The worst four words in education, It's for the children!

School choice fans think all they have to say is, “it’s for the children” or “what if we put the children’s needs first” and people who have legitimate concerns or questions will slink away. It’s as if those two phrases give them justification to say or do whatever they want. Here is what happens when we put those words with some of the byproducts of Florida’s school choice movement.

Segregation, what charter schools are bringing back, is all for the children.

Counseling out poor performers, what many charter schools do, is putting the needs of the children first.

How about, voucher schools don’t need accountability both academically and financially, because it is what is best for the children.

Starving public schools of resources, that’s both it’s for the children and putting their needs first.

Not providing services to or excluding disabled children what most school choice schools do, hey that’s best for them too.  

Let’s put the needs of children first but filtering them into substandard options, like charters and vouchers, many of which are for profit.

I wonder if Lloyd brown knows how ridiculous he sounds when he criticizes Wayne Blanton the outgoing head of the School Board Association who has spent a lifetime serving children and like most educators do putting their needs first, when he asks what if we put the needs of the children first.

When the School Board association, supported by the PTA, the NAACP, the League of Women voters and many other organizations took vouchers to court they didn’t do so because they see children as FTE money they did so because they are putting the needs of all our children first.

Private schools and charter schools that take public money are bad for democracy.

Private schools and charter schools that take public money as a group and despite advantages perform worse than their public school counter parts.

Private schools that take public money resist both financial and academic accountability.

Finally many charter schools that take public money are for profit.

Lloyd Brown and other fans of school choice may think all of that is putting the needs of children first but what it really is, is privatization and it’s bad for our children.