Did anybody catch what Vitti said about charter schools in the article about bullying? It’s kind of a bombshell if you think about it. The superintendent said, “Public education is for everyone. It is easy to lose site of this simple fact in the cloud of charter schools and private school vouchers. These selective schools can accept or kick out students whenever they like.”
The truth however is just like Vitti said, they are not public schools and nobody should confuse them as such.
Right there he admits what people who have been fighting against the privatization of our schools have been talking about.
Right there he says charter schools aren’t public schools.
Right there he says charter schools can pick who they want.
Right there he says charter schools can get rid of whom they want too. These are not the words of some rando from Murray Hill or some union chief only interested in protecting bad teachers. No they come form a man who was hand picked by Gary Chartrand to be the superintendent here and who shared the same stage as Jeb Bush at the Champions for Education meeting just the other day. Chartrand and Bush are leaders in the privatization movement though they have yet to be as honest as Vitti was.
Charter school supporters like to say they are public schools too. They think saying so gives them cover and some legitimacy. They ask us not to look behind the curtain and at all the management fees siphoned out of the classroom and to ignore their lack of certified teachers and a quality curriculum.
Chris Guerrieri
School teacher
