Current Events > Should charter school enrollment be a corporate employee perk?

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article146471059.html

Students could gain admission to charter schools based on where their parents work or where they live under legislation that would make significant changes in the ways the schools fill their classrooms.

The state House is considering a collection of bills that would change who can start a charter and how quickly the schools can grow. Corporations would be able to reserve spaces in schools for their employees’ children, and two towns would be able to set up charter schools for their residents. Under current law, charters are open to any student in the state, although schools can give preference to siblings and school employees’ children.

“This is loosening the restrictions on how charters operate and what they’re allowed to do,” Rep. Graig Meyer, an Orange County Democrat, said of the collection of bills the House Education Committee approved Monday in divided votes.

Under one bill, up to half a charter school’s seats could be reserved for children whose parents work for companies that donate land, buildings or equipment to the school. Employees of those companies would also be able to join the charter school’s board of directors.

Rep. John R. Bradford III, a Mecklenburg Republican, framed the bill as an economic development tool that could help attract companies to rural counties. Companies would be able to offer classroom seats as employee perks, Bradford said, equating charter enrollment to companies paying for employee meals.

“This creates a vehicle where a company can create an employee benefit,” he said.

Meyer objected, saying the provision would have taxpayer money going to company schools.

“This moves closer to privatization than North Carolina has ever allowed before,” he said.

Another bill would allow charter enrollment to grow 30 percent a year without approval from the State Board of Education. Charters are now limited to 20 percent annual growth without board approval. Some Democrats objected on the grounds that it could fuel growth in schools that aren’t good. Allowing charters with bad records to expand would not be fair to taxpayers, parents or students, said Rep. Bobbie Richardson, a Louisburg Democrat.

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The correct answer is no
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Hey
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What are charter schools again?

Antifar posted...

The correct answer is no

Why is that?

It's pretty usual for it to be a perk for school employees in public schools.
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JE19426 posted...

What are charter schools again?

Basically a school that is chartered by a public district but run by a private entity. They were designed to make use of the benefits of a learning environment without restrictions on policy or curriculum, but quickly spiraled into a corporate mess.

There are some good things that come from them, and there are also some pretty awful things.
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although actually, I guess I'm unclear here what the policy change would be since school employees children already get preferential treatment

That is a bit different than setting seats aside but Im not sure it will have a practical impact

as far as only letting people within localities enroll in charters, that again is exactly how public schools usually work and I dont understand what the issue is there
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I am against this idea. I am in favor of allowing people to create charter schools, we need more innovation in education, but I don't think corporations should be given special privileges for making donations. If they want to donate because they want to contribute to a cause, then they can donate without being granted special privileges in exchange.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

I am against this idea. I am in favor of allowing people to create charter schools, we need more innovation in education, but I don't think corporations should be given special privileges for making donations. If they want to donate because they want to contribute to a cause, then they can donate without being granted special privileges in exchange.

...Then they probably won't donate at all.
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MaverickXeo posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

I am against this idea. I am in favor of allowing people to create charter schools, we need more innovation in education, but I don't think corporations should be given special privileges for making donations. If they want to donate because they want to contribute to a cause, then they can donate without being granted special privileges in exchange.

...Then they probably won't donate at all.

That's too bad then. This idea is not worth the negative ramifications, basically granting special privileges to people who are already likely better off than average. Generous benefits packages are usually given when a company is trying to hire highly skilled employees where it's more of a seller's market compared to unskilled labor, which can be a market where there are hundreds of people out there who could at any moment replace you for minimum wage or close to it.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

we need more innovation in education

Speaking from the inside: We have plenty of innovation. What we don't have is funding, public support, or required professional development.
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ZMythos posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

we need more innovation in education

Speaking from the inside: We have plenty of innovation. What we don't have is funding, public support, or required professional development.

I'm curious what you mean about public support. As for the funding, why is that the case? Here in Oregon, the schools face budget cuts in order to fund public employee pension liabilities, things that didn't exist when the people who are now getting the pensions were working from what I understand of the situation. Something I've been very curious about is the actual cost of educating a student, how has that changed over time? I would love to see data on where the money goes in education spending, where is it actually spent?

And as for professional development, that's exactly the kind of thing we need innovation in. By innovation, I mean changing things up from the status quo, e.g. something where techniques of top teachers are studied and then taught to newer teachers and whatnot, and where teachers are given regular feedback and coaching and stuff.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

I'm curious what you mean about public support.

I mean a lot of things by this statement. First and foremost the resistance for a nationwide set of standards. A lot of people still don't know what Common Core is or does and think it's the devil. There's also the "I wasn't a math person so it's okay if my little Joey isn't" parents. There's the Mainstream Media only ever reporting on schools that fail and not the schools that succeed or where success in curriculum is found. There are politicians and political activists who think teachers are overpaid underworked lackeys who only work half the days of the year. And the constant resistance to teaching techniques and content just because it was different from when parents/grandparents were in school.


