Ken Simpler should enroll his kids in public school
The last sensible Delaware Republican, Mike Stafford, put this on his Facebook yesterday. I could not agree more.
Mike Stafford
Yesterday at 9:37am ·Before he ran for office, I recall asking Ken Simpler where his kids went to school after listening to +30 minutes of canned Rodel and Scott Walker-style anti-union and “education reform” tropes and talking points come spewing out of his mouth. His answer wasn’t the local public school! I told him a politician who talks about education reform but doesn’t have their kids in public school is like a Chevy salesman who drives a Toyota, only worse- because such a politician is willing to experiment on other peoples’ children.
Many Delaware education “policy makers” do not send their kids to traditional public schools. While this isn’t a subject I usually write about, it is important. Whether it is charter schools that have discriminatory enrollment practices or private schools, it does send a message. Full disclosure, I do send my child to a private school (which isn’t a secret, I have been very open about this), but as a special needs child with multiple issues in district and charter (as well as another private school), I didn’t have a lot of true choices in the matter for his benefit. While he is doing good in his new school, if I could turn back time and have those schools do the right thing to begin with, this would be a different conversation.
Like the Obama kids went to public school… and Chelsea Clinton….and so many of Delaware’s liberal leaders..they go to the ritziest most expensive private schools they can find…..the only public school kid I remember was Amy Carter! I think we should extend the “right to privacy” to where people send their kids to school. Its a private family matter. I just wish more poor folk had the choice and options those with means have.
chris is gets the blue ribbon for getting to the most specious defense the quickest.
Simpler has designs on running for Governor. That much is clear. His resume should include contact with schools other than St Andrews and Princeton.
As a minor quibble, Stafford is no longer a Republican. If I were to pick the most appropriate party for him, it would be the Social Democrats.
I just wish more poor folk had the choice and options those with means have.
If the public schools were supported to actually educate all of the kids that come their way (no matter economic status, no matter educational need, no matter social challenges) then they wouldn’t need “choices”. Both the BLM movement and the NAACP have called for a slowdown on the establishment of charters until their impacts on traditional public schools can be fully known and fixed.
Tom Carper was the biggest proponent of charter schools when they started back in the day. If charters have done so much damage in Delaware , then find a primary challenger to Tom Carper next year and make it a real issue and debate !
lol.
Was that a serious response, Chris? I mean, I usually get sarcasm, but…
Jason 330:
I guess that disqualifies Ciro Poppiti from any higher office since he went to private schools and Princeton, too??
Chris is a loonbertarian — a loon with libertarian leanings.
Jea Street, a longtime activist for public school children, sent his kids to private school, too.
Nobody wants to experiment with their own kids.
I heard Streets kids were in Tower Hill…
When you are correct, they start insulting you!! Love it.
Our next Governor John Carney went to St Marks High School and Dartmouth College and his kids were at Friends School I think. I think Mrs Carney works (or worked) at a private school. Glad for them! Good choices. I support his and Mrs Carney’s freedom to choose the best choices for their family !
John Carney should have sent his kids to public school.
“I support his and Mrs Carney’s freedom to choose the best choices for their family !”
I agree. Families should continue to be free to send their kids to the private school of their choice. And voters should continue to be free to make decisions about a candidate based on choices they have made.
Publicly funded schools on the other hand should accept all kids in the neighborhoods they serve. The choice should always be the family’s choice of school and not the school’s choice of student.
Everyone declaring what schools “should” do is why we’ll soon have no more “traditional” public education.
Cute but incorrect.
@Chris: “Correct” about what? I’m the one who pointed out Jea Street’s apparent hypocrisy…oh, wait, you probably don’t know who he is.
See, I insult you not because I disagree with you, but because you’re an ill-informed nuisance who drags down the intelligence level of every thread.
Consider this gem:
“If charters have done so much damage in Delaware , then find a primary challenger to Tom Carper next year and make it a real issue and debate!”
