Senator Elizabeth Warren has released a statement that she is going to vote NO on Question 2:
“I will be voting no on Question 2. Many charter schools in Massachusetts are producing extraordinary results for our students, and we should celebrate the hard work of those teachers and spread what’s working to other schools. But after hearing more from both sides, I am very concerned about what this specific proposal means for hundreds of thousands of children across our Commonwealth, especially those living in districts with tight budgets where every dime matters. Education is about creating opportunity for all our children, not about leaving many behind. I hope that the Legislature, the teachers, and the parents can come together to find ways to make sure all kids in Massachusetts get a first-rate education without pitting groups against each other.”
I am glad she made that statement, all schools including charters, pilot schools and other non-traditional schools should have a role in better educating our children. Charlie Baker and his charter frat house he created in his education cabal need to work with the legislature and create a plan that helps all children.
Is there any way to use the justification of charter schools to argue in favor of a charter police force, charter fire department, or charter town government?
but not spread.
… shows us that the meaning of words often get lost.
What we know as ‘fire departments’ were first set up in London in the 16th century by property insurers and were not public concerns. The practice spread like, ahem, wildfire and by the mid 18th century many major cities in Europe and America had a number of ‘brigades’ financed by insurers. They were largely untrained and would be empowered to refuse to put out a burning building if their backing insurance concern did not own the insurance on the building so engulfed. To facilitate this particularity the fire brigades affixed badges to their vehicles and persons and the insured buildings were supposed to prominently display the badge of the fire brigade that was to extinguish them. Because a burning building does not discriminate in quite the same manner, often when a brigade would refuse to put out a building, adjacent buildings would go up also. Seeing the obvious and overall public safety issues involved people and politicians clamored for municipal fire departments that did not so discriminate and that was the genesis of the modern fire department.
Police forces, on the other hand, have a much longer history and contain a greater variety of instantiations: from public watchmen to private detectives… and even to this day, all over the world, the various terms for various activities contained with the term “policing’ — terms like ‘bailiff’, ‘sheriff’, ‘constable’, ‘marshall’, ‘prefect’ and ‘magistrate’– attest to the wide scope and public, quasi-public and private concerns involved.
As for ‘charter town governments,’ Every last one of them, I think, is a charter. The pilgrims were sailing to the “New World” on a charter from the old. “Charter” does not refer strictly to education. It is a legal term that encompasses both definition and empowerment. The rootstock of most modern democracies, including our own, is the “Magna Carta” which is a Latin term meaning “Great Charter.”
… should read 17th century (1600’s…)…
Perhaps we could use one that doesn’t go around killing unarmed black folks.
extra. Sadly.
Charter police would figure out way to avoid arresting difficult people. No investigations. They cost too much in overtime. No poor neighborhoods. Too much crime.
They have them, they are called “Law Enforcement Councils”, and they claim they are private.
It appears that they kill us indiscriminately, without regard to race, color, sex, creed or national origin — and without cause.
Didn’t you write a diary sometime back satirically suggesting what JTM mentions above?
on board. Charter schools are the vanguard of Democratic neo-liberalism. Most of our elected officials, particularly at the federal level, don’t know much about education and charters have been easy to market to them. There’s a lot of money behind them.
There’s still a lot of opposition to unions, but people are starting to realize what we’ve lost as we’ve lost private sector unions. There is also widespread animosity toward the financial sector, which has a specific mission in privatizing education. Given her beliefs, Elizabeth Warren should be on our side, and she is.
Bernie should now get on board.
It would be unusual for a US Senator from Vermont to take a stand on a Massachusetts ballot question, but it would be wonderful. HUUUUUUGE!
I would hope that the local folks who are behind Our Revolution would come out strong against the billionaires in luxury boxes at Yankee Stadium who are throwing money at getting a yes vote on Question 2.
I mean, it would be interloping, and generally frowned upon by voters methinks.
Now if a reporter from the Globe were to ask Senator Sanders, and he had a pithy quote of support, that’s another thing altogether.
Our constitutional obligation is to cherish the schools in the towns, not to pay for a choice scheme. In Arlington, the median single family tax bill is $6,993, a fraction of what the town pays if the occupant sends just one child to a charter school.
In Salem there are a lot of families who like charters since the public schools aren’t doing so hot right now, I also have met a lot of people of color in my Boston social justice circles surprisingly working on the Yes on 2 campaign since they like the charters in Boston. That said, there is clearly not enough oversight and it’s ridiculous that these schools siphon away funds from traditional public schools. So I am a No on 2.
Pablo’s solution for charters where the funding operates like the regional vocational schools was really quite brilliant, I strongly urge him to write that as an Op-Ed in Commonwealth and send it to legislators. Regionalizing them mitigates the negative effect they have, particularly on poorer districts, while also allowing the pedalogical experimentation and selectivity that allows them to serve different populations in unique and innovative ways.
I also think charters should give up on union busting. I think there are a decent number of charter teachers and administrators legitimately in it for the kids and who believe in the unique mission and ethos of their schools, but the union busting funders they depend on really rub me the wrong way. Especially as someone strongly considering becoming a teacher.
charters and unions, but I think the biggest factors for union organization of charter schools are the high-turnover of charter school teachers and the fact that a lot of charter school teachers know what they’re getting into from an employment point of view. I’m sure a substantial number of charter school teachers support charter school policy and lifting the cap.
In short, I don’t think charters need to bust or work to prevent unions. The nature of teacher employment at charters and the people who teach at them militate against organization.
I’ll be taking my MTEL’s soon and applying to a few teacher training and teacher residency programs, and I am open to working in charters just to gain experience teaching. I decidedly do not believe in their talking points, but I also want to teach enough that I’ll consider private, parochial, or charter. That said, the history chair and one of the deans at CRLS were happy to see me, so I hopefully don’t need to worry!
teaching at a catholic school in Western Mass. You and your wife could afford it, but once kids enter the picture, the half of what you would make at a public school doesn’t work out well. And no pension.
Private boarding schools can work, especially if you live there and have a spouse who doesn’t work for the school. Free room and board. It’s a lifestyle though.
I don’t think anyone needs to apologize for working at or sending their kids to a charter school. It’s a policy problem. People need jobs and individually, you can’t expect parents to do anything but what they think is right for their kids.
It’s not easy to get a job in the BPS? Springfield is often so desperate that a pulse would qualify an entry-level applicant.
n/t
One of the knocks on charters is that they ease out kids with special needs, but I’ve heard from parents in the town in which I sub that they get better service for their children with mild learning disabilities at the charter school in the next town. Is this a matter of generalizing with exceptions or is it the very high maintenance physical and intellectual disabilities that charters don’t handle well?