Hunger strike against school closures begins in Philadelphia

[maf763]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

Charters found a great way around the asinine bussing law, which ruined all the good neighborhood schools. Now the charters can accept neighborhood kids first and the rest via lottery as long as long as the kids and parents show how impostant education is by most charters requiring admission papers and the like. The Charters are saving the city schools.. If it were not for the charters the city would have NO good public schools and would lose more families..

Up to a point. Charters start from a position of advantage in that they are not a default setting for students like the neighborhood schools are. And a number of charters have indeed taken advantage of that to provide a quality public education for many kids. However, there are also a bunch of corrupt charters that bleed resources, take advantage of teachers, and provide a crap education.

I think the issue that some people have with charters is not necessarily with the schools themselves, but that the system has been gamed to transfer public funding to private operators, not all of whom are exactly dedicated to the betterment of their students. And for every student that goes to a charter school, there are three left behind in a neighborhood school that is being pinched to a potentially dangerous point. This has created a stratification in the city between kids who can get a good education (and whose parents know how the system works) and kids who can't. This latter group is often starting behind the eight ball to begin with. The intensity of these protests is coming from a place of people not being willing to write off so many kids. Frank, you have mentioned being in the field, so I'd be curious to hear your take on this.

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

Charters found a great way around the asinine bussing law, which ruined all the good neighborhood schools. Now the charters can accept neighborhood kids first and the rest via lottery as long as long as the kids and parents show how impostant education is by most charters requiring admission papers and the like. The Charters are saving the city schools.. If it were not for the charters the city would have NO good public schools and would lose more families..

Lots of hyperbole here! I do agree with you that deseg busing was problematic. I do not agree with you that busing ruined all the good neighborhood schools, or that there are NO good public schools outside of Charter schools. Busing for deseg isn't even something that happens very much anymore (although... busing kids to charter schools does happen a lot), so I don't think it's really all that relevant.

I do not have a problem with Charter Schools per se. At least not all of them. Because they are not all the same. You can't paint them all with the same brush, just like you can't paint all traditional public schools with the same brush. Some Charter Schools are great schools, set up and run by people with the very best of intentions. And some of them are corrupt scams for embezzling public funds at the expense of kids. But one thing that's pretty clear is the net effect of Charter Schools upon the public education system. They precipitate a two-tiered public education system, with one tier being set up to fail, and used as a crutch by the other. To me, this is not "saving" the city schools. It's dismantling the public education system.
And it is disturbing to me, as well as some of the people protesting, that some of the same people that are rolling out the red carpet for for-profit 'public' education are the same people who are also supporting the expansion of our outrageously bloated for-profit prison system. As seemingly one is set up to feed the other.

[frankgn87]

Originally Posted by maf763

Up to a point. Charters start from a position of advantage in that they are not a default setting for students like the neighborhood schools are. And a number of charters have indeed taken advantage of that to provide a quality public education for many kids. However, there are also a bunch of corrupt charters that bleed resources, take advantage of teachers, and provide a crap education.

I think the issue that some people have with charters is not necessarily with the schools themselves, but that the system has been gamed to transfer public funding to private operators, not all of whom are exactly dedicated to the betterment of their students. And for every student that goes to a charter school, there are three left behind in a neighborhood school that is being pinched to a potentially dangerous point. This has created a stratification in the city between kids who can get a good education (and whose parents know how the system works) and kids who can't. This latter group is often starting behind the eight ball to begin with. The intensity of these protests is coming from a place of people not being willing to write off so many kids. Frank, you have mentioned being in the field, so I'd be curious to hear your take on this.

Like you say, there are indeed people who started Charters with the intent of making $, not on producing a stellar education. These has been failing and are out of business, or will be shortly. The excellent Charters are going strong due to proper management and top notch teachers and staff.

[frankgn87]

Originally Posted by rotodome

L
I do not have a problem with Charter Schools per se. At least not all of them. Because they are not all the same. You can't paint them all with the same brush, just like you can't paint all traditional public schools with the same brush. Some Charter Schools are great schools, set up and run by people with the very best of intentions. And some of them are corrupt scams for embezzling public funds at the expense of kids. But one thing that's pretty clear is the net effect of Charter Schools upon the public education system. They precipitate a two-tiered public education system, with one tier being set up to fail, and used as a crutch by the other. To me, this is not "saving" the city schools. It's dismantling the public education system.
And it is disturbing to me, as well as some of the people protesting, that some of the same people that are rolling out the red carpet for for-profit 'public' education are the same people who are also supporting the expansion of our outrageously bloated for-profit prison system. As seemingly one is set up to feed the other.

Trust me when I talk about public and Charters. Just trust me.. That all I'm saying

[maf763]

C'mon, man, you're sidestepping.

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

Trust me when I talk about public and Charters. Just trust me.. That all I'm saying

Sorry, you'll have to do a little better than that if you want blind trust.