They Tried to Sanction 5 New Charters, but I Say, “No, No, No!”

Testimony of Ilene Poses to the BOE, February 25, 2021

After listening to 2 1/2 hours of testimony from Collegiate Charter I think the following statement from the Charter School Office sums it up:
“The District Charter Schools Office evaluation concludes that  this applicant  fails to provide a cohesive, inclusive educational philosophy to support the desire to open a single-sex K-12 school.”

I listened to 2 hours of testimony from the Aspira Charter Schools – Many of the same problems recurred in their application: conflicting information, misaligned curriculum, data driven programs with lots of testing, staffing and personnel budget problems, little or no community involvement, etc..

Diane Ravitch in her Jan. 5/21 blog quotes Tracey Miller from St. Louis commenting on charters:
“The individuals peddling their agenda under the guise of education equity will continue to steer public dollars toward private programs and gain political capital unless we decide that public education is too important to jeopardize for the sake of private gain. We will all be complicit in the perpetuation of inequity if we choose to let this continue.” The reformers’ in the St. Louis public schools have not improved the schools. They are “raiders of the public schools“ and this is true in Philadelphia.

Sing to “You are my Sunshine”

The 5 new charters waste public money,
their applications are incomplete
We do not need more, we can’t afford more
please vote no, I do entreat.

You are the school board, appointed school board
And what you sanction, affects us all.
With each new charter, the pie gets smaller
And the taxpayers pay for it all.