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| Charter schools already outnumber public schools two to one, and that is the model being embraced in many places around the country. |
Courtesy of the Louisiana Educator:
The education reformers in Michigan and Ohio were told that Louisiana had achieved almost a miracle in student achievement by taking over low achieving schools using a State Recovery School District (RSD) and converting these schools into semi-autonomous charter schools. The news out of Louisiana was so good according to reform activists, that other states should hurry to copy this plan and also produce stunning results for their students. So I understand that Ohio and Michigan have now formed Recovery Districts patterned after the Louisiana model.
There is only one problem with the Louisiana Recovery District model. It does not work! In fact when Louisiana tried to expand its own Recovery District beyond the New Orleans school system, the result can only be described as a clear failure. After 4 years, out of the twelve schools taken over by the state RSD and converted to charters outside of New Orleans, all of them are still rated “F”, and on average have declined slightly instead of improving. But not only have the schools declined academically, enrollment has dropped by an average of 39%. See the linked spreadsheet. So when Governor Jindal touts the success of parental choice, it must be recognized that many parents are “choosing” to pull their children out of the State sponsored choice charter schools!
So how could the news out of Louisiana have been so wrong? How could an entire nationwide model for school reform be based on a failing program? How could Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst organization have rated Louisiana as number one in the nation in providing the best education reforms for the benefit of children? How could the highly touted “Chiefs for Change” have chosen the Louisiana Recovery School District as a model for reform across the nation? How could former State Superintendent Pastorek under whose watch the RSD was developed be headlined around the country along with Rhee as one of the heroes of successful school reform?
It's actually hard to believe that in a country that prides itself in having a news media that provides for fact checking of bogus claims by both government and private business that so much misinformation could continue to influence public policy. The fact is that the corporate reform advocates have put out a story about Louisiana's Recovery District that is 100% spin and and most of the media have swallowed it. I guess everyone is hoping so much for a miracle solution to low achievement by our at-risk schools that we are willing to believe a totally bogus story of success. It is the classic rainmaker scam, where the people wish so hard for a miracle that we can be easily taken in by the charlatans.
Maybe the scam of the privatizers worked because the New Orleans Recovery District experienced such great success with its charters. Actually based on the facts, I don't see how the New Orleans charters can be portrayed as a success of any kind. See this recent analysis of the New Orleans Recovery District by Charles Hatfield of Research on Reforms.
When the New Orleans Recovery District was formed by a special law right before Hurricane Katrina, it was allowed to take over any school in New Orleans that was rated as below the state average. This means that from the beginning the RSD already contained a fair number of "non-failing" schools. Following Katrina, there was a mad scramble by the various charter operators to attract the best students. Also some of the better connected charter operators such as KIPP were able to get huge grants from both government and private foundations and therefore were able to pick the most motivated students and supportive parents by offering an enriched program. As a result, out of 70 charters (mostly charters) now operating in the N. O. RSD, 5 are rated as “B” schools, 5 are rated as “C” schools and all the rest are D's and F's. Some of the well connected spin doctors supporting this movement were able to tout the accomplishments of the few successful schools and ignore all the unsuccessful ones. The fact is that the New Orleans RSD is rated above only the poverty stricken St Helena district which is mostly run by the RSD anyway. Taken as a whole, the RSD is dead last in the state! The New Orleans Recovery District is one of the lowest performing large school systems in the country. Ranking better than only Washington DC which was “reformed” by none other than Michelle Rhee. I am simply amazed at the ignorance of our policy makers and news media when it comes to analyzing the performance of Louisiana's RSD!
I believe that these skewed results are purposeful, and widespread, and that they are used as a tool to falsify data in order to undermine public schools in order to eventually do away with them and replace them with education systems that are more malleable to those that want only a CERTAIN kind of education disseminated to the future consumers, workers, and voters of this nation.
And if that sounds a little overly conspiratorial to you, then you my friend need to pay muhc closer attention.