Tom Carper stopped being governor 16 years ago. Charter schools are a state issue, not a federal one. This is simple idiocy masquerading as issue-oriented debate.
You are not informed enough to have a valid position on the issue. Just because you have an opinion is no reason to subject us to it.
“Publicly funded schools on the other hand should accept all kids in the neighborhoods they serve.”
That’s the statement of someone without knowledge of the issues. Technically, they already do.
Charter schools don’t serve neighborhoods, so would not be covered by your statement.
My point was that you’re full of principle-based positions that wouldn’t survive two hours on the battlefield.
Was “cute but incorrect” your attempt to be cute? Or am I again incorrect?
Since Ken Simpler isn’t even running for Governor for perhaps 4 years, 8 years or maybe never, this picture and post could and should have been about John Carney since he fits the same criteria as Simpler with regard to public schooling. Would be much more timely and relevant to this year and the next guy filling the Governor’s chair.
I agree that John Carney should have sent his kids to public school, but Stafford was talking to Simpler who replied to “where do your kids go to school?” with “canned Rodel and Scott Walker-style anti-union and “education reform” tropes and talking points.”
Also, time flies. I already regard Simpler as running for Governor – as, no doubt, do his handlers.
What elected official actually sends their children not counting charters, to public schools in Delaware ?
Good question. We’ll get the DL research staff right on it.
Although they have now both reached adulthood, I sent both my kids to 12 years of traditional public schooling (including busing–which they did not mind) in Delaware and they received a wonderful education from some superb teachers.
Rep. John Kowalko
Anonymous 1:06:
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers says that charters should reflect demographically either the school district or county in which they are located. Many of our “high-performing” charters with ridiculous enrollment preferences currently do not mirror the districts or counties in which they are located. Fact. So all these charters cherry-picking their students are going against what the NACSA recommends as best practice. When you’ve got a District like Christina with nearly 60% kids in poverty and Newark Charter School with about 10% kids in poverty, then that’s a problem.
Keep going on this topic. I can go all day…
I heard we do not have any reps currently in office that have children in public schools at the moment. Yes John Kowalko you did send your son that I know of to public schools and did very well in school there I admit. Good parenting by you and the mrs helped too
My daughter also went all 12 years to Christina schools- Maclary, Downes, Shue, Bayard and Newark High. We’re very proud of them and grateful to all of those dedicated teachers and staff that made their success possible.
John Kowalko
@MM: National association? Who cares what they think?
Many of Delaware’s charters are what would be called magnet schools elsewhere. Most never should have been chartered.
But you know as well as anyone that Delaware charters weren’t adopted to serve their neighborhoods, they were adopted to give people a way of opting out of their neighborhood schools. What they SHOULD do is, again, not really worth yammering about, because they’re not going to do it.
Kim Williams daughter went (goes?) to Conrad. Steve Smyk has three school age kids. I don’t know if they go to school or are home schooled.
“Trey (Paradee)is the father of two children, Cassie (age 19) and Charlie (age 15).” No idea where they go to school.
|“Publicly funded schools on the other hand should accept all kids in the neighborhoods they serve.”
That’s the statement of someone without knowledge of the issues. Technically, they already do.
Charter schools don’t serve neighborhoods, so would not be covered by your statement.|
See, that’s a murky set of sentences. Some charters don’t serve neighborhoods, some do (despite their advertising). Some charters have geographic radii that serve as a magical cutoff line for who they “can” and “can’t” accept. Some take students from anywhere provided they can themselves to school somehow. So technically no, not all publicly funded schools accept all kids in the neighborhoods they serve. And like it or not, there are charters that serve specific neighborhoods and areas of the state. And they all receive public funding.
Today I learned that I experiment on my kids by sending them to traditional public schools.
Conrad is a charter correct ?
No, you don’t experiment on them, Brian. The state does.
I sent my kids to public school, and mostly because I believed in public education. Eight years of experience with my kids in public schools ended that particular bit of idealism.
