By: chris swanson

I am sooo glad California has taken this step to put charter schools in the spotlight just as public schools are…and let’s not kid each other…charter schools are corporate and someone is earning from that arrangement…I can tell you it isn’t the teaching staff…who barely can make ends meet on charter school wages. Then too all the attention to the city school programs, charter or otherwise, misses the bigger nationwide picture… where small districts are still public schools with union employees who belong to NEA or AFT…because otherwise they would be sweeping the rooms every night and doing playground duty, lunchroom supervision and still be expected to teach 30 plus kids per day or hour . And no one seems to get the job doesn’t end at 3:00…the paperwork goes home and the teacher plans for the next day…on his/her time. Charter schools may help in some areas but they are also less than transparent in most cases and their employees have very little input into those things expert teachers need to have… book selection, curriculum development, and professional development that is meaningful. Here in Michigan we have way too many “charters” that can operate with limited support staff…by which I mean the speech professional, the handicapped (of any sort) who have special needs, the psychologist who may be working six counties for one charter…( and thus sees kids in the fall and the spring…to test…and when would they meet with teachers and parents? you guess.) Teachers have always been the most easily- kicked around of the public employees who need college degrees for their jobs. Today’s public and charter school teachers are still way underpaid compared to other college graduates…most of whom would run screaming out the door if they had five different groups of 30 7th graders showing up every hour. Come on. Education is the key to a strong citizenry , one that understands the pillars of democracy. Right now, we have too many looking at the public dollars and wanting to get their hands on them. ALL the SUNLIGHT in the metaphorical world needs to be focused on the school monies…in every school..public or charter. ( and they are not the same). NO corporation should be making a profit from the public school dollars.