pick representives to steward their funds and kiddos?
Parents taking their kids and tuition money elsewhere is a powerful incentive.
IMO the tax money should remain with the taxpayers who decide which school gets it.
Are you suggesting that the existence of private or charter schools denies equal access to schooling under the 14th? That’s quite a stretch.
As for state constitutions, they can do as they wish as long as it is not repugnant to the federal constitution.
LOL, should have? That’s some weapons-grade entitlement there. I don’t accept the a priori.
Our republic is indeed a kleptocracy hiding what is being done with the public’s money.
The solution to the problem is not to fix the people in charge, but rather to design a system where bad actors can’t game it. Cf. the Constitution.
Allowing the taxpayer to direct their own funds is the highest level of transparency.
I’d say the Constitution was written to design the federal government and limit it to enumerated powers. We have strayed greatly.
I am suggesting we don’t allow school funding to become public funding in the normal sense. Let the taxpayer choose where it goes. Accumulation of public monies makes corrupted use of those monies possible.
Yeah, our republic elected one of those as POTUS.
Finland has a different culture aligned with the “Nordic model” of social democracy. It is not surprising that a highly socialized country would choose public schooling. The main restriction on Finnish private schools, as I understand it, is that they cannot charge tuition.
Note that I am not one who uses “socialism” as an epithet. It is a political choice like any other. I am suggesting we have a different culture the [relatively] unsocialized US and we don’t take the bit in our mouth as easily.
I am also troubled by the use of the phrase “real public school”, as if privates and charters were not real schools. Perhaps you mean that privates and charters are quasi-public when school taxes are portable. I disagree, but I would like to understand your phrase more clearly.
Private schools and charter schools are not “real public schools.”
Real public schools have democratic governance, and are subject to recall by voters, or at least appointed by elected officials.
Private and charter schools have boards that are self-selected, seldom live in the same community as the school, and are not accountable to parents in any way. Parents may not know who is on the board, and if they do, they cannot possibly contact them.
Of course, there are a FEW publicly funded private sector charter schools that are doing a good job, but not many.
And most of those charters would still be a successful charter school inside a public school district. The reason for that is because most if not all of the those FEW successful charter schools are operated cooperatively by the professional teachers that work at those schools — there is no conductor in charge who’s the goal is profits over quality.
That defines the original concept of what a charter school was supposed to be.
“ALTHOUGH the leaders of teachers unions and charter schools are often in warring camps today, the original vision for charter schools came from Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers.
“In a 1988 address, Mr. Shanker outlined an idea for a new kind of public school where teachers could experiment with fresh and innovative ways of reaching students. Mr. Shanker estimated that only one-fifth of American students were well served by traditional classrooms. In charter schools, teachers would be given the opportunity to draw upon their expertise to create high-performing educational laboratories from which the traditional public schools could learn.
“Mr. Shanker was particularly inspired by a 1987 visit to a public school in Cologne, Germany, which stood out for a couple of reasons. Teams of teachers had considerable say in how the school was run. They made critical decisions about what and how to teach and stayed with each class of students for six years. … ”
What’s missing is the fact that teams of teachers are not running most if not all profit-driven corporate charter schools and making critical decisions about what and how to teach.
The unanswered question is why we should have two separate and unequal publicly funded school systems. Or three.
For as long as I remember, there has always been competition among public schools in the United States: sports competitions, academic competitions, even marching band competitions (and probably more).
I taught for thirty years in one public school district in Southern California and during the seven years I taught one period of high school journalism class (in addition to the four English classes I taught) that produced the high school student newspaper, I took my journalism students to compete at JEA, the Journalism Education Association that is a national non-profit organization supported by the nation’s reputable media. The judges for these write of competitions were editors and reporters from local major newspapers.
http://jea.org/wp/home/awards-honors/write-off-contests/
Then there was another organization that ranked student newspapers. It was called Quill and Scroll, and the high school student editors in my journalism class that produced the student paper submitted their work to be judged by this non-profit organization.
https://quillandscroll.org/news-media-evaluation/
But not high stakes rank and punish test score competitions. That horror was added after NCLB and became worse after the Pearson, Gates, Walton, ALEC, and Colemon Common Core Kleptocracy Crap came along.
Not the kind of school competition my comment (or the article) is about.
What do you think school competition should be? Don’t say school competitions should be based on test scores.
When our daughter was in a public high school, she competed in track and pole vault. She also competed in Academic Decathlon and won awards. These competitions are open to every public school that wants to attend if there are enough interested students.
Students are not forced by the state or federal government to compete. They want to compete. Mandatory high stakes rank and punish tests are not a competition. They are a crime.
I think it should be competition between schools for students and tuition monies.
I agree that the present obsession with standardized test scores is a Bad Thing. What the students (and country) need are actual education and critical thinking skills.
If private and public schools are competing for public dollars to operate, then Finland offers the perfect example and the Nordic model of social democracy has nothing to do with this.
In Finland, the same rules must apply to all publicly funded schools, public or private.
Yes, in Finland private schools may also get public money, but those private schools must follow all the same rules and regulations that apply to the REAL public schools in that country. The teachers must be just as qualified.
There cannot be two different systems. One that must be transparent and adhere to all the laws and rules, and one that is allowed to be opaque and do whatever they want.