Gregory Kane, columnist for the Washington Examiner, ends his most recent column this way:
When will critics of charter schools just be honest and admit that they just don’t want them to work?
Exactly. No one expects every charter to work. Some will fail, while many, like Chicago’s Urban Prep, will be wildly successful. The failure of many, but not all, of our urban public schools suggests we need to find alternative ways to educate children. Charter schools provide those alternatives.
Most who oppose charters do so not out of any concern for the children, but for the employees. For the most part, they are union supporters. Otherwise, charter opponents would be just as critical of the failing public schools.
The implication is that because charter schools don’t work, then we shouldn’t have them. What the charter school bashers don’t realize is that if this logic applies to charter schools, then it applies to failing public schools that aren’t charter schools as well. They clearly aren’t working; that’s why proponents of charter schools support charter schools in the first place.
Protecting the status quo means hoping charters will fail.
