Gotham Links to Bogus Charter School Wait List Reports

An appropriate analogy might be if Harvard began referring to the 32,994 students it didn’t admit this year as a “waiting list,” then added that number to the 32,270 it didn’t admit last year, giving it a “waiting list” of 65,264, or a fiercely urgent case for lifting the Crimson Cap.

I propose that any charter that currently has fewer students enrolled than it has capacity to educate welcome some of the students on the waiting list effective tomorrow. Presto! The list just got smaller. See how easy that was?

-- EduShyster, The Waiting List for Superman?

Ooops! There goes those low numbers at KIPP as Gary Rubinstein has been reporting. Anyone for joining EduShyster in ending the charter attrition game?

The April 9 Gotham Schools Rise and Shine had this link to a NY Post report:

The Success Academy network of charter schools says more than 12,000 families applied. (Post)

Will Gotham Start Linking to National Enquirer?

Hey, I have an idea. Why not pull Geoff Decker off the Leonie Haimson beat so he can check out the truth of these claims?

I left this comment:

Why not report Success has a 12 million waiting list? Link to ANY Post article no matter how biased or untrue?

Here is the kind of reporting from EduShyster one might do vs chasing after Leonie Haimson:

The waiting list to enter academies of excellence and innovation in Massachusetts has now grown so long that policy makers have no choice but to respond to the growing waiting list by making policy that reflects the extraordinary length of the waiting list. Except that some actual reporting this week by the Boston Globe revealed that the waiting list is more fiction than fact. The story follows on the heels of this devastating expose in Chicago in which a reporter dismantles claims of a 19,000 charter wait list in Chicago, the length of which is now being used to justify charter expansion even as public schools are closed in that city. EduShyster looks at the list that wasn't and offers some excellent tipsfor reducing the wait time for students who are actually on it. Read more. http://edushyster.com/?p=2340

EduShyster is one of the astute and funniest bloggers around.

Her post credits @TonyBontheMIC for providing her with the title to this post. Check out his musings on the same topic here.