Here’s some food for thought. We have concluded that some of the pro-charter, pro-voucher, pro-privatization, anti-funding voices in Kansas agree with The Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli as he expressed in a recent NY Times column. (Here’s his original column: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/12/10/are-charter-schools-cherry-picking-students/charters-can-do-whats-best-for-students-who-care.) Blogger parent Sarah Blaine expresses the same concerns we have. Do you agree?
“Is it really okay to imply that public schools truly are the schools of last resort, that their highest and best purpose is to serve as dumping grounds for those students who are not good enough (or malleable enough, or terrified enough, or controllable enough) to succeed in charters?…
“Presumably in an all-charter system this will mean dumping the unwanted students into low-performing charters until those charters either kick them out or are closed and a new batch of substandard charters arise to take them on. In a mixed public/charter district, this will mean dumping those kids back into the traditional public schools, further damaged by the alienation, sense of failure, and disruption that go along with getting kicked or counseled out of a charter school…
“I am just amazed that someone who is, for better or for worse, a leading voice in education policy setting will openly come out and state that some kids just suck, and the best thing we can do is to just weed them out and get rid of them…
“So, here’s my question: at what age do we write kids off? When is a child old enough to be thrown away?…
“This isn’t even code for active advocacy of re-segregation of schools. It’s a blatant statement that we should re-segregate schools. With impunity. As we cloak ourselves in righteousness. Because you know, there are kids who matter, and kids who don’t. And if socio-economic factors happen to determine who belongs in which category for the vast majority of those kids, who cares?…
“I’m still trying to figure out why my tax dollars are supporting quasi-‘public’ charter schools that their own proponents encourage to refuse to serve certain kids. Their own proponents agree that the charter schools do — and agree that they should — weed out ‘those kids’ with impunity. Can someone please explain to me how that is preparing kids for citizenship in a democratic society?…
In Petrilli’s world, order is apparently the order of the day. Children don’t deserve second chances. Late bloomers have no opportunities to turn themselves around. Troublemakers should be warehoused. And public education with public funds owes nothing to the public.
“Perhaps I’m just naive, but I, for one, am outraged. You should be too. Even — and perhaps especially — if you support charter schools.” http://parentingthecore.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/writing-off-those-kids/