Why should facts dictate government policy? The Obama-Duncan Department of Mis-Education apparently does not think they should. Just because charter schools don't make a difference does not mean we can't force them on the states as the latest miseducational panacea.
The New York Senate recently passed a bill that would more than double the number of privately run, but publicly financed charter schools in the state to 460. Why? To help the bankrupt state secure up to $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" grant money. This version of the bill was backed by charter school advocates and mysteriously eliminated restrictions on where the new charter schools could be placed and removed provisions for the state comptroller to audit the schools. The bill was opposed by the state teachers union.
Among those pushing hard for charter schools in the United States are President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Schools Venture Fund founded by investors who helped start Google and Amazon, and the Walton family of Wal-Mart. In New York State, a group called Education Reform Now has been running a massive radio campaign pushing for charter schools in New York State. It is financed by hedge fund financiers from Hawkshaw Capital, Gotham Capital, SAC Capital, and Maverick Capital who made a lot of money while the world economy tanked during the last few years. Apparently, since they were so successful in ruining the economy, they felt they should lend their expertise to set school policy. Education Reform Now's three member staff of educational experts includes an investment fund manager, a former investigator for the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board, and someone who previously worked in the entertainment industry.
The problem with the charter school movement is that the majority of the approximately 5,000 charter schools in the United States are no better, and in many cases worse, than local public schools. Stanford University researchers from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that less than 20% of charter schools offered a better education than comparable local schools and about half offered an equivalent education. However, in more than a third of the charter schools, 37%, educational achievement was significantly worse than in local public schools.
Operators of some of the more successful charter schools include Uncommon, KIPP and Aspire Public Schools. But they have created only about 350 schools during the last ten years and they are heavily dependent on $500 million in philanthropic support and a lot of unpaid work hours. In a New York Times interview published May 8, 2010, David Levin, co-founder of the KIPP charter school network and superintendent of KIPP's New York City schools, revealed that he works 75 to 90 hours a week training teachers, raising money and shuttling among six schools. He does reserve Sundays for his wife, who he met speed-dating. Levin taught 5th grade in Houston, Texas for three years but then left the classroom because he could not sustain the pace. You can't operate a national or state school system based on hyperactive individuals who eventually burn out.
Celebrities and philanthropists want to take credit for the roughly one hundred charter schools that have been successfully, but ignore the other 4,900 schools. According to a New York Times report (May 2, 2010), the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy, which is "not the kind of charter school that celebrities visit" is "close to the norm for urban Ohio, where 60 percent of charter school students in the eight largest districts attend a school that earned a D or F on its last state report card."
Is this what Obama and Duncan mean by "Race to the Top"?
Great post. As a NYC Social Studies teacher for 6 years and counting, I am glad that others are seeing the problems with charter school. To me, a charter school is the same solution as adding more lift boats on a sinking ship-maybe others will be saved by adding more escape options, but a majority of the people are still going down with the ship. I do not understand why others do not see what most charter schools are-a business run for profits in the guise of a public servant. I believe in a public education, where everyone can get educated and no one is denied.
-Bill Hendrick
The elite private schools and the "select" public schools are doing just fine, thank you, and as long as the regular public school students will be unable to compete with them, they will have no trouble getting the elite jobs. But, I'm afraid that Obama buys into "educational" and "economic triage" in his own way as much as his predecessors--Republican and Democrat--have.