Detroit Free Press blows apart charter-school movement

The charter schools, of course, can and do kick anyone they feel like out of school. The public schools can't.

 

In my area, there actually was the family of a girl on a high school basketball team that sued because the new coach -- a state champion elsewhere -- brought in mercenaries from his old school and bumped out the previous starters. Those new girls all got an apartment together, at least for the start of the school year. As it turned out, the team wasn't barred from postseason competition for that -- it was for illegal practices. Satisfied the coach got his comeuppance, the family dropped the lawsuit. Of course, he'll be back next year.

But, if you're going to argue school choice is all wonderful for everything, you can't exempt sports from up. Yet there are people who are all pro-school choice until they realize their kid isn't going to play at Local High School. Although if they wish I guess they can choose to send their kid elsewhere. At least in my state, I think the state association has stopped trying to regulate transfers, unless a school refuses to sign off on one (which did happen when a baseball player tried to go from one Catholic school to another -- the school wouldn't sign off because it hated his dad so much).

 

The stories where the long-time resident kids of Hometown High freeze out the imported AAU hotshots are legion. (Most teams which import AAU rosters wholesale almost always appoint the AAU coach as head coach or at least an assistant, to crack the whip on this stuff.)

And almost every January at semester changeover, there are always stories about "several players quitting the Hometown High team," usually when the Hometown kids realize they are never going to see the floor again now that the AAU studs are eligible.

 

So?

 

What about rural schools that are struggling? Do they now have to send their kids multiple miles away to another rural school that may not have the room for them?

 

No.

In this case, we should do absolutely nothing.

Let the school remain open with the same administrators and teachers.

 

Can't we just pull up an old thread and read it? Same old shit.

 

So -- come right out and admit you want to dismantle public education.

Because that's the endgame here.

 

Maybe because there's an extensive new story dealing with the situation??

http://www.freep.com/article/20140622/NEWS06/140507009

 

Here's one for the record books ... I absolutely, totally agree.

 

That is news. But attacking public school? We've been down that path.

Educating people ain't easy. Film at 11.

 

As the husband of a public school teacher, I always chuckle when I hear people worry about "valuable resources being diverted away from public schools."

My county's public school system spends less per-student than all but 9 of the 132 in our state, and yet, is by any measure one of the 4-5 most effective in educating children.

The vast majority of the highest-spending systems are also the lowest achievers.

And yet, school officials annually cry poor and complain that taxpayers just don't understand the importance of funding a first-class public education.

Unless increased funding is used to compensate criminally underpaid teachers -- and we know it won't be -- I'm not buying.

The next study that can prove correlation between spending and academic achievement will be the first I've ever seen.

(Oh, and lest anyone wonder: My wife's elementary school is located in by far the most poverty- and crime-ridden area in our entire county. Yet it consistently produces test scores better than almost everyone else. So I know a little something about this subject).