4 ms·

FWIW, I live in Michigan and know people that send their kids to charter schools and they are quite happy with it.

ceejayoz 9y ago
There are people who go to Applebees and enjoy it, too. Doesn't make it a good restaurant. (There are, of course, likely to be some genuinely phenomenal charter schools. The article does cite stats for Michigan that say, on average, they're worse than average.) There are empirical measures of school performance. Anecdotal happiness isn't really one of them.
- moretai 9y ago
  School performance can be manipulated as well.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Statistics only matter when you are questioning the sample size of a study without examining the power of the sample the study did use.
- pamqzl 9y ago
  >There are people who go to Applebees and enjoy it, too. >Doesn't make it a good restaurant. Ah, good old fashioned snobbery. Never change, HN. >(There are, of course, likely to be some genuinely phenomenal charter schools. The article does cite stats for Michigan that say, on average, they're worse than average.) But in Michigan, charter schools tend to be concentrated in some of the poorest areas, right? That could explain some of it.
Zelphyr 9y ago
Charter schools seem to be quite misunderstood in our country for reasons I have yet to understand. My kids are in a charter school (not in MI) and we love it. In talking about it with a co-worker once her comment was, "Oh, they take money from public schools." I had to explain to her that not only was our school also a public school, but in our district non-charter schools actually get more money than ours (this has actually been changed since then, thankfully). Both of her parents were retired public school teachers so perhaps there is some bias coming from that? Or maybe there is a general confusion between charter schools and school vouchers? EDIT: Formatting
- pamqzl 9y ago
  > Charter schools seem to be quite misunderstood in our country for reasons I have yet to understand It's one of those ideas that Republicans support, so Democrats feel bound to oppose it.
  - basurihn 9y ago
    The teachers' unions are one of the highest donors to the Democratic Party. At the top support is almost purely financially motivated. By the time the support message reaches the Democratic rank-and-file, the message becomes more emotional in nature.

There are people who go to Applebees and enjoy it, too. Doesn't make it a good restaurant. (There are, of course, likely to be some genuinely phenomenal charter schools. The article does cite stats for Michigan that say, on average, they're worse than average.) There are empirical measures of school performance. Anecdotal happiness isn't really one of them.

moretai 9y ago
School performance can be manipulated as well.
maxerickson 9y ago
Statistics only matter when you are questioning the sample size of a study without examining the power of the sample the study did use.
pamqzl 9y ago
>There are people who go to Applebees and enjoy it, too. >Doesn't make it a good restaurant. Ah, good old fashioned snobbery. Never change, HN. >(There are, of course, likely to be some genuinely phenomenal charter schools. The article does cite stats for Michigan that say, on average, they're worse than average.) But in Michigan, charter schools tend to be concentrated in some of the poorest areas, right? That could explain some of it.

Zelphyr 9y ago

Charter schools seem to be quite misunderstood in our country for reasons I have yet to understand. My kids are in a charter school (not in MI) and we love it. In talking about it with a co-worker once her comment was, "Oh, they take money from public schools." I had to explain to her that not only was our school also a public school, but in our district non-charter schools actually get more money than ours (this has actually been changed since then, thankfully). Both of her parents were retired public school teachers so perhaps there is some bias coming from that? Or maybe there is a general confusion between charter schools and school vouchers? EDIT: Formatting

pamqzl 9y ago
> Charter schools seem to be quite misunderstood in our country for reasons I have yet to understand It's one of those ideas that Republicans support, so Democrats feel bound to oppose it.
- basurihn 9y ago
  The teachers' unions are one of the highest donors to the Democratic Party. At the top support is almost purely financially motivated. By the time the support message reaches the Democratic rank-and-file, the message becomes more emotional in nature.