Charters and dictators to save Detroit schools from Detroiters.

[brizee]

But then that happened.

I don't see how Robert Bobb sleeps at night.

[Zacha341]

From article:

"More charters chalked up poor results in reading and writing, but they surpassed the Detroit school district in social studies.

The real question is why should is anyone be surprised? You take the same kids from the same social conditions, teach the same curriculum tailored to the same standardized tests, and expect a different result because of a new governing structure?"

Hah! And even more SHOCKING would the emergence [[albeit in more of a cluster and privatized form) of a familiar set-up of fiscal bureaucratic centralization from the top. Say it ain't so [[smile)...... SOMEBODIES GETTING PAID! NO MATTER WHAT!

But then that happened.

I don't see how Robert Bobb sleeps at night.

[noenaim]

The only difference between a charter schools and a traditional public schools is that charters have
lower paid non union teachers.


This thread will be very short because I get the sense that no one really cares.

[mwilbert]

There isn't anything magic about charters. On the other hand, there isn't anything magic about the DPS either. There are charter models that clearly work better for kids than the public schools they left, the KIPP schools being an example. The problem is that up to this point those models are only being used by a small fraction of charter schools, not least because they require a level of effort and commitment from everyone involved which is hard to obtain.

No doubt some of the political push behind charters is generated by organizations and people who could profit by them, but they are a response to what has been an intractable problem with ineffective and seemingly unreformable public schools. In places with functional school systems, charters are a minor player.

I do think the state should be quicker to shut down bad charter schools--there are charters out there such as the Timbuktu Academy which appear to be remarkably unsuccessful at instilling knowledge. To my way of thinking, a major advantage of charters is being able to get rid of ones that aren't working, and if you don't shut the underperforming ones down, you forfeit that advantage. On the other hand, there are a number of DPS schools that are worse than the corresponding Detroit charters, so who should get shut down first? It will be interesting to see how it all plays out under the new emergency manager.