The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools [sic] announced that its executive director had stepped down.
This followed the controversy that erupted after she wrote on her Facebook page that the protests over George Floyd’s brutal killing disgusted her, then removed the post. Too late.
“We will begin a search for a new executive director to lead the organization and advocate on behalf of more than 143,000 public charter school students. The Board and staff of PCPCS remain committed to serving charter schools and their students and supporting the mission and goals of the organization.”
Why is it ok in ed reform to have lobbyists and advocates who work exclusively on behalf of charter school students but not ok to have lobbyists and advocates who work exclusively on behalf of public school students?
All public school advocates must also promote charter schools and students, but no charter advocates promote public schools and public school students.
How is this fair to public school students? Unlike charters and voucher students they simply don’t deserve committed advocates who support them? In order to merit ed reform attention and support they must all transfer to the schools the echo chamber prefers?
Scratch a charter advocate, and we very often find a racist. One of the key motivators behind many charter advocates is that it enables racism and social engineering, It is like ‘educational red lining”
With this same theme, Vice TV produced a documentary called ‘Black South Rising.’ It is the story of the Charlotte, North Carolina, which was once a model of integration. After a court case in the ’90s, the busing of students was stopped. Now some residents are trying to use the charter laws to create a mostly white selective system. If you have the time, I highly recommend this program about 46 minutes long. You can see it on Facebook or Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ErWlsnECTo
THANK YOU, retired teacher,
Love your comments.
Unfortunately, you might be right. When the idea of Charter schools first came up in the late 1980s, those who advocated them (eg, Joe Nathan, Al Shanker) believed that experienced educators could develop innovative schools and it was not important whether the Charter was in or out of the district, so long as it had a large degree of autonomy.
My daughter went to a brilliant ‘School-Within-a-School’ that was similar to the original Charter idea. Five or so experienced educators got together (in early 1990s) and started a very small school on on floor of a existing public school in order to pursue an innovative, arts-based, child centered progressive pedagogy. They had autonomy and their own budget and for 20 years the school flourished. But with the coming of the Michelle Rhee, they had to change their program. While the school still exists and has much the same informative ethos, it is much different in structure, being now a separate stand-alone school. (For background on ‘School-Within-a-School’ model, see https://www.ericdigests.org/2000-4/school.htm)
All of this changed with a new agenda, when the various ‘Rights’ –the profit seeking Right, the Social Conservative Right, the Religious Right, the anti-labor Right, the Segregationist & White Supremacist Right, the cut public expenditures & roll back taxes on the rich Right– worked together to appropriate (eg. hijack) the Charters concept so as to undermine public education and the Democracy which relies on it.
They didn’t want a district looking over their shoulders — they wanted the ‘freedom’ to ignore the regulations and protections that the district model provided.
Charters should be craft projects, but this agenda required a mass roll out, so –in addition to the good charters– there were chains like
‘White Hat’ in Ohio, the quality of which was roughly equivalent to that of White Castle.
And they were armored Castles of a type. Their argument: “Let us take you best students and we will come back in a few years and should you studies -carefully curated by ourselves and our allies- that show we have a superior model.” They will argue that teachers should be dedicated enough to work 70 or 80 hour weeks. They will argue that they should be free to ‘innovate’ even when that innovation consists of avoiding collective bargaining and Special Education mandates.
The problems US education have never been the model of teaching or the quality of the teachers. When you entrust educators to educate, those work themselves out.
The root problem of US education is that, by and large, we group students according to the success of their parents. Elite private schools educate the children of the elite (plus a few charity or PFP kids). Enclave suburban schools teach the children of those able to pay 3/4’s of a million for a house and $40K a year in property taxes. Schools in areas of concentrated poverty teach the children of the poor.
And that is where you find the problems — in areas of concentrated poverty, which also are usually areas of racial segregation.
This is the problem the US –esp. the so-called ‘Education Reformers’ ranging from Chester Finn to Whitney Tilson to Eva Sarah Moskowitz– has ever. been willing to take on.
How does this happen when democrats are largely in charge? Democrats run the most powerful teachers unions. What was the excuse for failure before charter schools became the bogeyman?
Public schools are more successful than charter schooos.
The highest performing states in the nation—Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey—have strong teachers’ union, which push for adequate resources and higher standards for teachers. The lowest performing states are non-union. Charters hire uncertified teachers and have high turnover every year.
Racist Georgia Gov. Talmadge first suggested privatization to avoid court-mandated integration.
Brian-
“White Hat roughly equivalent to White Castle” – great line (on a side note, an expert described the Castle as having the cleanest of U.S. restaurant kitchens).
