Okay, I have had enough. I have had to put up with teacher-focused propagandists slamming charter schools. It was one thing when a self-interested teacher writes diaries that are skewed by his pro-union perspective, but now DailyKos has formalized its anti-reform stance.
Here is a representation of what anti-charter, anti-reform, self-interested propagandists are thusly protecting.
On six or seven Saturdays each fall, Michigan Stadium swells with 106,000 people, who show up wearing blue and gold to cheer on the Wolverines.
Imagine those 106,000 fans instead being low-income, inner-city students attending traditional public high schools. In the city where I live, somewhere around 55 percent of the students in the district do not finish. So right off the bat, let's send 58,000 high school dropouts out of the stadium, into the parking lot and off to a life of poverty.
Next up, let's dispatch another 30,000 who will score as below-basic on the state standardized test. Of course, they will fulfill the requirements of graduation, but teachers and administrators will blame these students' parents and pat themselves on the back for their earning of useless degrees.
So now we have trimmed the crowd from 106k to 18k. Again, using the district data where I live, we can expect that about 400 of those remaining will score "plus pass" on the state tests. Truly, these will be the kids who are, even remotely, prepared for college success.
Now, we also know that half of those kids will make it through their first year of college. Even though they are the most-prepared academically from the district, statistics prove that they haven't been given the tools to take advantage of the supports in place at college. Additionally, they find difficulty in maneuvering through the social challenges. They are also the most likely to need to work to pay there way, taking time away from necessary studies.
So. The status quo that many of you defend yields a small section of college graduates from a colossal stadium.
And you don't want to hear about options for parents. You kick and scream instead of trying to understand innovative and creative ways to education children, particularly those at risk. You seem to want to reward teachers for caring, not for performing. You lay blame at parents, creating an environment that doesn't welcome collaboration.
And worse yet, you try to co-opt others with bullshit studies and anecdotes. Your status quo agenda is harming kids and communities. You are complicit. Take some fucking responsibility.