I have just become a follower for Diane Ravitch's blog, a well respected scholar of public education in the United States. Her last post about the ability of charter schools to market themselves vs the public community school is an interesting observation that I have not thought of before. For-profit charters and the ones that really get me. I do not see how a public service like health care and education can be effectively run for profit if not at the expense of the customer, i.e., you. After 11 years as an educator, I can honestly tell you that it can not be run as a business and fulfill the expectations of the public. It is messy, sometimes slow and addresses such a myriad of issues it is unfathomable.
Luckily, we still have a large public commitment to public schools in Texas that charters have not made very much headway and their performance has been really spotty. School budgets are tight, just as all governments budges are, so the future will be really interesting as it is the majority of the public expenditure by the state. More and more expenses are just being handed down to the districts and the state wonders why things are getting missed.
Oh, and anyone outside of Texas that wonder about teacher's unions? Organizing Ppublic protest and some lobbying are all that that they can do. Texas is a right to work state, no strikes or collective bargaining here. So, want to see an independent minded states failing in education and looking for solutions? Look no further than Texas.
