On October 12, Public Schools First NC and Great Schools In Wake are hosting an event, Impact of Privatizing Public Schools: A Crisis in the Making. Here is the description of the event:
To celebrate 10 years of advocacy for public schools, we invite you join us in this work by attending a half-day conference to explore the impact of privatization on our public schools. How have various education policies and programs contributed to the increased segregation of our public schools by race and income? What is contributing to the growth in the number of high-poverty schools? Join us for this critical community conversation!
They could choose to spend a few hours celebrating public schools or their advocacy work. Instead, these groups plan to complain about “various education policies and programs.” I suspect that charter schools will receive most of their attention.
This speaks to a problem within the district school advocacy community. Rather than championing district schools, advocacy groups spend much of their time demonizing their charter, private, and home school competition. In fast food terms, they should focus on selling the Big Mac, rather than complaining that Burger King has onion rings. (I’m hungry.)