Tag Archives: Charter Schools

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Ballot Question 2 – What would “Ma” do?

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Yesterday: Rosalie and her smudged mirror

By Rosalie Tirella

What would “Ma” do?

That’s what I ask myself every time my “libby” (liberal) self is on the cusp of carrying away my more staid, practical, inner-city Green Island Grrrl self. My late Mom was way smarter than I am and more sensitive to others; she had an open heart and open mind at all times. But she was no push over. She knew how hard life could be – especially for poor folks – because her life was unremitting poverty. She made tough choices every day, yet she lived with such grace and wicked humor … Her life was outsized! Full! Her cup runneth over!

So I think of Ma when I think of Ballot Question 2: LIFTING THE CAP ON CHARTER SCHOOLS … MORE CHARTER SCHOOLS IN MASS. Up to 12.

At first, my liberal reaction: GAWD NO! For all the libby reasons. But then my mom and how she raised us kids in Green Island in the ’60s and ’70s surfaces…how she got the most out of Woo schools for her three girls – with no money, no connections, no car, not much of a clothing budget, no high school diploma (my mom completed the 8th grade and was promptly farmed out to Springfield, along with her three sisters, to be the Bishop of Springfield’s housekeeper/cook, during the Great Depression) but plenty of natural ability. Thanks to Ma, we kids got what we needed from the schools: for me, the Worcester Public Schools, K to 12. Ma knew I loved -LOVED!!! – to learn and that the best chance for her little whiz kid to excel was to keep her in the Worcester Public Schools with their smart, serious teachers, impressive science labs, serious sports equipment, big stately buildings (Prov) or spanking new digs (just built Burncoat), new text books, tons of homework and college-oriented goals. I was expected to – cuz I was smart – get straight As, take all honors classes at Providence Street Junior High and enroll in A.P./honors classes at Burncoat Senior High School. I did and Ma was over the moon! She also got a bit pushy – made me take accordion and violin lessons and pushed me to join the schools all city orchestra. I put my foot down: I was too shy for performing on stage and hated the old violin Ma rented for me out of some music store on Main Street where the piano teacher was deaf!, and I grew bored with my accordion, despite the sparkly rhinestones in some of its buttons and its cool iridescent mother of pearl front!

My two kid sisters attended Lamartine Street School until grade 4, then Mom transfered them to St. Mary’s, her alma mater, on Richland Street. My mom felt my kid sisters “wouldn’t make it” in the rough and tumble Worcester Public Schools where kids often fought in the school yard and a few, I remember my pal showed me hers!, even carried knives. St. Mary’s, the little school for Polish kids and families, was much tamer (and to me sooo BORING): small, intimate and safe. Students had to wear conservative looking school uniforms, go to mass at least once a week at the mother church across the street on Ward Street – Our Lady of Czetchowa – and kow tow to nuns who taught most of the classes and brooked no bull shit. The nuns could be sadistic – they were allowed to pull kids up out of their chairs by their ears! The first grade and seond grade nun/teachers were young and sweet and round faced (I went to St. Mary’s catechism class every Monday eve so I knew my sisters’ teachers), but things progressed badly as you went up in grades. In your 10th grade biology class you could see the hair growing out of your nun’s nostrils! The nuns at the high school weren’t sweet and they certainly weren’t pretty.

I could also tell my sisters’ St. Mary’s school books weren’t as up to date or challenging as mine, their homework was easier and they had much less of it. But St. Mary’s was way less rough than Lamartine and “Prov.” Everyone was kind of the same. My sisters, twins, awefully skinny, kinda shy and didn’t crush the books the way I could, were happy at St. M’s. They weren’t beaten up anymore. They had fun. They had friends. They liked their classes – and the penguins aka nuns! Ma knew my public school honors classes would be tough for them – no matter how hard Ma tried to help them with homework – and Ma did sit with us and struggle through our projects with us! But she was ok with less excellence because my sisters didn’t crave it like I did. Sure, I was bullied at Lamartine and Prov cuz I was a straight A brainy nearsighted bookworm, and Ma knew it. But I was so crazy about my schools, my teachers, the competitiveness of my fellow smarties and the friendship of my good gal pals that I stuck it all out. And Ma loved her chubby little shining star!