If your kids are not being served well by public schools, why would you keep them there if you can afford better?
“Some charters have geographic radii that serve as a magical cutoff line for who they “can” and “can’t” accept.”
That’s just Newark Charter, isn’t it? No clearer example of a white-flight academy in northern Delaware.
Having seen many parents bypass the great public schools in my area, I can say that 8 out of 10 went private (or private’s poor cousin…charter) because they didn’t want their kids in classes with black kids.
anon, NCS is guilty of the radius. And familial-preference. And donor-preference. They also want cafeteria funding from the State & District. They don’t have a cafeteria program. Enough about NCS, though.
Charter School of Wilmington has a student demographic that doesn’t reflect its residential district either.
Conrad, I think, is a Magnet. Magnets, theoretically, are open to all in the district and through a budgetary loophole at the state level, can have transportation provided by the District and paid for by the State. Magnets have entrance requirements or screens, or auditions.
Conrad is a magnet school (which functions pretty much as an elite charter). You have to apply to get in – and they have conditions – which might explain their demographics. ELL – 3.4%, Low-Income – 13.6%, Special Ed – 2.8% and 64.4% white.
Here’s a sample of what they require to attend their public school:
Not really a “public” school.
The only thing that makes a school public is its funding, so sorry, it is a public school, just not the kind you like.
I’m not here to defend what the state calls “charter” schools. My point about CSW is that it’s called a charter, but it’s really a magnet.
And if you want to pick on “charters” that shouldn’t exist, you ought to put schools with high academic requirements last on your list. I think we could use more STEM-focused schools rather than a military academy, or a “charter” focusing on police work.
Look at the public schools in New York City. Do you think every kid who wants to gets into the School for Performing Arts? Of course not. Same with their advanced STEM schools. Magnet schools have entrance requirements.
Your white liberal guilt is swell, but it shouldn’t play any role in public education. What inner-city school did your kids attend? And for how long?
“Charter School of Wilmington has a student demographic that doesn’t reflect its residential district either.”
Congratulations, Sherlock. You want to know the biggest demographic anomaly about that school? Check its Asian population.
“they didn’t want their kids in classes with black kids.”
Maybe they just didn’t want them shaken down in the rest rooms for their lunch money. Happened to my kid nearly every day for a year and he was too afraid to tell anyone. And that was in one of the “best” schools in the state according to test scores.
“The only thing that makes a school public is its funding, so sorry, it is a public school, just not the kind you like.” Well that’s a joke, obviously.
So no, that’s not the only thing that makes schools public schools. Public is open to all. Not “Open to All*” (*some exclusions apply).
I don’t pick on select charters, I pick on them all because of what they are. A way to discriminate and get paid for it. The charter model was supposed to provide academic competition to traditional district schools. What they actually provide is financial competition for state education funds.
“And that was in one of the “best” schools in the state according to test scores.”
I think I found the problem.
My kid got slammed into chain link fence last year and got a lacerated head and neck. We going to compete on who’s kid got targeted more by bullies? Because that problem is in ALL schools.
You apparently think you can just define words on your own. You can’t. A charter school, whatever else it is, is publicly funded and so is a public school. New York City has a public school devoted to Hasidic Jewish kids. You think it’s “open to all”? It’s not a charter, either, just a straight-up school for a special population. That’s what you can do with enough kids to fill out classes of any sort.
As your third paragraph illustrates, you understand precisely what makes them public — they take government money. I agree with you completely about how they operate in Delaware, but your principle-fueled positions are like a peacock’s feathers — a nice show, but they really get in the way most of the time.
“We going to compete on who’s kid got targeted more by bullies? Because that problem is in ALL schools.”
Wrong. In a private school, the bullies are expelled. Which is why I stopped letting the government experiment on my kids. YMMV.
| Wrong. In a private school, the bullies are expelled. Which is why I stopped letting the government experiment on my kids. |
Oh anon, and here I thought you had some idea of what you were talking about. Good show.
