Reply to WaPo Editorial today on DCPS/charter collaboration

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]another incoherent editorial from the Washington Post.

The whole point of charters is that they are forced to compete for students (and thus funding) and that this competitive pressure is what drives the charters to perform.

Encouraging greater collaboration with DCPS is completely counter to this fundamental principle.

And at the same time, why on earth would DCPS want this to succeed?

Trying to force parties to collaborate when it is against their interest is doomed to fail.

The Washington Post's local editorials are a joke.  I can't believe anyone takes them seriously.[/quote]

The whole point if charters was NOT competition.  That has been a fundamental misunderstanding.  Charters were supposed to be labs for testing new ideas to integrate into public schools.

[i]In a 1988 address, Mr. Shanker outlined an idea for a new kind of public school where teachers could experiment with fresh and innovative ways of reaching students. Mr. Shanker estimated that only one-fifth of American students were well served by traditional classrooms. In charter schools, teachers would be given the opportunity to draw upon their expertise to create high-performing educational laboratories from which the traditional public schools could learn.[/i] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/opinion/sunday/albert-shanker-the-original-charter-school-visionary.html?_r=0[/quote]

If I had the time and energy, I could easily find quotes from the political types in Congress who actually passed the bill creating the District's charters that support my position that injecting free market competition into the education arena was one the objectives.  Not that I believe that it was the only one.  But it was an important objective.  I also think that, regardless of the original intentions, it is a present reality that should be considered in the debate.

I find it curious that you have such a good memory that you can find an op-ed piece written last year by a charter school lobbyist so quickly.  One of the quirks of this anonymous forum is that people who have a professional interest in supporting charters (and public schools) post here often.  I find it disingenuous when they do so without identifying their biases.  I myself am a parent with 2 kids in charters.[/quote]

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