To the editor:
I am replying to a recent article by Mr. Edelblut touting the greatness of charter schools. What he did not say was that many charter schools are funded by big corporations, their teachers are not unionized and they have proven to be no better at educating than public schools.
Quoting a recent article from Newsweek, “Charter school are publicly funded but privately run. Advocates cite increased choices for parents, potential innovations and the benefits of market competition, while critics decry charter schools as risky experiments that take money away from public education, dodge public accountability and transform schools into investment vehicles for private interests. While most charters are provided to nonprofit organizations (approximately 15 percent are for-profit), there have been multiple instances of nonprofit charters passing the bulk of their public funds to for-profit management firms and other private entities. “There’s a tremendous amount of money going into promoting the charter school movement and other forms of school privatization in this country,” Guisbond said. “There are many private foundations with very deep pockets that have bought into this idea that it’s the answer to our education needs, so they sponsor a lot of ‘research’ and public relations and hype about the superiority of charter schools.”
Research shows that the one factor that correlates most directly with school performance is socio-economic status. Addressing this issue would most likely have a bigger effect on educating all of our children rather than this charter school “solution”.
Gene Jonas
Wilton