Tag: charter schools

Senate Bill 619 is the next major piece in the fight to save Michigan kids who are currently trapped in failing schools.  The bill lifts the cap on what are commonly called "cyber charter schools," or virtual education.  Right now in Michigan, the policy makers in their infinite wisdom have created an arbitrary cap on these virtual schools.  Two.  Statewide.

That's created an incredible bottleneck with as many as 5,000 parents and their children turned away and forced to rely on waiting lists for seats that by law rarely become available.

We could go on all day about the importance of lifting the cap, but who better to explain the desperate situation facing Michigan kids than Michigan parents?  What follows is an interview we conducted this week with Brian and Heidi Kevelin, just two of the thousands of Michigan parents looking for options for their kids.

Interview below the break...

No Dan, you cannot give these guys any rope.  You don't dare arm them with moral support, or self flagellating on behalf of the Republicans who you say are stepping over the line.

They just take it and run with it.

This release just came out:

MAPSA Expresses Outrage After Anti-School-Choice Group Links Charter Schools to the Ku Klux Klan

LANSING, Michigan (January 3, 2012) - The Michigan Association of Public School Academies expressed outrage today after an anti-school-choice group in Michigan used its Facebook page to link charter schools to the Ku Klux Klan.

Michigan Parents for Schools, an Ann Arbor-based group headed by Executive Director Steven Norton, put a link on its Facebook page on Sunday to an article from the Knights of the KKK's official Web page. The KKK article carried the headline "Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate But Equal Era in U.S.," and tried to advance the discredited claim that charter schools promote segregation. The Michigan group's Facebook page also carried a retweet that said "KKK supports charters b/c they further segregation."

Of course the threat to the power held by school unions would drive an attempt to keep the shackles on the ankles of our youth.  The minions of those who parasitically extract our taxpayer dollars are hard at work attempting to stop profit in the charter schools.  State Senators Rebekah Warren, and Hoon-Yung Hopgood say Michigan charters make too much and wish to institute a constitutional ban on for profit schools:

"The ban would only affect K-12 schools, such as charters, that receive money from the state School Aid fund. Already in Michigan, four out of five charter schools are operated by private, for-profit education management organizations, according to the senators.

"It's not a ban on charter schools, and it's not a cap on charter schools," Warren said when announcing the proposal this morning in Lansing. "In these tight times, all those dollars should be going to the classroom."

What these synaptic powerhouses are saying, is that private enterprise could operate at half the cost of a public facility, and still be charging too much if there is a profit.  The evil is not in the cost but who might benefit.

From the Progressive Bible - Jen GR 11:05 verse 2

Costs LESS, with better results, but profit made by private enterprise equals BAD.
Cost MORE with Mediocre to poor results, but government run equals GOOD.

This is the underlying message you will hear quite often from those who are a part of, or advocate charter schools.  The message simply stating that more choice means that more parents and children will have more options, and the opportunity to fully engage in the learning process. It means they will be better prepared, and have the best chance to succeed ultimately.

The public schools as mandated currently, are a trap.  With a singular model (for the most part) that relies on the MEA and the NEA and union literature to determine educational materials, and streamline a single path of learning that robs children of their chances to succeed.

And it doesn't have to be that way.

As it was related to me by an operator of a school up here, the teachers in some of the charter schools are actually re-trained from the public school model, and provisioned with the ability to identify particular learning traits in the children.  Some kids respond to different types of education styles both positively and negatively.  As there is no doubt we all have different things that inspire us, it should be no surprise that learning can be enhanced by discovering that which holds the students attention longer.  New Options equal New Opportunities.

For Michigan, there is hope with SB618. It is a bill which allows the creation and operation of new charter schools, and opens the doors to new cyber school possibilities.  It creates new options for both private and public education interests.

Its a chance to move the bar upward, and offer the benefits of competitive advantage to our kids.

Found at the Mackinac center.

The whole cap is off thing happening with charter schools would be the greatest way to give the students some options and parents a choice in how well the kids are educated.

Beckmann started the segment talking about the good news in the Governor's address on charter schools.  He introduced Quisenberry as "the man who has overseen charter schools in Michigan as a whole" and they talked a bit about Governor Snyder's speech.

(Click on Dan's image to the right or on the link above to hear the podcast)

Snyder is reinventing the schools, and how they spend.  And though I am not always on top of it here, it is a big deal.  His efforts have included mandates on bidding out high cost non teacher functions, and otherwise allowing unlimited competition from private and charter schools.  The bid out process essentially providing cover for school systems that need the political cover when dealing with an unforgiving union element. The charter schools element bringing the competition back into play.

Giving credit where it is due.

A K-12 school aid budget recently passed by the Michigan Senate would use the savings from this plan to maintain the current year's per-pupil funding for Michigan's school districts. But without pension reform, the Senate funding plan would require a $118 per student cut for fiscal 2011.

The stall however is in the Republican controlled senate, where an unholy alliance of certain republicans and the MEA has logjammed any forward progress.