"Charter Schools" A Ruse For Destroying Public Education?
Virginia political/religious leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have vowed to destroy public education in America. Their tools for doing this are school vouchers and charter schools.
While Virginia has approved charter schools, it's proponents are dismayed they have to follow the same standards, including the Virginia SOL, as the public schools. Their intention was never education, but the removal of science and history and substitution of religious myth.
They also demand to use uncertified teachers and to be exempted from all civil rights laws including ADA regulations for the handi-capped. (religious institutions are already exempt.) Fortunately, vouchers were overwhelmingly defeated in November in California and Michigan. In fact, Washington County, Virginia has approved charter schools, but has had no takers because the fundamentalists didn't want to operate as schools. Now Tennessee has gotten into the act. But the almost 50% drop-out rate in the state has nothing to do with schools. It's family priorities. Here is the fundamentalist' agenda is in their words in 1995:
Senate OKs charter school legislation
The Associated Press, 6-26-02
NASHVILLE - The Senate voted 30-to-1 Wednesday for a bill authorizing charter schools in Tennessee that supporters hope will provide better options for students who are failing or are assigned to low-performing schools.
The only senator to vote against the bill, Democrat Thelma Hayer of Nashville, said, "It's a bad idea to take public dollars and put them in private hands when we know the public schools can use the money.
But Sen. Jeff Miller, R-Cleveland, said that's not what the legislation does. "We need to infuse the notion of competition into the public school system. These students need to go to schools that won't fail them," he said. "We're just sending that money to the school they choose to go to. It's their choice."
Charter. schools are publicly funded schools that are given greater flexibility in exchange for greater accountability in improving student performance.
The legislation would allow failing public schools to be converted to charter schools and it would let universities create them for students who are at risk of failing or drop- ping out. A small number of schools could also be created to meet the needs of disabled students.
The "charter" allowing teachers, parents or a nonprofit organization to establish such a school is a contract with the local school board setting out goals, proposed instructional methods, a budget, policies for governance and other details.
Charter schools would have to meet or exceed the performance standards as those set for other public schools. They are subject to all federal and state laws. prohibiting discrimination and must comply with health and safety standards.
Senators defeated an effort by Lincoln Davis, D-Pall Mall, to prevent the bill from going into effect unless the state fully funds the Basic Education Program - the formula through which most public dollars are distributed to local schools.
Sen. Roscoe Dixon, D-Memphis, said that would upset the delicate balance of compromise on the bill.
The House, which had earlier passed a version of the bill, must consider changes made by the Senate before it becomes law.
The key difference is that the House version would exempt the schools from most rules and regulations that regular public schools operate under, while the Senate version would require charter school applicants to ask permission for each rule or regulation they want waived.
The bill would not allow for-profit companies, private schools or church schools to sponsor charter schools. It requires all charter school teachers to be certified.
There are now more than 2,400 charter schools in 34 states and the District of Columbia.
"Charter Schools" A Ruse For Destroying Public Education?
Virginia political/religious leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have vowed to destroy public education in America. Their tools for doing this are school vouchers and charter schools.
While Virginia has approved charter schools, it's proponents are dismayed they have to follow the same standards, including the Virginia SOL, as the public schools. Their intention was never education, but the removal of science and history and substitution of religious myth.
They also demand to use uncertified teachers and to be exempted from all civil rights laws including ADA regulations for the handi-capped. (religious institutions are already exempt.) Fortunately, vouchers were overwhelmingly defeated in November in California and Michigan. In fact, Washington County, Virginia has approved charter schools, but has had no takers because the fundamentalists didn't want to operate as schools. Here is the agenda is in their words in 1995:
Coalition called to eliminate schools
Raleigh, North Carolina - "We must eliminate public education as it is structured today and reinvent it in a new form," according to Roxane Premont, director of the North Carolina Education Reform Foundation (NCERF). If successful, the "new form" of public education will ultimately result in private religious schools paid for by taxpayer money.
Premont addressed Christian Coalition members in a Saturday afternoon workshop at the annual Road to Victory conference last September in Washington, DC. Literature outlining the plan to eliminate public education was distributed during a workshop called "Vouchers and Tax Credits - It's Time for Parents to Choose."
The first step in the proposed plan is to establish charter schools, which are, according to Premont, "public schools that operate independently of local school district jurisdiction and operate much like private schools."
