It must be frustrating to be a Puppet these days. Because aside from the nearly Pyrrhic victory of sentencing poor workers to death, I can't think of anything of significance the the Puppetshow has actually accomplished over the past year. Unless, of course, you consider getting Hairdresser Boylan installed in the General Assembly, or perhaps the anointing of Sponge Bob Orr as Art Pope's candidate for governor.
Sure they're spending a boatload of the Puppetmaster's family fortune to buy influence with the media, but in terms of actual impact on public policy, I don't see it. For example, despite all their free-market property-rights baloney, they sat on the sidelines for years and watched the biggest federal land-grab in decades go unchallenged. It took progressive activism to help get that deal stopped, not right-wing "reports" and hand-wringing about the mean old government. And all their whining about the need to end the so-called "temporary" tax was, well, completely ineffective.
A shrewd observer might conclude that causes broadly supported by the Puppetshow in North Carolina are pretty much dead on arrival, as well they should be. The Puppets are extremists who fall completely out of the mainstream when it comes to planning, governance, fairness and equity.
One case that has been unfortunately tainted by their extremism is the case for charter schools. I am a cautious proponent of charter schools, and I hate seeing the possibilities for innovation that charter schools offer being discounted by the North Carolina education establishment because right-wing extremists are the most vocal advocates.
Writing in the latest of their many "reports" on the issue, Terry Stoops again calls for removing the cap on the number of charter schools and allowing the "franchising" of charter schools to run rampant across the state. In other words, the Puppets want to see hundreds of McClassrooms for kids to learn whatever companies in the for-profit education business think they can sell to parents who are between a rock and hard place.
Go read Stoops' report and then ask yourself this: Why is it that these guys can't seem to accomplish anything of value? I think you'll find the answer is simple: they lie about everything. They lie about the current state of public education. They lie about the efficacy and supposed benefits of charter schools. And most important of all, they lie about their motives. To my knowledge.
But rather than continue to berate them on this issue, I propose that we simply make the case ourselves for a moderate, reasoned approach to expanding the role of charter schools in North Carolina.
Specifically, I believe a 10% increase in the number of charter schools allowed in North Carolina each year would be an effective strategy for spurring more innovation and extending the potential benefits of charter schools to those in need. (Removing the cap, as Stoops proposes, would be insane.) Further, the process for starting a new schools should be rigorous and demanding (rather than simplified as the Puppets propose), and evaluation of their performance should be disciplined and continuous. Class sizes should be limited as a matter of policy to no more than 15.
The progressive community in North Carolina has proven over the last year that we can make a difference without having a sugar-daddy spending $300,000 a month to pay our salaries. We did it on the OLF. We did it on community mental health. We did it on exorcising Charles Taylor from Congress. And we can do it in the area of helping to improve public education.
We ought not let ineffective Puppetshow extremism kill ideas that have potential merit.
Comments
Charters
Here's the end game for conservatives from Rudy's latest letter to me:
They already have that choice. He means public money for private schools.
Yes, charter schools should be part of the mix along with other options but they should not be used as a weapon to dismember public school systems. Every high school student at risk of not graduating needs to find his or her niche but they won't find it by turning public schools into catacombs.
Very Nice, A
As a parent of two at a charter school I can confidently say that raising the cap is absolutely the wrong thing to do at this time.
Do you know how many charter schools are in temporary housing? If we were to stay at CIS we would be looking at committing $10,000 for school construction over the next five years. It might not sound like a lot, but it is the very thing that would make our school inaccessible to some families. We already do not have public transportation or a cafeteria in which to offer a subsidized lunch program. This amount isn't required, but is a suggested commitment.
Resources to support charter schools as they grow is limited. There are grants to apply for, corporate and community sponsors, fundraisers and family donations. Imagine how the competition for these limited resources would impact the charter schools already operating in the state if the cap was raised. I don't have a problem with eventually increasing the number of charter schools, but only after those currently operating have built their facilities and are meeting educational needs of their students.
Some charter schools will close because they aren't able to fulfill requirements. This should allow some room to add new schools in the future.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Is it true charter schools have...
... a lower teacher/student ratio than traditional public schools?
--
Town Called Dobson - Daily Political Cartoon: Not all is red in rural America!
from what I can tell, yes.
Our school has amazing discipline, so actually the lower ratio isn't as necessary. I think Katie's class has 19 and Emily's has 20. It depends on the limit set by the school.
