Five Ways to Tell Whether the Charter School Near You Sucks

There are some excellent charter schools in NY and around the nation. I am not attacking them. However, all too many charter schools have the following characteristics

1. Over paid "CEO's" who take pride in their dictatorial management style.
2. Terrorized teacher temps who have no union protection 
3. Student disciplinary policies which draw heavily upon shame and humiliation
4, Systematic weeding out of students who test poorly, especially ELL and Special Needs students.
5. Politically connected boards of directors who tolerate fiscal abuse, and in some cases benefit from it directly.

Poor and working class communities throughout the nation have been deluged with these schools in the last ten years, in part because favoritism towards them has been national policy under the Obama Administration, with the enthusiastic support of Republican elected officials. 

The results in terms of test scores, college entrance, or any other so called objective measure, do not justify the investment, much less the collateral damage that charter school favoritism has brought with it.