The original idea behind charter schools was that they would help the neediest, most disadvantaged students, including those who were disengaged or failing in their public schools. Some charters have been criticized for selecting the most compliant students.
One charter chain stands out for ignoring the neediest, the poorest, the most disadvantaged: Great Hearts. This charter chain was repeatedly rebuffed by the Metro Nashville school board because it insisted on locating in a neighborhood where the population was white and middle class, with no transportation for kids from out of area.
Great Hearts is proud to reach out to the advantaged students and use government money to do so.
Unlike other charters that try to prove they are serving needy children, Great Hearts enrolls a relatively high-end demographic. In their case, cherry-picking is a feature, not a bug.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great Hearts is the “public” [sic] charter school that has mandatory “donations” starting at $1,500.
Quote from a Great Hearts student interviewed for Manhattan Institute’s story, “I sound like I’m regurgitating but I’m not”.
So many quips that could be made.
This article makes me sad. Wouldn’t a traditional public want to take on a curriculum like this? One has to assume that they can’t, hence charter chain infiltration. We could quibble over the precise reading selection: it would benefit from a broader approach. But anyone would want their kids in a school with a well-thought-out, connected curriculum, that discussed readings in a 90-min/day symposium. If public schools were run at the local level, with academic choices implemented by bldg.-level professionals, it could be a reality. Instead we have the traditional publics burdened with wrong-headed, anti-teaching/ learning policies and procedures, leaving a big old void sucking unregulated charters into the publicly-funded ed system. As we’ve been saying for a long time here: hard to conclude that’s anything other than by design.
Great Hearts is offering parents that are racist and/or economic segregationists a paid-for vacation so they can move their children to a publicly funded, private sector charter school that offers the racial-economic strata those parents want their children exposed to.
Those parents do not want their children exposed to children from poor families and possibly also children with skin darker than their “pure, pale-skinned” offspring.
Since about 40-percent of the population are Always Trumpers, that means there are plenty of parents that think like this out there.
and everyone so happily can pretend that the game is only about their kids getting a ‘great education…’
I’m writing from Canada, where I had 12 years of public schooling. All of it was dominated by left-wing ideology. I WISH I’d had a classical education like the Great Hearts charter schools are teaching. I’m not sure why you’re all hyperventilating about middle or upper class parents choosing these schools. The curriculum sounds amazing. Why wouldn’t anyone (native-born or immigrant, regardless of race or religion) of any social strata want this for their child? As other commenters have said – if there is demand for this kind of education, why won’t the public school boards and teachers’ unions take it on? Why are they willing (in Nashville) to throw $3.5 million of tax payer funds down the drain only to oppose Great Hearts? Why not invest that in more classical curriculum? Because it doesn’t mesh well with all the race-based or gender-based grievance industry you all seem to support. You assume that the people who want this kind of education are white, but it’s patently untrue. My family has been colonized by at least 4 different empires, and been dispersed across Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, and my husband is another ethnicity with another heritage and yet this CLASSICAL education, where kids learn to reason and think for themselves, and NOT solely obsess about their gender or skin colour all day, is what we would choose. Why do you assume that non-white people don’t want a Classical education? Do you think we’re too dumb? Why do you assume that people who want this education are automatically racist? Once you learn to read and write, synthesize thoughts and can do arithmetic, the whole world is open to you. My father’s education was only till about grade 7 or 8, but he grew up learning multiple languages, and with the basics of literacy and numeracy he was a brilliant auto-didact who taught himself TONS.
You try to shame Great Hearts and shame parents who want this education, but really all Great Hearts is doing is exposing how shameful the public education system is. OF COURSE parents want something better. They don’t want to send their kids to school for ideological indoctringation. They want their kids to read, write, do arithmetic, learn the Scientific Method, think and create. Clearly you don’t give a shit about kids or their futures. You’d rather have mediocrity and stupidity for all, then some people trying to change the system legally. Practically every public school spouts the kind of nonsense you espouse, and has done so for the last 20 years. Not sure why you think throwing more money at it will make it better.
Great Heart surely has an excellent curriculum. It also has generated financial scandals. Nashville rejected Great Hearts because it wanted to Open a charter in an affluent white community. The board wanted schools that educate all children, not the precious few.
TrueBlueBaby claims he or she went to public school in Canada, where he or she alleges he or she had 12 years of public schooling dominated by left-wing ideology.
Twelve years means TBB had his or her entire K-12 public education in Canada and grew up in that country as a child.
I’m going to call out True Blue Baby’s BS and demand that he or she prove that the Candian public school he or she attended for 12 years was dominated by left-wing ideology.
Me calling out TBB’s BS means he or she has to provide the name of that Canadian public school and a link to any information of the subjects and cirriculum taught there.
But first, TBB has to prove he or she knows what left-wing ideology is by explaining it.
I want to also remind TBB that Diane Ravitch has the ability to trace your IP address to find where your comment originated from, Canada or a deep red state like Florida and Texas in the U.S.
Great Hearts sounds like BASIS Charter Schools.
It is interesting that the justification for charter schools has gone from “we are better than failing public schools” to “we are here to cherry pick the students from public schools whose parents “choose” us and whom we decide are worthy enough to attend our charter.”
Hahaha…Great Hearts…NOT.
Little Hearts? Small hearts?
How about “no hearts”.
There is nothing beating inside their chest.
Heartless?
Yes, I think “heartless” means a void in their chest where their heart should have been.
The co-founder and Chief Advancement Officer of Great Hearts America is one of what appears to be 11 white “experts” for the University of Va.’s Culture Feed Educators. He along with fellow experts, Eva Moskowitz and Tom Luna (his ed. reform efforts in Idaho
were all defeated in ballot measures-Wikipedia), are the go-to people for knowledge for the U of Va. program which focuses on student character.
Was racial diversity among the Culture Feed experts/editor deemed of no advantage to Culture Feed’s agenda?