ALEC
ReplyDeleteCall me a conspiracy theorist but I have been saying for years that the Republicans are purposely taking money away from public education in order to "dumb down" the schools which creates a "dumbed down" populace.
ReplyDeleteI thought one of the most desirable aspects of our country was the education system, (besides the FREEDOM of course ;)). I can't understand why more people aren't speaking up about this.
-Ayerishgrl
It started with Reagan in the 1980s, and the whole "ketchup is a vegetable" debacle where students had to choose between the greasy, over-salted tater tots and the ketchup to cut the grease. Then school lunches were sold out to outside vendors and fast-food places McDonald's. Then there was Chimpy the Wonder pResident and his "no child left untested" scheme, whereby all schoolchildren must score higher, ever higher, higher still on the mandatory month-long tests or the school loses funding. Now the mask has dropped and there's a flat-out war against schools.
DeleteNo. It started with Reagans' PR propaganda "A Nation at Risk". Totally bogus. Designed to make the schools look like they were failing when they weren't. Lies, damned lies and statistics.
DeleteHow many times is it quoted? The media bought it without doing due diligence. And the Sandia report that debunked it was quashed by Bush Sr.
Then they started with the "cut the fat" crap. There was no fat. But you continue to take money away and you will eventually see a downward spiral, which we are in now.
They cut the librarians. They cut the arts. They cut the field trips. They cut home economics and industrial arts. They cut physical education except at the high school level because you need those football and basketball players to recruit for college and pro ball. But a lot of other PE goes.
Now we have STEM which is the basics. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. I suppose they'll allow some reading and writing. But if you read Common Core it is all NON-fiction oriented. So forget any literature.
Did you notice no history or social studies? No geography. We haven't had that for over a decade.
You can't continue to provide the quality of education we had in the 60s when even the shoestring is being trimmed shorter and shorter.
I graduated HS in 2004, my brother in 2011. If you put the two of us together, we would make a pretty well rounded person.
DeleteI took honors and AP English and history classes, and got a perfect score on the verbal portion of my SAT. Yet I never took a math class harder than geometry, nor a math class harder than earth science.
My brother, on the other hand, took honor and AP science classes such as chemistry and physics, and calculus. Yet he is a horrible essay writer.
He's at college now studying to be an engineer. I graduated with a degree in English.
We both went to great public schools, yet I know my brother will be able to use his degree to get a job in his field. My degree is just an expensive piece of paper.
I think the answer is quiet simple, Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst organization, former State Superintendent Pastorek and Governor Jindal are all fundies. They want the freedom of non-secular schools to usurp public protections preventing their faith from coating every topic and behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just call them Bob Jones Elementary and Secondary Schools? We'll have children walking around with concealed carry and a Bible in hand saying that fallen angels from heaven make the god blessed oil in the earth for us to use for our thirsty needs.
I've been in some of these Charter schools. They're a JOKE.
ReplyDeleteThe main stream media defines lazy. They never call to account the lies nor the liars, Romney was able to lie, lie, lie, and even brag about his ability and license to do so. Look what has happened to Meet the Press, a once respected news show, holding court for McCain and like minded right wing "conservatives". lucky we have the internet.
ReplyDeleteI have several family members that are public school teachers. I'm for competition for the public school system. The article does say that there were some successful charter schools. Take a look and see what they are doing to make them successful. To the others, make them shape up or pull funding. Not that I am against public education because there are excellent public schools in our area but competition makes everyone better. One of the big problems that President Obama has mentioned is the lack of involvement of parents. The best schools seem to have a great working relationship between parents and teachers. There are many parents with children in poor perfoming schools that want an alternative that CERTAIN kind of education.
ReplyDeleteTrue, parents are a key to successful education of children. However, in today's economy there aren't many low - middle income families where both parents aren't working and the time to spend with your kids doing school work is ultimately much harder to obtain.
DeleteExcuses, excuses! My mom worked full time and my dad worked several jobs and a business. Both of them made time to be with us as children and keep up with how we were doing in school. They would hold the school accountable if they felt something was wrong on that side. They would put a foot in my behind if I wasn't doing what I had the capability to do.
