Charter Horror Stories
The seeds that Marc Tucker sowed several decades ago in Rochester, New York, are now bearing horrible fruit. From an article in the Rochester, New York Democrat and Chronicle, posted 11/25/14, titled "Young charter school founder Ted Morris Jr. resigns," by Justin Murphy, comes the following very sad report about a local charter school disaster:
The 22-year-old founder of a recently approved charter high school resigned Tuesday after apparent misrepresentations about his educational and professional background came to light.
Ted Morris Jr. of Rochester wrote on a 2013 charter school application that he received a bachelor's degree from Western Governors University and had served as assistant CEO of a local nonprofit; both assertions, among others, turned out to be false.
An earlier article, "22-year-old gets OK to open Rochester charter school," had reported that new charters are on the rise in Rochester, New York:
When it opens next fall, Greater Works will join six other charter high schools in Rochester: Rochester Prep High School, University Prep Charter School for Young Men, Rochester Academy Charter School, Young Women's College Prep, Vertus Charter School and Rochester Career Mentoring Charter School. Some have significantly outperformed traditional public schools while others have posted less impressive results.[bold added]The fact is that charters can operate outside of local control, citizen oversight, voter accountability, and parental scrutiny. Charter horror stories like this come out in the press on a routine basis.
The Marc Tucker disaster in Rochester, New York actually began several decades ago. Carnegie Corporation Marc Tucker's Rochester, New York turkeys have come home to roost! From my book the deliberate dumbing down of america, on page 218, there is an entry titled "DR. THEODORE SIZER’S COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS (CES) WAS FOUNDED IN 1984." In it I stated:
"It is important to mention that the majority, if not all, of the major education reform projects have failed to improve students’s academic test scores. Notable examples are: Johnson City, New York—the Outcomes-Driven Development Model (ODDM) by John Champlin; William Spady’s Far West Laboratory Utah Grant, “Excellence in Instructional Delivery Systems: Research and Dissemination of Exemplary Outcomes-Based Programs”; and Marc Tucker’s National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), which moved from Washington, D.C. to Rochester, New York in 1988 to “help” that city’s much-heralded reform movement.
"The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle of March 14, 1993 in an article entitled “A City’s Dream Unfulfilled”—after five years of Tucker’s “help”—reported the following:
"Since Rochester’s schools started reform, fewer graduates have received the more stringent Regents diploma. In 1986–87, 23.1% of graduates had Regents diplomas, and 17.5% graduated with them last year [1993]."In 2014 Rochester schools are again being lead down the Carnegie Corporation's restructuring charter school garden path. These restructured schools are dedicated to providing a variety of post-graduation choices, including career paths and the military. The majority of children in the nation will be attending similar non-academic charter schools. A small percentage of children that can afford to go to elitist prep schools will get solid academics, foreign languages, and global brainwashing through International Baccalaureate, etc.... all required for their future global leadership positions.
This is what tax-funded school choice and charters with NO elected boards is all about. This is the pathway to slavery for YOUR children. This is limited learning for lifelong labor.
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