
(Mensaje se repite en Español)
(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)
What they don't want you to know is that charters started as a way to explore innovative teaching practices, that fewer than one in seven charters produce better results, and while they should be explored, charters should not be promoted as the "be all end all" to the problems facing our schools that the politicians - school board members and the Superintendent - have refused to address for years.
What they also don't want you to know is that there's an incestuous relationship between current and former board members, district employees, and many in the charter school industry. We need to follow the money trail.
Our incoming superintendent, John Deasy, negotiated an $80,000 salary bump despite recent layoffs, pay cuts, and firings - all done because the district supposedly doesn't have enough cash. The board didn't even bother to consider any other candidates. Deasy has worked for the Gates Foundation, embracing their push for value-added assessments, despite that, at best, value-added has a margin of error of plus or minus 45 points, and even worse, the foundation has been withholding data from researchers.