Monday, February 06, 2012

Think this cannot happen here?

Shortly after President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech independent US Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, responded to a journalist's question about tax reform by saying that "reform" is typically code for "cuts". For my part, "education reform" is a zero sum game of money going into charter schools with corresponding cuts to unprivatized public schools.

How long before Nashville's public schools, in their growing orgy of charter expansions, find themselves being reformed as schools seem poised to be in Connecticut?


A new proposal to expand Connecticut's charter schools could cost some of the state's most impoverished cities more than $1 million annually, a potential source of friction as lawmakers prepare to tackle education reform ideas in their upcoming legislative session.

The proposal would require local districts to pay $1,000 per child for each of their students who attend charter schools ....

That item quickly caught the attention of some local school and municipal officials, who called it unworkable as they struggle to keep class sizes down and avoid layoffs ....

An analysis of state Department of Education charter enrollment figures obtained Monday by The Associated Press shows that if the $1,000-per-student subsidy is enacted without anything to offset it, New Haven would have to pay more than $1.7 million a year and Bridgeport would be responsible for $1.5 million yearly.

Hartford's bill would be about $1 million ....

"We do have a major concern about it. What it would do is honor the choice made by parents who put their children in charter schools, at the expense of those whose children remain in the traditional local schools," said Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.


School choice zealots and education reform "rebels" (as some like to call themselves) can preach and evangelize until doomsday. The simple math leads to a separate but equal education creating a lower caste of students who inevitably suffer fewer government resources than others.

No comments:

Post a Comment