According to NCERF literature: "Charter schools will provide a pool of independent schools that can readily be converted to private schools to meet increased demand for private education once voucher laws are passed. Charter schools that are converted into private schools will be initiated by those persons who want religious education.
"With charters the money goes directly from the state to the charter school. With vouchers it goes directly to parents who then take it to the school.
"What is called for is an incremental strategy that helps acclimatize the public to school choice readying them for phase 2 - vouchers. Converting all current existing public schools to charter schools is the necessary transition. The creation of large numbers of charter schools will weaken our union-led opposition - giving us the chance of passing vouchers."
Let's hope that the Christian Right takeovers of the Virginia and Tennessee Republican Parties doesn't allow Pat Robertson and Sullivan County religious leader Jerry Falwell into our classrooms.
School boards must decide whether charter schools an option
By JEFF LESTER,
Coalfield Progress Senior Writer
November 14, 2000
Coalfield.com
After years of debate, the General Assembly agreed in 1998 to allow creation of so-called "charter schools."
But not everyone is likely to agree on what a charter school really is, especially since what the legislature approved is far more restrictive than what many charter school advocates want.
That may be why school boards across the state have been extremely slow to decide whether they will accept applications to form such schools. But a state law passed this year requires school boards to make that choice by Dec. 31.
The Norton School Board will take public comments at its meeting tonight on whether the board should accept charter school applications. The board meets at 6:30 p.m. at the John I. Burton High School library.
City schools Superintendent John Sessoms has said he will recommend the board not accept applications, believing a charter school would do nothing to enhance education in the city.
The Wise County School Board adopted a policy in 1998 agreeing to accept charter school applications, but it must still hold a public hearing on the issue and take action again to meet requirements of the 2000 law. That board is expected to hold a public hearing Tuesday, Dec. 12 when it meets at the school system central offices in Wise.
WHY ONLY NOW?
For much of the 1990s, advocates lobbied the legislature hard for the right to establish charter schools, which would be controlled directly by parents, teachers and the community. The idea is that they could enhance one-on-one attention to students, sidestep what is perceived as cumbersome public school bureaucracy, and in some cases focus on specific disciplines, such as the arts or math and science.
But since the 1998 legislation was passed, only about 20 of the state's 134 school boards have agreed on whether they would accept applications for charter schools, as the law requires.
State Del. Paul Harris got a bill passed in 2000 that requires school boards to make a decision by Dec. 31.
Neither the Norton or Wise County boards have received requests to establish a charter school.
Under the 1998 law - sponsored by then-Del. Phil Hamilton, a public school administrator - any person, group or organization can apply to form a charter school. A management committee of parents, teachers, the school's administrators and representatives of community sponsors would govern the school, based on guidelines agreed to by the applicant and the school board.
Charter schools could be approved subject to renewal every three years. They must meet or exceed the state public school Standards of Quality, including the Standards of Learning. Priority is to be given to applications for schools that would serve at-risk students.
The application must include a statement of need for the school, along with a description of how pupil progress will be measured.
Charter schools would receive state funds and could raise money from other sources, but would not be allowed to charge tuition. The students would be included in the school system's average daily membership, but not counted in fall membership for the purpose of calculating the state and local shares of funding the standards of quality.
Charter school personnel would be considered local school board employees.
Local school boards make the final decision to approve or deny a charter school application, or to revoke or fail to renew a charter. There is no appeal process.
That could be why little interest in setting up charter schools has been shown. Many charter school advocates object to giving school boards all the power to approve or deny proposals that would limit the boards' control of a school while taking away some of the boards' funds. They note that in other states, entities such as universities and state agencies share responsibility for approving charter schools.
ACCEPT OR DENY?
The Virginia School Boards Association is urging its member boards to say they will accept charter school applications, Sessoms told the city board last month.
That's not necessarily because the VSBA likes the idea of charter schools. The association believes that if many school boards refuse to even accept applications, they will simply invite the General Assembly to impose more such regulations on boards and take away more of their power, Sessoms said.
Because Norton has only two schools, Sessoms said, he's against accepting applications. He thinks the smallness of the school system provides the easily accessible leadership and the attention to individual student needs that charter schools are often formed to address. But forming a charter school in Norton would only take students out of the equation that tells the state how much money to put into the city system, Sessoms fears. Meanwhile, the county school board moved quickly in 1998 to adopt a
VSBA-suggested policy on how it would accept applications and deal with them.
©Coalfield.com 2000
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