Charter Schools: How Charter Schools Can Hurt

Charter Schools: How Charter Schools Can Hurt
Tara A. Donkers
February 5, 2013
EDU 200
Instructor: Dr. Betsy Harrison

Charter Schools: How Charter Schools Can Hurt
The article “Charter Schools: How Charter Schools Can Hurt”, written by Lucinda Rosenfeld is an article about the negative impact of Charter Schools on the local public school institutions. Prior to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) there were public schools and private schools. Private schools included sectarian and non-sectarian institutions. Approximately twenty years ago, it was found that our public school system was failing drastically, and we were not servicing the children of this country to the best of our ability. Since that time, the idea of Charter Schools was created to facilitate parents who could choose to move their children from a failing public school to a thriving Charter School; which would be paid for with American tax dollars.
Lucinda Rosenfeld is the mother of a kindergarten aged child attending P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill Brooklyn. Rosenfeld states “P.S. 261 in one of a minority of Brooklyn primary schools that manages to be truly diverse –racially, ethnically, and economically. While thirty five percent of the student body qualifies for free lunch it also attract and retains children from professional families of all races and creeds, who work in law, media and the arts.” (Rosenfield, 2012). This statement shows a sense of great pride in her community and how much she wants it to remain the same. All of that changes though one day when an advocate for the Success Academy charter school appears during dismissal and hands out pamphlets with the intent of enlisting the attention of anyone that would listen to leave the public school for the new charter school. This went on for several days until many of the staff and parents confronted the charter school advocate in front of the school yard and asked him to leave. The big question is “Why?” now. Was this the future of the New York education system? Rosenfeld states “Is this what Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had in mind when in his State of the City address earlier this year, he called for fifty new charter schools to open in the next two years. (Rosenfield, 2012). Rosenfeld questions the bigger picture charter schools. Is it about privatization? Is this a way of separating the middle and upper class population from the minority and ethnically diverse population? Rosenfeld worries for her daughter. She is so happy at P.S 261, and she has a range of friends from parents of maintenance workers to marketing executives. How will this affect her and her new found friendships?
On reflection, I found this article to be a very heart felt cry for help from a mother with genuine concern for what, we as a nation are doing to our public school system. It seems to me that if the country and the states are using taxpayer money to improve schools it shouldn’t be to create a new charter school. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Put the money back into the public school districts, upgrade technology, provide teacher training, upgrade and improve buildings and invest in our children. That would be the greatest service we could do for ourselves as a nation and for our future generations. These children are the future leaders of our nation. They need to know we did everything we could as a nation to provide the best education money, taxpayer money can buy!

References

Rosenfield, L. (2012, March 16). How Charter Schools Can Hurt. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from The New York Times / The Opinion Pages: http://nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/how-charter-schools-can-hurt.html

References: Rosenfield, L. (2012, March 16). How Charter Schools Can Hurt. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from The New York Times / The Opinion Pages: http://nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/how-charter-schools-can-hurt.html