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I would think that the answer is in general, yes,
but it depends on the school. The sizes quoted by SD are the same as the sizes I see in a few of the public primary schools I'm in and out of here. The difference is, purely public schools cannot turn away students when they move into a district. Charter schools can, if they have reached what they have determined as "capacity."
If as much money and attention were showered upon public schools as have been showered upon charter schools and the "voucher" movement, there would not be nearly as high of a perceived need for charter schools or the blessed vouchers.
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The Den
My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
Charters are good for everyone
Yes we right leaning people do believe in Charter Schools. I personally find no more issue more important. Liberal groups that stand with the NCAE and the North Carolina assoc of School Administrators against Charter Schools are stadning with unions over children, and the education establishment over the needs of parents.
People who are against Charter Schools are also closet racists. They believe poor black children should be bussed from school to school and never taught like they do here in Wake County. They believe that only white people should have any choice or say in their childrens education. Charter school fighters believe that the school educrats should have complete control over the lives of poor children, even though the graduation rate is a joke and poor children are still not doing as well as others no matter how much money we throw at the problem
Dayum Dallas
You really don't know what you're talking about, do you, bud?
Poor kids - regardless of skin color typically can't attend charter schools because of the lack of public transportation and the availability of subsidized meals. Charter schools - many struggle in the beginning to build/modify a structure and parents have to pay for bus transportation and meals. This simple fact makes charter schools inaccessible to the poor.
You wanna play here you're gonna have to back up your free speech with facts.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
on your own blog
you posted an article that cites two seperate studies that shows kids in public schools showed more improvement in reading and math than kids in charter schools. It sounds like you are the one who hates kids.
As for the issue of race, if conservatives hadnt spend the last 30 years attacking funding for public schools, we might not have to send inner city kids to other schools to get an actual education. Having said that, busing on the basis of race is illegal, so please, in the future, base your arguments on things that are actually occuring instead of what was going on 10 years ago.
Draft Brad Miller -- NC Sen ActBlue :::Liddy 44 Brad 33
"Keep the Faith"
It's all about the qualifiers - and the quality.
Screaming pinko liberal that I am, I might actually agree with one of your statements, if you had added a qualifier.
Instead of stating
, you could have stated
.
Charter schools do meet a need for some families. Typically, they are smaller than the average public school. This is good in many regards: small class size is indeed one good indicator of high quality education. However, if the teacher in that small class size is not equipped to teach the particular subject that they are asked to teach (a problem that faces both charter, public and private schools), this is one instance where size really doesn't matter. If a teacher isn't qualified they aren't qualified. In NC, charter schools have more leeway with teacher qualification than traditional public schools do.
As a parent, before I would enroll my child in a charter school, I would be very sure that the school met more than the minimum standards set by the state. It's hard to find properly educated, certified teachers who want to continue teaching because teacher's salaries are so low. This is a discussion we've had here before often, so I won't belabor the point (ha! that might be a pun!), but if there is a union actually representing teachers, well, they suck. Teachers are responsible for educating the next generation of Americans. They should be paid as if our lives depended on it, because they do.
Private schools have their place, and that I guess is where the blessed freemarketsystem comes in to play. If there is a market for them, they will survive. If there is enough investment (public investment - think space program, think DOD - remember, our lives depend on it), our public school system will be enough for every family.
Heh. I'll match your closet racist, and raise you an institutionalized illiteracy. I am not familiar with the two charter schools you referred to in your post, and you conveniently didn't provide links to them. Until neighborhood schools, either charter or traditional public, are placed in neighborhoods with generational unemployment and illiteracy, given an extraordinary infrastructure of support, excellent teachers, and a whole bucket of money, the long term problems faced by many children of all races will remain.
These issues do not require businessmen, thank you very much. This requires educators with the resources and support they need.
Oh, and for God's sake (and I do mean God.) stop testing four year olds.
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The Den
My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
Here, here
and hear, hear.
Our charter school actually requires higher levels of education/certification than most. All are certified with a degree in education and last year most of the middle school teachers are either working on an advanced degree or already hgave the degree. We also have many teachers from other countries.
Substitutes are required to take a specific course at the community college which is far more extensive than anything I had to do to be a sub in CMS schools.
