Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee and their ilk have co-opted the phrase school choice. Made it their own in the battle for the future of public education but they have done so deceptively, not that facts, evidence and the truth have ever been their standard bearers.
When they talk about school choice they also talk about magnet schools as somehow they were their idea too and they use the number of kids in magnet schools to bolster their argument. Well friends even the staunchest opposers of vouchers and charter schools, i.e. me are for magnet schools.
I am all for the Douglass Andersons, Frank Petersons and A. Phillip Randolphs of the world because they create programs that play to students strengths and desires. But what those and other magnet schools have in common is they are public schools and that’s where the school choice people do a great job of clouding the issue.
I am all for public charter schools too as was Albert Shanker the much maligned union activist who developed the concept. Charter schools should be parent teacher driven laboratories of experimentation, not profit centers for corporations which is what many have become.
The disagreement isn’t about school choice it is about the outsourcing of public education. Jeb Bush is for it and people who care about our public schools are against it.
So don’t be fooled when he and his ilk talk about school choice because what they are really talking about is privatization.
When they talk about school choice they also talk about magnet schools as somehow they were their idea too and they use the number of kids in magnet schools to bolster their argument. Well friends even the staunchest opposers of vouchers and charter schools, i.e. me are for magnet schools.
I am all for the Douglass Andersons, Frank Petersons and A. Phillip Randolphs of the world because they create programs that play to students strengths and desires. But what those and other magnet schools have in common is they are public schools and that’s where the school choice people do a great job of clouding the issue.
I am all for public charter schools too as was Albert Shanker the much maligned union activist who developed the concept. Charter schools should be parent teacher driven laboratories of experimentation, not profit centers for corporations which is what many have become.
The disagreement isn’t about school choice it is about the outsourcing of public education. Jeb Bush is for it and people who care about our public schools are against it.
So don’t be fooled when he and his ilk talk about school choice because what they are really talking about is privatization.