Inadequate funding doesn't take the form of "The school doesn't have 1:1 iPads for its students so it needs more money thrown at it." It takes the form of "This school has 30+ kids to a teacher." "This school has textbooks from 1995." "This school does not have adequate support staff for the students with special needs"



Sativa_Rose posted...

And as for professional development, that's exactly the kind of thing we need innovation in. By innovation, I mean changing things up from the status quo, e.g. something where techniques of top teachers are studied and then taught to newer teachers and whatnot, and where teachers are given regular feedback and coaching and stuff.

There are. Constantly. New teachers are given training based on evidence from successful teachers. But it's not compulsory in many districts to keep teachers engaged in these studies, or they are not encouraged to try new practices becaue the first time can be rough
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Balrog0 posted...

although actually, I guess I'm unclear here what the policy change would be since school employees children already get preferential treatment

The matter here is that, as I read it, there would now be preferential treatment for the employees of companies that donate to schools, not just employees of the school itself
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No. The entire education system needs to be revamped so that more of it happens online in the MOOC format. That increases the speed at which students learn and lowers the cost drastically.

Sativa_Rose posted...

MaverickXeo posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

I am against this idea. I am in favor of allowing people to create charter schools, we need more innovation in education, but I don't think corporations should be given special privileges for making donations. If they want to donate because they want to contribute to a cause, then they can donate without being granted special privileges in exchange.

...Then they probably won't donate at all.

That's too bad then. This idea is not worth the negative ramifications, basically granting special privileges to people who are already likely better off than average. Generous benefits packages are usually given when a company is trying to hire highly skilled employees where it's more of a seller's market compared to unskilled labor, which can be a market where there are hundreds of people out there who could at any moment replace you for minimum wage or close to it.

So you would prefer no one benefit rather than some benefit?
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No they shouldn't

QuantumScript posted...

No. The entire education system needs to be revamped so that more of it happens online in the MOOC format. That increases the speed at which students learn and lowers the cost drastically.

While I think the focus on the student is good, the connections students make in a public school setting are invaluable. Ideally we are teaching kids to communicate with one another, engage with each other's reasoning, and work together to solve problems that have ramnifications in the real world.
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ZMythos posted...

Sativa_Rose posted...

I'm curious what you mean about public support.

I mean a lot of things by this statement. First and foremost the resistance for a nationwide set of standards. A lot of people still don't know what Common Core is or does and think it's the devil. There's also the "I wasn't a math person so it's okay if my little Joey isn't" parents. There's the Mainstream Media only ever reporting on schools that fail and not the schools that succeed or where success in curriculum is found. There are politicians and political activists who think teachers are overpaid underworked lackeys who only work half the days of the year. And the constant resistance to teaching techniques and content just because it was different from when parents/grandparents were in school.


Inadequate funding doesn't take the form of "The school doesn't have 1:1 iPads for its students so it needs more money thrown at it." It takes the form of "This school has 30+ kids to a teacher." "This school has textbooks from 1995." "This school does not have adequate support staff for the students with special needs"



Sativa_Rose posted...

And as for professional development, that's exactly the kind of thing we need innovation in. By innovation, I mean changing things up from the status quo, e.g. something where techniques of top teachers are studied and then taught to newer teachers and whatnot, and where teachers are given regular feedback and coaching and stuff.

There are. Constantly. New teachers are given training based on evidence from successful teachers. But it's not compulsory in many districts to keep teachers engaged in these studies, or they are not encouraged to try new practices becaue the first time can be rough

Some examples of innovation could include further emphasis and hand-holding for teachers through the professional development process. I think this is a critical thing for education.

The funding constraints you mentioned is what I had figured the constraints were. Things like iPads get way too much attention. That's not at all what I'm talking about when I say we need more innovation in education. Innovation can come in the form of organizational and social changes and whatnot, like the stuff I just mentioned. Also, what I am really interested in is finding out about is how education spending has changed over time, e.g. what has the dollar cost per student been over the years, adjusted for inflation, that type of data.

You are definitely right about the public being pretty clueless and often ridiculous when it comes to things like freaking out over common core memes on social media. However, it's what goes on inside of the school that I am most concerned with.
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Lol yes no more interaction and group projects. No more science labs. Let's force kids (who can barely sit still as it is) to calmly sit in front of a computer screen to learn. For hours at a time every day. Yes. This will not bore them and cause them to not be interested.

Spoken like someone who has never taught

Sativa_Rose posted...

You are definitely right about the public being pretty clueless and often ridiculous when it comes to things like freaking out over common core memes on social media. However, it's what goes on inside of the school that I am most concerned with.

And the sad reality is that what happens in schools is heavily influenced by people outside of the school.
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sounds like a surreptitious way to homogenize schools without appearing like a racist fuck
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