For years, we have had to listen as politicians sang the praises of charter schools, and how much of an improvement they are over regular public schools.
Now that a new study has shown that has not been the case in Kansas City, the accompanying video gives charter school proponents' reasons why they did not do as well as public schools.
Why, these kids were two to three years behind grade level when they came to the charter schools, so you can't expect miracles. It was the traditional public schools that failed them. Or even worse, it was the kids themselves.
If that is the case, then why is it that the traditional public schools did better than the charter schools on tests. I find it hard to believe that the charters deliberately chose the lowest scoring students.
The sad news is that the traditional public schools and the charter schools, which are also public, which do not have to follow all of the rules and regulations, all fell short on the tests.
It is time that our politicians stop mouthing the same tired platitudes about education and admit that the real key to improving education is to improve the conditions in which these children are living. There are problems in public education, but as long as we allow the issue to be defined as being limited to bad teachers (or perhaps I should say teacher unions), the problem will never be solved.
All we will have once the teacher unions are destroyed, is an even worse version of what is going on now in American education- the rich will get educated and the poor will be condemned to stay that way.
What rules and regulations are you referring to? Charter schools, as public schools, do have to follow all the rules and regulations that district schools do. However, charter schools don't have to work within the district's bureaucracy. Which, I believe can be a good thing. It would be nice if all schools could have more autonomy.
ReplyDeleteLet me take a wild guess here, I bet you are white!
ReplyDelete10:47 - I can't stop laughing. I bet Condalezza Rice would disagree with you as would Colin Powell and many other blacks or African Americans or whatever we call them now. I'm not sure even THEY know what to call themselves, I try NOT to refer to them either way 'cause I just don't know the correct name anymore. I think they're just plain ol' Americans but what do I know....I'm white.
ReplyDeleteLet me assure you, I know plenty of inbred white boys who can barely tie their shoes let alone balance a checkbook or read a newspaper. While their tattooed, toothless girlfriends spit out another baby and draw WIC funding the inbred boyfriend votes Republican and cannot wait for the "revolution"? (Who the hell knows what they're talking about in those trailers?)
I do think the message today boys and girls is if you vote Republican you will get what you vote for. How many have to be homeless before the American people get it?
"They" refers to Republicans.
They hate the unions so if you're a union worker, police, fire, whoever, you are officially NEXT. Disregard that slap on the back last summer when you're rep greeted you at the 4th of July. He will vote to end your life as you know it in a heartbeat. He hates organized labor, he thinks organized labor steals money from the rich, and he hates you for being part of it. Deal with it.
They abhor public education. Education, in a nutshell, should be ONLY for the rich. The multitudes should be poor, uneducated and work for peanuts. See Haiti? See Jamaica? See the 3rd world countries and their employee/employer status? THIS is Republican Utopia---no matter what comes out of their mouth they believe in two classes only. Rich and dirt poor. Guess which one you are? Deal with it.
Republicans represent the rich.
-Oil companies
-Insurance companies
-Doctors
-Big Pharm
-Anyone else with a few million to rub together who needs a tax credit or something deregulated and will pay for it dearly. Up to and including a testicle.
Democrats represent the working class and the poor (soon to be you).
Always been this way, always will be.
You pay the highest price for ignorance. You see, many of the striking teachers and public workers in Wisconsin....voted Republican. How funny is that? They are heard saying, "Now I get it....", and, "....never again....".
Mr. Turner is obviously unfamiliar with this dramatic public-to-charter success story mentioned by Pres. Obama duringh last month's SOTU.
ReplyDeleteThese schools are the norm, not the exception.
Mr. Turner is obviously, also, unfamiliar with the unmitigated, 40 year long disaster called the KCMO school district.
Recently, the Missouri Supreme Court said parents who send their children to a fully unaccredited school district can have the option to leave for a better performing adjoining district.
The KCMO school district received $2 billion tax dollars during the 80s and 90s for improvements.
The KCMO school district is STILL unaccredited.
Arthur Benson, the attorney who prosecuted the lawsuit to grab those 2 billion tax dollars now sits on the KCMO school board.
The KCMO school district has had 23 superintendents during the last 30 years.
"Dysfunctional" - bordering on criminal - does not begin to describe the KCMO school district.
I don't believe the Charter management "blamed" the kids for their poor performance, anymore than did Mr. Turner blame the kids for their terrible living conditions.
And those terrible living conditions are something THE PARENTS - not some misguided sense of social justice - must fix.
But the 40 year dysfunction of the KCMO school district AND the terrible living conditions MUST BE considered for causation of the horrid test scores, whether public school or charter school.
To ignore that conclusion is simply to facilitate the malfeasance and damn yet another generation.