It doesn't matter how much I like my school (and sometimes I don't), I don't think charters are the be all end all.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Wake County Schools
The Wake County School System is recognized in California, New York, and Virginia as being a model of excellence. I do not know many working class parents in Wake County who have strong objections to the general policies of the Wake County School board.
This is not to say that valid objections don't exist, they just don't typically come from working class communities.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
Sir you are completly wrong.
Sir you are completly wrong. I will take you to torchlight academy and hope charter schools in raleigh, both which have transportation and free and reduced lunch. They are made up of minority and at risk children. Their parents will do anything to get them out of the failing traditional public school system
lunch
those lunch programs are federally mandated, and paid for by the federal government.
As for transportation, it wasnt argued that none of these schools had transportation. It was argued that few of them did to start. You cite a school that has been in existence for over a decade as proof that some have transportation.
Draft Brad Miller -- NC Sen ActBlue :::Liddy 44 Brad 33
"Keep the Faith"
Ahhh..so in your perfect little world
You put all the minority and at-risk children at two schools and all the other kids get their own schools. Why...how nice of you. Two isolated examples out of how many charter schools?
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Not to mention that the Dallas H Woodhouse organization . . .
has repeatedly supported eliminating the free and reduced lunch program. Newt Gingrich sponsored the bill.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
Ah. Then there is no need to further cast pearls before swine.
If these are actually people who think that feeding hungry children is a bad idea, they can continue to speak, but I have no need to waste my time speaking back.
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The Den
My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
I've heard that lots of charter schools
have been going down in flames in the Triad. Miss Management been running them?
I don't have children and I confess to bewilderment at the current state of K-12 education. Between the fragmentation of charter vs public schools, the virtual bussing of children all over and the No Child's Behind Left style of test teaching, the picture looks pretty bleak and no one seems happy with it. I don't understand why education needs to be so complicated.
All the energy spent by adults vying for their needs being met in this equation is absurd. Public school was great when I went and I still believe it is the key to a society on an even playing field.
Oh, so much "word" to that.
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The Den
My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
Complicated....
I'm a big charter school supporter, but many of the critiques offered here are correct.
In much of the state, and especially Wake County where I live, public schools are overcrowded and desperate to reduce the pressure on class sizes and facilities.
BUT: A recent study by Helen Ladd and Charles Clotfelter, at Duke's Sanford Institute, found that students in charter schools perform on average no better, and maybe slightly worse, than if THOSE SAME students had stayed in their local public school. (That is, they are not just comparing averages, they were controlling for other factors). (And I should note that Sunny Ladd is herself a charter school supporter, and serves on the board of one in Durham. So this is hardly a hatchet job. It is good, careful research).
And in many cases, for particular charter schools, test scores and other measures of performance (if those mean anything) are FAR below the relevant public school levels.
Nonetheless, I think Anglico has this right. Here's why:
1. Parents can always pull their child from a charter school that is failing. If the only choice is a public school, then there is no choice. Charter schools that are bad lose their funding. Public schools that are bad just continue to be underfunded and overcrowded forever.
2. Some charter schools really are excellent. Raleigh Charter High School was ranked by Newsweek mag as the 8th best public high school in the entire nation three years ago. The entire nation. It has small classes, 12-15, and highly motivated teachers. And admission is by LOTTERY. Anyone who wants to go has an equal chance to get in. It is in a downtown, urban setting, not in some suburban enclave. Finally, RCHS operates at about 2/3 the cost per student of the large public high schools. The reason? No cafeteria, no lockers, no sports teams, and nearly all the janitorial work is done by the students themselves.
3. Last, Anglico is right (it's killing me, every time I say that. I expect to be struck by lightning) to say that those who rely ONLY on choice are overrepresenting what charters can do. A cautious, limited increase in the number of charters allowed makes sense. Right now, we have bad charters limping along because if they close they give up their license. The artificial scarcity of those licenses makes them valuable. If a group of parents felt like they could pull their kids from a bad charter, and start a new one, SOME but not ALL of the new charters would work.
Charters are not going to settle Leandro. They won't solve the problems of the poor counties, with roofs falling in and parents following school busses because the bus breaks down twice a week. They have a limited role in improving some class experience, and reducing class sizes, for some students.
I would hope that supporters wouldn't oversell, and opponents wouldn't demonize, charters. Charters are part of a comprehensive solution. But only part, and until we address the larger issues of funding and equity, getting distracted by charters is not that useful.
