Charter Schools Were a Stupid Idea to Begin With

when the late AFT head Al Shanker and others had this naive notion that teachers and parents could together form schools free of the "restrictions" of the public ed bureaucracy and have more "control" over curriculum and the like. Well, Shanker shortly repudiated charter schools when the far right seized upon them as the perfect vehicle for looting the public treasury and perhaps resegregate public schools all over again.

None of this is meant to deny the reform impulse that is a real part of the charter movement, and no one questions the desire of parents to find the best options they can for their children. But the original idea behind charter schools was to create “laboratories for innovation” that would nurture reform strategies to improve the public system as a whole. That hasn’t happened. While there are some excellent individual charter schools, nowhere have charters produced a template for effective district-wide reform or equity.

This doesn’t mean charter school teachers and parents are our enemies. On the contrary, we should be allies in fighting some of the counter-productive assessment, curriculum and instructional practices raining down on all of us from above. Where practices like greater autonomy over curriculum or freedom from bureaucratic regulations are valid, they should be extended to all schools, without sacrificing the oversight we need to preserve equity and accountability.

This is a naive load of shit. If people want to create schools, nobody is stopping them, but don't ask the taxpayers to foot the bill.

Charter schools don't exist to improve public education but to destroy it for private gain.

I want them OUTLAWED.