Hey, it is to be expected that the forces of the status quo would lie and misrepresent what popping the charter school cap means for public schools in North Carolina. But school board chairmen and TV news reporters should be above that.
Yet here we have Mecklenburg County school board chief Eric Davis and WBTV’s Dedrick Russell clearly dissembling on the topic.
First Russell botches the very definition of charter schools: “The bill would entitle NC Charter schools, which are unregulated public schools, to more of the money provided to public schools from the state.”
Unregulated public schools? Dedrick, I know DPI is incompetent, but that is complete nonsense. Worse, it sounds like it came straight from the lips of some CMS lobbyist or PR flack — you know, the folks we continue to pay as we nix middle school sports and fire teachers.
All together now, a charter school which fails to adhere the requirements set out in its charter will lose its charter. Sounds pretty damn regulated to me.
Now as to money, Davis jumped on the specifics of the language of an older version of the bill. Opponents of charters seized on the sloppiness of the original language which — in theory — would have given charters a chunk of all funds in a school district’s current expense fund. This confusion triggered the standard suburban opposition to charters — monies for high-dollar public schools would get sucked out for parts unknown — including private dollars raised by parents. Oh, scary.
Except that the bill’s sponsors moved today to right that unintended mishap and make clear that districts would not have to count privately-raised funds as part of the total that students would be entitled to should they opt for a charter school. Still Davis’ eager leap to claim that “some private campaign to save middle school sports, then a portion of those funds would have to go to charter schools” is very illuminating.
For one, it suggests that CMS really expects private groups to route middle sports money to the Ed Shed and not keep the funds at the schools. We told you this would be CMS’ stance and that any bid to save middle school sports may well flounder because of it. For another, recall those odd CMS spreadsheets on per pupil spending by school that — for some reason — kept counting privately raised funds and club monies as CMS spending on schools.
Now we see why. CMS and the education status quo intend to confuse matters, baffle the public, and job charters for as long as possible on the vital matter per pupil spending. That is beyond sad. And to have a veteran TV reporter willingly — or witlessly — providing cover is a farce.
