NYTimes: Michigan Gambled on Charter Schools, it lost (long read)

[wickedsm]

My wife teaches at a charter school. Just depends who is running the school. She's been there close to 10 years and the lady who handles finances does a good job keeping them afloat. Test scores have gone up the last few years so they are trending in the right direction.

what state are you in?
i firmly believe there are states that are adding charters and its a plus

 

[jerniebert]

what state are you in?
i firmly believe there are states that are adding charters and its a plus

I'm in California, but my wife being involved in the Charter System I've heard a lot about the horrors of how some charter schools are ran just in this area. They usually don't last long except for a few of the bigger ones but I've seen one of the bigger ones shut down a few years ago because if mismanagement.

 

[franknitty711]

Charter schools are not good because most are just an elaborate money grab.

^ THIS ^

In my city we had one but it misused funds and appropriated funds to "friends" on contracts...all crony capitalism tactics. The well ran dry, they were audited by the Department of Education and eventually shut down.

I only trust state funded schools who know how to manage a budget! They messed it up big time in my city and the kids were the ones who felt the most hurt. I would not put the hands of federal money to a corporation you see how the higher level of educations institutions are handling it. Education is now big for profit business and its spilling over.

 

[theworldismine13]

In my city we had one but it misused funds and appropriated funds to "friends" on contracts...all crony capitalism tactics. The well ran dry, they were audited by the Department of Education and eventually shut down.

I only trust state funded schools who know how to manage a budget! They messed it up big time in my city and the kids were the ones who felt the most hurt. I would not put the hands of federal money to a corporation you see how the higher level of educations institutions are handling it. Education is now big for profit business and its spilling over.

So a failing school was shut down?

Good heavens!

 

[greenygreen]

All stats in the world of education, whether they come from charter or public school system(s) are not to be trusted.

That in fact is the problem. Everything is done in order to hit various metrics. The actual education that the student does or doesn't receive is almost secondary.

Our inner city public school system (I can't speak for rural areas as I simply don't know) is broken in so many places and in so many ways. It's one of those issues that seems to have no real solution because the actual solution requires us to completely reimagine how an issue is approached. How do you tell a parent who is ecstatic that the charter school his/her kid goes to is not only safe (neighborhood school may be in a war zone) but also is demonstrating improvement - that charter schools should be defunded because a certain percentage of the operators are crooks. Very sad situation.

Finally, while charter schools are able to get funding partly due to the big names (Gates/Bloomberg) that tout them, I also blame teachers unions for making it so easy for all of the distrust/hatred of the public school system to grow.

you don't, you lock up the crooksim sorry am i missing something here? what exactly is the problem with charter schools? is it just cause Devos 'gotta be stopped'

 

[Pressure]

you don't, you lock up the crooksim sorry am i missing something here? what exactly is the problem with charter schools? is it just cause Devos 'gotta be stopped'

Because they don't seem to be working in Michigan.

 

[BaileyPark31]

I think the only true fix to schools is vastly increased parental involvement.

I live in an are where the public school system ranks fairly high (for the state). My niece attends the early elementary education school. There are parents every where volunteering. I went to sign up to volunteer for a field trip and the sheet was full. I went to sign up for activities after the holidays and the sheets were full. My family will still show up for certain things anyway, but it was just nice seeing that level of parental involvement.

 

[DirtyD]

Charter schools are terrible, for a myriad of reasons. The main one issue that I have with them is the discriminatory practices which they employ.

Charters are public schools, funded by taxpayers and widely promoted as open to all. But Reuters has found that across the United States, charters aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law.

“I didn’t get the sense that was what charter schools were all about - we’ll pick the students who are the most motivated? Who are going to make our test scores look good?” said Michelle Newman, whose 8-year-old son lost his seat in an Ohio charter school last fall after he did poorly on an admissions test. “It left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Special Report: Class Struggle - How charter schools get students they want

More info on this here:

 

[Colilluminati]

We have to separate charter schools from school choice vouchers . Vouchers >public>charter

 

[EndDomination]

67% of California's charter schools met disadvantaged student achievement targets on state tests compared to just 57% of non-charter schools... so I think the results vary

It would take a superb lack of understanding of the education system and statistics to even believe these results.
Comparing a much larger pool of students with far more "low-performing" students to a much smaller-pool of students with selective parents and the ability to remove students from the pool if they don't meet expectations is beyond lazy and sits firmly in the realm of being disingenuous.

 

[EndDomination]

charter schools may or may not be good for students but this article doesnt explain why either way and it paints charter schools in a bad light so its propaganda, just trying to help you see this is not a good article and hopefully help you learn how to distinguish marxist propaganda from useful information

"Marxist propaganda"
#LowerLearning

 

[DEAD7]

It would take a superb lack of understanding of the education system and statistics to even believe these results.
Comparing a much larger pool of students with far more "low-performing" students to a much smaller-pool of students with selective parents and the ability to remove students from the pool if they don't meet expectations is beyond lazy and sits firmly in the realm of being disingenuous.

Again, im only saying results vary.


is the idea in this thread that all charter schools suck/have failed?

 

[ExodusNirvana]

It would take a superb lack of understanding of the education system and statistics to even believe these results.
Comparing a much larger pool of students with far more "low-performing" students to a much smaller-pool of students with selective parents and the ability to remove students from the pool if they don't meet expectations is beyond lazy and sits firmly in the realm of being disingenuous.

You're quoting Lord @DEAD7 himself...Protector of the Realm of Disingenuous

 

[Shogun]

^ THIS ^

In my city we had one but it misused funds and appropriated funds to "friends" on contracts...all crony capitalism tactics. The well ran dry, they were audited by the Department of Education and eventually shut down.

I only trust state funded schools who know how to manage a budget! They messed it up big time in my city and the kids were the ones who felt the most hurt. I would not put the hands of federal money to a corporation you see how the higher level of educations institutions are handling it. Education is now big for profit business and its spilling over.

It has become increasingly difficult for school districts to properly allocate their dwindling budgets because of legislative demands that have to be adhered to. Special Education is a big one, free or reduced price lunch, more sophisticated and ever changing technology needs, etc.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is that American culture simply doesn't value education. There's no political, economic, or policy solution to that....and nothing will really work until that is solved. I have a son in 1st grade whose homework is to read for 20 minutes a night, for example. My wife and I are teachers so we do it. It's a pain in the ass, but we do it. I overhear conversations with other parents who find even the thought of doing it laughable, but will probably be the first to blame the school system when little Jonny can't read at grade level.

Theres really only so much schools can do without a society that genuinely values educating it's youth. It's not a problem you can throw money at or vote away.

 

[EndDomination]

It has become increasingly difficult for school districts to properly allocate their dwindling budgets because of legislative demands that have to be adhered to. Special Education is a big one, free or reduced price lunch, more sophisticated and ever changing technology needs, etc.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is that American culture simply doesn't value education. There's no political, economic, or policy solution to that....and nothing will really work until that is solved. I have a son in 1st grade whose homework is to read for 20 minutes a night, for example. My wife and I are teachers so we do it. It's a pain in the ass, but we do it. I overhear conversations with other parents who find even the thought of doing it laughable, but will probably be the first to blame the school system when little Jonny can't read at grade level.

Theres really only so much schools can do without a society that genuinely values educating it's youth. It's not a problem you can throw money at or vote away.

But the gaps can be at least closed some by proper resource allocation, more robust teacher-monitoring and training, more action per student using the standardized tests as true data, and things like mandatory pre-school and wraparound activities.