A Call for Consistency

Check out this guest column in Publicola by former state legislator Brendan Williams: Legislature Should Suspend Unfunded Charter Schools Initiative

Comments

dan dempsey said…
Speaking of schools and money...

Check out Florida .. and Jeb Bush.

It appears that significant gains are being eroded by ... online schools.
=======

Jeb Bush, with cash and clout, pushes contentious school reforms

=====
THE FLORIDA FORMULA

Bush, who declined to comment for this story, says often that he has one abiding goal: to give all students the chance to reach their "God-given potential."

His "Florida formula" rests on the principles of increasing accountability and expanding parental choice. Among its tenets:

* Grade schools on an A-to-F scale, based mostly on student scores and growth on standardized tests. Give students in poorly ranked schools vouchers to attend private and religious schools.

* Hold back 8-year-olds who can't pass a state reading test rather than promote them to fourth grade.

* Expand access to online classes and charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, sometimes for profit.
11/28/12, 7:33 PM
mirmac1 said…
Sorry, but that's just too &^%#$! logical for Varner and crew. Besides, who can equate quality care for our vulnerable elderly, with making lots of dough for Chris Larson and other "venture philanthropists"!
11/28/12, 7:48 PM
Anonymous said…
From the Seattle Times this evening.

"As many as one in five U.S. charter schools should be shut down because of poor academic performance, according to a group representing states, districts and universities that grant them permission to operate.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers said 900 to 1,300 of the privately run, publicly financed schools should close because they are in the bottom 15 percent of public schools in their states."

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019784379_charterschools29.html

--FedMomof2
11/28/12, 8:46 PM
mirmac1 said…
So, over the course of five years our 40 charters will end up at zero. We'll have wasted time, energy, resources and childrens' education.

Yeah, it worth it.
11/28/12, 9:40 PM
suep. said…
Even Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has acknowledged that charter schools have serious problems: “(…) unfortunately, we have far too many mediocre charters and we have far too many charter schools that are absolutely low performing.” ( Sec. Duncan, address to the National Charter Schools Conference, July 1, 2010 - start at the 9-minute mark)
11/28/12, 10:15 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.)
Read more

Seattle Public Schools and Their Principals

 I know I may have said this before but I used to think that a school was only as good as the three-legged stool that it is - parents, teachers/staff and principal. I soon learned that without a good principal, you might not ever want to sit on that stool. I have also often wondered if Seattle Schools had just bad luck/poor judgment about principals or if other districts have the same kind of churn. And principals aren't the same category as teachers. They don't have a union per se but in SPS, they have their own org, PASS (Principals Association of Seattle Schools). They oversee hundreds of students, not a single class. They have to juggle multiple balls of budget, discipline, curriculum and governance of a staff. That plus make parents and students feel good about the school.  It was also an interesting fact for Seattle Schools that only until recently, they had three principals who had all graduated from the school that they now oversaw. That was Martin Floe at Ingraham High
Read more

COVID Issues Heating up for Seattle Public Schools

Updates: from The Seattle Times , it appears that Franklin High School was also closed yesterday due to COVID and staffing issues. As well, Also on Monday, Lake Washington High School in Kirkland shifted back to remote learning temporarily, according to a statement on the school’s website . The shift was due to COVID-related staffing shortages, other illnesses, and absences. On Monday and Tuesday, Lake Washington students will be learning independently from home (asynchronous learning) while staff plan to make the switch to live online learning with a teacher (synchronous learning). On Jan. 19, students will return to in-person learning. Last week, state schools superintendent Chris Reykdal warned that some local school districts may need to close temporarily over the next three to four weeks. While state-mandated preventive measures make schools among the safer public spaces, a lack of staff may force a district or individual school building to shut down, he said. And here's the
Read more