While Policymakers Demand Accountability from Charter Schools, They Need to Demand the Same for Traditional Schools

06Feb
by La Comadre

Attention!  Governor Newsom. When you say that publicly funded schools should be held accountable to the public, do you mean that the THOUSANDS of low performing traditional schools will also be reviewed for their role in draining the education system? Or are we just going to gloss over that inconvenient fact and let it go unaddressed for yet another generation?

This is not a difficult concept. Yes, all charter schools should be held accountable. One of the great features of a charter school is that ability to review it, evaluate its effectiveness, and not reauthorize it if it’s not making the grade. Unfortunately, that level of accountability does NOT exist for traditional public schools. As a result, our public education system is marred with hundreds of low performing schools that go on and on forever and in many cases receive millions of dollars in additional funding to help improve those schools. So by the logic that charter schools ‘take money” from the education system, we can also say that the millions being wasted on schools to improve that never do, siphons money from schools within their own system.   

Isn’t it time to look at these longstanding, persistently failing schools, and fix them? It is so disingenuous to act as though you care about education if you turn a blind eye to these institutions of systemic oppression and classrooms of inequity where children who are doomed to attend these schools leave helpless and hopeless.

Stop blaming charter schools for the problems that existed long before the Charter School Act of 1992! Traditional public (neighborhood) schools have always tried to blame their failures on someone or something else. It’s time to face the truth. Charter schools were born of need, not greed. Let’s look at the negative impact that has been created by all failing schools, both charter and traditional.

What do you think?

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La Comadre

We are Moms, Tias, Ninas and Play-Tias who love children in our lives and we want to help every child succeed in school. Navigating schools and education—from preschool to college—is hard. We want to help each other with this.
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