CHARTER SCHOOLS CREATE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISASTER

Parents and teachers interested in education have created a monster. We can label that monster, ‘Charter Schools’. Of course, they did what they did to make things better, but have made things worse. Educational administrators, with the help of politicians, created charter schools to improve our nation’s public school system. Unfortunately, the result is often just the opposite of what charter school founders intended. What should be understandable is that they are publicly funded, which means taxpayers pay the bills for two systems of education at the same time. Does anyone really think that dividing a single resource like that will result in both systems getting better? Understandable, the proponents of charter schools have cleverly created the “charter school” label for their schools to differentiate them from public schools. In addition, in the process of convincing politicians and parents into starting the program and in their efforts to obtain money to fund charter schools, they use greatly inflated hyperbole. Unfortunately, the supporters aim much of their rhetoric at degrading “public schools” to justify their ideas. This has created a situation in which the democratic principle of equal education for everyone is suffering. Of course, everyone including myself will support ideas for better educations. A significant segment of society is an exception to that generality, which is the taxpayer who does not have children and does not want to pay to educate other peoples’ children. This segment includes those who do not want to pay taxes, which isolates this segment of society to one political party; thus, introduces politics to the charter school issue. Part of this pro charter school rhetoric includes the following: . . . school leaders should be given freedom to do whatever it takes to help students achieve and should share what works with the broader public school system so that all students benefit. Clearly, the implication is that public school teachers and administrators do not do have this freedom. The statement makes me wonder in what universe these folks live in. The answer is the universe of denigrated public schools is the one they created. Shifting tax money to charter schools understandably will result in a decrease in public school budget. By making public schools worse, they promote charter schools. This has created a vicious downward spiral of destruction to public school system, poor teacher salaries, unqualified teachers, narrower curriculum, leaky roofs, children who have to do the janitor work—everything. It should not surprise anyone there are big profits for privately owned companies who operate charter schools. The operators cleverly hide this from the public. It is a way for them, with the help of many well-meaning people, to put their hands into the pockets of the taxpayers under the guise of education and they are not shy about doing it. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated