Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them
Many individuals, groups, newspapers, and organizations claim that they oppose charter schools. But, revealing ongoing confusion, they also say, often in the same breath, that “there are some good charter schools out there,” that “not all charter schools are rotten,” that “charter schools are not a ‘panacea’ but can be part of the solution,” that “charter schools may provide a good alternative for at least some students,” or that “charter schools should be given a chance” (even though they have been around for more than 25 years). Such contradictory statements are not uncommon, keep many intellectually disoriented, and undermine social progress.
Typically, such forces effectively describe several damning and indicting problems inherent to charter schools, usually enough for the average rational person to rapidly conclude that charter schools should be eliminated immediately, but then instantly equivocate and insert some statement directly or indirectly supporting charter schools. This normalized indecisiveness has been haunting people for years because the analysis, outlook, and consciousness behind it are limited and outmoded.
Even though there is no justification for the existence, let alone expansion, of nonprofit and for-profit charter schools in America, it is nearly impossible to find forces who resolutely answer the call of history to oppose the entireneoliberal concept and practice of charter schools from beginning to end. Instead of defending public schools unequivocally and rejecting all attempts to loot them, we get hedging and ambivalence; lots of fence-riding, often cast as a “balanced view” or “reasonable position.”
Objectively speaking, pay-the-rich neoliberal schemes like charter schools will continue to harm thousands of public schools in many ways, especially as they continue to multiply freely. They will continue to damage society and the economy as well, mainly due to widespread crimes, scandals, waste, fraud, corruption, and racketeering. Charter schools will also continue to under- Continue reading: Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them | Dissident Voice
