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Classroom tales: A diary
December 8, 2009
I want to believe that charter schools are a part of the solution to America’s public school problem. Lord knows everyone who’s a part of the reform establishment thinks they are. And while I think charter schools are showing some undeniable progress, I still have sincere misgivings about the race to pronounce the achievement gap conquered by KIPP, Harlem Children’s Zone, et al.
An article in the fashion and style (!?) section of Friday’s New York Times inadvertently outlined the major issues I have with the stampede to build more charter schools. The article, which opens with a scene from a charity poker tournament at the posh W Hotel, highlights the growing number of hedge fund managers and other top finance gurus who are involved in funding New York’s burgeoning charter school networks.
It’s a fascinating article and details the many ways in which charter schools have generated enough buzz to elicit support from top policymakers as well as niches of society better known for expending capital on yachts and penthouses rather than educational enterprises. Implicitly, however, it shows how charter schools are draining resources and support — financial and otherwise — from the public school system. Technically charter schools are public, and yet they are largely free from unions and certain curriculum constraints. This makes them very attractive for financiers looking to support reform.
But while charter schools may have more freedom to develop alternative curricula and pay teachers as much as they want, the article (and outside observers in general) overstates distinctions between charter and public schools. The majority of public schools in NYC, charter or otherwise, have school uniforms, extended day programs that go to 5 p.m. and Saturday school programs. And yet charter schools have all the hype and the financial support that goes with it.
My main complaint about charters however is with their scope. Charter schools cater to some of the highest-need communities in New York City, but they admit students by lottery (a fact the article somewhat glosses over). The article does point out that only, “[a]pproximately 30,000, or 2.5 percent of the city’s public school students, attend charters, although in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn the figure is closer to 20 percent.”
Even if Obama and Bloomberg get their wish of expanding charter schools in New York City, they won’t service a significant enough number of high-need students to fix the achievement gap. On top of that, the high-need students they service don’t represent many of the most at-risk students — English Language Learners, special ed students and students with behavioral problems. That makes this comment from John Petry, partner of Gotham Capital and a major backer of the Success Charter Network, all the more ironic: “Helping the world one person at a time just isn’t for me.”
In bringing attention to the big money behind charter schools, the article highlights several of the flaws I see with the charter school movement. But it’s the article’s physical placement in the Times that made the biggest statement of all. Appearing alongside Burberry ads and an article about online sample sales, charter schools have emerged as the hottest new trend.
I’m not only lamenting the fact that many hardworking, progressive public schools are lacking the high-society financial support and op-ed columns. I worry what will happen when the buzz dies down. If the gains of these charter schools slow down, or if their major backers simply get bored and moved on to a new hip cause, what then? We need a widespread, sustainable solution to America’s education crisis. If charter schools are going to be a part of it, their success needs to be translated into the broader system, rather than nurtured as a passing infatuation.
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December 8th, 2009 11:04 am
The military-industrial complex is so….. 20th century.
Get ready for the education-industrial complex, and the privatization-for-profit of yet another all-American function of government. Maybe Wall Street will track it as its own industry, and if any firms should flounder, ask for a bail-out. Too important to fail, etc. Remember, it’s for the children.
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December 8th, 2009 6:36 pm
I live in San Francisco and just now got back from running across the bay for a midday errand to Oakland, a city I really don’t know that well. Following the directions to get where I was going, I found myself passing the sainted, hallowed American Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS), which has been hailed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and President G.W. Bush, and probably by God Himself, for supposedly closing the achievement gap.
Being a middle-aged, minivan-driving PTA mom, I can lurk even outside a schoolyard without raising anyone’s concern, so I parked, got out and checked out the kids in the yard. Funny — where were all those disadvantaged black and Latino students? There were 20-25 kids in the yard, first jogging and then standing around. Almost all of them were Asian girls (the highest-scoring demographic of any, overall on average). I identified two African-American and one Latino-looking student.
OK, I was only seeing the students who happened to be in the yard. However. This is just what my Oakland friends have been telling me. It’s part of what Ruben refers to as “the flaws I see with the charter movement” — I refer to it as “the charter-school bag o’tricks.” Somehow the at-risk black and Latino students have mostly disappeared and have been replaced with a demographic that tends to be the highest-achieving of all. It’s a miracle! (As far as outsider adults lurking outside the schoolyard, AIPCS management would probably prefer a squad of pedophiles to a flinty-eyed charter-school skeptic checking out their demographics — except that no one will notice. AIPCS will continue to be hailed for closing the achievement gap.)
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December 9th, 2009 11:20 am
Ruben - the one essential piece of information that you omitted is the fact that charter schools in NYC receive 20-30% less funding per pupil than NYCDOE schools. Charter schools would love to receive the same amount of public revenue as your “hardworking, progressive schools”. If the funding gap between charter and the DOE schools was eliminated, there would be no need to raise money. In fact, I don’t know one charter network that spends more money per pupil than the DOE does - they just have to raise money to get to equal revenue.
Ruben - join us in calling for equal funding for all public schools, charter or DOE!
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December 10th, 2009 2:25 pm
Educational reform has been a hot topic under the Bloomberg administration up to his present third term. Bloomberg and his cronies believe that charter schools are the answer to education reform. These schools have shown promising results, but these results only come from a handful of students. The schools have not serviced the majority of New York City students yet. Therefore, the evidence showing that the charter schools are the answer to New York City’s education problems is skewed. Until these schools are servicing not only a majority of NYC student population, but the high risk students, will charter schools become more attractive? These schools are not held to the rules and regulations that a normal public school has to deal with. Charter schools also do not have the extensive problems that come along with high risk students, since most of them do not service them. How can we have a solution to our educational problems, when the solution doesn’t even face the problem? Also, to think that some of these schools can pay there teachers what they deem fit, and they are free of unions is scary. This gives way too much power to the administrators and people in charge and does not do enough to protect the teacher. How can a teacher feel comfortable teaching his or her students, when they will have no protection from the wolves(administration)? A union is a vital part to a workforce, it balances the sides of labor, and if an administrator has all the power, this scenario is a scary one. How are teachers’ wages and jobs protected when their armor is removed? Before New York City is ready to call charter schools its savior to all of the educational problems, it needs to review who charter schools are serving, and how they are reaching their goals in education. Another major problem is they are not permanent. They all are on 3 to 5 year contracts, and if they do not show educational progress, than they are closed. Though this method seems sound, if something is failing it should be shut down, there are children involved. Their education and futures are built into the schools they are attending. What if a child attends charter schools that keep failing and shutting down, how is this going to benefit our children? They already have enough instability in their lives. We cannot forget to mention the bonds that students create with their teachers. Constantly moving them from teacher to teacher or from school to school will also hurt their abilities to create these bonds that will help them to grow as young adults. Our children can not be pawns in an experiment. In a regular experiment if it fails, the person who conducted the experiment starts from scratch; we can not do this with education. We can not start from scratch with our students. The damage to their education has already been afflicted.
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