The Center for Education Reform (CER) may well be the most belligerent promoter of charter schools in the United States. Its main modus operandi rests on loud irrationalism and rendering everything upside down.
The Koch network, wrote Annie Linskey for the Boston Globe a few months ago, "has pledged to devote around $400 million toward politics and policy in the midterms to hold the GOP majorities in both chambers. That’s 60 percent more than the network spent in 2014, when Republicans picked up nine seats in the Senate and 13 seats in the House of Representatives."
QUESTION: We have choices in other areas of life. Why not in schools?
RESPONSE: Choice and rights are not the same thing; they are distinct categories with different properties and should not be conflated.
QUESTION: If a school is educating a child, whether it’s a private school or a charter school, doesn’t it deserve public dollars?
RESPONSE: Public and private mean the opposite of each other. Public and private are antonyms.
SAN JUAN – On the U.S. mainland, teachers have been marching, organizing at the grassroots, for more money for schools. On Puerto Rico, it was the students – 94 percent of them.
That’s how many of the island’s students stayed out of class on May Day, the commonwealth’s Education Secretary admitted. The students were part of a mass nationwide demonstration – adults included – against austerity measures that include planned closing of 266 schools.
Backpack Full of Cash is a 90-minute documentary about the negative consequences of the growing privatization of public schools in America. Produced several years ago, the film focuses mainly on the harmful impact of charter schools on public schools and America’s most vulnerable children. The film has been viewed by thousands of people in many different venues, and many continue to organize film screenings in their communities.
What is explained can be denied but what is felt cannot be forgotten.
— Charles Bowden
In recent weeks and months Americans have seen large teacher strikes and protests erupt in several states simultaneously. These unprecedented strikes are sharply bringing to the fore the long-standing poor and humiliating working conditions faced by millions of teachers in America as a result of the destructive neoliberal agenda of the rich.
As evidence against charter schools increases, charter school supporters have started to assert more frequently that charter schools are not a panacea, they cannot fix everything. And even though they have many problems, they should always be supported nonetheless. Charter schools are said to be a “viable option” for some and people should have “choices.”
I was happy, secure, and mostly unafraid until med school. I recall in vivid detail the first orientation day. Our anatomy professor stood before an auditorium filled with 125 eager, nervous, idealistic would-be healers and said these words: ‘If you decide to commit suicide, do it right so you do not become a burden to society.’ He then described in anatomical detail how to commit suicide.
— “Why Doctors Kill Themselves”, by Pamela Wible, KevinMD.com, March 23, 2016
