Talk to me about Charter Schools

[LadyShea]

I don't even! We just got them and now they are working to repeal Common Core here and I are confuzzled

[lisarea]

In the big picture, charter school systems, like pretty much any system where private industry is contracted to provide public services, is fraudulent at every level. And I think that we're reaching the tipping point where there have been enough isolated incidents of fraudulent diversion of funds, deceptive advertising and reporting, and other charter school scams that it's getting hard to argue that the system has any redeeming qualities at all.

You just can't let private parties administer public services. The oversight that'd be required to keep them honest would end up costing more than the services themselves.

On an individual scale, though, our education system is so flawed in so many different ways that sometimes, charter schools might be a better option for a specific situation, even as they are available are at the expense of the community at large.

Instituting a charter system and trying to repeal common core? Diagnosis: Red state.

[LadyShea]

LOL ya think? I was so confused as to the timing of charter schools...the state was against them for a long time, even when it hurt our score for Race To The Top (they probably thought it was Communism or something back then) now all the sudden they are here and going to solve a problem or something somehow! We have no money, there is talk of raising taxes, in a Red State, because we are so broke, but lets divert public funds to charter schools for unstated reasons!

Then Common Core, which was a state led initiative, is getting the TeaPartiers all in a tizzy because socialism and Federal government interference.

[beyelzu]

In my opinion, Republicans like charter schools because they don't have that evil unionized teacher force. I have read that lots of the charter schools basically have shitty, new teachers and work them hard for not very good pay until they burn them out.

The charter schools do this while talking about innovation and not keeping bad teachers.

When you throw in the facts that at least some of the schools selecting the students and almost all of the schools having self selection bias for the students and their families, any metric where charter schools do better (overall scores or for dollar spent) is fucking bullshit.

[Ari]

It also sounds prestigious which is important to tell yourself as they are reaming you for money.
Well that and it's possible to have your own pet religious theories taught in school while still pretending your kids are getting a better education than those dirty blacks, er I mean public school students. There are tons of poor white folk that will basically spend all their money to buy the right to claim their kids aren't going to school with blacks.

I don't have the sources right now but there's evidence of the racist media spending effort bad mouthing the public school system to get it turned private specifically by playing on the racist ideas that only poor blacks go to public school.

[ceptimus]

They're also favored by Muslims in the UK who want to keep their kids clean from the corrupting Christian or Secular influences of other kids - both black and white. That's what that Iftikhar guy comes to and posts his occasional diatribes about - he wants our taxes to go to funding Muslim-only schools so that Muslims can preserve their bigotry for at least one extra generation.

[LadyShea]

I am pretty sure most states disallow charter schools to be religiously based. For now. That would be a Constitutional fight. The biggest thing seems to be they do not have to have certified teachers.

[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by lisarea

In the big picture, charter school systems, like pretty much any system where private industry is contracted to provide public services, is fraudulent at every level. And I think that we're reaching the tipping point where there have been enough isolated incidents of fraudulent diversion of funds, deceptive advertising and reporting, and other charter school scams that it's getting hard to argue that the system has any redeeming qualities at all.

You just can't let private parties administer public services. The oversight that'd be required to keep them honest would end up costing more than the services themselves.

On an individual scale, though, our education system is so flawed in so many different ways that sometimes, charter schools might be a better option for a specific situation, even as they are available are at the expense of the community at large.

Instituting a charter system and trying to repeal common core? Diagnosis: Red state.

I've done a lot of work with state agencies, and they ain't exactly free of the taint of corruption either. Where there are large piles of money there will be fraud, like flies on a pile of shit.

I used to think that making something more local was the cure for that kind of corruption, but I think the primary problem, on all fronts, local, state and federal is that not enough people are getting into the gov'ments shit.