Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
If we fund charter schools with public dollars and they are so great and available to all, why can't we just have the same experience in public schools? Why do we need a higher tier publicly funded education when education should be universal and accessible to all taxpayers? What kind of democracy do we live in where we create more haves and have nots from childhood based on the wealth of their parents? It's an eventual self destructive system that punishes the less fortunate child.
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Since entry to Charter schools is not in any way based on parental wealth I really don't see how you're punishing poor kids. It's literally a lottery system open to everyone.
I certainly agree a top tier experience should be available to all kids.
Unfortunately, there are a variety of reasons that doesn't happen in the public system.
My favourite story from my wife's teaching career is the alcoholic teacher she always got asked to cover for. This person regularly missed their first period class (so the other teachers had to cover) and was sloppy drunk any time you saw her outside school hours. I can't imagine she was doing a good job, and it made it worse for everyone else who had to cover her classes. But she was on a permanent contract. This was 10 years ago and this person is still employed at a public high school.
My kids attend a cbe school. My younger son was in a class where one student would throw huge violent temper tantrums. He threw furniture, and the class would be evacuated until he wore himself out. This happened at least 30 times in a two month period. After the first 2 teachers went on stress leave and my requests to have something done by administration were ignored, I went through the entire grievance process with CBE. The student was never suspended once and still attends the school in an out of control fashion. The district superintendent finally promised me my son wouldn't be in the same class as this kid going forward (to get that result I had to mention I had consulted a lawyer to pursue a restraining order). So my son got to avoid that kid but everyone else has to put up with him because they refuse to use any discipline of any kind.
Tldr; the public system has serious systemic issues. More money would solve some of them but not all - at some level the administration involved has to be willing to make some hard choices.