DeleteIts obvious that the Republicans have no critical thinking skills. They want to dumb down the nation in order to be able to control it. But a dumb nation cannot make wise, informed decisions, and therefore will ultimately fail. Just like the kid who won't play the game by the rules, but then destroys the ball so nobody can play with it.
ReplyDeleteWHEN will this nation wake up?!
They don't CARE about education.
DeleteThey want the MONEY.
It comes down to this.
ReplyDeleteThere are only two pots of tax payer dollars that the private for-profits have been unable to grab: Social Security and public education.
If you're an adult in your 30s or older, you'll remember pendulum pushes back and forth for either privatizing Social Security or education (through charters or vouchers).
Both have been repeatedly defeated.
However No Child Left Behind that was the camel's nose. Now you have the threat of the government taking over the schools. So money was rerouted from public education into the for profit private sector for tutorials, supplements, and of course TESTING. Little by little money has been drained away. And for no reason because testing does nothing to actually educate a child. Nor does testing provide any substance to enable an educator to improve instruction. All testing does is get politicians re-elected and allow private corporations to drain more money out of the schools.
BTW for those of you really decrepit, Ronald Reagan's "Nation at Risk" was pure bogus. It was crap designed to spin public opinion against public education and teachers so that it could be privatized for profit. I'll give you a link if you'd like.
The media has been only too culpable in enabling this process. What a juicy story it is to vilify teachers (and their unions), place blame, etc. It sells newspapers and advertising on network news shows.
Now that the schools are in a downward spiral (because of increasingly choked funding to pay for their basic purpose, funds having been diverted to increasingly bloated "accountability" boondogles) you just watch as they turn their attention back to Social Security. They want their hands on that money too. When the law regarding investments for public pension plans was changed, you saw that money slip away to Wall St. Now they want the Social Security money. Once they've got that, you can kiss any 401 money goodbye if it's not gone already.
We will quickly become a nation of a few rich and many poor. And you will see our elderly shuffling with their shopping carts along the street, looking for cardboard to build a shelter.
Yes, it is all about the money.
They want those last to in accessible pots: social security and education. And they won't stop until they get both of them.
I totally agree. It's been my experience as well, many of the public schools in my city (ironically mostly in poor and middle class neighborhoods) are closing, and yet, the for profit driven charter schools are getting funded by the public, private corporations, "sponsored gifts" from the rich (tax write off time, we got six pleas to put charter schools in our wills and to "gift" money and unsold stock.
DeleteWhat's wrong with this picture?
FWIW, I wouldn't let my children walk past a charter school, let alone attend one.
Stacie Halas can move to Alaska and get a job with the school of Chuckie where seniority gives you the right to hit on young meat. In all seriousness Chuck Heath Jr. must be deemed ‘Unfit To Teach’ due to his past crimes against humanity.
ReplyDeleteTeacher Fired, Deemed ‘Unfit To Teach’ Due To Past As Porn Star ‘Tiffany Six’ http://www.mediaite.com/online/teacher-fired-deemed-unfit-to-teach-due-to-past-as-porn-star-tiffany-six/
All this is, is a way for the Republicans to reduce, or to get the state completely out of spending state money on schools, and shove all of the financial burden back to the local school districts. Creating charter schools where the state offers a certain amount for each student may should sound all and well, but it also offers the state the opportunity to decrease their contribution over time by either not keeping up with inflation, or by directly cutting the amount they pay out per student. The poorer school are often the schools they change to charter schools, and since charter schools are owned by investors or a single owner, they have to make money, and generally pay less money for teachers salaries. Because of this, they also get a higher apportion of bad teachers who are willing to work for the lower salaries.
ReplyDeleteAs a lesson from our past we all should have learned from, we should look at how states with lotteries promised voters that all state lotteries profits would only go toward schools. They may have kept to that promise, although not all did, but what they didn't tell you was their plan to reduce what the states budgeted toward education.