My mom knew she had to make school work for my kid sisters who wouldn’t thrive in public schools. She was too poor to pay for a private Catholic school, but she, like her Mom before her, was a parishoner of Our Lady of Czetchowa and worked a special deal with the church for its St. Mary’s school: free tuition up to graduation from high school (St Mary’s went K to 12), free everything for her two girls (except uniforms). Why? Because Ma was a parishoner who was a single mom who worked 60 hours a week at the dry cleaners for minimum wage and was killing herself to pay the bills and provide a good life for her girls and Polish immigrant mother (“Bapy”) who lived with the family on Lafayette Street. And she and her girls walked to church to attend mass every Sunday morning and on every Holy Day of obligation – of which there are a multitude, if you’re an old school Catholic. Which my mom was.

We were a well deserving church “charity case.”

Fast forward to 2016. St. Mary’s school doesn’t offer the same deal to my mom cuz the pastor is an ASSHOLE. I’ve written about him in this space… you all know the straight dope.

So…What would Ma do for my two kid sisters today? How would she educate two fragile little inner city gals today?

SEND THEM TO A CHARTER SCHOOL.

WORK IT SO THAT HER TWO GIRLS COULD ATTEND A CHARTER SCHOOL – the perfect place for them to learn!

Today Worcester’s charter schools offer a CHOICE to parents like my mom. Parents who don’t often have a lot of choices in their lives and are DOING THEIR BEST AND WANT THE BEST FOR THEIR KIDS. They can’t afford chi chi private schools, they may not be able to drive their kids to another town’s safer, (better???) schools. They may feel, like my mom did, that their kids can’t thrive in a sometimes chaotic public school setting and that they may need smaller and intimate classroom settings. They may feel their kids need to go to school with kids who don’t pose huge discipline problems. School uniforms may help parents save money – I know that was the case for my mom. And while the school’s curriculum or teachers may not be inspiring, they are solid – their kids will graduate knowing how to read and write and do arithmetic. They’ll have  a grasp of the basics and can go on from there.

If my mom had boys she would be checking out the Nativity School in the old Girls Club Lincoln House building.

She’d be intrigued by the WPS school President Obama visited a few years ago: Worcester Technical High School. For awhile, as a kid, my mother attended the WPS’s Girls Trade School. Something for which she was always grateful and proud.

Ma would look for the best schools that fit her kids in the best possible way – taking into account a lot more than academics. And because she’d be poor the school choices had to be free. The Worcester Public Schools did well by my immigrant Polish and Italian family:  two doctors, a few school teachers, a nurse, a nursing home administrator, an accountant, a lawyer…many of us the first in the family to go to college. Many living the American Dream! There’s even a Hollywood set painter … and a feisty editor of a feisty inner-city community newspaper!

Ma would vote YES ON QUESTION 2.

So will I.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Edith parked in Rose’s space: NO ON QUESTION 2!!

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How will YOU vote on November 8???? pic:R.T.

By Edith Morgan

Maybe November 8 will be different – maybe everyone will show up to vote! (We’re electing our President, after all!) Or maybe the new early voting days will bring out enough of us to really make a difference.

Certainly the turnout on September 8 did not make me feel very hopeful, although there was some excuse for the lack of interest, in that there were unusual factors: 1) election day fell on a Thursday; 2) it was really poorly advertised by the parties: 3) there were too many wards where there was no contest; 4) I suspect a certain fatigue on the part of the voters, having been barraged with the incessant stupidities of the presidential campaign.

Still, some people who have never missed an election DID show up – even just to be counted, where they had no choices provided.

