Envisioning the Urban School System of the Future

So, this is the future. A future which is not linear, but a circle back to the past.

With all the heavy-handed Wall St./hedge fund/Gates/Walmart/Broad money, how do the relative pipsqueak unions compete for public support? The unions are outspent and outflanked. The "choice" argument will win out, while suburban parents are free from choice as they get some say in determining what kind of schools their kids go to.

Another funded anti-public ed film is coming this fall.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/waitingforsuperman/

When a trailer opens up with Michelle Rhee, you know what's coming.

The onslaught continues. With the teacher unions fighting a rearguard action and not confronting things head on, there are few forces to counter the propaganda.

What we are faced with is nationwide chains of charter schools with a cinder of a public school system left.

It will take a generation - at least - for the reality of what has been done to have an impact.
When there are no teacher unions left for them to blame. When they find that no matter how much they churn the teachers they will always have teachers who are not supermen and women. When student performance will be stagnant. When parents begin to see "choice" as bogus as their "choice" is limited to a few massive charter chains.

And we will have to start all over again in trying to rebuild a public education system with a semblance of public oversight.

Here is a picture of the urban school landscape of the future:

A few big charter chains, all increasingly controlled from national headquarters, thus totally removing local control of schools in any manner servicing Black and Latino/a students who will be trained in the testing culture to prepare them for jobs in the employ of the largest job creators in the nation - Walmart and McDonalds.

You see, what the parents of the "scholars" who charter schools are telling will all go to college are not being told is that only a quarter of future jobs are for college grads. They are also not assuring them of funding for their scholars to go to college.

Suburban white kids and parents have a totally different experience, actually preparing them for the college level jobs by offering a broader educational experience not grounded in test prep.

For example, KIPP will have a nationwide chain of charters where policy will be controlled from headquarters.

So will Harlem Success with their own policies.

Multiply this by all the competing chains. Imagine a neighborhood where parents will have a choice - of the different charter schools which will use the lottery to limit who gets in. Look for special education focused charters which will take the onus off these schools having to accept the most difficult students.

Small, independent charter schools will be gobbled up as the big chains compete for their teachers and students and funding sources. (One small scale Harlem charter school operator at the Perkins hearings was even lamenting the fact that he had to compete with the Harlem Success juggernaut.)

Of course there will be some public schools left to take the unwanted. Remember the old "600" schools that used to exist?

Remember the days when there was no union and teachers earned paltry salaries while having no rights?

We will be back to the beginning.

Add-on: Many charter school people don't think much of Eva
I was hanging out with a friend who left a public school to teach in a charter. We agree on so many things and I will explore these areas of agreement in the future. We could start with, "I would never work in a school controlled by Eva Moskowitz."