Wes Pruden suggests we all take a break from the minute-by-minute analysis of the Iowa caucuses and examine an issue (that among several others of huge significance) is yet being ignored by mainstream media; namely, the phenomena of charter schools....Then we can talk about, for one example, what to do about the abysmal standards of public education nearly everywhere. In many cities, the public schools, redoubts of violence and ignorance, have been reduced to places merely to be shunned. The educationist establishment, together with the teachers' unions, have done them in, perhaps beyond repair. Parents are taking things into their own hands in certain places.
One of those places is Los Angeles, where 128 charter schools enroll 47,000 students (or at least kids aspiring to studenthood), 7 percent of the enrollment of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Twenty-six new schools were organized only this year. These range from elementary schools to high schools teaching advanced math and physics. Charter schools didn't start here — Minnesota enacted the first charter-school legislation 16 years ago. California, accustomed to being the leader in nearly everything, followed this time, but today, California has more charter schools than any other state.
The educationists — administrators and teachers who you might think would aspire to be educators but eagerly settle for the security of pretense — hate them. The very existence of the charter schools are a rebuke to the public schools...
The rest of the article is in the Washington Times right here.