But November 8 will give us plenty to think about and to choose! As a retired educator and with a lifetime dedication to the idea of universal public education, I have watched for several decades now as the privatizers and money/power grabbers slowly made inroads into our public school systems: nationally, they cut public funding, closed many neighborhood schools and imposed a spurious testing system designed to punish the schools attended by the poorest and minority children.

Since most of the American public has for some time strongly supported their public schools, a direct frontal attack would have met with real resistance. So, there had to be the scurrilous, undercover attacks on aspects of the system that were vulnerable.

In addition to budget cuts, attacks on teachers and multiple choice tests designed to put down rather than to help the most needy, the notion of “choice” was sold as an alternative to making EVERY American school good and great. While we were promised that charter schools would introduce creative and innovative education ideas, to be then introduced to the public schools, that idea soon got lost …The rest of the story is history …

But now, with Ballot Question 2, we have a chance to at least put a halt on the draining of the life-blood of our schools.

Question 2 proposes to lift the cap on further charter school expansion in Massachusetts.

So, a NO vote will keep the cap we have now at its present level.

We have a chance to stop the erosion in its tracks – it’s the least we can do. So I urge, plead, entreat EVERY VOTER to cast a ballot and at least vote No on 2!  Even if you are totally turned off by the Presidential race, give our children a chance! Make sure that the very necessary funding our public schools depend on is not drained away any more. It’s the least any of us can do!

InCity Yum Yums

Save Our Schools

By Edith Morgan

Many years ago, I participated in a grant from the U.S. government, under a new program called “Title IVC” – which granted applying school districts funds for three years to develop innovative public school programs and pilot them in school districts. Many schools applied and many great programs were developed. Since they had been paid for with public funds, they remained in the public domain, and the schools that wanted to do so, could implement them.

This was before we passed our Education Reform Act. At that time we were promised that, since innovation was so difficult under the current restraints that public schools face, we would try some innovative “charter schools” that would be freed from the bureaucratic restraints faced by public schools. We could try new ideas, and if they proved successful, they could be implemented in our public schools.

Under no circumstances would I EVER have approved of for-profit-schools run with public funds! Nor did it make any sense to me that if the State already knew what prevented real creativity and innovation in our schools’ classrooms, they would create a system of schools to compete with our schools – siphon away funds where they were most needed and trick parents and the public into believing that “choice” was what they were getting.

So what did we get?

Schools which functione pretty much independently of the community, representing a tiny fraction of the community, hiring untrained and uncertified teachers, paid below certified ones, with great turnover, and in several cases, using the innovative programs we had developed years earlier.

With little oversight, little control, little requirement that they serve those most in need, but a great PR machine, they are now pushing to get many more of the same.

So once more it becomes necessary for us to defend our public schools from the continuing battle to privatize them – turn them into “cash cows” for those who see our public school system as the last great publicly owned and run system to undermine. And take over for profit. This has been going on for decades but must not succeed.

A good public education is the foundation of our democracy!

Animal Issues

Edith’s parked in A.I: Summer thoughts

By Edith Morgan

School’s out – the kids say “hurrah,” the parents groan. The City of Worcester offers a wonderful array of things to do, using our school buildings, our parks, and a summer staff to keep them occupied, and learning experiences to prevent their backsliding and forgetting much of what they learned in the past year. I applaud all these efforts and really hope that those children who need such support the most will take full advantage of all these offerings.

These programs are a far cary from what we knew when we were young: summer was a time for outdoor activity, for getting around the neighborhood and for pursuing our own interests – hobbies, arts, explorations of all sorts. Most parents were very busy just surviving, and we kids did not need (nor WANT) to be constantly entertained. We were told “Go out and play, get back in here for supper,” or “when it gets dark.” We roller-skated, played football or baseball (if we could round up enough players) and read a mountain of comic books when our parents were not looking, as mine frowned on them, and since we had no money to buy a lot of them, we had a store around the corner where we could exchange the ones we had bought for 10 cents, receive 2 cents for the ones we had read, and trade five old ones for a new one. We were all well acquainted with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Archie and the classic comics. It was not great literature, but generally harmless and easy reading.

