The Facts About KIPP That Kevin Chavous Ignores
The other day at Huffington Post, school privatization advocate, Kevin Chavous, gave a “shout out” to KIPP, Inc., the nation’s largest corporate chain of charter schools and certainly the most popular high-rolling philanthro-capitalists who would never send their own children to one of these total compliance lockdown schools. As is customary for KIPP promoters, Chavous tries to portray the KIPP chain gang model as an outgrowth of the late Harriet Ball’s teaching method.
We know, however, from Jay Mathews’ saccharine tribute (Work Hard, Be Nice) to KIPP founders, Mike Feinberg and David Levin, Harriet Ball did not want her name associated with KIPP’s penal version of her own tough, yet loving, approach to teaching. In fact, a former KIPP teacher whom I interviewed for an extended