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Simplistic arguments like this are one of the more annoying parts of the rhetoric of charter school advocates. It assumes that all charter schools are of high q

Simplistic arguments like this are one of the more annoying parts of the rhetoric of charter school advocates. It assumes that all charter schools are of high quality and that making education yet another thing that is economically stratified in the US is good. It’s ok to say that things that sound nice like choice in education can have knock on effects that are bad for society. Very few things in this world are purely good.

sokoloff 3y ago
It seems like a charter school that develops a reputation for low quality is a self-solving problem in a way that a public school which develops the same reputation is (currently) not. One goes out of business; the other goes along indefinitely, with perhaps the wealthiest parents nearby withdrawing their kids, but most families and children are forced to endure it or move away.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- halfnormalform 3y ago
  The feedback loop in education is several years long. Before a charter school develops a bad reputation, they just change their name, put up a banner declaring "Under New Management" and continue right along with better PR.
  - sokoloff 3y ago
    What happens to a failing public school? It keeps the same name, but adds “now Title I with an even larger budget”. It’s not clear that that’s in any way better and I think is worse.
linuxftw 3y ago
If public schools weren't awful, there would be no need for charter schools. The public school experiment has failed.
- femiagbabiaka 3y ago
  Tell me you only follow policy in the US without telling me: exhibit one. The public school “experiment” has been purposefully sabotaged is more like it.
  - linuxftw 3y ago
    The article is about US schools.... so? How can one sabotage a house of cards? Failure was inevitable.
    - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
      I don’t believe that public schooling, an actually lindy institution worldwide, an institution that was working quite well in the US up until about the 70s and 80s (wonder what happened then hmm) that has produced world renowned schools in the US in particular, is more of a house of cards than the Potemkin village that is charter and private schools.
      - linuxftw 3y ago
        You'll need to provide evidence that public schools were working well in the 70s and 80s. Graduation rates today are higher than those decades. High school was optional for many parts of the country. The reason for the outcry now, is that we measure everything, and even the wealthier areas of the country are unable to perform to any reasonable standard.
        femiagbabiaka 3y ago
        Note: not working well in the 70s and 80s, working will up until the 70s and 80s. But gladly, this is a great resource: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf. Combine with this: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1804780 https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1804780. At the exact point in our history that we should've accelerated spending in public resources we did an about face in the opposite direction towards privatization and the growth of the administrator class. All of our institutions (healthcare, finance, infrastructure, education, etc.) have been low-productivity money pits since then.

sokoloff 3y ago

It seems like a charter school that develops a reputation for low quality is a self-solving problem in a way that a public school which develops the same reputation is (currently) not. One goes out of business; the other goes along indefinitely, with perhaps the wealthiest parents nearby withdrawing their kids, but most families and children are forced to endure it or move away.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
halfnormalform 3y ago
The feedback loop in education is several years long. Before a charter school develops a bad reputation, they just change their name, put up a banner declaring "Under New Management" and continue right along with better PR.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  What happens to a failing public school? It keeps the same name, but adds “now Title I with an even larger budget”. It’s not clear that that’s in any way better and I think is worse.

linuxftw 3y ago

If public schools weren't awful, there would be no need for charter schools. The public school experiment has failed.

femiagbabiaka 3y ago
Tell me you only follow policy in the US without telling me: exhibit one. The public school “experiment” has been purposefully sabotaged is more like it.
- linuxftw 3y ago
  The article is about US schools.... so? How can one sabotage a house of cards? Failure was inevitable.
  - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
    I don’t believe that public schooling, an actually lindy institution worldwide, an institution that was working quite well in the US up until about the 70s and 80s (wonder what happened then hmm) that has produced world renowned schools in the US in particular, is more of a house of cards than the Potemkin village that is charter and private schools.
    - linuxftw 3y ago
      You'll need to provide evidence that public schools were working well in the 70s and 80s. Graduation rates today are higher than those decades. High school was optional for many parts of the country. The reason for the outcry now, is that we measure everything, and even the wealthier areas of the country are unable to perform to any reasonable standard.
      - femiagbabiaka 3y ago
        Note: not working well in the 70s and 80s, working will up until the 70s and 80s. But gladly, this is a great resource: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf. Combine with this: https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1804780 https://sci-hub.se/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1804780. At the exact point in our history that we should've accelerated spending in public resources we did an about face in the opposite direction towards privatization and the growth of the administrator class. All of our institutions (healthcare, finance, infrastructure, education, etc.) have been low-productivity money pits since then.