York, PA poised to turn charter huh?

And the big story is...

So, just a couple of hours from Philly in York, PA, the York City School District's schools are poised to become PA's first all charter district, having just been taken over by the state...or wait, what are they calling it? "Receivership"??? Aside from the fact that the term sounds ominously like a term from Lois Lowry's The Giver, Pennsylvania hasn't been doing well with the whole, "we can run a district better" thing.

They've been "receivership"ping Philadelphia's public schools since 2001. It is important to note that under their omniscient (sike), all watchful (pshh), recievership eye, we've plunged further and further into debt, all the while experiencing a net-GROWTH in the size of our district by the acceptance of many charter schools!

Some nuts swear by charter schools and are headstrong in their belief that the management of real public schools by these quasi-public, pseudo-accountable entities and the dissolution of teachers' unions are the answers to what ails many students in public schools! Not so!

If teachers' unions are the roadblocks to education, then by default, our wealthier suburban counterparts and their students would be enduring similar struggles since they, too, have teachers' unions. But, I'm sure, *they* have access to functional libraries, a nurse, counselor, the arts, gym, and a myriad of extra curricular activities and tutoring services at their disposal! As they should, but so should we, but I digress...

If the choice advocates really believed in the idea of "choice" as they suppose, they'd be pushing for such free-market enterprise in areas beyond Philadelphia's city borders, and I don't mean in Chester, but rather Chichester. Not in Camden, but in Council Rock!

My point? Pick one! Any one! There are many!

It's easy to pick on teachers and an unrealistic measure of student achievement like a single (or even a few) test scores! That is easy to package, ship, sell, and unload on an unsuspecting and easily swayed general public.

The problems are much more complex than that! Issues of the limitation of resources and opportunities, issues of true poverty, issues of substance abuse, issues of 8-year old heads of households, issues of homelessness, domestic violence, sexual abuse and in some cases (unpopular though it may be to discuss) the poor choices of parents and guardians.

Converting a school or an entire system does NOTHING to ameliorate those problems! Converting a school or an entire system to a charter oversimplifies complex problems all the while vilifying most of the hardworking, dedicated, well-equipped, certified public school teachers who have dedicated their lives to the service of educating generations of students and their families!

If we should fix anything, it should be the narrow-minded, elitist, pompous, high-minded, racist way of thinking on the part of many in positions who not only make laws, but those who buy...ooops, I mean, "influence" laws!

Still scratching my head!!!

So, I cannot let go of the fact that John B. Kelly Elementary School has lost 6th grade to Mastery Charter School at Pickett, a few blocks away. For the last seven years, John B. Kelly has been a K-6th grade school. Using the district and nation's own provincial measures for academic success, scores, we've managed to raise those from 5th to 6th grade every year that the 6th grade teaching team has been a team; 6 of the 7 years.

The School District of Philadelphia decided that Kelly should be a K-5th grade school and that Mastery at Pickett should take over the 6th grade in their building, beginning September, 2013. I even commented about it while being interviewed for a response to Philly's financial crisis in the Huffington Post.

To end my umpteenth rant about this, here are a couple of pictures. I'll let them speak for themselves.

Perhaps if John B. Kelly doesn't make it this year, we'll get our 6th grade back, since 2 years of no AYP seems to be the prerequisite for expanding. Or maybe we'll do what Universal did at Vare, bring in a grade to teach that is against our "license agreement"; which the CFO admitted to at a recent SRC meeting when Feather Houstoun questioned him....I'm just saying. But wait, didn't they still acquire Alcorn Elementary? Hmm