On charter Schools (by Peter Brown)

Why is the charter school trend bad for education?  Aren't charter schools just independent people trying out adventurous new ideas to educate their children?

Many charter schools began as innovative, small-scale, locally based attempts to offer better education.  A very few still are.  However, the charter movement has been mostly taken over by a few large charter corporations (Green Dot, Aspire, etc.) that make a profit by turning education into something that can be invested in at a profit.

The charter movement as a whole has been used as a wedge to split communities away from the ideals of public education and turn ordinary people against public schools and public school teachers.

Our public schools have never been perfect, but they did actually function before corporate forces began campaigns such as Proposition 13 (1978). These were engineered to de-fund the public schools, and to manipulate us against everything public, including education. 

For more information, see:
Tough Choices or Tough Times

Death & Life of Great American School System by Dianne Ravitch