The school choice advocates led by
Jeb Bush say that their movement is an extension of the civil rights movement
but in reality it is an extension of what instigated the civil rights movement,
separate but equal, which did really well with the separate part but was far
off on the equal part.
The school choice movement wants the
public to fund two school systems. One will be made up of traditional public
schools and the other will be made up of charters and schools that accept
vouchers. Make no mistake that’s what is
happening and that’s what they are calling for, the creation of two parallel
school systems.
One will take all comers, public
schools, while the other, choice schools will be able to pick and choose who
they take, can counsel out poor performers and discipline problems and
generally excludes special needs and English as a second language
speakers. One uses all of its resources
to educate children while the other often fills the coffers of owners and
investors.
The school choice crowd believes
public schools should be measured by high stakes standardized tests and their
teachers should be evaluated on those results. They also believe charters and
vouchers should feel free to do whatever they want. The free market sorting out
the bad ones from the good ones as they come and go. These are the two systems
being set up and like America couldn’t tolerate two systems in the fifties, how
long can America tolerate two systems now?
These two systems are far from equal
but the school choice crowd is trying to convince you it is what we need and
they fan flames of intolerance towards unions and they cherry pick facts or
take them at out of context, like we are falling behind the rest of the world,
when the truth is if you factor out poverty something the school choice crowd
callas an excuse when they aren’t ignoring it our scores zoom to at or near the
top.
There are undoubtedly problems in
our public schools, most created by ignoring poverty and the school choice
crowd looking to manufacture a crisis and then profit off of it, separate and
unequal paid for by the taxpayers.
The points you make are good ones. However, you are missing the issue about how Duval County School Board members have allowed K-8 or K-12 charter schools to open in regions where most of the public schools were high achieving! There were no failing or challenged schools when Duval Charter at Baymeadows and San Jose Charter Middle School on Sunbeam Road opened. There are also a number of parochial and private schools and homeschool networks in that area.
ReplyDeleteEven GOP darling John Thrasher said that the primary intent of approving charter schools was to give parents a choice where one was needed. So what changed? Why was this allowed?
Look into the issues that face parents of nearly all public middle school students and non-magnet high-schoolers, especially if they are bus riders. You may get your answer. Just try to remember how kids behaved when you were that age. Now, increase that by exponential numbers in the "middle school warehouses" where these kids are assigned to attend classes in today's world. Get the idea?