About the religious right and Jacqui, she likely lives in a state where the clergy’s opinions are followed or, where the clergy reinforce existing prejudices. Contrasting Massachusetts with Jacqui’s state, the people of Mass. ignore the clergy’s political opinions. As example, conversion therapy was banned in Mass. by the House in a vote, 147-8. The right wing political arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, had posted opposition to the ban. Because the bishops are legislatively unsuccessful, the rationale that the bishops are a small faction makes their bigotry palatable to the faithful. If Jacqui lives in a state that hasn’t passed the ban, it’s harder to dismiss the political influence of the religious right.
Ed reforms response to the Covid crisis? You guessed it. More promotion and cheerleading of charter and private schools:
“Now is the time to build on the success of Ohio’s school-choice initiatives, not tear them down. As families adjust to education’s “new normal” and look for the best educational environment for their child’s growth, Ohio should continue pursuing commonsense reforms and alternatives to the public school model. Unfortunately, school-choice opponents have threatened to pursue a misguided lawsuit challenging Ohio’s voucher programs that seeks to strip parents and students of their learning options, eliminate Ohio’s successful EdChoice initiative, and erode support for future pro-education solutions.”
Fordham, which offers absolutely no benefit to PUBLIC school students in this state runs the public education policy in this state.
No one serves our students. No one advocates on their behalf or offers public school students and families ANYTHING of value other than lobbying to get them to transfer to charter or private schools. Ludicrous. And every Ohio citizen is paying thousands of public employees to promote this anti-public school agenda. No value returned at all.
Can we get someone in state government who does some work on behalf of the 90% of the students who DON’T attend the schools the echo chamber prefers? Anyone?
Would I be overstating my case if I said that this woman disgusts me? Good riddance to her.
She’ll be back. Charters always recycle their own. One of the reasons they join the club.
Why have the public schools failed the inner city kids so terribly? How are people graduating that are functionally illiterate. Embarrassing. As far as protesters go, rioters are not protesters. Anyone with a heart would have compassion for the people victimized by the rioters. Our leaders have yet to condemn the violence, 19 dead so far. Oh well “by any means necessary” right?
Black majority schools in urban areas are often underfunded. The reason often given is that schools are funded by property taxes. As many cities have become gentrified, urban schools continue to be underfunded because there is little political will to fund urban schools better. The disparity in funding between urban and suburban schools may be thousands of dollars. By the way teachers that work in inner cities struggle with the same inequities that students do. Nobody believes that disinvestment creates better schools.
Most of the mayors and governors have not condoned violence. Protest is not violence and looting.
I agree that peacefully protesting is not rioting, looting, and burning buildings. I wish the politicians would put a stop to the rioting. For the sake of these communities.
I wish the American people would put a stop to police brutality. Police are not judge and jury.
Why have the public schools failed the inner city kids so terribly? How are people graduating that are functionally illiterate. Embarrassing. As far as protesters go, rioters are not protesters. Anyone with a heart would have compassion for the people victimized by the rioters. Our leaders have yet to condemn the violence, 19 dead so far. Oh well “by any means necessary” right?
What’s “embarrassing” is people who believe it is right to spend 3 or 4 times MORE money on the education of privileged children whose parents also subsidize their education with preschools, tutors and the best things money can buy than on the education of the most disadvantaged children whose parents are struggling and whose life is marked by deprivation. And then those same people ask why public schools have “failed the inner city kids so terribly”. It is those people who want those children to suffer even more deprivation who have failed those kids.
It’s weird when the same people who say those children’s families should not get food stamps and their families do not deserve medical care and their families should not expect not to be exposed to poisonous water or air or chemicals are upset that “public schools” have failed them.
And those Trump voters who support Trump when he says a 70 year old man harmed by police deserved it don’t seem to care. Except to prevent any women from having abortions or access to birth control.
Even if the schools have less money, they should be able to teach someone to read by the time they graduate. If they can’t, they need to get into a new line of work. It is no small thing to neglect the one job you have as educators.
Jacqui listens to propaganda and as a ditto head repeats it. She’s too lazy to read objective info.
Poor students from dysfunctional homes or no home at all suffer from chronic absenteeism. They may move three or four times in a year. By the time the teacher sees the problems the student may have, the student moves somewhere else. Some urban schools also have classes of close to forty students in them. All students should be able to read unless they have a neurological impairment. All problems in education are not the fault of the teachers, and blaming never solves a problem.
Thank you for your answer. I agree that blaming doesn’t help, but we must figure out a solution to the problem, or another generation of children will be doomed. It is sounding like more family stability needs to be encouraged somehow.
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jacquilenhardt5598,
I just watched a video of a small Black Lives Matters very peaceful protest in a small NJ town.
As the peaceful protesters walked by, a group of white Trump supporters — you knew they were Trump supporters by the fact that they had hung a huge Trump sign! — decided to express their view by having one white man lie down on his back and another white man put his knee on him. They got amusement by imitating the way a man died. Turns out one of the Trump supporters was a prison guard.
