I would not necessarily want to question the competence & good faith efforts of every single charter school and whatever group of supporters it may have, but the charter school movement as a national movement is mostly a stalking horse for privatizing public education, using commercially developed standards that are more molded by the bottom line & local prejudices than by educational outcomes--but still funded by taxpayer dollars. And I believe this is true, even if the charter school is still actually part of a public school district.
Here's one instance reported in Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/05/1117114/-How-to-Destroy-a-Top-Notch-School-District-Open-a-Charter-School
In a rather clear example of Naomi Klein's notion of *Disaster Capitalism,"*after Katrina, Louisiana chose to solve its public school problems by a massive effort to implement charter schools in New Orleans and throughout the state.
So here's some raked muck concerning Louisiana's project: http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2011/07/gulen-charter-schools-in-louisiana.html
Certainly, the Louisiana public schools were not the best to begin with--but I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the spirit of localism that pervades U.S. ideas about education & which also infects the charter school movement at the root.
Minimally, at least, I would like to see a core national curriculum developed and applied throughout the country.
In my more extreme moments, I sometimes assert I would like to see the nation's educational system run by a powerful rigid bureaucracy headquartered in DC, and run by mostly by teachers & with a minor advisory role for parents--but otherwise insensitive to them and the local communities. I think I'm mostly joking. Most of the time.
In any case, charter schools are an inadequate or pseudo-solution to most of the large issues in public education.
R.
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/
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