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Charter Schools - What's Your Opinion? We have some answers.
Beginning in May, we asked you to let us know your thoughts about what has become a hotly debated issue: Charter schools. To share your thoughts and resources about charter schools, click here to go to the survey. The following is an initial report from members
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and
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A vote to raise the state cap on the number of publicly funded charter schools permitted in NYS was rushed through the legislature and passed the Assembly on May 28, 2010 (A11310). The new legislation lifts the cap from 200 to 460 but adds more oversight and mandates that the new charters be set up as nonprofit entities.
The rush was ostensibly an effort to keep NYS in the competition for President Obama's Race to the Top, his signature education program in which states compete for federal funding based on test scores and the schools’ progress. Many objectors to charter schools, including noted historian of American education, Diane Ravitch, oppose the dependence on test scores and accountability in determining success. Ravitch writes "They [the Obama administration) also fail to recognize that the best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers.
"What we need is not a marketplace, but a coherent curriculum that prepares all students. And our government should commit to providing a good school in every neighborhood in the nation, just as we strive to provide a good fire company in every community."*
*March 9, 2010, Wall Street Journal
State Senator Bill Perkins, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, held a public hearing in May inviting educators, parents, union members, charter school entrepreneurs, and other interested parties to offer testimony on the current state of charter schools in NYS. Senator Perkins plans to hold more hearings to continue to investigate and study how charter schools are performing.
As the debate continues, we encourage you to add your comments here . As of this posting, all comments that have been submitted are opposed to charter schools in general and were against raising the cap in New York State. Here are some excerpts from your responses and links submitted by one of the responders:
"...I was originally in favor of a few innovative charter schools which might try out innovative teaching methods and curriculum which could serve to stimulate improvements in the public school system, by example. That is still possible but not on the scale that this expansion has produced and is being forced upon the states by Arne Duncan/Obama and the bribes of federal financing...."
— Sheila Geist
"...This atomization of the school system doesn't deal with the scale of the problem in the city. It; unresponsive to the issue of class size, the attraction & retention of high quality teachers & support staff is not mentioned...." — Bruce Rosen
"Charter schools were instituted as a way to siphon off funding from public schools to private hands. Because they are sanctioned by the state, the perception is that they are the equivalent of public schools without the bureaucracy, which is patently untrue...." — Lynne Glasner
"...Public schools are the back bone of our democracy. If we put as much money into the schools as we have into the greedy wallets of Wall Street and the Banks, we would have an education system that would be both the envy and a model for the world...." — Susan Nial
"...Let's do a better job of training teachers and ensuring smaller class sizes. I resent any of my tax money going to charter schools." — Natalie Burrows
"...The New York City School system has some of the finest teachers who really care about the future of their students and their academic progress. The classes need to be made smaller and the resources need to be increased and they will excell beyond any performance of the Charter Schools which perpetuate a rote and mechanical way of thinking and learning...." — Jacqueline Schoenhaus
These links were submitted by Leone Haimson, a public school parent and head of Class Size Matters. Please let us know if there are other links you'd like us to include.
http://www.classsizematters.org/
Framework of principles developed with the NY Charter Parents association here: http://www.classsizematters.org/common_principles_v3.pdf
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