Though I greatly enjoy the humor and intellect of John Bos, I differ strongly with him on the benefits of the new system of publicly funded schools set apart from the general student population. To me, this seems like the creation of a new and insidious form of separate but equal. And when I see that corporations are getting involved in managing charter schools, and that the Koch brothers and the Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) are proponents of this separate schooling, I worry something rather insidious is creeping into the long-held American idea of shared community values.
All parents want the best for their kids, and good schools and the opportunities found there are what creates thriving communities and shared values. Rather than working to improve what’s not working in our public schools, the idea of special opportunities in separate places seems to be gaining ground. And scarce tax dollars. Stories of the relative few children from impoverished urban and rural communities that manage to gain a slot in these de facto elite schools are used as advertising to draw on further public resources for supposed desk slots that will never materialize for the many. This new libertarian idea of pick-and-choose what you want, will pay for and demand, does little to nurture a shared sense that we’re all in this together. Attending school with the whole spectrum of your peers is what does that.
Further, I see little value in attacking hardworking teachers or the community values they continue to struggle for. And if MTA President Barbara Madeloni ran for office, I’d vote for her in a heartbeat. She is on the side of working folks and families and appears to have the best interests of students at her core. Separate but equal only creates community divisions anew.
Karl Meyer
Greenfield