The USA Today has an editorial debate on the value of charter schools. To their credit they seem willing to examine the charter experience carefully and try to encourage success where it occurs.
A (actually, this) scientist, viewing the intellectual landscape of the education debate might despair. There are too few controlled experiments and too few calls for them. Both are outrageous. Despite that, we occasionally learn something with controlled analysis (e.g., teacher certification is worth little or nothing) and despite its importance, the lesson is not applied.
If the governmental or central approach to schools was going to work in improving schools, it would be by the above, scientific approach. Pretty clearly that path isn't working. We probably teach no better than the classical Greeks.
But, this is America. The land of free markets, independent thinkers and doers. There is another way. We can "Let a thousand flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend". Apt, ignore the quote's source or remember that lovely flowers grow in manure.
This perspective makes particularly amusing the invited Opposing View to the USA Today editorial by Alfie Kohn. His lead point is "Will charters strengthen public education — or pave the way for vouchers and other privatization policies? As superintendents George and Mary Garcia warned, "The law of supply and demand, where winners make all the money and losers go broke, is a tragic idea to introduce into an institution whose purpose is to transmit democratic values and ensure equity for all." "
Wow. Do these fools think the winners and losers here are the children? The losers will be the bad charter schools, and a good thing that will be. The winners will be the good charter schools, and all the children after the bad charter and bad public schools close for want of "customers".
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