Proposing more OKC charters a ‘high-stakes gamble’
John Rex Elementary, downtown OKC, Feb. 29, 2016. (Josh McBee)
When a new mass charterization plan was presented to the Oklahoma City Public School System Board of Education last week, “tempers flared … and a standing room-only crowd cheered and jeered,” according to NewsOK’s Tim Willert.
The “Quality Seats Program,” as it has been branded, is a risky effort to expand OKC charters, and it is doubly disappointing.
First, it doesn’t resemble an actionable education plan. The proposal to expand charters doesn’t look like an effort to improve schools as much as it appears to be a payday loan for getting past the budget crisis by treating up to one-eighth of the OKCPS as collateral.
The district apparently would replace neighborhood schools with charters to “… solicit more corporate support … that will alleviate some of the strain on the district to come up with operational money,” according to another NewsOK article from their education reporter.
The most likely result would be the failure of a number of hastily created charter schools and an exodus of poor children of color from near-downtown schools to already Proposing more OKC charters a 'high-stakes gamble' - NonDoc:
