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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
- how, if we are underfunding existing schools, will bringing on-line MORE underfunded schools going to help? And, where is the money (something around $10-15M per year just for administration) going to come from? There is NO revenue for this.
- this bill is really 3 bills in one; charters, transformation zone schools (basically, underperforming schools taken over, charter-style, by the state) and a parent trigger law which would allow an approved charter to take over an EXISTING school if the majority of parents OR teachers signed a petition saying that's what they want
We should not be passing bills with multiple issues; we don't do that for initiatives or referendums.
- the charter portion of the bill would allow for-profit companies to run/manage any charter school
- even though the thrust of the charter bill is to help educationally disadvantaged kids, there is not enough strength to it to make SURE the majority of the charters would serve these kids AND be high-quality.
Lastly, the Washington State voters have visited this issue THREE times and THREE times said no.
We're not stupid and charters don't look any better with the vantage point of more time.
This should stop.
Melissa Westbrook
Seattle School Community Forum blog
The extreme religious right has been open and blunt that they are using this as a means to bring the country closer to a theocracy, their ideal form of government. As it becomes more difficult to indoctrinate well-educated, critical thinking and skeptical individuals as they progress into adulthood, it is necessary to get them while they're young.
In many ways, I see a direct parallel between the Madrasa school systems in many middle eastern countries, and the rise in private Christian charter schools in this country. Both serve the ends of the extreme religious right of their respective countries, and both undermine the very foundation of a free society.
While I don't think we have regressed as far as many other countries, if this system goes unchecked, it would only take a few generations before a growing horde of brainwashed religious zealots demand a theocratic government for all. Far fetched? It's already happened in many countries, and it would be our folly to believe "It could never happen here."
Charters and Gates-led reform garbage are the next mortgage debacle. Public education is the only thing left they haven't raped.
One, charters are public schools and anyone can enroll in one. An interesting aspect of this bill is that a student ANYWHERE can enroll in any charter. For example, a student from Redmond could attend a charter in Seattle. If a charter is overenrolled, a lottery will occur. (The exception here is that up to 10% of of charter seats can be set-aside for founders' children, staff children and charter board members' children.)
Two, various groups/entities would have to apply to one of several "authorizers" to have their charter approved. A charter can only apply to one authorizer. If that charter is approved, the authorizer also oversees the charter school's work.
(1) $$$$$
(2) Fuck you, teachers' unions.
(3) shitty public schools
(4) old-ass teachers who stopped giving a fuck in 1979
If there is an innovative instructional strategy that charter schools are using that gets better results, there is no reason that public schools could not adopt that strategy.
The call for charter schools is a distraction from solving our problems. The real solution is to take the steps necessary to counter the absence of necessary educational supports in children's homes. Not only would this be expensive, much of the work is perceived to be outside the proper role of the school. So the very people who are kvetching about school failure are the same people who won't allow the schools to implement the necessary fixes.
If the problem is that our public schools are not responsive to the needs of our children and families, then the solution is to get involved in the governance of our schools to make them responsive. If we cannot get school districts, the most locally controlled form of government we have, to be responsive to the needs of the people, then what hope is there for democracy on any level?
Finally, despite all of the talk about how "shitty" our public schools are, they are actually pretty damn good. For all of the talk about how many bad teachers we have, they are actually very rare. Neither the schools nor the teachers are the source of the perceived failures.
I taught in a Title I school in the Seattle area for four years. We were consistently labeled "failing" by the feds because our refugee ELL students without any formal education couldn't pass the WASL/MSP. I taught with dedicated, hardworking colleagues who busted their asses for our students, both in and out of the classroom. I had colleagues who legally adopted "problem" children who couldn't be placed in foster care because of their unpredictable behavior. Corporate school reform, charter schools and teacher's unions busting are all connected by an overarching scheme to make money off of public schools. I gave up and moved to another country to teach, but I'm always heartened to see people like you fighting the good fight back at home.
The alternative schools/charter schools in that area of town worked their asses off to reach and educate kids. These kids struggled with the standard education system for a lot of reasons; homelessness, parental neglect, academic gaps, behavior problems, etc. The smaller setting and more personalized attention worked very well for lots of those kids. I did not see the corporate model of charter school decried here. I can't tell you anything about their test scores, but I can say that some kids I thought were lost, ended up graduating from those programs.
Of course, the regular school I worked at tried hard as well. We had free breakfast for all kids, after school programs, counseling, tutoring, and a talented, dedicated staff. It still doesn't work for all kids. It was good to have an option for the ones on the margins.
Children of color and indigent peoples do not need regimentation, assimilation, and molding into the Euro/American image and mindset. Each of us NEEDS to be ourselves and not LOSE what distinguishes us, makes us unique. Education should nurture the discovery of our strengths, and provide tools to help us grow. Our education system is little more than a factory for political and corporate interests. In America it denies and minimizes the contributions of non-European and non-American cultures and people. It distorts the truth of this country's genocidal and exploitive past, making it impossible for children to learn from these mistakes and dooms them to repeat and create more of the same mistakes. Most of all public education is intentionaly being pervert ever more to produce brainwashed automatons for political and corporate interests.
Schools in the ghettos fail, if failing worse than those in wealthy neighborhood is any meaningful measure, for some basic economic reasons too numerous and obvious to list for this comment. We need re-focus the pubic education conversation on real, substantial improvements in public education, not quick fix-all panaceas like charter school outsourcing but instead on how best to educate ALL children in the way that produces knoiwledgable, creative thinkers and problem solvers. We're going to need them more than ever if we're to survive as a species.
Nice company so-called Democrats Rodney Tom and Eric Pettigrew are keeping. Expected as much from the union-busting 'Democrats for Education Reform" and 'Stand on the Children'
1) education degrees don't cut it - core degrees do
2) tenure should be terminated
3) the curriculum has sunken to pure muck and it needs to return to the 3 R's without the political correctness that ruined it. Raise all boats instead of lowering them.
4) there needs to be different tracks within each grade to allow enough focus with gifted and regular students
5) if the state will not bend and the electorate does not get it - then charter schools need to be the alternative and we will see what happens - but we know the present system is a failure since the 1960's.
6) teacher unions - please - that has helped sink the system and right to work needs to be the law of the land.
I don't see why we would want to limit options, especially when public education is being underfunded. This is not as clear are corporate vs. communist, there are a lot of different ways to design the schools' charters and Rep. Pettigrew's proposal was very thoughtful. As the only African-American lawmaker in our entire state legislature, he deserves to at least have his points heard.
This isn't about the corporations or the teachers unions or the government or the alphabet soup, this is--or should be--about the students.
If a small number of charter schools could make a difference in outcomes for even a few children, shouldn't we let them have that opportunity?
Note that 83% of the chartered schools in the 2009 CREDO study performed about the same or worse than public schools. So why spend so much time, energy and resources on a solution that's clearly not that much better than the existing structure? Who then would support charters?
Well, like every other conservative "solution" to current social problems, this one ends up with a few people making money off the deal, while the rest of us are left holding the bag.
Note that 83% of the chartered schools in the 2009 CREDO study performed about the same or worse than public schools. So why spend so much time, energy and resources on a solution that's clearly not that much better than the existing structure? Who then would support charters?
Well, like every other conservative "solution" to current social problems, this one ends up with a few people making money off the deal, while the rest of us are left holding the bag.
A large majority of Americans appear to already know that raising revenue is necessary and GOPers are certainly not going to make the case for it, so what are Democrats waiting for to lead on this issue?
Here's reality- There's this thing called an Income Tax. It is an idea that keeps getting shot down by the bullie$ and the idiots who believe them, but it is a viable long-term solution to much of what is wrong here.
But fuck-it, instead let's take more money away from schools and at the same time vilify the teachers who are still trying to educate our kids with less and less and less. 99% of the teachers i have worked with were dedicated to their vocation, the students were THEIR kids and they cared deeply about them. Some of the comments here about lazy teachers who should have retired years ago were obviously written by people who take their heads out of their asses long enough to hit the bong and watch Fast Times.
BTW, there are a shit-load of parents out that are opposed to charters. They are getting organized and aren't being funded by Gates, or anyone for that matter. This story is incomplete without them.
Here's reality- There's this thing called an Income Tax. It is an idea that keeps getting shot down by the bullie$ and the idiots who believe them, but it is a viable long-term solution to much of what is wrong here.
But fuck-it, instead let's take more money away from schools and at the same time vilify the teachers who are still trying to educate our kids with less and less and less. 99% of the teachers i have worked with were dedicated to their vocation, the students were THEIR kids and they cared deeply about them. Some of the comments here about lazy teachers who should have retired years ago were obviously written by people who take their heads out of their asses long enough to hit the bong and watch Fast Times.
BTW, there are a shit-load of parents out that are opposed to charters. They are getting organized and aren't being funded by Gates, or anyone for that matter. This story is incomplete without them.
You gather that 250 million in tuition a year "is not" enough for a colledge and say 400*80,000 is 32 million for teachers and about the same for labs books and class room needs?
so we are up 64 million out of 250
186 million left and we got building maintnence and heat and water and security and renovations and funiture and your basic housing of 7000 students paying 30 grand a year for tuition?
we can take that as another 64 million so we are 128 million out of 250 mill so we got 122 million remaining for what?
Foot ball coaches? beer? class rooms on the moon at the Gingrich campus? Moon Newt scholorship?
More Tax for more what? more Football coaches and bar-bell weight rooms and Moon Newt Scholorships to Moon University?
The technology was to make education better and cheaper and green technology was to preserve energy and make housing more efficient but none the less I am left with every aspect of America whining and the reason is nobody understands the fourmula?????????????????????????????
The stringent disciplinary code that Noble Street officials say many parents find attractive netted up to 10 Noble campuses $386,745 over the last three school years, according to documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act by Parents United, the Advancement Project civil rights group and a student group called VOYCE.
The biggest windfall, the FOIA showed, was garnered at Noble’s Rowe-Clark Campus, which raked in $28,935 last school year alone amid an enrollment of 538.
Noble Street officials said they merely charge a “fee” — not a “fine’’ — to partially cover the cost of supervising detention or behavior classes.
Detention classes go back decades and in some Catholic schools were referred to as JUG, or Justice Under God. However, the Chicago Archdiocese doesn’t charge for them, said a spokesman for its Office of Catholic Schools.