Seriously, Folks: School Voucher Proponents Need to Get Real
“ I’d start by walking into a school and ask do you teach children? If the answer is no, then you are fired. ”
Ok – so you’d be firing security guards, secretarial/administrative staff, lunch ladies, non-teaching assistants, cleaning staff . . .
and what do you think happens next?
Philly got a small taste of that when Edison took over a bunch of schools and decided to cut costs by firing some non-teaching assistants (NTAs), secretaries, and other support staff. Paperwork started piling up, but more importantly, the schools erupted in chaos:
“By mid-September, the incident at Barratt was a familiar story at Edison-run schools. Some of the education management organization’s other schools seemed to be faring even worse. At Tilden Middle School, a teacher tried to break up a fight and a student jumped on her leg, breaking it. At Gillespie Middle School, food fights and fistfights broke out daily. A computer was thrown out a window. A security officer was assaulted by a student. Two teachers quit. At Stetson Middle School, a student threatened a pregnant teacher, and the school nurse complained that she had seen between 40 and 50 injuries sustained at school as a result of student violence. At Waring Elementary, a student threatened to punch a teacher and stab a classmate with scissors. After a brawl erupted at Shaw Middle School, five students were arrested and two were suspended.
. . .Pre-Edison, one of Penn Treaty’s secretaries would monitor the security cameras. If a food fight broke out, for example, an immediate shutdown of the lunchroom would be effected. Now with only one secretary, it has become difficult to keep an eye on the camera at all times. Young also points out that one NTA used to be in charge of manning the accommodation room, where disruptive and suspended students would be sent. Lately, the teachers have had to rotate accommodation room duties, and in some cases, violent kids have been sent back into classrooms.”
Morale plummeted, teachers started leaving, etc. What a surprise. Now, there are reporting and adjustment issues and all (as the article explains), but they also point out that other schools given to EMOs which *didn’t* dump lots of support staff didn’t show these problems.
