Teacher Appreciation or Charter School Week? It cannot be both

I sent the following letter to Obama this week. Feel free to copy and send it on as well:

barack.obama@whitehouse.gov
arne.duncan@ed.gov

 Dear Mr. President. I was troubled to hear that you had declared what has traditionally been Teacher Appreciation week to now be National Charter Week.

 Regardless of the original intent of charter schools, what they have become is the antithesis of public education, public school teachers, and their union. The underlying assumption of the contemporary charter school movement is that the current institution of public education is standing in the way of helping students become educated--that we need to circumvent the teachers and their unions and instead look to corporate institutions and corporate ideology for solutions. This is certainly not appreciating the work of public school teachers, but more importantly the neo-liberal approach to education reform is undoing the important unifying work of public education.

Studies show that charter schools perform no better than public schools in 85% of the cases and in fact perform worse in 1/3 of the cases. Charter schools are subject to public oversight and are beholden instead to a private board of directors whose goals and philosophies may not align with the best interests of the community. If there is no public oversight, it is not public education. If we are using public education tax dollars to support charters (which are not public education) then we relinquish our commitment to public education as a nation.

Public school teachers are right to be dismayed by your support for charter schools and other measures which insulted the integrity of our profession. I implore you to focus your attention and your support for measures which will strengthen public education, not undermine it.

 Sincerely,