Charter Schools Verses Public Schools

Last week another parent handed us a flier for a meeting opposing the termination of our Elementary School’s Principal. Last night my partner and I, with kids in tow, attended the meeting.
About 20 parents and an equal number of children were there. An 11-year-old Latina student was up on stage translating, alongside the two African American parents who were the main organizers. A couple of parents made the case for keeping our Principal, equally based on her individual merit and the destructive goals of the local School Board. In the last 5 years, this is our school’s third Principal.
One of the organizing parents explained that when she went to the State Education Department in Sacramento that the lobby is adorned with a huge sign promoting CHARTER SCHOOLS. She added that the local School Board is targeting small schools for closure. Our school is a small school. Ironically, or not, the Charter Schools are all small. The charter schools, she pointed out, get public money but are run as private enterprises and are non-union, lowering Oakland’s already low living standards. The charter schools are a stepping-stone to the privatization of education and another tool used for running down and dismantling public education.
Our school is attended by kids from poorer working class backgrounds and consequently has always been “low performing.” Not one third-grade student was at or above the standard requirement for third grade last year. However, the teachers are great, the parents are very friendly and the atmosphere is very caring and grades are improving.
A few parents asked questions and made comments. I mentioned the $2,000 billion spent on the banks and how that could end poverty in America and create great public schools. I got a warm response when arguing education should not be a business. “Look at the disaster that running healthcare as a business has been for us all.” After I spoke one of the organizers quoted from the People’s History of the US, about how once schools were all private and we cannot go back to those days.
Two parents who have recently switched back to public schools testified about their Charter School experiences. One explained how her granddaughter, who is black, and her youngest son, who is white, were treated alarmingly different in the Charter School: she pointed at her son who she said was treated like gold. She pulled them both out. Another said she found out her child had been yelled at by her Charter School principal and forced to do sit ups. When she complained to other parents and approached the school about it, her child was dis-enrolled.
A dozen parents committed to attend the School Board meeting tomorrow night to make the case against, as one parent-organizer put it, “a policy of continuing to de-stabilize our school.”