The Alabama Charter School
Commission decided to revoke the charter of Woodland Prep, which had not yet opened.
Blogger Larry Lee has the inside scoop.
He wrote:
In the end, it was as much a story about a very rural community that simply refused to quit fighting and standing up for what it believed in strongly. It was about a community that takes pride in its public schools and refused to be bulldozed by a group of education “experts” from out-of-state who were far more intent on making money than helping children.
It was widely believed that the charter was part of the Fetullah Gulen charter chain, one of the nation’s largest. For unexplained reasons, the charter decided to open in a small rural community where sentiment ran against it, commitment to the local public schools is strong, and local people look askance at Muslims (and possibly other religions).
Larry Lee wrote many posts about Woodland Prep. See here and here.
It is really dumb and insensitive for out-of-state people to plant themselves in a rural community, announce that they intend to open a school to compete with the local school and expect to be welcomed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hate the idea that religious intolerance is involved in keeping out a charter school, Gülenist or otherwise — that makes these stories complicated. But I think the Gülenists have relied on the fact that the adulation showered on charter schools, and the political and billionaire muscle behind them, outweighs Islamophobia.
Ed reform held a forum on public schools. Here’s the title:
“The Education Gadfly Show: School districts failed the remote learning test”
Forum participants? 4 people who operate or work for entities that promote charters and vouchers. No one from a public school. No one who supports, works in or attends a public school.
They set policy for our schools but our schools have no representation in the echo chamber and are not even consulted or included in echo chamber events
I wonder if public school students and families are okay with this- how people who don’t support our schools or students even to the extent of allowing anyone from our schools to participate, set policy for our schools. They’re not aware of it. Would they agree with this state of affairs if they were aware of it? How public schools have absolutely no role in ed reform efforts to “reinvent” public schools?
Chiara, given the title, the forum was sponsored by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
We’ve had two (religious) private schools either reduce grade levels they offer or close in the last year. One of them opened specifically (I think) to take advantage of vouchers.
They so convince themselves that people are as hostile to public schools as they are that it clouds their judgment. They imagine demand that isn’t there because it’s an echo chamber and all they hear is “failing public schools”. I think the “academy” they opened never had more than 30 students.
The public schools in rural America are already underfunded. The last thing they need is a charter draining money from their already meager budget. Clearly, this charter school was ill conceived, and nobody did a needs assessment.
Diane,
I just read this article in Forbes and wanted to share it with you.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2020/06/06/how-reading-instruction-fails-black-and-brown-children/#170236a14ebe
The author feels that protestors should turn their anger towards schools. I don’t even know how to respond to her logic.
The privatization zealots are always looking to make public schools the target of criticism. Our literacy rate is very high at 99% as of 2018. ” Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life. U.S. literacy rate for 2018 was 99.00%, a 0% increase from 2015.” While poor students may struggle with literacy due to lack of exposure to books and materials at home, they can and do learn to read.