Charter School Invaision

There has been a lot going on this summer regarding charter schools. They are schools that are paid for with public money but according to the NY State Charter School Act of 1998, they are exempt from most "state and local laws, rules, regulations or policies governing public or private schools, boards of education and school districts.." Currently there are 82 charter schools in NYC, many in Brooklyn. Eighteen more have been approved to open this fall. By privatizing and outsoucing public education, charter schools are dividing communities in New York City and around the country. Access to a high quality public education is not something that should be won in a lottery- it is a basic human and civil right that all children deserve.

The 4.3 billion "Race To the Top" Fund recently outlined by the Obama administration will further expand this privatization of our schools. Following is an article written by Diane Ravitch which paints a clear picture of these issues.


Diane Ravitch, Historian of education, NYU and Brookings:
Someday when the history of the Obama administration is written, perhaps we will then understand why this President, who came to Washington as an agent of change, so fully embraced Republican ideas about education.Because of the economic crisis, the administration won a staggering amount of money--$100 billion-- to help the nation's schools weather the downturn in tax revenues. Most of that money went to the schools, as was intended. But $4.3 Billion was set aside for "innovation" and "reform."This unprecedented amount of discretionary money has been deemed the "Race to the Top" fund. The Secretary of Education has issued regulations that set forth specific criteria that states must comply with if they expect to win a share of the prize. They must remove any legal restrictions on the number of charter schools in their states. And they must remove any laws that prevent the state from connecting teacher evaluations to student test scores.This agenda is not evidence-based. It is a reflection of the GOP agenda of choice and accountability. There is no evidence that charter schools are unfailingly better than regular public schools, and there is no evidence that schools get better if teacher evaluations are based on student test scores.
In my forthcoming book (The Death and Life of the Great American School System), I show the origins of these ideas. They are an attempt to impose privatization on the schools and to use inappropriate business techniques in judging teachers.What we do know from research and experience is that charter schools vary wildly in quality, from excellent to awful, and that on average they are not superior to regular public schools. We also know from research on teacher effectiveness that a teacher whose classes get high test scores one year may not get them the next year, because of variations among the students in the classes.In short, the administration is on the wrong track. It is now imposing "solutions" that will solve nothing. And sadly a huge amount of money intended to help and support our schools will enrich edu-entrepreneurs and do little or nothing to help our schools and our children.----------------------------------Obama's Awful Education PlanBy Diane RavitchPosted: August 23, 2009 10:22 AM