Friends,
Sarajane raises four important points about the drawbacks of charter schools. The biggest is that they cherry pick the richest and easiest students to teach. This is contrary to Article 9 Section 2 of our State Constitution which requires a UNIFORM system of public schools where in every child is given a fair and equal chance to succeed.
Second, charter schools involve hiring TFA teachers with only 5 weeks of training. These “teachers” are not committed to a career in education. Instead, they work an average of less than 2 years as teachers before moving on to a more profitable career. The problem with this lack of training and lack of experience is that novice teachers tend to focus on lower order fact based learning. However, true problem solving requires higher order thinking focused on understanding not only what the problem is, but why it is and how it can be changed. This kind of focus requires BOTH 5 years of teacher training and 5 years of actual experience in the classroom. Teaching is not so much a natural gift as it is a skill which is improved with years of practice. Imagine being operated on by a doctor with only 5 weeks of training!
Third, Sarajane is right that the true goal of nearly all charter schools is to corporatize, and privatize our public schools. This includes destroying the teachers union in order to lower the wages of teachers and therefore increase short-term corporate profits at the expense of the long term wellbeing of our children.
Finally, I am glad Sarajane brought up the issue of poverty. There is a mountain of research confirming the connection between poverty and low school performance. If we want schools to succeed, we need to make sure that every parent has a job with a reasonable living wage so that they can pay for a home and provide their family with food, clothing, books, toys and adequate health care. But instead of helping the poor find jobs, our State legislature recently cut funding for the Work First program – cutting child care services and housing help for 5,000 low income single moms and tossing 10,000 low income children out on the streets! All so a couple of billionaires can continue to get billion dollar tax breaks!
Race to the Top, dominated by corporate interests who are intent on destroying our public schools, has been an utter disaster for our children. It is time for all concerned citizens to get educated about the drawbacks of charter schools. This is not an honest debate on school reform. The charter school AstroTurf movement is pure corporate propaganda funded by the same billionaires who get the grotesque and unfair corporate tax breaks. Groups like the League of Education Voters and Stand for Children are literally funded by the super rich. They are an attack on our public schools – and therefore an attack on our democracy.
The real solution to this problem is to end corporate tax breaks so we can have a fair tax structure, fair school funding, jobs for all and an economy that works for all of us. For more on this, visit my website:realwashingtonstatebudget.info
Regards, David Spring M. Ed.
Director, Fair School Funding Coalition