The Republican-controlled NC legislature wants to “fix” our public schools by bringing in 50 new charter schools per year with its latest education bill. But critics note that while 17% of charter schools perform better than the average public school, a larger percentage are worse. And starting costly new schools in the midst of the Great Recession is not fiscally prudent.
Many charter schools are designed to 'handpick' students, and their policies cater to two-parent, affluent households. Teachers do not have to be certified, and questionable teaching or discipline practices do not have the oversight of public school administrators. While the charter bill does include a new NC Charter School Commission (to act independently of the Department of Public Instruction), it will not determine local policy.
The expense of setting up NC’s new charter schools and commission will bleed our state’s already-shriveling public school dollars, including transportation budget, child nutrition money, and even a percentage of public school fundraisers. This bill also gives counties new taxing authority, “up to a combined rate of one dollar and fifty cents ($1.50) on the one hundred dollars ($100.00) appraised value of property subject to taxation” to help charters build capital.
Legal challenges to the Charter Cap bill are anticipated to cost millions of dollars, further bankrupting our state and our children’s educations.
Despite No Child Left Behind’s destructive testing standards and labels, NC’s public schools are not broken. In fact, the recently adopted Common Core Standards should increase academic rigor, and a proposed update to NCLB will measure student progress to better illustrate successful teaching strategies. NC does not need the ‘fix’ or expense of raising the Charter cap.
During tough economic times, fiscally conservative child advocates should work together to improve the schools we have, not throw them out and buy new ones.
CHARTER OPPONENT WANTS CAT THAT BARKS
ReplyDeleteThursday, April 28, 2011 Letter To The Editor
Regarding Sharon Shepard’s Counterpoint (“Charter school bill costly, unnecessary,” April 16):
Ms. Shepard puts forth an argument with no arguments. She delivers it through vilification and verbal virtuosity, based on her notional claim of “the way things ought to be,” resulting in Ms. Shepard merely painting the world in her own self-image.
Her argument holds no water as she merely makes the claim that a collectivist model delivered through monopoly (the U.S. educational system) is preferable to any kind of free-market-based system, even the quasi-free, market-based concept of charter schools. Shepard argues that the current collectivist model, with its high costs and declining results, is preferable to any free-market initiative.
In essence, Ms. Shepard makes the classic “barking cats” argument as revealed by Milton Friedman (Newsweek, Feb. 19, 1973). That is, Ms. Shepard would like to have a cat (the public school system), provided it barks.
Her conclusion that “child advocates should work together to improve the schools we have, not throw them out and buy new ones” is that she can fix the attributes of a late-stage collectivist model (rampant shirking, administrative central planners enriching themselves, declining output). A formula for barking cats.
That would be a very neat trick, Ms. Shepard.
Elizabeth Smith
Greensboro
I hope Ms. Smith's weird letter encourages more people to look at my counterpoint, and the actual charter bill - NC Senate Bill 8.
ReplyDeleteI do not oppose charter schools - in fact, my children have attended magnet schools. But we are in a recession, and creating a new school is expensive. Undoing the current system without preparing well for such a major transition would disrupt many children's educations for years. Our teachers and students are under enough stress. Why set up a new, unproven system now?
Though the current system isn't fixed completely, please don't break it!
And there are many examples of barking cats, so nothing is impossible. If Ms. Smith would like to visit a successful public school, I would be happy to give her a tour.