One thing that is important this election season is to find out who is for charter schools and who is against them… Then vote for someone who is against them….
Recently some regulations were changed deep inside the DOE to allow more money to go to charters and be taken out of public schools… They supposedly were stopped by loud noises from legislators. But such will keep coming again and again as long as Charter School law remains open and charters still remain an option….
Did you ever wonder why they always have to “sneak” charter school changes through? Why do YOU sneak things, like past your wife or husband, like past your boss, like past your children? Is it because you don’t want to get caught? Exactly… So why are we “sneaking” changes to charter law in the dead of night?
Because it is bad legislation for Delaware’s soon to be one million people, and it benefits probably 5 friends of those players pushing it forward…. The only way to pass something that will piss off one million to make 5 people happy, is to keep it hidden from those million people…
When someone says at any forum that they are FOR charter schools…. if you can, ask them in public this question:…. Since only one in five children go to charter schools in Delaware, and since Charter Schools take money away from those other four…. how do you propose re-compensating those Public Schools who get hurt by having a Charter take their money, so the levels of educations for 4 out of 5 Delaware children, can remain the same??
And that’s the rub… When they say we are going to improve education for one fifth of our children by great charter schools, what isn’t said at all, is that 4/5ths of our children now have to suffer educational losses due to funding cuts!
How can that even make education better?
If you have a +1 and then add a -4 to it, Common Core or not, you still get a -3 compared to zero change if you did nothing at all….
So ask them, in public, out loud, how if they promote a charter, what is their plan to fill the gap of funding in the public schools system caused by those very charters they support….
Then, don’t vote for them. Vote for their opponent…
Because in all campaigns leading up to this year…. there has been deep silence on that other side of the issue…..
But that other side, the harm they do to the MAJORITY of students, is exactly why charters in 25 years, have never adequately functioned to improve education across any wide area….
kavips 
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August 29, 2016 at 7:17 am
The One REAL Problem With Charter Schools | From ‘kavips’ blog | Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning"
[…] The One REAL Problem With Charter Schools […]
August 30, 2016 at 9:46 am
Kurt J
Charter Schools do not take money away from Public Schools, they take money away from Unionized Public School teachers in the form of salaries and benefits, vacations and pensions. Fewer students means fewer teachers, fewer expenses, it’s that simple. Eliminate Charter Schools? Raise the quality of and the safety of Public Schools and Charter Schools will wither on the vine. Violence among students, apathy from Teachers, semi-literate graduates and Charter Schools will flourish. One in five students and growing because parents cannot trust our elected officials and the Teachers Unions to provide a quality, safe environment. Recent steep tax increases in Milford brought out some unhappiness among those paying the taxes, why? In all the public statements released by the Milford School District no one could find any justification, just excuses. So the cost of sending students to “special” schools is the driving force behind rising costs. You accuse Charter Schools of “Cherry Picking Students” whereas Public School Teachers cherry pick by classifying students as “Special Ed” and shipping them off to extremely expensive holding facilities. Delaware needs a reform movement among Educators and Elected Officials, not heavy handed tactics from National Teachers Unions or Elected Officials, the so called public servants, who seek lucrative careers after office.
August 31, 2016 at 9:41 am
kavips
Sorry, Kurt J…
You lost me at “Charter Schools do not take money from public schools…”
They do. It is HOW they get paid…
If ones original premise is off base, all that depends on it has no foundation.
There is however one thing you said correctly and allow me to quote it……
“Raise the quality of and the safety of Public Schools and Charter Schools will wither on the vine”
We agree.
If someone took $20 million out of your pocket and gave it to me to play with… your quality of doing what you do would go down.. Correct? Same with public schools….
Give public schools back the funding they lose to charters…. and you can have your charter schools… (until they wither on the vine.)
August 31, 2016 at 9:43 am
kavips
Every responsible parent is better off placing their trust in a teachers union overseeing their child, than todays current Delaware Department of Education….
