May 11 Open Thread: Study Finds Charters an Existential Threat to Public Education
The problem with arguing from facts is that you have to take the time to gather them. So now we have a study that reaches the same conclusion Delawareans reached a decade ago: charter schools are an existential threat to public education, and for the same reason we have witnessed: In siphoning off students from the regular schools, charters end up costing more than they save.
You think you hate Donald Trump? You don’t hate him nearly as much as the Scots do. Not only has he purchased a couple of the country’s most iconic golf courses, he just redid the resort at Turnberry and, in deference to the property’s rugs, banned Irn-Bru, Scotland’s national soft drink. Irn-Bru is an even louder shade of orange than Trump himself, though it’s not orange flavored (Americans say it tastes like bubble gum). How popular is it? Scotland is one of only four countries in the world in which Coca-Cola is not the best-selling soft drink.
Heavily embalmed old wart Sheldon Adelson has cut a $30 million check to the GOP to help stave off the looming House electoral disaster. If Yahweh were still alive, he’d burn down one of the turd’s casinos.
Why are conservatives so consistently such crooked fucks? Because they’re no downside to it. Case in point: Religio-conservative Hugh Hewitt used his position to lobby crooked EPA chief Scott Pruitt to clean up a polluted site near Hewitt’s property. Hewitt did not lose his job at supposedly liberal MSNBC or at the supposedly liberal Washington Post. Nor was he fed to lions, which is the proper punishment for “Christians.”
Who says America is not about fairness? When this man couldn’t afford to live in an apartment in Seattle any more he took to living in his truck, which the authorities towed away because it was parked too long in one spot. The homeless guy won his court case to get it back, and might have inadvertently touched off the next big thing in impoverishing the masses.
One more reason to throw out Tom Carper, who opened the door while he was governor. His own children went. Markell’s too. I guess they wouldn’t send their own children to under funded schools with underpaid teachers. The face of neo-liberalism. Screw everyone in the EE community as they curry favor with their masters. POS plural. My resentment of these two is pretty unlimited .
Markell’s daughter previously was in private school. Charter of Wilmington was a step toward public education for him.
That sure was a timely tweet from Carper.
Alby
With all due respect Markell’s daughter was in a $25,000 per year private school and went to a free, taxpayer funded “public” school. A handsome ROI.
Rep. John Kowalko
John, what ROI? so if he hadnt paid for private school his daughter wouldnt have been able to get into a public school?
and its not surprising. a good portion of public school teachers/administrators send their kids to private schools
“and its not surprising. a good portion of public school teachers/administrators send their kids to private schools”
That’s nonsense. I just think you should know that.
Investment= Markell’s previously expressed opinions on tempered enthusiasm for Charter School expansion/funding (during the primary season as a matter of taped record) transitioning into a full blown support for Charter expansions and additional monies at the expense of traditional schools. Return= the $25,000 +* per year savings (*I believe his son also transitioned from private to charter/public).
John K.
jason – my kids go to private school and i know of 2 high school principals and at least 8 teachers whose kids go to private schools
Many of those kids go to parochial/religious schools that do not have nearly as high a price-tag. The more expensive and successful private school enrollments have gradually shrunk and the consequences of a free charter/private/public system are disaffecting the bottom lines of those schools and many Diocesan schools.
Rep. Kowalko
Arthur – That may be true, but it isn’t data.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
In the interest of transparency, I sent my youngest child to a parochial high school Kent County. I sent my oldest child her last two years of high school to a private school in Pennsylvania, however, she earned her own tuition. I also taught in Delaware public schools for 30 years. In both cases my motivation was that my two were learning different enough that each was better served by the alternate setting. My conscience is clear. I have no trouble advocating for public schools, the setting for my professional life. And no, they are not perfect. But measured by the public education I received, they’re pretty damn good. That is the standard my colleagues attempted to hit every day. And I’m proud of that too.
They’re is not as good as there’s
Anybody else notice that Carper is an immortal and is posing under a picture of himself painted 150 years ago?
I demand an apology.
We would know more if he was standing in front of a mirror
I’m still kinda pissed Jason apologized, but that was his call. Good enough.
I will say this. If that offended you than none of you motherfuckers best turn up here when he does croak.. or McCain, or Clinton.
When that human scum blob Kissinger kicks the bucket you might want to log off for a week or so.
Private school provided my kids a great foundation. They both had ZERO issue getting a good job and setting themselves up for Grad school.
The Teachers Union needs to go…
Two comments today. Well done. We’re proud, bud. Now go take out the garage bin.
…on a serious note…. Poor Tommy has cucked himself.
He basically said, hey my high priced legal team always gets me off, those public defenders are shit…
Self own scale of 9.5
Tom Klinebot said:
No doubt you had a great experience with private schools. It’s also true that whites-only drinking fountains always had fresh cold water and had ZERO issues being maintained in top working order.
Charter schools need to go…
I’m more entertained by Rep. Kowalko’s comment pointing out the money Jack Markell saved by putting his kids in charter schools. I don’t think that was a big motivator for a guy worth $70-odd million.
