Charters Schools Are the Problem, Not the Solution

This is how it starts.  Austerity hysterics slash funding to schools in impoverished neighborhoods  until they "fail" some arbitrary scoring system. Then the corporate/freakazoid privatization vultures swoop in with the same old charter lies about miraculous improvements.

And before you know it, your teachers are on the streets, your schools are factories for corporate drones and your tax dollars have disappeared into the pockets of privateers.

Don't fall for it, Kentucky.

Kentucky proponents of charter schools are pushing for the independently operated, publicly funded schools as a solution to the achievement gap.

A discussion of charter schools Monday at the General Assembly's Interim Joint Committee on Education centered on the achievement gap for black, poor and disabled children in Fayette County.

A panel discussion to introduce parents and community members to the topic was held Monday night at the Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library, and a similar event is planned Tuesday night in Louisville.

You know why no one ever suggests charter schools for rich, white school districts?  Because those schools don't "fail." And you know why they don't fail?  Because they have money. That's what makes children succeed in school: Money. 

Money for small classes.  Money for highly-paid teachers. Money for after-school programs and field trips and the latest materials.

Money to eradicate poverty in neighborhood, so children have safe, secure homes to go home to where they can do their homework in peace with full stomachs and no fear.,

Charter schools don't add the money which is the only thing that creates good schools.  Charters take tax dollars away from schools and leave cities in crisis.

(It is, of course, all about the money. Wall Street wants unaccountable, minimal-cost faux "schools.")

After decades of research, we know a lot about what makes for good schools. But there is also a handy shortcut for figuring this out: look where rich people send their kids. These schools invariably boast a broad curriculum taught by experienced teachers in small classes. Wisconsin’s top ten elementary schools, for instance, look nothing like Rocketship’s: they have twice as many licensed teachers per student; offer music, art, libraries, foreign languages and guidance counselors; and provide classes that are taught in person by experienced educators. 

SNIP

Thus, the charter industry seeks to build a new system of segregated education—one divided by class and geography rather than explicitly by race. Segregation may ease the politics of the industry’s expansion, allowing privileged families to see the Rocketship model as something that’s happening only to poor people, as something inconceivable in their own neighborhoods.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/11/10/3531719/meetings-in-frankfort-lexington.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy