Charter Schools: The End of Public Education As We Know It?
Have you noticed the gradual creep of the charter school movement—the slippery slope meant to take over free public education as we know it and transform our schools to elitist institutions?
It touts itself as the best way to educate our children but it defies the principals upon which our public education system has been built (commencing all the way back to the early tradition of free public schools espoused by our leaders during the American Revolutionary period).
Sure, many charters boast high scores, but those results are often skewed because at-risk children, those with a variety of disabilities, many from dysfunctional backgrounds, and others are far too often not part of most charter programs—deliberate “exclusions” that at first blush help make the charters, particularly the independent ones, look so good.
Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS), near to where I live, opened several years ago with an atmosphere that reminded me of a police state–cameras and invasive ID cards everywhere (Big Brother constantly looking over everyone’s shoulder, including the teachers and other staff members). [I refer to GHCHS because what they do there seems emblematic of what transpires at so many other independent charters.]
Parents, blinded perhaps by the good grades that many of their children receive, seem unaware of the trend away from the long-held and cherished tenets of public education.
Parents, blinded perhaps by the good grades that many of their children receive, seem unaware of the trend away from the long-held and cherished tenets of public education.
Many of my middle school students who went on to attend GHCHS would return to me to complain about the practices of what was then a new charter. These visits often reflected views from students representing a wide spectrum of abilities. A genuine feeling of despair seemed to emanate from many of these young people.
Yes, GHCHS has gone on to win the Academic Decathlon and that says a lot. At the same time, however, I would frequently hear of students not being accepted for enrollment in that charter because they were deemed by charter officials, often unfairly and for who knows what reasons, not to be assets to the GH concepts of academia—in an effort, perhaps, to skew testing results in the school’s favor in the future.
My question is, Where, then, do such students go who do not make GH enrollment? What will be Charter Schools: The End of Public Education As We Know It? - LA Progressive:
