Time to regulate what charters are teaching
Friday, March 19, 2010
When writing about charter schools, journalists regularly include some variation of this sentence: "Charters are independently operated public schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional schools." One of those rules that some charters ignore is the U.S. Constitution.
Two charters, both cited as models that traditional schools should emulate, must include a warped version of the First Amendment in their civics curriculum. The schools, American Indian Model Schools in Oakland and Green Dot Public Schools' Locke High School in Los Angeles, are so committed to indoctrinating students with their promoters' economic ideology that they require students to recite pro-capitalist pledges or prove that they believe in the economics of Adam Smith.
California's social studies guidelines do not even mention capitalism, although the economics section could have been written by Milton Friedman.
At Oakland's American Indian Public Charter School, the school's director, John P. Glover, refuses to confirm that his students are required to recite a pledge to capitalism, yet that the kids recited such a statement - to be "productive members in a free-market capitalist society" - was reported by Los Angeles Times staff writer Mitchell Landsberg in May 2009 after he visited the school.
Public schools, charter or traditional, can't require students to believe in any ideology. Even requiring a belief in democracy violates students' right to believe in whatever political system they wish.
Traditional schools require no loyalty oath beyond a flag salute. Even then, no student is required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or to demonstrate a belief in it. While courts have ruled that the pledge is legal, kids have a right not to recite it and can remain in school.
Financed by conservative billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, charters willingly carry out the indoctrination their benefactors seek. Their loyalty oaths ban students who don't kowtow to a school's ideology. Not all residents of the state are deemed equal. Their families may pay taxes, but the kids are banned from the schools because they won't demonstrate a belief i
California's social studies guidelines do not even mention capitalism, although the economics section could have been written by Milton Friedman.
Public schools, charter or traditional, can't require students to believe in any ideology. Even requiring a belief in democracy violates students' right to believe in whatever political system they wish.
Traditional schools require no loyalty oath beyond a flag salute. Even then, no student is required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or to demonstrate a belief in it. While courts have ruled that the pledge is legal, kids have a right not to recite it and can remain in school.
Financed by conservative billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, charters willingly carry out the indoctrination their benefactors seek. Their loyalty oaths ban students who don't kowtow to a school's ideology. Not all residents of the state are deemed equal. Their families may pay taxes, but the kids are banned from the schools because they won't demonstrate a belief i
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/18/ED3P1CHUEH.DTL#ixzz0ijxJDS9l