Last year The Colorado Observer reported on Randi Weingarten, big, bad union boss, and her disdain of school reform in Douglas County.
The teachers union president came to Colorado to threaten the Douglas County School Board. State Senator Ted Harvey likened her to Jimmy Hoffa.
Just another day in Douglas County’s school wars.
Yesterday we came across something interesting…none other than Randi Weingarten, the master-mind of the attacks on the Douglas County School Board, declared war on something else.
Charter Schools.
From Weingarten’s email (emphasis hers):
[T]oday, in front of nearly 3,000 educators at our union’s TEACH conference in Washington, D.C., I laid out a vision to reclaim the promise of public education and unite parents and community with us as one unstoppable force…
We know it is not only educators who are for this; parents and community members have our backs. A recent poll, we released today, found that parents want strong neighborhood public schools as opposed to more charter schools or voucher programs, and overwhelmingly believe public schools should provide a well-rounded education, offer social services for students and reduce the emphasis on testing, among other findings.
This is not a campaign. This is our core. And it must be the focus of our work going forward. Ours is a vision that works. It’s a vision of what parents want for their kids. And it’s a movement that can stop the privatizers, profiteers and austerity hawks in their tracks.
This is noteworthy mostly for timing reasons. The Colorado Observer has an interesting story about Doug Co’s robust charter school program. The eye-grabber… Douglas County has more than 10,000 kids in charter schools.
Today, the Douglas County school district boasts 12 charter schools, with two more slated to open during the 2013-2014 school year.
“Douglas County School District’s flexibility and cooperation was vital to the opening of Academy Charter School and its successors during the first few years of charter school existence in Colorado,” said Nora E. Flood, President of Colorado League of Charter Schools. “DCSD continues to be a leader in charter school authorizing today.”
According to the school district, over 10,000 Douglas County students attend one of a dozen charter schools. Statewide, nearly 100,000 students attend charter schools.
Does Weingarten not care about the 10,000 kids in Douglas County who go to charter schools? Or has Weingarten simply written off Douglas County?
We are not sure what the explanation is, but we are quite sure whatever it is the thousands upon thousands of families who have turned to charter schools in Douglas County to educate their children won’t care for it at all.
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We LOVE our Charter School (the 1st one to be granted a charter in CO!) Unions HATE Charters because they fear them. The know that kids matriculating from charter schools are more well-rounded, rcv. more scholarship $$ than students in the public school sector, and are MUCH better prepared to be successful college graduates. Besides education, Charters are about teaching kids values, personal accountability and integrity. We love the flexibility we have to change curriculum mid-term when something isn't working (aka: students are not learning a concept). Charters have "heart". Teachers historically make LESS working at charter schools than public schools….but because the atmosphere and culture of a good charter school is one of productive, self-motivated students with supportive parents who have a stake and "say" in their child's education…it makes teaching at a charter like "working at Disneyland" (as one of our teachers recently expressed to me.) I would love to see Charter schools lead the way in reforming public schools! Throw out the unions!
My Opinion on Doug CO Charter Schools is that the Dist. pushed for charter schools so they wouldn't have to fund facility construction/ site selection. They had a huge amount of unsustainable growth down there that would have left the Dist. in a scramble to provide classrooms and teachers. Prudent move for the Dist. to push the Voucher and Charter option instead of bond measures. Although property valuations are high there it wouldn't have taken much of a mill levy to satisfy. I digress, it still doesent change my mind about Doug Co though. Rich people who migrated to Colorado and don't share Colorado's western values/ideas. I still think Charter Schools and the voucher program only excacerbate our current poverty cycle as they only serve the more affluent end of the population. The Demographics there are very narrow too, most homes have children of school age. I consider that once the area ages more and there is a higher rate "empty nest", the fevor for education will wane, as the population school age children dwindles to a degree that the school infrastructure can handle it, a few Charter schools will be forced close, and they will be infighting to get the pupils. Alas, the politics will stay the same though, untill a time that all tax-payers take a vested interest in education regardless if they have school age children. That's a fantasy though, Americans/Humans in general are to self centered to care about education "Unless" they have school age children, and when they do have those children, they cannot see rationally because its about "their child" instead of "the children".
http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/07/dougco-schools-former-governor-romer-among-recipients-of-charter-school-award/
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Your children….. your choice?
Interesting…