Charters Under Attack

For John, BLUF:  There is a war on Charter Schools, and it is the wrong enemy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Wokeness Comes For Charters

Here is the sub-headline:

What is to be done?

From American Mind, by Mr Max Eden, 14 July 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Black and Hispanic students should not work hard or be nice.  If you believe that doing so would be to their advantage, that’s probably a sign that you haven’t adequately grappled with your internalized white supremacism and anti-Blackness.

So suggests, at least, the founder and CEO of KIPP, America’s largest and arguably most successful charter school network, which operates 242 schools serving about 100,000 students.

A decade ago, charter schools were a rare bipartisan bright spot.  Conservatives liked them because they demonstrated that choice and competition can drive superior results.  Liberals liked them because they demonstrated that well-run programs could change the life trajectory of disadvantaged students.  What distinguished KIPP from traditional public schools was its ethos:  high expectations for academic achievement, strict standards for discipline, and an unflagging insistence that their students had the power to shape their destinies.  All this was encapsulated in its pithy slogan: “Work Hard. Be Nice.”

But last week, KIPP retired that slogan, explaining that it ignores the significant effort required to dismantle systemic racism, places value on being compliant and submissive, supports the illusion of meritocracy, and does not align with our vision of students being free to create the future they want.”

People seem so locked in.  The ones who suffer are the students.  For many of us school was a hard experience and we were looking for all the help we could find.  My own experience was that my failing experience up through Seventh Grade turned around when I was plopped down in a new school system in a new state.  For some of us, change is good.

UPDATE:  On the advice of my wife I updated plumped down to plopped down.

Regards  —  Cliff