My kids attended Warner for 4 years. We then went to private – which had a ton of bullying. If the bully’s parents were connected the bullying continued.
Brian: More idea of what I’m talking about than you do. See, content-free insults are easy. People like you think you can fix the system based on your limited experience.
Pandora: So you made the same decision I did. I had the same experience in private schools, but not all bullies are connected. And it at least had the benefit of making my kid hate rich kids instead of black kids.
Here’s a question for both of you: Public schools were failing before charter schools were born. What was your excuse for them sucking then?
And let’s get to the real subtext of this thread, which asserts Simpler should send his kids to public school. Nobody has claimed that’s because they would get a better education there. It’s pretty clear that even public school supporters consider it a step down, or they wouldn’t be so eager to rub his nose in it.
Anyway, I don’t make excuses for public school struggles before or during the charter era. Public education isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it’s okay Anon.
This thread was started on the notion that if you’re going to legislate public education and “reform”, you probably should have some functional knowledge of the system in the first place and it is clear that many of our lawmakers (and commenters) wouldn’t know what the inside of a public school looks like let alone how to “fix” them.
| People like you think you can fix the system based on your limited experience. |
And who are people like me? As for my “experience”, you will have to excuse me if I don’t abide by your ability to quantify things.
“I don’t make excuses for public school struggles before or during the charter era. Public education isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it’s okay Anon.”
Oh, I see. As far as you’re concerned, destroying charters is the end, not the means. You’re illustrating my point about your experience: only yours counts.
“Public education” is a meaningless term. Kids go to individual schools, some of which are great, other of which are terrible. Again, your limited point of view makes your viewpoint worthless.
| Wrong. In a private school, the bullies are expelled. Which is why I stopped letting the government experiment on my kids. YMMV. |
| Congratulations, Sherlock. You want to know the biggest demographic anomaly about that school? Check its Asian population. |
| Again, your limited point of view makes your viewpoint worthless. |
| Oh, I see. As far as you’re concerned, destroying charters is the end, not the means. You’re illustrating my point about your experience: only yours counts. |
Forgive me if I still refuse to abide by your ability to quantify things, anon.
As I said. If you want to work to improve, fix, reform, whatever public education, you should at least have some functional knowledge of the system.
Where’s yours? You’ve presented no evidence of any here.
And I don’t think “quantify” means what you think it means.
My error, I should have added: I don’t agree with your ability to qualify things either.
I have posted on public education before. Feel free to search for the posts. Whether or not you consider them “experience” or “knowledge”, fortunately for me I’m not responsible for earning anyone’s approval of what I post.
So I checked the archives. You are a Christina parent, which gives you a unique perspective on public education in Delaware, but it’s a limited perspective whether you realize it or not.
Whether you agree or not, Christina’s problems are unique to that district. I’m older than you, so I remember that Newark was the locus of anti-busing sentiment in the ’70s, which is why so many white-flight charters cater to that area. You see almost none of them in Brandywine Hundred since the state switched its city districts with Red Clay’s, which quickly became another anti-busing district once the poorest city kids were assigned to it. But Red Clay charters its own schools, avoiding the budget problems that plague Christina.
My point is that whenever people complain about charter schools, they take up whatever cudgel is handy. The schools were a mess before the charters; should we eliminate them, the schools will still be a mess. The underlying problem is racism, and to pretend that the issues are educational is to fail to understand the problem.
You can’t fix anything until you understand what’s broken. You certainly don’t need my approval to continue down your misguided path.
I also notice you have no response to the many instances of public but not open schools that I have pointed out. So other than challenging me personally, what exactly are you contributing here?
You and pandora are using definitions as used in Delaware for charter and magnet schools. I’m pointing out that what we call charters are in practice what most places call magnet schools. All you have posted about is what YOU think a public school is.
You don’t have much game, do you?