The motivator was that he didn’t want opponents pointing out that he didn’t send his kids to public schools. The teachers’ union would have made a lot of hay out of that.
Just btw, remember that if Markell hadn’t won, we would have faced the Great Recession with dithering nonentity John Carney in the governor’s office. Low bar, I realize, but voters correctly identified which of that duo was more competent. The sad part is that eight years went by in which Democrats did nothing more than dissuade Matt Denn from continuing his career in public service, leaving us to elect leftovers. John Carney = three-day-old meatloaf.
Al
I agree that putting his kids in a charter school was not motivated by saving tuition costs but I wanted to point out the reversal/hypocrisy in his attitude toward Charters as displayed in his pre-primary/post-election positions. Markell’s budget and other policies that (in my opinion) threatened the viability and health of Delaware’s public education system are being emulated and expanded by Carney and his administration. At least Jack had a personal interest (his kids) in creating havoc within the system.
John Kowalko
I disagree. I think the fact that he could have sent his kids to Tower Hill shows that he did not have any personal stake in charters. Were he not running for public office, there would be no disadvantage to sending his children to one of the highly ranked private schools. Had he lost the election he could have sent them back.
Charter of Wilmington is the only quasi-public school in the state that colleges rank at the level of the top private schools. Any parent interested in where his children attend college — in my experience with folks in that economic stratum, that’s all of them — would try to get his child into CoW. The proof of that is the length of the school’s waiting list. He didn’t create that school, and IMHO that school is the least of the problems with charters in Delaware.
The only reason charters create havoc within the system is that your colleagues are all for trying something new, as long as they don’t have to pay for it. Indeed, that’s what’s creating havoc throughout the educational system — lawmakers claim to want good schools, but aren’t willing to spend the money to get them.
The number of charters the state approved broke the rickety funding mechanisms we had relied on for 50 years. It is obvious now that, intentionally or not, the state Department of Education destroyed the Christina School District, and it still has no clue how to fix it.
It is imperative we find a new funding system while Democrats control Dover, because if we kick the can any further the Republicans will apply their “solutions” in a few years.
Instead I see a parade of bills intended mostly for show and re-election mailers. Your colleagues in your caucus don’t seem to understand that voters are sick of do-nothing government, whatever its party label.
I also agree that Charter of Wilmington is the least of the problems with charters. I also concur that Delaware DOE has been swinging the wrecking ball at the public education “building” with absolutely no idea of what they are doing. I believe their motivation, like many other government agencies is in self-preservation, job security and providing a haven for incompetency and cronyism. I also agree with much of your appraisal of my colleagues but most of these failing agencies in Delaware are the direct responsibility and obligation of the Executive branch tasked with ensuring their usefulness and effectiveness. Does the General Assembly and many of its members warrant criticism for their own attitudes of self-preservation and ballot-box appeasement whatever the party label? ABSOLUTELY! I have consistently pointed that out to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers and I will continue to criticize leadership at the GA level and at the Executive level. It is no small coincidence that I was unceremoniously removed from the Education Committee by Speaker Schwartzkopf despite my angry protestations and my nearly decade long experience on that committee. It is no small coincidence that I lost two chairmanships from the Energy Committee and the Joint Sunset Committee. It is no small coincidence that Delmarva Power and Light (Exelon’s child) has gotten Senator Harris McDowell to pass SS1 for SB80 (a potential giveaway to DP&L) through the Senate and fast tracked through the House Energy Committee ready for a floor vote in the House. It is no small coincidence that I am filing an amendment (supported by the Public Advocate) to SB80 that will ensure a bit of transparency and force DP&L to divulge their plans for the ratepayers money in advance. It is absolutely no small coincidence that DP&L lobbyists have been stalking members of the Energy Committee (My former Chair) and GA members to convince them to oppose the amendment. I’m not trying to relay a “poor me” message here but Delaware has literally become out of touch with its taxpayers and citizens and entirely focused on self-preservation at the ballot box with the capability of rewarding the supporters of its status quo power base.
Rep. Kowalko
Public schools are doomed. Poll all your elected Liberals and you will find a low percentage of their kids attend public schools.
You know I’m right..
You don’t have to poll them. If you weren’t a lazy asshole you could look up the information on their biography pages. It wouldn’t prove anything — the plural of anecdote is not data — except that you’re not the lazy conservative asshole you play on the blog.
Except, of course, you are.
“Poll all your elected Liberals and you will find a low percentage of their kids attend public schools.”
Which is why DINO “liberals” have to go and be replaced by officials who support “everybody else,” or the 99%, whatever. Charter schools have to go, and the resources poured back into public schools.
By the way DL readers, check your favorite candidates this cycle, especially those that claim to be running on education issues, and see what their position is on charter schools.
If you aren’t calling out charter schools as the resegregationist resource hogs they are, or if you think public education can somehow be restored alongside charter schools, then you aren’t a supporter of public education.