Why the Grassroots Education Movement -GEMOpposes Charter Schools?
The invasion of charter schools is an issue of race. If white affluent public schools have low teacher-to-student ratios and access to top notch academic building and programs, why is a lottery system the only meansby which urban minority students can access these equitable conditions? A lottery system of winners andlosers, is abandoning the conversation that ALL students, regardless of race and socio-economic backgrounddeserve the greatest of educational opportunities.Charter schools, like those in Harlem, vastly under-serve English Language Learners and SpecialEducation Students. Due to the self selection process of lottery systems, not only are Charter schools creamingoff the top of various student sub-groups, their lack of programs for Special Education and ELL students
dissuade those parents from seeking their children’s enrollment.
Charter schools are a political and corporate tool used by those favoring privatization to access the 800billion dollars spent yearly in public education. If public education goes the way of the current health caremodel, a vast number of students will get education on the cheap. Profit not education, and shortcuts notsupport, will be the guiding principle. The funding gap and resource gap will become ever more stark than it isnow.The current limited success of a few charter schools bedazzled by huge corporate sponsored budgetscannot be replicated on a system wide basis. For example, the budget of Harlem Promise Schools requires ayearly 36 million in private funding alone. If Harlem Promise Schools have shown anything, it is that loweringclass size, providing the best supportingservices and resources, should be thegoal for every student in the inner city
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not just those that win a lottery. We areabandoning the goals of publiceducation, although never fully realized,have made significant gains sinceBrown vs. the Board of Education.Charter schools are in essencelegitimizing the two tiered system of education of the lucky versus the leftbehind.Furthermore, charter schoolsopen the door for skirting a fine linebetween church and state. In the recentcontroversy regarding the conversion of several private Catholic schools intocharter schools, we may question whatlines are being blurred in the use of public funds to support the furthersegregation based on religious ideologyin the guise of charter schools.
Feb. 6, 2006 - Brooklyn Community
of PS/IS 72 protests school’s closing. (GEM photo)
The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) to Defend Public Education
is a newly formed coalition of NYC groups.We seek to educate, mobilize and organize educators, parents, students and our communities against the corporate andgovernment policies which serve to underfund, undermine and privatize our public school system. GEM advocates, bothwithin and outside the UFT, around issues dealing with the equality & quality of public educational services as well as therights of school workers.
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