From the Diane Ravitch blog:
Back in the olden times, advocates claimed that charters would provide healthy competition and beneficial innovation. This would benefit the public schools and urban districts as well.
But it turned out to be a false promise.
By skimming off the best students in poor neighborhoods, charter schools leave the public schools in worse condition, overburdened with the neediest students that the charters don’t want and lacking the resources to educate them appropriately. Where the public school system is struggling to improve, charter schools may actually hasten their collapse.
Now Moody’s Investors’ Service has issued a bulletin warning that the proliferation of charters in economically weak cities damages those cities’ economic viability.
Although I agree that most charter schools are not in the best interest of the students or the community as a whole, let's be open and honest about "skimming off the best students in poor neighborhoods". The district has put into place the largest "skimming" machine available - Magnet schools (ie. Stanton, Paxon, etc.). Stanton gets touted as a to 10 school in the country, but lets face it - these are our top 1% of the student body in the Duval district. Great to have such a high nationally profiled school, but at what cost to the poor neighborhood schools?
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