Surge in charter schools – and their students

18 comments:

• TeaPartyPatriot posted at 8:25 pm on Mon, Oct 24, 2011.

  Posts: 207

  Right you are Mike 1200. Free enterprise is supposed to work that way as long as the consumer is up to the task.Too many parents aren't very wise education consumers and send their children to whatever daycare provider is cheapest and most convenient for them. With capitalism, you get what you pay for. With socialism, you get what they give you.

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• Mike1200 posted at 11:22 am on Mon, Oct 24, 2011.

  Posts: 67

  My wife teaches at one of the charter schools that rated an excellent in the rankings that were listed in the tribune a few weeks back. This is a conservative principle based (I know you liberals are cringing right about now) school that has a large waiting list for students to get in.

  The people that say dump the charter schools are clueless. For one thing if a charter school is doing a really bad job it won't have the student base and will go out of business. In the other case the bad public schools never close for that reason and they just keep cranking out children that don't get a proper education.

  With my wife teaching at a charter school I have seen first hand the education this charter school is providing and I support it 100 percent.

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• Suelee posted at 9:54 am on Mon, Oct 24, 2011.

  Posts: 119

  Most public schools work under the assumption that one size fits all educationally. This is NOT true. Many students and their families are not well served by the standard education model (as demonstrated by Arizona drop out rates and low academic achievement). Charter schools fill a specialty niche and help many students succeed (as evidenced by the huge demand for these schools and their various approaches).
  My daughter attended a charter school for junior high and a public school for high school. She considers her junior high experience the best education she ever had the foundation for her college years and her public high school experience she classified as "teenage daycare."

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• Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:37 am on Mon, Oct 24, 2011.

  Posts: 2612

  Folks,
  Charter Schools are becoming the choice of more and more parents because they want what's best for their children. They don't want to see their children dressing and acting like so many of our East Valley Public Schools students. They don't want Johnny to walk around with his pants around his ankles or for their daughters to look like "bar girls". They want their children to experience being a pre-teen or teenager and not as a subject on "16 and Pregnant" or some drugged-out kid on "Intervention".

  Public School teachers no longer look like teachers. They don't dress like a teacher. There is no "gender distinction". You can't tell the male from the female teacher half the time. The don't use Mr. or Miss or Mrs. or even Ms. (what ever that designates). Look at how clean-cut, and modestly dressed the Charter School teacher is and then go to your local High School and look at those teachers. Tattoes, body-piercings, beards, goatees, corn-rows and naturals the size of Angela Davis' "do" back in the 1960's. Do you see suits and dresses on Public School Teachers anymore...heck, you will be lucky to see socks and nylons at Graduation Ceremonies.

  Parents don't want their children exposed to; Peta, Global Warming, Anti-Capitalism, Pro-Illegal Alien Amnesty, Pro-Choice, Pro-La Raza or other Ethnic Movements, Anti-Military, Anti-Guns or.... Anti-Anything.

  Parents want their children to go to school and learn the subjects necessary for College or University...that's all. The only "agenda" they want their children to learn is a "Pro-American agenda". The only thing parents want the Teacher to bring into the classroom is the "teaching guide for the subject at hand".

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• soricobob posted at 5:02 am on Mon, Oct 24, 2011.

  Posts: 679

  Charter schools are the last bastion of: 1. anyone can own a school, support his family, hers friends and relatives, and propogate whatever they want; 2. get rid of those who dare be different; 3. keep the caffeine off teacher's lips; 4. hire principals who don't have clue, but who write memos with smiley faces, promote teacher ides to HR Directors, because they do what you want, and bring home leftover lunch for your family to eat; 5. tout your school as "traditional", with old fashioned values, but don't produce!

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• Cerulean posted at 9:30 pm on Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

  Posts: 1380

  TPPatriot,

  You are wrong, I am not a revanche (or revenge seeker), I do not detest any ethnicity and I AM an American Anglo (more or less). I am very happy that this administration is deporting more illegal immigrants with a criminal record than any other administration in U.S. history. However, I also do not believe that race discrimination is the cure to problems that our State faces.

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• TeaPartyPatriot posted at 4:29 pm on Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

  Posts: 207

  The most important essay written by an American during the eighteenth century, and you pick it apart in order to prove some point today? I've read what you've written Cerulean, and it's vastly clear who you represent and detest. A Mexican revanchist that hates the American Anglos.

  "the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People?"

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• Cerulean posted at 12:53 pm on Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

  Posts: 1380

  “Cerulean. You're an open border progressive socialist that hates everything White and American.”
  Would you say that if I had disagreed with Benjamin Franklin when in 1751 he said "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs any more than they can acquire our complexion?"
  

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• TeaPartyPatriot posted at 8:20 am on Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

  Posts: 207

  True, I wouldn't blame unions for the mess this nations education system is in even though they are a factor, but all the other reasons you give us, mesateacher, is a direct result of the real problem, parent participation. Parents are getting the exact education for their children that they demand. The kid's parents love the sports. They allow their children to dress like pimps and their employees. They don't discipline their children at home, so why expect anything different in the classroom? This country is heading towards intellectual 3rd world status. No problem as long as we can continue to import our engineers and scientists from Asian countries where they take education a little more serious than football. Remember to make your children study hard so they wont forget to ask if you want fries with your hamburger.

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• mesateacher posted at 6:02 am on Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

  Posts: 180

  There's no denying it: public schools are not doing what they're charged to do. Today's graduates are academically weak. They have trouble spelling common words, they can't do basic, practical math, they don't show any love of reading, they certainly don't know how to dress for success. But, contrary to what Leon says, it's not the fault of unions. In Arizona less than 30% of the teachers belong to the AEA. The real culprits are the school administrators most of whom are former coaches and jocks, not the scholars they should be. In Mesa, they spend fortunes on sports. The pressure on teachers to pass lazy, stupid students so they can play a game is rampant. Too many hiring decisions are based on "what can you coach" not on how well you know your subject. There's no demanding kids dress in a manner befitting the institution. Too many girls dress like hookers, the boys like street thugs. After well over 30 years in teaching, I gave up. The big districts show no signs of changing or doing what's best for society. So bravo to the charters who have the guts to demand students work, dress, and behave. By the way, anyone who thinks that teacher certification is so important needs to ask a teacher what they learned or what they did in college education classes. Those classes are mostly worthless, and certification means nothing.

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• samkat posted at 9:46 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 1175

  godless: You must have Leon confused with somebody else. Now, if you are such an avid charter school supporter, perhaps you would at least insist that they be held accountable and meet financial auditing standards as well as teacher certification requirements. Teaching bible school hardly qualifies as an adequate educational standard. Churches should be doing that.

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• In_God_We_Trust posted at 7:32 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 219

  We all know your gist Cerulean. You're an open border progressive socialist that hates everything White and American. What's the matter, are you afraid the socialist are going to lose their grip on the hearts and souls of America's school children? Next they'll be wanting to teach them about God and the American constitution. Oh my God not that!

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• JMJ posted at 3:18 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 302

  Arizona and Louisiana have the most charter schools in the nation, if memory serves. Aren't you a little afraid when Arizona and Lousiana are in the same sentence?

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• Cerulean posted at 1:56 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 1380

  If you are really into Fox news and Rupert Murdoch you won’t mind that Murdoch News Corps. is invested in on-line products that are used to educate children. This year Utah passed legislation that allows the school system to hire Wireless Generation ( a subsidiary of Murdoch New’s Corp.) to assess statistical info on reading skills.
  
  So, are the questions on the reading comprehension test going to read , for example: X number of people watch Fox news and they describe Fox news as the most reliable source for news in the U.S.
  a. The most reliable source for new in the U.S. is __________?
  b. Fox news is the most reliable news for ________ people in the U.S?

  I am not saying that I am a good test writer, but I hope you get the gist.

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• Leon Ceniceros posted at 12:44 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 2612

  Dump the "Huggers"....Get rid of the "Enablers"...that's what the parents of Arizona students are saying....just look at the percentages...Arizona Charter Schools now teach = 25%.....of Arizona students.

  Johnny and Jill don't need to be "loved" in School....they need to be "taught" in School and that's what these.......Charter Schools are doing.

  Just look at this article's accompaning photograph = students sitting up in their chairs with pencil in hand...writing down the lesson.
  Look at how ..."neat" and "well-groomed" these students look........then go to Mesa High School or any Mesa Grammer School, Middle School or High School at closing and what do you see....tube tops, short-shorts, flip-flops, so-called "wife-beater" tee-shirts, black gang shorts with "whiter-than-white" knee socks and boat shoes, multiple body piercings and tattooes = that's what happens when "discipline" is replaced in the classroom with "nurturing".

  Unionization ruined the Automobile Industry, the Mining Industry, the Iron, Steel and Copper Industries, the Rail Industry and the Transportation Industry.

  Don't believe me...just look across the border...lol...no not that one the border to our West. California has one of the worst "non-educating" State School Systems in the Country thanks to, yup, you guessed it......"Unionization".

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• TeaPartyPatriot posted at 12:20 pm on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 207

  It would seem that parents know a good thing when they see it. DUMP public Schools......more JUNK educational practices - which have led to the dumbing down of Arizona - and America.

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• Cerulean posted at 11:41 am on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 1380

  From the article, “When examining the percentage of public school students in charter schools, Arizona has led the nation for years.”

  Nice lead to a story that says nothing about the quality of education a child may or may not receive at a charter school.

  Most charter schools simply perform at grade level while many more public schools are highly performing or excelling at grade level. http://www.arizonaeducationnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Graph-Public-vs-charter-school-AZ-LEARNS.jpg
  It seems that parents should know your school.
  

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• Carolyn posted at 10:34 am on Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

  Posts: 247

  DUMP Charter Schools......more JUNK educational practices - which have led to the dumbing down of Arizona - and America.

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