Interesting Take on the Floe Decision From the Weekly
Over at the Seattle Weekly, Nina Shapiro took a big picture look at what it all means. She zeros in on some key points. It makes good points to ponder and mull over.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
Perhaps it's just hubris. They believe themselves to be the best and brightest, and we should just shut up and do what they say, like the helpless, ignorant children we are.
And then they go out and make dopey decisions like this one. How are we supposed to take them seriously when they botch decision after decision?
This is a rather paradoxical comment from Hill, who is a big supporter of charter schools, which is all about parent empowerment. But it does indicate an all-too-prevalent attitude that reform has to be forced down the throats of the people who are actually in the schools everyday.
Charter schools SHOULD be about parent empowerment, but in many cases, big charter orgs come in with "their program," cut a deal to get tax dollars and district assets (school buildings, etc.), and then just tell parents what they "get," like it or not. Parents don't choose the curriculum, the principals; they have no input into suspension/expulsion policies, etc. And -- there is no one to "vote out" if they don't like it. "Parent choice" is just the sugar coating on the bitter pill - to get people to swallow it.
Charters COULD be community based and/or parent governed, but that is certainly not what a lot of ed reform seems to have in mind.
I also know that the man credited with inventing the Charter Schools idea (Shanker, I think?) is firmly against today's hijacked version of his original ideas. There are many authors and critics today who were original charter supporters who have also abandoned the movement as it was hijacked and torn away from the, and turned into for-profit ventures to launder public tax dollars through, usually into the deep pockets of charter owners and CEO's. I can't stop it in Ohio or Pennsylvania. But I'll do everything I can to stop it in Washington.
WSEADAWG