Charter Schools Redux - Primary Election for School Board upon Us

Charter Schools Redux - Primary Election for School Board upon Us
Charter Schools Redux - Primary Election for School Board upon Us
Last year prior to the November elections, I wrote about the charter school iniative, advising the public not to vote in favor of charter schools in the state of Washington. (You can read my article here.) Unfortunately, the voters decided by an extremely thin margin, 50.59% to 49.31%, to allow the creation of 40 charter schools within the next 5 years. This was a poor choice for the reasons I stated in my NWCitizen article, a choice that will come back to haunt us. Further proof of the inadvisability of charters was revealed in a 17 July 2013 article for Alternet (click here to read) in which Jake Blumgart speaks to the layoffs and salary reductions within the support staffs of charter schools throughout the country. Given that less than 20% of charters perform better than their counterparts in the public schools, one wonders what is being achieved aside from union busting and job precarity. Blumgard goes on to say:
"Charter school proponents often cite flexibility in hiring and firing as one of the essential attributes of these private-public institutions, which have expanding enrollment steadily since the turn of the century. (During the 2009-2010 school year 1,627,403 students were enrolled in charters nationally, by 2012-2013 the number grew to 2,278,388.) The great majority of America’s 5,997 charter schools (that’s over 1,000 more than in 2009-2010) do not belong to a large network like KIPP, California’s Green Dot, or Philadelphia’s Mastery. Instead they are single site organizations, which usually lack the internal capacity to directly hire support staff. Positions are often outsourced either to international corporations, such as Sodhexo, or local companies like Los Angeles’ Royal Dining Foods which advertises “FOOD SERVERS AT NO EXTRA COST.” (They also offer janitorial services.) Phone calls inquiring about the meaning of “food servers free of charge” were not returned. Without knowing the details, it stands to reason that services can only be provided at a vanishingly low rate if the workers aren’t getting paid much and don’t get many benefits."
A suit, challenging the constitutionality of Washington charter schools, was filed by a coalition lead by the Washington Education Association in early July. You can read an article about this suit by going to this link. Although July 1st was the deadline to apply for authorization by school districts that intend to establish charters, only one (Spokane) made the request. That does not mean the fight against charters is of less importance now or that other districts have given up the idea of charters. As long as the authority to establish these problematic institutions is on the books, voters need to be vigilant about the actions of their own school boards. We also need to be attentive to adequate compensation and benefits for support service jobs in our community for the sake of our own fiscal health and that of our workers.
Another election is upon us that includes an August 6th primary in which three individuals will vie for the four year term of Director Position 4 of the Belllingham School District 501. We ought to be asking these candidates where they stand on charter schools. So, Mr. Blethen, Mr. Beattie and Mr. Smith, what say you?
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