As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe
Jim Horn is the most vocal critic of our nation’s (and the District’s) largest nonprofit charter school network, KIPP. Among journalists, I am KIPP’s most enthusiastic supporter.
That makes me an odd judge of Horn’s new book on KIPP and schools like it, “Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through ‘No Excuses’ Teaching.” But I think he deserves attention as a hard-working scholar and talented writer who brings together, from several sources, concerns about the rapid growth of charter schools similar to KIPP.
I wish the book were not so one-sided. In the great tradition of American polemics, Horn is entitled to his strongly anti-KIPP view. But he never satisfactorily explains how a charter network, if it is as harmful to teachers and children as he says, could attract nearly 70,000 students to 183 campuses in 20 states and the District.
Support for KIPP’s exceptional principal training, teacher creativity and additional learning time is so strong among parents, researchers, politicians, funders, the media and young educators that arguments on the other side often go unheard. Horn examines the thorniest issues, such as the dependence of KIPP-like charters on wealthy foundations and government grants, whose money they use in addition to their per-pupil allotment of tax dollars.
The independently run public charters are usually outside the reach of elected school boards and teacher unions. Some critics say they are out of sync with democratic values and push children too hard. Horn, a professor of As a KIPP supporter, this new book about charter schools is hard to believe - The Washington Post:
