Times Editorial Hypes Charter Schools

In the editorial, the Times argues “The Best Charter Schools Deserve More Leeway on Hiring,” and endorsed a decision by the State University of New York Board of Trustees to allow “high-performing” charters, a loosely defined category, to hire uncertified, untrained people as classroom teachers. The charter networks and their supporters claim they need to do this because they can’t find enough qualified teachers to fill available slots. But the real reason charter networks can’t fill positions is because of high teacher turnover. I know that, because I read it in the New York Times. Charter networks treat teachers as interchangeable parts that can be plugged into classrooms where they follow scripts and can be repeatedly replaced by other untrained personnel. However serious academic research conducted in New York City, and cited in the New York Times, show that the education of children suffers from high teacher turnover, especially in English and math. Over a fifteen-month period from December 2014 to March 2016, New York City’s highly touted Success Academy Charter School Network the teacher attrition rate may have approached 30 percent.

Article source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/times-editorial-hypes-charter-schools_us_5a043a3ce4b0c7511e1b3a27?utm_hp_ref=new-york-city