Is that you have schools like this:
The group of five former employees - several of whom were fired - and two parents at Milwaukee School of Choice, alleged in separate interviews that the school:
• Had no formal curriculum or set teaching approach, and teachers were expected to "wing it." Students frequently were shown non-educational videos, they say. One mother reported finding her daughter's class watching "Jason Goes to Hell - The Final Friday" from the Friday the 13th series and "Bad Boys II." Her daughter no longer attends School of Choice.
• Had no disciplinary policies or procedures, so one student might be suspended for fighting, while another is sent back to class.
• Lacked essential resources at different points, such as proper lighting and heating, appropriate textbooks and computers.
• Did not regularly teach core subjects such as history and science.
"This is not a school," said Vickie Finch, a parent who pulled her daughter out of the school in January. "They don't learn there."
Get rid of these kinds of schools and you might have a shot at a good program
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8 comments:
Scorpion says---
Imagine that! What a great curriculum. No need for any accountability? Just keep handing over the money?Maybe a test can be set up about their video viewing. Is this sad for their students.
Of course, with any sort of choice model, you are going to get bad actors. But here is a specific difference between this school, which clearly is not doing what it is supposed to do, and traditional public schools--the parents (as you indicated) were able to take their child out of that school. Can parents in most public schools vote with their feet if the public school is not doing their job?
The answer is no.
This episode illustrates what is good about a choice model as much as what is bad.
The choice program can possibly be good, but not with many schools like this...public schools are not bad because of the teachers as much as they are bad because they have bad parents and bad kids...that is why they fail, that is what needs to change...not a building.
Can parents in most public schools vote with their feet if the public school is not doing their job?
In Milwaukee, the answer is actually yes. With more than 200 programs to choose from, parents have wide lattitude.
Every year, somewhere between 25 and 30% of voucher students (who don't graduate) leave the program. Yet 25-30% of schools don't close when those parents exercse the choice. When they sold us the program, they said the market would close bad schools like the one The Game cites here. As you can see, the market has failed.
Actually Jay, it looks like its going to close. Wouldnt that mean its working?
The problem is that when you close 3, there are 10 new ones...and 7 of 'em suck.
the market can only work if you have a wise consumer who has information...we have neither in this case
I prefer things to work correctly, on the first try. If not, I think waiting for things to work themselves out, like this, is a viable alternative. The more people speak out, the more people will know whats going on, and the more these schools will fold. Where the speaking starts can be anywhere, the school board, parents, teachers, whomever...
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