They say it like it’s a bad thing.
If a proposal for a massive expansion of charter schools in Los Angeles moves forward, the casualties would likely include the jobs of thousands of teachers who currently work in the city’s traditional public schools.
As new charters open, regular schools would face declining enrollment — and would need fewer teachers.
Under the $490-million plan being spearheaded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, 260 new charters would be opened in the city in eight years. The goal is to more than double the number of students attending these schools, which are independently run and mostly non-union.
Somewhere along the way, sainthood was conferred upon America’s school teachers, and stories were told about all they sacrifice for the children. In reality, union teachers only care about union teachers. That’s why their labor representatives vehemently lobby (the “poor” teachers have millions in lobbying money) against anything that might actually improve education, like charter schools or vouchers.
The reason that so many public schools would face declining enrollment is that they offer an inferior product, plain and simple. The public school districts that still offer quality education aren’t worried about kids fleeing to charter schools, only perennial dropout pits like LAUSD have such concerns.
This is one issue where Republicans could be doing some organic outreach to non-traditional voting constituencies without pandering, but they seem to have let it fall by the wayside in recent years.
There’s probably not enough time to get around to it once all of the complaining about Ted Cruz is over.
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