Why won’t the charter school industry acknowledge its failures?
Nationwide, the litany of charter school outrages continues to grow. Why won't the industry reform?
Nationwide, the litany of charter school outrages continues to grow — the Network for Public Education tallied 43 negative reports on charter schools from local and national news outlets in June alone. After a recent report I coauthored with NPE executive director Carol Burris found a federal government grant program had likely wasted as much as $1 billion on charter schools that never opened or were viable for only short periods of time, Burris and her colleagues followed up with yet more research that found $1 billion is likely an underestimate.
Charter advocates continue to dismiss these scandals as products of a few “bad apples,” but negative news about charter schools is landing blows to the industry’s image in California and nationwide.
Charter-friendly candidates in the Golden State have been trounced in recent elections, and in the Democratic Party presidential primary, campaign rhetoric surrounding the schools has been uniformly negative.
The charter industry is feelinga growing anxiety about public opinion turning against their schools. But recent developments both in California and at the national level show that rather than taking up an honest conversation about real reform, the industry is responding to criticism with behind-the-scenes CONTINUE READING: Why won’t the charter school industry acknowledge its failures? | Salon.com
