School choice is nothing but a red herring for privatization.

Living in Florida it’s not just the weather that changes every fifteen minutes but the rationale behind school choice too.

First vouchers and charters were about getting kids out of failing public schools but when it turned out that public schools were doing better than charters, over 260 have failed and nobody has any real idea how voucher schools are doing because the system was set up so they could avoid both financial and academic accountability, they changed the narrative to one that emphasized competition. The reasoning was that competition would make everybody better. Well charters and vouchers as a group didn’t get that memo as one scandal after another has made the headlines and neither perform better than the public schools they are seeking to replace. In fact quite often the only thing they made better were the bank accounts of their operators. 

Now they have changed the narrative once again calling for a Kumbaya moment saying charters and private schools that take vouchers and public schools should let their differences go, hold hands and come together to address what’s best for children. Gone are the failing public school and competition narratives almost like they never existed. Why talk about the past?

I and many others believe this is just another red herring designed to distract us from the dismal record of charters the lack of accountability with vouchers and hide their real agenda which is the destruction of teacher unions and the privatization of our schools.

I wonder what their next narrative will be.