On another post Anonymous wrote:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_744886.html
Why vouchers failed (this time) even though Students First attempted to financially influence the lawmakers.
These are the lawmakers we need to call because Students First will be back in the Fall with a bigger purse.
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The article refers to "hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to lawmakers by Students First, a voucher advocacy group, to counter the campaign donations of PSEA".
(PSEA is the Pennsylvania State Education Association.) So it sounds like each side of the voucher issue had a group lobbying for its position.
Is it clear now that Students First of PA is part of Rhee?
http://www.studentsfirstpa.com/
No, this is the website for Michelle Rhee's organization:
http://www.studentsfirst.org
Directly from your link.
http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/state-
action/pennsylvania
The .org is Michelle Rhee's organization and the .com is not Michelle Rhee's.
Do you find it odd that they have the same objective?
It seems like vouchers are a small part of Michelle Rhee's program but they are the main point of the .com group.
And honestly, after 5+ years of Broad/Gates I'm not as anti-charter as I was. I'm definitely anti-voucher still. I know the stats -- only 17% of charters outperform schools with similar demographics while 34% underperform them. And in PA, both of those numbers are larger (19% outperform and nearly 40% underperform).
But this district has left no places untouched by their heavy hand. You can't escape the scripted, paced curriculum. There isn't time left if you're keeping up with that for other things -- longer term projects, field trips, etc.
What the magnets used to be (or were meant to be) is what charters could be.
Now, that said, I don't think charters should be affiliated with Students First or any other state or national group that's pushing a "charters are the answer" agenda. There aren't big answers or silver bullets, there's just a lot of hard work to be done, one kid, one classroom at a time.
The reformers are still convinced there is a silver bullet- a principal's academy, or a teacher's academy, or a superintendent's academy, or a particular program or curriculum or grouping.
Anon 9:44
Broad won you over without your knowledge. The goal is charter schools...profit. It is called "venture philanthropy" for a reason. They expect a return on their investment. They wear communities down and tear them apart.
http://broadeducation.org/investments/current_
investments/competition.html
That page is under construction. Here is the cache version. There are also 3 links on the page. Google Broad foundation charter schools and click on the cache link.
Healthy Competition: Public Charter Schools
Page under construction. Check back later.
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