On the surface one may wonder why I would choose to weigh in on the debate over such an issue as public and charter schools. In the past, we have supported any school in need; public, private and charter.
Let's be clear there are great public schools and some not so great. That's also the case for charter schools, as I will illustrate in a bit. There are some terrific teachers in each and some who aren't getting the job done.
But what is taking place right now is a dispute over the very essence of education particularly the very survival of public education as we have known it. Yes, times change and the need for public schools to alter its vision, its curriculum and its standards are at hand. This is not something new. Public schools have always had to change and they will have to do the same in 10 year and 100 years.
But what concerns me is that public education as we have known it is being undermined by charters and private schools and the results, at best, are often mixed. Here's what I mean about being undermined. By the way, I have no doubt that the vast majority of charter leaders may not intentionally undermine the traditional school but it is nonetheless taking place. Schools that receive a charter siphon money from existing traditional public schools thus rendering those most-in-need short of various resources. Also, a good number of charters don't take the lower performing students. Instead, these students are left in the traditional school that is under resourced.
Charters, by their very nature and creation, may not offer the needed liberal education involving courses in Music, FACS, Art and Tech Ed (including shop) not to mention various activities and athletic teams. And if the traditional public schools are under-resourced we find many of the above programs being cut or eliminated.
To date, many citizens have the sense that charters out-perform the traditional public school. Diane Ravitch in her recent book The Death and Life of the Great American School System points out a number of large charter systems that have performed no better than the traditional public school.
Just one example...Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia has about one-half of the 127 charter schools in the entire state of PA. The findings of the RAND Corporation "concluded in 2008 that students in charter schools made gains that were statistically indistinguishable from the gains they experienced while attending traditional public schools." If that's not enough Philadelphia officials themselves announced in 2009 "that the privatization experiment had not worked." There are plenty of cases like this in other parts of the country.
The point I am making is that the structure of a school isn't the cure for the ills and perceived ills of traditional schools. Until we understand and comprehend this point in addition to tackling - and I literally mean it - the whole testing issue then we will continue to lose our way towards improving public education.
Dick Flesher
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2 comments:
The problem IS public education, not charter schools. Public schools have been weighed down by the depreciation of education as a common value, runaway disciplinary problems, the battles over curriculum, the restructuring of funding, the involvement of education in cultural tasks, the collapse of urban public school infrastruture and the student population demographics that require a massive changeover in teacher training.
Private schools and charter schools are simply relief valves for those able to escape the public education system's failures. People want to argue with the test scores instead of taking them as the canary in the mine that is lying on the bottom of the cage. Others want to blame charter schools, vouchers and private and parochial schools because those who can afford to are leaving the public education system. The problems of public education will exist regardless of charter schools. It is true that charter schools will not solve the problems of public education and could make them worse. But, people have to focus on the source of the problem which is the failure of public education.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your comments and taking the time to read my blog.
After 34 years of teaching in public schools, 5 years of substitute teaching and running an education non-profit I have seen much in public education.
Sadly, what I seeing happening one day is that public education will no longer be a right of U.S. citizens but it will become a free market enterprise.
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