(**edited to fix  links. Oops.)

Diane Ravitch has a link up to this piece on the dirty little secrets of charter schools.  Everything that parents want in education is not in these schools.  They’re all fluff and no substance.  They’re not there to educate, but to collect funds. (it is so arrogant to think that you don’t have to be audited…you’re using the public funds for your endeavor–you better have your books open to the public. Gah…where have we heard this before?  IRS, anyone?)

They dump the learning disabled and behavioral cases.

I also clicked on the link to the “Ten Things Your School District Won’t Tell You” and have a few quibbles with the writer.  One is the licensing thing–Indiana has required licenses from teachers and not only that, but that they further their education into Master’s degrees–at least they used to.  I can’t say whether that is still true–I haven’t checked it lately…and with Governor Daniels’ assault on the public education in Indiana, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that standard has lapsed. )

Another thing I have a quibble with is the student-teacher ratio.  People want to have smaller class size?  Then you better be prepared to spend more in tax dollars towards the amount of teachers in the school.  But no…we can’t spend tax money on schools…we need to spend it on the military industrial complex because of a boogey-man enemy….meanwhile, our society crumbles all around…

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Ravitch also has another blog up with this link to the continuing meanness of the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley,. whom uttered the line:  “Only the little people pay taxes….”

(gotta love the snarky style of the writer…heh.)

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Courage and ethics.

…something tells me that you won’t see this with Charter school teachers. Nope.  Nor would I think they would lay down their lives for their students, as we saw with the Oklahoma tornado.  I’m sure there will be exceptions to the rule, but as a general application…I just don’t see that kind of caring about the kids.  It’s hard to care about something when you’re looking at it with $$ in your eyes….

…speaking of which.

Incredible.  Just incredible.  The game is on, folks.  Be aware of anything that plays on your emotions…as these opportunists are doing…look how they have tried to using anger, outrage, and the ever effective “don’t be a dummy and let them get away with whatever it is WE say they’re doing”  and the “us versus them” divisional tactics.

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And now we have the modern day “witch hunt” where it only takes a few disgruntled people to start a whispering campaign, or in this case, a petition drive, to disparage and ultimately permanently damage someone. (from Ravitch’s blog here.) (and the fact that it is once again a woman who is the target speaks volumes.)

I can’t get past this:

Parent leader Llury Garcia said that although her second-grade daughter has done fairly well at Weigand, Cobian was inaccessible and rude. She and other petition backers were assisted by Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles nonprofit that lobbied for the parent trigger law and is aiding overhaul efforts at several other Los Angeles campuses.

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…although her second-grade daughter has done fairly well at Weigard….mindboggling—just mindboggling….that this parent would start a drive to oust her because she wasn’t “accessible” and perhaps was curt with her.  No telling what Garcia did that would warrant a crisp reply.  It says more about Garcia than about Cobian, as you read that Cobian was very accessible to the kids and frequently popped into the classrooms.  And the parent whose child had academic and behavioral issues…well, I don’t know the parent or the child personally, but what I do know is that the parent has to take responsibility towards the child’s education and is perhaps responsible for the behavioral issues (not always, as there are other factors in behavior, but the ultimate responsibility is the parents’. )  I mean, I have seen children come to school without breakfast!  And the parent expects the child to learn on an empty stomach?  Or worse, blame the teacher because the child can’t concentrate because they’re hungry…?!! (Or perhaps with this economy, the parent is poor and not able to provide a good nutritious breakfast…)

I have seen parents who don’t want to take responsibility…and expect the schools to be miracle workers.  They won’t put out the effort towards their own kids…

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…and then there is the subtext–I can’t help but wonder if Cobian is a liberal/progressive and Garcia is a conservative….just throwing that out there…