Reply to New Charters - more competition for Basis

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "New Charters - more competition for Basis"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]More charter school options with high academic standards are definitely welcome additions to the city, the demand appears to exceed the capacity of BASIS and Latin.  Our main issue with Latin was the distance - they are all the way across town, 45 minutes minimum by metro and bus, that's a big chunk of time out of the day for a student.

But the same questions come up - how can they actually expect to uphold high academic standards, when they will be faced with the same floodgate of incoming applicants hurling themselves at the lotteries - many of which will be DCPS refugees who are many grade levels behind and who've already become accustomed to low academic expectations and social promotion?  At least BASIS holds the expectations high with requirements for advancement, i.e. comprehensive exams.  Latin and the other schools on the other hand continue to suffer without any meaningful way to keep academic expectations high.[/quote]

No, Latin & Deal are not continuing to suffer.  Latin is on, what, its second graduating class and already has kids going into Ivies.  They're doing it without flushing 2/3 of the students who enter, which is to their credit.  Basis looks more and more like an enrichment scheme for its owners, and not an education institution that merits tax dollars.  Apparently you can have high standards, and still find an alternate path for students who are not in the top 10%.  I'm looking forward to the PCSB re-tooling Basis, which is what needs to happen if they're going to continue to receive public money for public education.[/quote]

All DC charters, whether BASIS, Latin or whoever, receive the SAME funding per student.  And the education that BASIS is providing their students is excellent, rivaling the best anywhere in the district.  BASIS schools are placing a substantial number of students in the top universities in the nation, they are winning scholarships and are achieving many great things, and that exact same model, curriculum and culture is in place in DC.  BASIS has a history going back to the 1990s for achieving results.  To suggest it's just an "enrichment scheme" would need to include with it some evidence that they are somehow gaming the system, i.e. not providing the education or achieving results, and evidence for that simply does not exist.  Meanwhile, consider that there are many other charters that do not have such a stellar record for achievement or college placement.  What are those schools doing for the money they receive?  And even worse yet, DCPS is on average spending more than twice as much per student as BASIS and other charters receive - where's all THAT money going?  There is absolutely nothing whatsoever inherently wrong with how BASIS is incorporated or organized in and of itself; consider also that even public schools and non-profit charters can have exorbitant salaries and boondoggle contracts amounting to being "personal enrichment schemes" (and there are plenty examples of this kind of thing happening).  Whether they meet with your own personal opinion of what a charter should or should not be, the bottom line is that BASIS is in compliance with charter school law and has delivered on everything the charter school board requires of it, and as such, there's absolutely nothing that "needs" to happen.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics