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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > April > 24 > Entry
What’s that mushroom cloud over Dayton?
The best line of the day at the Hechinger Institute’s seminar for education reporters on covering teacher contract negotiations today came from Sue Taylor, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
When the issue of urban enrollment declines came up, Taylor cautioned the group that Ohio’s numbers reflect more than just out-migration from people moving out of the Midwest. City school districts are also getting smaller becuase charter schools have grabbed a chunk of their students.
In Taylor’s view, this is not a good thing.
“You have to remember that Ohio is the Chernobyl of charter schools,” she said, referencing the Russian nuclear power plant explosion and its destructive fallout in 1986.
Taylor said she describes Ohio charters that way because “the vast majority are miserable failures” when it comes to academic performance.
Of course, Dayton is not just the biggest charter school city in Ohio, it’s tops in the nation after New Orleans (which has largely been remade as primarily a charter school district following Hurricane Katrina.)
So I guess, following Taylor’s analogy, we’ve been educationally vaporized. Something tells me there are a few people in Dayton that would disagree.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Comments
By J
April 30, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
Thank you RICK! You nailed it on the head. It’s time for everyone to step back and realize that yes, even though ALL schools are not doing as much as they could be to educate today’s children, let’s start at the real root of the problem - the parents! I am so tired of everyone blaming teachers for declining schools and graduation rates. Come on people! Wake up! I have read studies that say that anywhere between 70 and 90% of a child’s time between the ages of birth and 18 is spent OUTSIDE the classroom! If parents are not on top of their children teaching them basic life skills, teachers have no chance of teaching them algebra! Parents need to step up and realize that THEY are the reason their children are not functioning as they should be. Young unwed mothers, no father-figures in kids lives, grandparents raising kids because mom AND dad are nowhere to be found, dirty clothing, no breakfast before coming to school… we have lost at least one generation of kids already because there are NO consequences to the inactions of parents. Let’s come up with a plan to fix the problems at their source - in the homes! You can’t teach a kid how to use a dictionary if they can’t even spell their own names. You can’t teach a kid to add and subtract if they don’t know their numbers. You can’t fix the problems in the learning environment if the parents don’t take an active role in raising their own children.
By Rick
April 26, 2008 11:17 AM | Link to this
Dayton was losing students long before charter schools existed. Yes, we have let our children down, especially the PARENTS. They have children out of wedlock, don’t take an interest in their children’s education, demonstrate bad habits such as drugs booze, playing the lottery, etc. Charter schools are not total failures. Competition in education is here to stay. Let’s try to improve our public schools so they can thrive in a competitive environment.
By Mary
April 25, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this
Seems to me that both “old prof” and Sue Taylor could focus more on remedies within that do not cost money and quit blaming all their problems on charter schools and choice. Improve traditional public schools without blaming it on a shortage of money. Be willing to set and focus on priorities, and work with local boards to prioritize what education and public schools really need to be doing. Public schools now have some competition. Get over it and provide improved services for the students you still have and show your value to the public. That is what any other entity has to do if it wants to survive. Public schools have helped create a culture that does not value education.
By chrterschoolhater
April 25, 2008 12:01 PM | Link to this
Oldprof and I agree on one thing. That is, Charter Schools have been a failure in Dayton. It is time to close them all. The problem is, that as big a failure charter schools are, Dayton Public Schools are a bigger one. I have said it before. This district decided to focus on am ambitious building plan to skew the really losey job they have and continue to do educating our children. Dr. Mack and the majority of the board of ed just do not get it. It is time we had a frank discussion about where we are going to to reform the failures that have been wrought upon the future of Dayton, it’s children. Too bad that won’t happen. We just want to focus on construction. We as a community have really let down our children. They will pay for our failures for many generations to come.
By Oldprof
April 25, 2008 7:39 AM | Link to this
Well of COURSE some are going to disagree that charter schools have almost entirely failed to deliver any of the benefits that John Husted and his white-hatted double-F cronies said they would. Ignoring the evidence comes easy to some politicians and activists.