Total Pageviews

Search This Blog

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Trey Csar and JPEF aren't here to help our schools (rough draft)

Have you met Trey Csar, president of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund? I have and he has always been affable. Seems like a nice guy, somebody who would make a great neighbor.

Then there is the Jacksonville Public Education fund and the thought of an organization set up to help our public schools sounds great, and I am sure lots of affable people who would make great neighbors work there too.

I have to chose my words carefully, people can and should be able to disagree without being disagreeable, but at the same time Trey Csar and JPEF despite their assertions aren't here to help our schools, even though that is how they resent themselves and nobody should doubt that for a second.

Want proof? 

This past Monday Csar and Becki Couch appeared on First Coast Connect to discuss the truly dreadful schools of Hope legislation that is about to become law. The bones of it are the legislature wants to set aside 200 million dollars to attract what they call high quality charter school networks to Florida to replace hundreds of public schools.

Just think about that for a second, in doing so they are basically acknowledging that most of our charter operators are so shitty that we have to attract new ones. 

http://news.wjct.org/post/5012017-schools-hope-telemedicine-cole-pepper-piotr-szewczyk

Trey Csar who said he was neither for or against charters and public schools, he just wants great schools, tried to alleviate host Melissa Ross's fears of the charter networks coming in saying it was unlikely, except there is already one of these networks in Florida and Csar has close ties to it.

Gary Chartrand has his hands both in KIPP and JPEF and I think we all know Schools of Hope would greatly benefit KIPP and how he feels about charters.

Now you might be saying, KIPP they do a wonderful job, to which I would respond, they can put requirements on parents, have a longer day and year, spend more money per pupil and at the end of the day with all that they may do marginally better but often not. 

Their school grades go up and down more than yo yos and this past year KIPP voice was a D, while the middle school had moved to a C from a D the year before, but they have been a D or F more often than not

Also did you know that the state already gives KIPP about another million dollars a year, other charters don't get this largess but I guess they aren't connected to Chartrand either.


Csar didn't mention KIPP at all, now I can forgive Ross for not knowing it was one of the networks that the Florida Legislature wants to expand but Csar certainly new 

Why the omission on Csar's part? Why the deception? 

Then for a cherry on top, last year JPEF also advertised for a symposium whose theme was, how can we get more kids into charters. 

Less and less do they seem like neutral arbitrators just on the look out for good schools.

You know what gets me too? Public Education is right there in JPEF"s name, I want an organization  that fights tooth and nail for our schools not one that follows the marching orders of a charter zealot and who gives lip service to helping them.

It looks like TFA Jax may be on the way out and this version of JPEF should go with them.

1 comment:

  1. The other day Addison Davis was on the show​. He didn't say no to the super job in Duval. I guess 100 days was long enough in Clay. No need to bother with a search firm. It's a done deal according to Rick Scott.

    ReplyDelete