Saturday, June 22, 2013

St. Johns Joyner gets it right, Duval’s Vitti gets it wrong

St. Johns County Superintendent Schools Joseph Joyner supports charter schools, but he has seen differences with the large charter schools run by management companies.

“They are large companies that make dozens of applications every year in dozens of school districts, and they are well funded and well connected,” he said. “In my experience, I fail to see any of the innovative nature and innovativeness” seen in small charter schools.

By contrast, Jacksonville’s superintendent Vitti recently attended a conference whose theme was how do we attract more of these large charter school chains to Florida.  He wants more of these schools that suck the resources out of public schools a very interesting for the superintendent of a public school district to be in.

I have always said as centers for parent and teacher driven innovation Charter Schools have a role to play. Unfortunately Florida has defacto private schools run by hedge fund managers whose priority is making a profit not educating our children.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-21/story/charter-school-management-companies-flex-political-muscle-