There is a huge movement happening now in Newark to make all public schools charter schools. To many this seems like a no brainer since Newark schools (as well as other American inner-city public school districts) are being portrayed as complete failures. When we read about inner-city public school districts we are immediately greeted with scenes of broken down buildings, inept teachers, corruption, or all of the above. The film Waiting For Superman made it seem like the whole American public school system was a joke.
What films like Superman or articles and stories never seem to speak about is poverty. In many of our inner cities kids are coming to school as victims of significant to severe poverty - but no one ever wants to talk about that. At one point in our nation's history (the 1950's) Weequahic High School in Newark produced the most PHD's in the United States. Now the powers that be want to shut it down and turn it into a charter school. The mentality seems to be that if you get away from a public school model, instant success as well as prosperity will follow. Again I ask: What about poverty?
No one seems to be talking about the fact that many children living in Newark (and other American cities) come to school every day living in significant to severe poverty. This has a massive effect on the way a child learns regardless of the school model.
We have viable schools in place funded by public money. Instead of bringing in charter schools (many of which are funded by outside and/or corporate sources) why don't we focus on improving communities? How are we going to address those problems?
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