I wonder what schools he and you attend that you were taught that making fun of the way a man died is acceptable. I wonder what schools you and he attended that you think it is just fine for the president of the United States to say that a 75 year old man deserved to be injured by a policeman because he was an agitator. What schools did you attend that taught you that when Trump lied and said Obama was born in Kenya and he had a copy of that Kenyan birth certificate, it was okay? What made you and those men who made fun of the death of man think Trump was a suitable president? Because Trump shares your values?
If you teach a man and woman to read and what they learn is that Trump represents their values and they express it the way those MAGA men did, what does it all mean?
Now you are claiming that most students in the very worst schools have no idea how to read — based on no evidence whatsoever. In fact, the schools where most students can’t read at all are rare, and generally it is because they teach students with severe learning disabilities or newly arrived immigrants who haven’t yet learned English. And most of those students do learn to read.
It’s a shame that the MAGA people know how to read and seem to only read the things that teach them that making fun of how people die and pushing a 75 year old man to cause a brain injury is normal. It isn’t.
I did now if what you are accusing me of. And you didn’t even attempt to answer the question. There is ample evidence that children graduating from these schools are ill equipped to succeed. Try reading some of Diane Ravitch’s books. I went to public schools my entire life. I was raised as one of four children, and we were poor.
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I hope you will read one or two of my last three books.
The Death and Life of the Great American School System
Reign of Error
Slaying Goliath
You’re kind of all over the place here, jacquilenhardt5598, you know? Do you have an argument to postulate, by any chance? Any evidence to support said argument? As far as functional illiteracy goes (you should try a little harder to understand this concept, I submit), take a look at the syntax and punctuation of your own prose. People who live in glass houses should avoid throwing stones.
Have you worked in inner-city schools? I don’t mean to be self-righteous about this, but I have: in fact, I have thus far spent my entire teaching career looking for struggling schools in which to–I hope–serve competently. The problems in our inner-city schools, as in our inner-city neighborhoods, are many and complex, but not, as you appear to imply, intractable. Nonetheless, our inner-city schools require increased funding and teachers willing to stay in them–not an easy sell to any of the parties involved.
Until you yourself are willing to take a hand in the process of improving inner-city schools, I encourage you to take a seat in this discourse. Your rhetoric suggests to me you haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re talking about.
Just sayin’.
Thank you, Mark.
Simple advice: if you can’t cook, don’t give the chef advice on how to do it.
I was waiting for someone to point out my poor grammar. Yes, I’m embarrassed by it. Actually, grammar wasn’t considered important in the public schools I attended. I was always praised for my creativity in my stories, and my grammar was overlooked. I teach first graders to read, and I stay in first grade for the reasons listed above. I seldom write long comments for fear of not writing properly.
Have you read The War Against Grammar? It is excellent, and I think will help explain how it is that grammar is not being taught as throughly as it should be.
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When I went to public schools in Houston, grammar and spelling and syntax were very important.
In every year, the first semester was devoted to the mechanics of grammar, the second semester to literature.
I make typos and fall victim to autocorrect, but my grammar, spelling and syntax are very good-to-excellent,thanks to my public schooling.
I don’t want what happened to me, educationally to happen to others. It is pretty elitist if you to suggest that I shouldn’t express my opinion on education, because of my poor grammar. I teach first graders to read at a school with a diverse population, and I am interested in teaching at schools in low income areas.
Oh, I don’t think you should hesitate to express your opinion on public education because of your writing; expressing your opinion on functional illiteracy in poor gra
mmar is another matter entirely. As far as your charging me with elitism, ok, fair enough. But what’s wrong with that? Especially if my elitism informs high expectations and a work ethic to realize them in inner-city schools like those in which I’ve served in New York City. I’ll stand by my elitism, thank you very much.
Mark, we need more elitists like you!
I really don’t understand anti-elitism: I want the students I serve to have a chance to become elites themselves. I want poor kids in the South Bronx to go to Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan.
Jacqui-
Would the schools you want to work at be the charter schools that pay their management big salaries, the ones that pay the school CEO a 50% or more premium to market as compared to his/her counterparts in the public schools who have better qualifications? Or, would it be the Catholic Cristo Rey schools that purchase curriculum software and that force students to work one week a month in companies, with a number of those students returning the pay to the school?
Are you using the TFA route to jumpstart your career in exploitation?
I would be happy to teach at a school that teaches explicit phonics to all students. I would be happy to teach at a school where they teach history, and not social studies. I would be happy to teach at a school that teaches great literature. Are there public schools where that is happening? If so, I would be happy to teach there.
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The Executive Director should apply for a job in Ohio, contact Ohio Sen. Steve Huffman or his cousin, Matt Huffman. They both support Ed Choice. Steve’s in the news today.
Great opportunity in Ohio for the good factions of the Catholic Church-
Contact the Ohio Catholic Conference and ask if they’ll request that Sen. Steve Huffman be removed from his position on the Senate Education Committee.