I hope you've seen this by now. But if you haven't, or you just lost the link, or you were going to get around to it someday, then watch it now. Oliver does not address the philosophy behind charters, the types of charter malpractice like No Excuses, or the ways that charters leech money from public schools. But boy does he nail the corruption, the lack of oversight, and the distinction-without-a-difference of for-profits and non-profits. This is one of those things you want to pass on to all your civilian friends so they can begin to Get It.
Peter it's interesting to see how corporate reformers react to Oliver's piece:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/richardwhitmir/status/768564610773487616
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Richard Whitmire
@richardwhitmir
Finally saw J Oliver. Puzzled. If I strung together the six worst tradit pub schools and called that the norm, would that be good reporting?
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StandforChildren : "It's infotainment. Not news reporting.
Richard Whitmire: "Yes, but charter critics took seriously. Imagine their reaction if the same reporting were applied to tradit schools."
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Actually Richard, that is exactly what corporate reformers do when reporting on public schools and unionized public school teachers.
Remember Campbell Brown's lie about NAEP scores show that 3/4 of traditional public school children are "below grade level." Whitmire and Peter Cunningham lept to Brown's defense, when she was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG... about that?
Remember Rhee stating that the teachers she fired were abusing children ... and that turned out to be a lie (in Fast Company Magazine ... Google it)?
Secondly, it's not just these examples in Oliver's piece that should be the focus, but the system of ZERO oversight or ALMOST-ZERO oversight that enables them to happen, and the fact that whenever well-meaning people want to impose oversight at either the state or school board level --- oversight that would have prevented these outrages IN THE FIRST PLACE and would do so in the future --- the charter industry or corporate ed. reform industry throws millions of dollars, and tons of lobbyists to prevent such oversight, all so they can "have the freeedom to innovate"... (i.e. a license to steal.)