Teachers unions have done great things… You seem to be literate… It was a union teacher who taught you……
August 31, 2016 at 3:21 pm
Kurt J
Good sir, I am honestly not sure whether my teachers were Union or not, that’s an age thing. I don’t believe they were required to join Unions at the time.Yikes, we weren’t on the Moon yet and the older teachers still referred to schools by their numbers as in No. 10 which was at the end of my street. My daughter was a Union Teacher in the Chicago Public School System, she was also downtown in a higher level Administration Position and had to return to the classroom to fill in during strikes.She also dealt firsthand with Jack Markell’s buddies chasing the For Profit Education Dollar, the Chicago Mob. She honestly believes both Unions and Administrations (Including the Sorority Sisters) share equal blame for failing School Districts. My daughter also believes Charter Schools, especially in economically distressed districts and violence prone districts are pulling down Public Schools and causing their closure through lack of enrollment. But wait, which came first failing Public Schools or Charters? How did the Charters become successful pulling in enrollment? They put forth that they cared about the students, parents, and discipline. Chicago Teachers Union?,blocking streets, threatening cops, threatening parents with their livelihood because of lack of homecare for children who weren’t in school. Parents of Charter School students don’t have to worry about strikes, walkouts, politics, spoke with their relatives, neighbors, friends who in turn pulled their children out of Public Schools. Were the Charters better than the adjoining Public Schools, sadly yes. Were the Charters good schools, no. Was the Chicago Teachers Union concerned about Student or Teacher safety, no!Was the Chicago Teachers Union concerned about textbooks which don’t arrive until late November and are handed back in April, no! Did the Chicago Teachers Union bump decent teachers with less than ten years experience and replace them with more Senior Teachers who’s contracts were not renewed because of chronic lateness, drug dependence, or other deficiencies,Yes!
On the other side did Rahm Emanuel reach out to the teachers or did he walk in with an adversarial stance? Did the Administrators load up their offices with no show positions, bloated budgets, and fall back on the “it’s the Union’s Fault” adage. Did Rahm Emanuel hire anti-Union Administrator’s with dubious backgrounds and experience,Yes! Did Jack Markell,Yes! Does Gulen operate Charters in Chicago and other cities, Yes and why? Are they good schools, No! Why are we allowing the internal affairs of Turkey to play a role in US Education?
Finally, my daughter would point out to you that Walter Payton is one the top “Public High Schools” in North American and the pride of the Chicago Public Schools. It cherry picks it’s students,their is virtually no violence, certainly no gang-bangers get in, it’s racial makeup is not anywhere near representative of the racial makeup of Chicago. It receives better textbooks, lab equipment, and the Teachers are hand picked, how is it different than a Charter School? The same could be said for Eleanore Roosevelt in Prince Georges County, Maryland or Baltimore City College or Western High School in Baltimore.
August 31, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Kurt J
Regarding the financing of Public Schools in Delaware and Maryland, one common complaint I hear from principals, and their Administrators is that student’s families move back and forth across state lines which means a loss or gain of students after budgets are submitted. Fewer students, fewer Dineros.Let’s outlaw the movement of feckless parents from New Castle to Cecil County or back. No more moving from Sussex County, Delaware to Caroline County, Maryland and back. Charter School’s lure away students, fewer students, fewer dineros. But fewer students, fewer computers, fewer classrooms, fewer teachers and support staff, fewer expenses. That’s not really the worst issue for public schools though. Charter’s lure away more motivated students, definitely more involved parents, and the amount of finite positive energy in public schools decreases, not just the money. Howard High in Wilmington brought out the worst fears of every Parent, whether you had a child there or not. Jack Markells efforts to avoid negative national publicity and bury the incident as a medical condition is without polite description. Could not the the Teachers Unions refused to report until all the schools in Delaware are safe for both staff and students, I would have gladly supported that stance. I am not anti-Union but I would like to see Teacher’s Unions which cared less about driving National Agenda’s and more local achievements for all citizens.
Discussion is good and I appreciate both your time and venue, please don’t hold my opinions even remotely as attacks, just viewpoints.
September 1, 2016 at 11:12 am
kavips
You mean there are people alive today who went to school before men were on the moon?
🙂 lol
Very good comment, btw. Full of history.
September 1, 2016 at 11:29 am
kavips
Lol.. Even attacks are manifestations of viewpoints..
When one is a good caliber tennis player, most often one finds in the real world one is forced to lob easy returns just in order to sustain an decent volley.
Occasionally when that one gets surprised by a well placed serve, he instinctively steps up his game almost immediately, gracious for the challenge to utilize their skill… I guess it is just something in human nature… 🙂
As to outlawing schoolkids crossing borders, whereas that does perhaps make the administration of those schools a little easier, I find it dangerous in that is sets a precedent that “WE, THE PEOPLE” need to curtail doing what we think is best for ourselves (or our children) in order that our government can have a better piece of mind… Which when extrapolated, means the people thereby exist for the will of the government, and not, that government is here solely to facilitate an administrative function for “We, the People”…
As a callous first thought, that sounds like a dangerous path to further proceed….