Snip: Theres a very simple set of ideas at the core of the growing calls for Michigan to shape up in the way it oversees public charter schools. Standards. Accountability. Consequences. If only we could confine the debate to those three concepts, and the way they prioritize favorable outcomes for kids over everything else, we would be doing fine. But this is Michigan, where charters are now a billion-dollar industry with a powerful lobby to protect its interests. And for too many people, the idea of charter schools is caught up in the ideology of charter schools free-marketeering and anti-regulation, rather than educational results. So 20 years after the first charter law was passed, 20 years after advocates promised charters would not only provide quality options for parents but also improve the public schools, Michigan is almost nowhere in the quest to build a rational system for dealing with nontraditional public schools. Nowhere. Its an embarrassment. And its absurd that we continue to allow reckless charter authorizers and operators to exploit the states children and sully the reputations of those who are truly committed to making education better.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:59:24 +0000
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