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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > October > 06 > Entry
Issacs: Bad charters harm all schools
Yvonne Isaacs
Dayton school board President Yvonne Isaacs told a meeting of education reporters from across the country Saturday that an education crisis in Dayton at the advent of charter schools helped prompt major reforms, but charter schools in some ways harm the district’s ability to educate kids.
Isaacs spoke at a seminar examining the impact of school choice sponsored by the Education Writers Association in Milwaukee on a panel with David Harris, the former charter school director for the mayor of Indianapolis and Greg Richmond of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
With about 30 percent of schoolchildren attending more than 30 charter schools, Dayton is second behind only New Orleans for the size of its charter school movement. Over the nine years of charter schools in Dayton, Isaacs said, the district has lost $283 million that was transferred to charter schools, which she said have overall scored lower than traditional public schools.
“”It would not have cost us nearly that much to educate 6,000 students, we believe,” she said.
Harris and Richmond argued that charter schools have been a good education reform.
“Overall, I think charter schools have had a very positive impact on the education landscape in Indianapolis generally and also on the school districts,” Harris said. “We have empowered quality people to create quality new options.”
Isaacs described the election of the Kids First team to the school board in 2002 and the reform it launched — replacing the superintendent, shifting spending toward the classroom and creating new choice options within the district.
“Choice in education can be good, but quality education choices for children must also be good for kids to become successful adults,” she said.
Bad charter schools have harmed all schools, she said.
“The underperformers have diluted resources for all public schools,” she said. “They robbed thousands of students of the education they deserved.”
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Comments
By newbie
October 8, 2007 11:59 PM | Link to this
Newbie has probably said enough about the racism issue. I think the heart of DPS’S failure to commit resources and lack of will to succeed in its mission is selfishness and lack of responsibility toward a greater good than one’s own comfort. People who had power, who cared, abdicated their power and those who saw an opportunity for personal power and gain took over. I agree with Old Prof that the state needs to fix its financing of education. I’m embarrassed when the lottery commercials use the “help fund our public schools” as a pitiful excuse for gamers to justify buying that ticket. (And I’m not against gambling per se.) Part of having a great nation is having a smart, strong populace. We should budget for education out of general funds - rather than depending on the kindness of gamblers. I’ve been watching the Ken Burn’s “War” documentary and it is evident that our citizenry is weak in comparison to our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. The lack of resolve to confront our problems and to do what we must do to solve them worries me. DPS is an example of something that everyone knows is broken, but we cannot find the will to fix. The consequences of having generations of uneducated Daytonians will not be easier to deal with than the issue of DPS’s healing.By Rick
October 8, 2007 10:57 AM | Link to this
Newbie, how do you gauge the reverse racism today? Is it worse? better? the same?By Concerned Mom of 3
October 7, 2007 11:52 PM | Link to this
The School Board should embrace and support the programs that are working… It seems like the district gets a good program going, then decides to shut it down (DECA) or they decide to make cuts that will eventually cause the demise of the quality program. Here is a perfect example… Dayton has a gem of a school in Stivers School for the Arts. But they have recently made tremendous cuts to the elementary art and music programs. Now, lets think about this… What do you think is going to happen to the quality of students auditioning for Stivers??? Guess what… the students won’t have the skills needed in order to carry on the very successful program that is in place now. The board has pretty much shot themselves in the foot on this one. Dayton needs someone on the School Board and Administration team who can develop a vision and a long range plan instead of always reacting to the most recent crisis. I have said it before and will say it again… There are some wonderful opportunities for a high quality education in Dayton- All the parents and students have to do is seek it out. Visit the schools to find out which ones have the quality programs. (Observe the lunchroom- it is very telling about the overall school environment.) The biggest problem Dayton Public Schools face is that they are working with families that don’t have parenting skills- and on top of that, the parents don’t value education. It is very difficult to work with students whose families don’t do their part of instilling morals and values. There need to be more alternative programs for the students who habitually disrupt the classroom environment. Having said all that- it is very frustrating to watch the School Board make poor decisions that ultimately ruin the good parts of the district.By Laura
October 7, 2007 8:16 PM | Link to this
Newbie: Well, I am from the area and can’t tell you a time when it wasn’t at the very least, a joke. When I was doing my student teaching in Dayton in the late 70’s, the professors at WSU mostly sent us to see what NOT to do, and where not to teach. We were told, if you can find a job anywhere else, don’t go to Dayton. Well, no one else was hiring, so I came to Dayton. It didn’t have the discipline problems we have now, but the seeds were planted. There was a lot of racism on both sides. The white, Appalachian parents were downright scary. Within a few years, the reverse racism started against the teachers and was rampant. If you have only been here 10 years, I think it is actually better than it was 15-20 years ago. I think teachers of all races get along better now in my experience. In the late 70’s the academic decline was just starting. Most of my students would be on or near grade level with a few below and a few above. As the years have passed, the level of ability has dropped and dropped. The discipline problems and lowered academic performance have continued to increase in direct proportion to the decline in population. What does that indicate? I, and many of my coworkers, have come to the conclusion that the flight from the city took many of the better behaved and academically motivated. I am still seeing the same situation. Just recently a parent told me that the situation in Dayton was getting so bad that she was making plans to move to a nearby suburban school district.By School Supporter
October 7, 2007 5:42 PM | Link to this
newbie asks, “what happened to bring it to such a sorry state?” Being just south of the intersection of National Road and Dixie Highway actually explains much of the story. Factories attracted jobseekers, who grouped in ethnic communitites, such at the Hungarians, Lithuanians, and Poles in old north Dayton. Add to that Dayton’s rivers form natural boundaries, and west Dayton became increasingly Black (or decreasingly White.) Dunbar High School was designated for Black students in the 30’s (in the late 1800’s, Dunbar himself attended high school with (Orville?) Wright.) The 1913 flood might be a factor here (higher ground became more desirable), but the big influence was federal housing policy, which saw integration as a risk to mortgages. Also, the suburbs expanded after WWII, draining civic capacity from Dayton proper. Then the Feds “helped” by “encouraging” people who hate each other to send their kids to each other’s schools. The whole mess probably has its roots in the failure of reconstruction following the Civil War; but certainly the rise of the Klan in the 20’s is more directly a contributor. I can’t speak to your allegations of administrative incompetence other than to observe that the leadership development most available to Blacks is through the military, and school districts seem reluctant to tap that source.By Rick
October 7, 2007 1:19 PM | Link to this
I would like to point out, once again, that when a child leaves the public school for a charter, only the state funding follows the child. The amount raised by local property tax stays with the district. Thus, there is more money per student left in the public school district.By newbie
October 7, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
I started teaching at DPS about 10 years ago. The district was top heavy with reverse racism, incompetence and greed even then (during the Williams supt. years). I would like someone to fill me in on when the district turned from being a decent place to send your kid, at least in some of the schools, to a place where chaos reins supreme. Not being from Ohio until lately, I’m not aware if there was a time when DPS was ok. And what happened to bring it to such a sorry state.By Education Supporter
October 6, 2007 11:20 PM | Link to this
I would like to point out, just in case the Dayton School Board has forgotten, Dayton Public Schools were in trouble long before the birth of charter schools. Perhaps they should find a new scapegoat.