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Thread: PSA: Charter Schools Are Public Schools ......

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    PSA: Charter Schools Are Public Schools ......

    Well there you have it.....Charter Schools are Public schools. That they are for the kids. Whereas Teachers Unions are only about one thing. Teachers Unions.





    President-elect Donald J. Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos, chair of The American Federation for Children, to be his education secretary and the Left is fearful needless to say. If you read The New York Times piece on her, you’d think she’s the devil incarnate, including the rather subtle swipe that she’s the sister of Erik Prince, founder of the military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater. Cue the calls that she’s anti-public education, and how the Michigan charter school system is a mess. Okay—the Michigan system needs to be tweaked. It happens. Yet, that’s not to say that charter schools are terrible. In fact, they’re public schools. That’s one thing that some don’t seem to get when you’re discussing public schools. At the Franklin Center’s school choice conference in Denver in July—that point was made clear by Pam Benigno, Ross Izard, and Erick Valencia of the Education Policy Center.



    They then stressed that charter school are public schools, though there are a few caveats. Charter schools cannot:


    1. Charge tuition
    2. Teach religion
    3. Have special entrance requirements
    4. Discriminate in any way shape or form
    5. Reject children with disabilities or those with special needs


    They follow the same federal and state public school laws as any other institution that receives government dollars, and they have to have academic tests and follow the state’s standards for education.


    The good thing is that they’re able to craft the way they teach the given curriculum. The bad thing news is that charter schoolteachers and administrators are often underpaid, and the charter school program itself is underfunded since these institutions pay for their own facilities. Yet, Benigno, Izard, and Valencia noted that six of the state’s top ten middles schools are charters, seven of the top ten high schools are charters, and five of the ten schools with the highest ACT scores were charters. With rigorous accountability, an emphasis on equity, high-quality education, and help from everyone, charter schools are making a difference especially with minority and low-income communities.


    As for the coming campaign against DeVos by the teachers’ unions, let’s not forget that school choice, charter schools, vouchers, etc. are aimed at giving students in failing schools the opportunity to truly succeed in academic excellence. I’ve heard many education activists say that your zip code should not be the only determining factor in assessing one’s access to quality education. The Wall Street Journal’s piece on Mrs. DeVos was a bit more even-keeled; noting that the reason teachers’ unions are somewhat hesitant to get on the accountability train is that it could mean the loss of teachers, which is why those contracts are usually ironclad when it comes to employment. It’s almost impossible to get rid of terrible teachers in some of the most populated areas on the country. It’s because students don’t pay union dues. Mrs. DeVos most vocal critic will surely be American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten:


    [Ms. Weingarten brings a different set of priorities to the education debate. She has fought to keep persistently failing schools open because they still provide jobs for her dues-paying members. She has fought to ensure that government officials, rather than parents, decide where a child attends school. Union influence over education policy in the U.S. is unrivaled, and Ms. Weingarten prefers it that way. Her top concern is better pay and working conditions for her members. Students don’t pay union dues.That doesn’t make her a bad person, but it should cast doubt on claims, too often swallowed whole by education reporters, that union interests are perfectly aligned with those of students and families. A union-negotiated work rule that says teachers can’t be evaluated by how much their students learn is a job-protection measure, but it obviously harms kids and school quality.]......snip~

    http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattves...hools-n2253030
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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    More success with Charter Schools. Good results in helping low income Students.




    In Denver, Charter Schools Lead The Way In Helping Low-Income Students.....


    In July, Townhall attended a school choice conference hosted by the Franklin Center in Denver, Colorado. One of the things that we learned from the two-day conference was that charter schools appear to be one of the best educational institutions helping low-income students.


    The Colorado League of Charter Schools, which represent over 220 charter schools in the state, focuses on one thing: giving Colorado students access to high-quality, publicly funded school options. Over 108,000 students attend charter schools, which is 12 percent of the total K-12 enrollment in the state. In Denver, around 18 percent of students attend charter schools, according to Dan Schaller, Director of Advocacy for CLCS. He added that charter schools in Colorado are enrolling students of color and English Language Learners at higher rates than the state’s public school system. These students also outperform their peers on state performance measures.


    Schaller mentioned that the mid-2000s were a disaster for Denver. It had the lowest rate of academic growth for medium and large school districts, with less than 39 percent of students graduating in four years.


    With the implementation of school choice and rigorous accountability standard, most of which targeted failing charter schools. The quality of education improved dramatically. Towards the end of his presentation, Schaller added that by 2012, Denver had the highest rate of academic growth in the state for medium and large districts, it was the fastest urban school district in the country, 65 percent of students were graduating on time.





    He added that 48 percent of Denver students enrolled in college, one in seven were low-income students. The rest of the state it’s one in twenty. Alexander Ooms of the Donnell-Kay Foundation, a think tank focused on education reform, wrote “while the strategy of starting new schools is paying dividends for DPS, the success in creating quality schools — as well as serving low-income students within those schools — resides overwhelmingly with charters.”


    Schaller said, as many did at the conference, that education is a touchy subject for many in the country. He gave four key areas to focus on when crafting successful education reform. Bipartisanship is key; one side alone can’t do it. Be message neutral, focus on the quality of education regardless of whether it’s public or charter......snip~


    http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattves...dents-n2253001
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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    As we can see the Demos and their leftness brethren really know how to scam people for money over education. Hopefully a lot of that will be reduced, and cause the Demos more suffering.



    The Out Of Whack Non-Teaching Hiring Spike In Our Public Schools Is Costing Us How Much?.....


    If you were a follower of trends on education, you’d notice that hiring for teachers and administrative staff has gone through the stratosphere, while student enrollment has not spiked at a commensurate rate that would justify such a hiring increase. Ben Scafidi of the Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice delved into the numbers and found waste that soared into the billions from the public school hiring spikes. He also noted that a) No Child Left Behind was not the harbinger for this increase; b) there is no evidence that kids are worse because of the hiring spike; and c) student achievement hasn’t risen; high school graduation rates are still the same as they were in 1970.


    Scafidi was a guest speaker at Franklin Center’s school choice conference in Denver, Colorado in July. He broke down the numbers for most states. In his presentation he started off with the national stage, where he asked, “what if U.S. public schools had increased non-teaching staff at the same rate as its increase in students?” He found that the U.S. public school system would have $27,100,000,000 in annual savings. He takes it further asking, “what could U.S. public schools do with $27.1 billion per year?”





    I could give every teacher an $8,700 raise, reduced property taxes, and give 3.4 million kids an $8,000 scholarship to private schools.





    California would have $1.4 billion in annual savings if its non-teaching staff had increased at the same rate as its students. That’s a $5,500 raise for every teacher, a reduction in property taxes (all savings would result in this), and an $8,000 scholarship to private schools 177,436 children.





    Colorado would save $512 million in savings, enough for a $10,200 raise for every teacher and an $8,000 scholarship to private schools for 64,019 children.





    Illinois would have $1.7 billion in savings, enough for a $12,200 raise for every teacher and an $8,000 scholarship to private school for 207,738 kids.





    What about New Jersey? The state where I grew up could’ve saved $1.6 billion; enough for a $14,200 raise for every teacher and an $8,000 scholarship to private school for 203,119 kids. .....snip~

    http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattves...-much-n2253046
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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