"It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois D'Ivernois, 1795.
Michael C. Munger
Heh.
Anglico is right (it's killing me, every time I say that. I expect to be struck by lightning)
The feeling is mutual.
:)
I especially appreciate your comments about the quality of the research on charter schools, that's encouraging, especially given this criticism by Stoops at the Puppetshow:
It's hard to understand why these guys feel compelled to lie about stuff like this all the time. Kind of sad.
I think one reason for the performance results
is that some of the earlier charter schools were started as alternative schools for behaviorally disruptive students and/or students failing out of traditional schools. I believe the one in Meck has been closed down for performance issues. I have not read the study and don't know how the results were handled for these schools.
Also, we have small populations, with a larger ratio of students who don't qualify for IEPs, but need special attention. Test performance isn't always up to par for these students, but they don't qualify for special consideration like students with IEPs. I can only speak from experience at my school and based on what I've learned speaking with parents from a couple local charter schools.
Our school is pure lottery. Once the facility is built (its a green facility) and other basic needs are taken care of I hope there will be money for a bus or two that can pick up from central locations. It's several years down the road, but at that point the school will be more of an option for students requiring transportation and subsidized meals.
I think we need to see the impact of current charter schools before lifting the cap, but as long as failing schools are monitored I don't have a problem with allowing a small amount of growth in the number of charter schools.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
I love it when you're reasonable.
:)
Happy WoW day.
Well this kind of makes my point....
If leaving the failing public school is the answer, what about those left in that failing public school?
If class size has been shown to be an important component of educating well then doesn't it behoove us to use that in the public schools as a tool for improvement instead of just giving up on everybody else?
It does
the only problem is, the anti-tax fundamentalists have had their way for so long that public officials are afraid to raise the revenue required to build more schools that would enable smaller classes.
Plus current DPI requirements for schools are horrendous. They're designed to support "factory schooling" which means that any new school has to be gigantic . . . with acres and acres of land and all sorts of athletic facilities.
Changing that requirement would be a good first place to start . . . but I've seen little evidence that taxpayers will forego having football teams with their new high schools.
And taxes don't pay for charter schools?
Oh, I forgot, Shrub just puts it on the tab...
Well, high school football might be more important to some than having their children learning critical thinking and skills to help them through their lives, but elementry schools are the ideal places to implement change anyway. Learning how to learn is the goal and a solid start makes the rest of the process better.
I may not say this just right
but charter schools get an amount based on the number of kids in attendance during the first few weeks of school. We do not get money to build facilities, buy books (might get some for texts). I think basically the amount charter schools get will just pay staff/teachers and maybe a little more. We give much more in basic supplies at the beginning of the year than we ever did in pubic schools. The text books aren't always purchased new.
I think the first few years of any charter school are probably a struggle. It's tough on the teachers in some ways, but from what I can tell, at most schools they don't face the behavioral issues and it's a bit easier to communicate lessons.
Actually, there aren't enough charter schools to reduce the overcrowding in the areas that are crowded. They barely make a dent. Same problems still exist in the larger school districts.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Again, I'm not a parent,
but it seems that is like reinventing the wheel with each new start up. It's energy spent over and over that could be put into the greater good.
When you only have a few short years to educate your children
and when those years are slipping by and the problems facing public schools won't be solved before your kids are grown - there is no greater good than making certain your children get the very best education you can find/afford.
Very little that is worth having comes easily. Parents have absolutely zero impact on directing education in public school. I know. I did the volunteer/PTA thing and worked in the media center at the girls' old school. We can have much more control through the board of directors at a charter school. Schools don't get charters without solid plans for success. They lose their charters if they don't implement those plans.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Your point taken SD,
with humility, too.
I didn't mean to get all preachy-like :)
You see, what I really believe is that every kid and every family should have the same opportunities that my kids have had without having to jump through the hoops we have.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
RCHS
Raleigh Charter High got $35,000 from the Pope Foundation 2005/06.
Your post pic Greg
is that the annoying fly that keeps buzzing around one's ear but never seems to be able to be swatted away?
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions
Gadfly
Sort of. It's something I'm trying out. Actually it's a horse-fly aka a gadfly. It doesn't buzz around your ear but it does pester you and when it lands quietly can give a nasty bite. From Wikipedia: Gadfly (social)
Fitting
Spot on
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions