I have a hard time with that argument against charter schools. If I’d been entirely reliant on the public school system rather than the amazing charter elementary school I went to, I probably would’ve failed on repeat. It gave me a chance to have a small class that saved me from my anxiety. To boot, the school has a focus on sustainability education, something you’d never see in public school that have to straddle a political line with their curriculum.
It’s a lovely dream to say “everything public :D” but it’s not realistic. We need to take 100 other steps around education and in the mean time charter schools should be pretty fuckin low priority.
But that’s just it, its academic segregation. If it is all about “me” then we aren’t a society and should stop pretending it is. If our society actually gave shit 1 about even equity of opportunity at any level, primary school should be of similar quality for all, or if anything, superior education should go to those from the most socio-economically disadvantaged families.
As it is, just as with our economy, it becomes a snowball effect. One kid with white collar parents gets them into a Charter school so that kid has Food and Shelter Security, superior schools, parents who have time to help etc, while public school kid in a bad district has food shelter and insecurity, bad schools, and parents who couldn’t have done anything with 2 jobs each in poverty.
That isn’t a society, it’s just a scam to make a permanent underclass. That kid would have to be a naturally motivated, gifted individual to overcome that, and the vast majority of people are not.
We need to increase the quality of our main education system, not allow escape for a few to better schools and saying fuck the poorest ones more specifically. You got extra opportunity, so you should see better than most how unfair it is to others.
It’s not a lovely dream, many other nations have better public education systems. We just CHOOSE to prioritize the enrichment of private shareholders over having a robust social framework that prioritizes education in more than words. Social supports aren’t a lovely dream, they exist in societies where those that succeed most are correctly taxed to pay back into the society that FACILITATED their great rise to wealth in the first place.
Oh and where I live, we have a charter chain called “Challenger Schools” That advertises teaching conservative principles, so I don’t see the difference in curriculums as a positive.
Thanks for outlining the 100 other steps I mentioned as what should take priority over tearing down charter schools that are often the only option for kids who live in bumfuck nowhere. Oh wait no, they could get driven an hour out of the way to the public school instead by parents who definitely have that time (fat fucking /S).
I’m not arguing against bettering public schools. I’m arguing that we have many other focuses over the many very good public charters. We should aim to match them with public schools. I also see the difference in curriculum as a failure of public schools that needs improvement and not a flaw of charter schools. Rather have a few critical thinkers getting the ball rolling on change than none at all while the public school system continues to crumble.
Side note: literally never seen a public charter that supports “conservative values”. They’re always private because they want to keep the “wrong people” out. Fuck all private schools.
I have a hard time with that argument against charter schools. If I’d been entirely reliant on the public school system rather than the amazing charter elementary school I went to, I probably would’ve failed on repeat. It gave me a chance to have a small class that saved me from my anxiety. To boot, the school has a focus on sustainability education, something you’d never see in public school that have to straddle a political line with their curriculum.
It’s a lovely dream to say “everything public :D” but it’s not realistic. We need to take 100 other steps around education and in the mean time charter schools should be pretty fuckin low priority.
But that’s just it, its academic segregation. If it is all about “me” then we aren’t a society and should stop pretending it is. If our society actually gave shit 1 about even equity of opportunity at any level, primary school should be of similar quality for all, or if anything, superior education should go to those from the most socio-economically disadvantaged families.
As it is, just as with our economy, it becomes a snowball effect. One kid with white collar parents gets them into a Charter school so that kid has Food and Shelter Security, superior schools, parents who have time to help etc, while public school kid in a bad district has food shelter and insecurity, bad schools, and parents who couldn’t have done anything with 2 jobs each in poverty.
That isn’t a society, it’s just a scam to make a permanent underclass. That kid would have to be a naturally motivated, gifted individual to overcome that, and the vast majority of people are not.
We need to increase the quality of our main education system, not allow escape for a few to better schools and saying fuck the poorest ones more specifically. You got extra opportunity, so you should see better than most how unfair it is to others.
It’s not a lovely dream, many other nations have better public education systems. We just CHOOSE to prioritize the enrichment of private shareholders over having a robust social framework that prioritizes education in more than words. Social supports aren’t a lovely dream, they exist in societies where those that succeed most are correctly taxed to pay back into the society that FACILITATED their great rise to wealth in the first place.
Oh and where I live, we have a charter chain called “Challenger Schools” That advertises teaching conservative principles, so I don’t see the difference in curriculums as a positive.
Thanks for outlining the 100 other steps I mentioned as what should take priority over tearing down charter schools that are often the only option for kids who live in bumfuck nowhere. Oh wait no, they could get driven an hour out of the way to the public school instead by parents who definitely have that time (fat fucking /S).
I’m not arguing against bettering public schools. I’m arguing that we have many other focuses over the many very good public charters. We should aim to match them with public schools. I also see the difference in curriculum as a failure of public schools that needs improvement and not a flaw of charter schools. Rather have a few critical thinkers getting the ball rolling on change than none at all while the public school system continues to crumble.
Side note: literally never seen a public charter that supports “conservative values”. They’re always private because they want to keep the “wrong people” out. Fuck all private schools.