Rant

Okay, my Mom just wrote to me about this:

"I went to a forum which my church holds at noon once a month. Mr. Gilligan, who was an Ohio governor and has been more recently held a position on the Ohio State Board of Education, spoke on the status of education in Ohio and in particular in Cincinnati. Evidently the Ohio Supreme Court has voted 4 times that it is illegal to fund education in Ohio from the real estate taxes but the legislature has not voted to do anything about it. Gilligan is really against Charter Schools as they are not regulated and only recently have been told they must meet certain standards. One third of the 800 charter schools either have or soon will be put out of business. Also, without having to prove how they are spending the money, they are taking funding away from the public schools. It was a very interesting hour and a half forum. Gilligan has got to be in his 80s but only recently, after serving on the Ohio State Board of Ed, for 8 years, is going to step down."

I feel like I need to educate the public on exactly how wrong this man is because politicians are spreading lies just so the Dept. of Education can keep all of YOUR tax dollars!!! First, a CHARTER school is a school which has met certain standards in order to operate within a district and thereby is eligible to receive tax dollars PER THEIR OWN STUDENTS from the district in which that student lives. And only A PORTION of the tax dollars are put aside for that student. The district is still getting paid a portion of the tax dollars to educate a student WHO IS NOT THERE! Why do we NEED Charter schools?? Just take a look inside a classroom. There are many kinds of students with many different kinds of learning styles and needs. As much as I revere teachers, I have not known anyone to be able to meet all of those different needs at once and they would be the first to tell you that themselves. Especially with the state standards and No Child Left Behind (which isn't working). Charter schools provide all kinds of alternatives for those children, whether gifted, behind or atypical. Many cyber (online) homeschools have been started during the past 8 years or so. They have been evolving as this is completely new for our country. They absolutely DO have standards to follow...state standards if they receive public funding. Students are required to do the same annual tests that public students take. The schools do have to show that they are teaching the children! Otherwise the students would be declared TRUANT which is against the law. This is even more difficult for these schools because they do attract students of all different abilities...the "norm" is much different sometimes and test results can suffer from that. If the Charter school is not doing it's job or is not successful at organization, it will close. It does happen which is good. Public schools which are not successful, still stay open. Hmmmm. There are Charter Schools in Cincinnati that have been there longer than some of you have been alive! I taught at two of them! And they are still there. They are part of the Cincinnati Public School System -- so this Mr. Gilligan, who by the way is NOT a teacher and probably sent his children to a private school, which is even more "UNregulated" than Charter schools, does not know what he speaks about!!

Now YOU are an informed person! YOU should be able to choose where your child attends school for THEIR own success... not some politician who is just a mouthpiece for one of the largest lobbying unions in the United States!!! Go and be wise!!!!