Our “Superheroes” fought evildoers and won without a great deal of destruction and bloodshed, and did not, by and large, bend the law. How times have changed … .

For parents, this summer time might be a great time to think deeply about our schools this summer: we have a lot of decisions to make, not just about our own children, but also about all the other children in our schools.

I believe that EVERY child, in EVERY Public School, is entitled to a quality education – and that the schools are the place where children learn to be fully functioning citizens, responsible human beings and lifelong learners.

And they should be taught the skills and attitudes and habits they need to live decent lives, develop their talents to the fullest and pay forward to the next generation what they were given.

We were promised that when we established charter schools that they would have the freedom to innovate, try new and better things, and share their discoveries with the public schools. Instead, too many of them have cut corners, have hired persons ill prepared and unqualified and, in some instances, put profits ahead of performance. When we knew all along that excessive bureaucracy and insufficient support of teachers who innovate were major stumbling blocks to improvement, why did we not just change what we knew to be wrong in the existing schools so all of them could be innovative?

Was there another agenda, hidden behind the promise of “Choice”?

Have we been had?

InCity Voices

Charter Schools, Race and the Success of the Worcester Nativity School Model

By Gordon Davis

Governor Baker’s is trying to lift the limits on the number of charter schools in Massachusetts. Like with health care and social security, this Republican governor is trying to undermine public schools, an institution designed to help people most in need.

There are at least three charter schools in Worcester. It is my understanding that at least one and possibly all are doing well.

In Massachusetts the charter school had its origin in the racist anti-busing resistance to the integration of Boston schools. Many of the White people of Boston set up private schools instead of sending their kids to sit next to Black kids. William Bulger was the Massachusetts House Speaker. He bullied through a charter school bill for Boston and Worcester. Worcester representatives were not aware of this “midnight maneuver.” The private schools in Boston set up to defeat integration became “public” charter schools.

There is no evidence that charter schools, as a group, have performed any better than publicly run public schools.

The evidence for the failure of charter schools to do better than public schools is seen in the charter school system found in New Orleans. 

There is no evidence of more successful-ness of charter schools in Massachusetts. Please note that Governor Baker has not provided any statistical evidence to justify his push for more charter schools.

There is evidence that some charter schools are cheating in the way their graduation rates and test scores are calculated. Ms. Ruth Rodriquez, an administrator for United Opt-Out National, has said that “all the Charter Schools have a policy of ‘counseling out’ students they fear will not pass the test. At a high school in Roxbury where I worked, we used to get students from Charter Schools one or two months before the test.”

Wealthy people with real choices do not send their kids to charter schools. They go to well established private schools or well endowed public schools in the suburbs. Governor Baker admits this when he says that the new charter schools will be limited to low-income areas and areas with Black and other dark-skinned people.

It is a shame that Governor Baker cannot come up with a better solution to the education of poor and dark-skinned children than the same old mantra of “charter schools.” It reminds me of the people chanting “standardized tests” without evidence that standardized tests help kids and for some evidence that they have harmed kids. 

Education is somewhat like health care. People heal as individuals and at their own speed. Kids, to a large extent, learn in their own way and at their own speed. There is a need for more individualized instruction, at least reduced class sizes.

A real alternative is a school like the Nativity School in Worcester which has a proven record of graduation rates and success for its graduates. This model is unfortunately not applicable to large populations. It is based on 12 hours days of school and school activities, including Saturdays and summer months. It removes the students from the negative environment of poverty. It replaces that environment with structured expectations. The teaching methods are not much different from the public schools or the charter schools in terms of the subjects.

The successful pedagogy of the Nativity School is based on the statistically proven fact that the greatest indicator of the success of child is his economic and social environment. The Nativity School removes the child out from the negative environment. There is a long waiting list for the Nativity School. Every school set up in this manner in cities throughout the country has almost a 100 percent graduation rate and successful graduates.

The money allocated to charter schools could be better spent setting up 12 hour school days and summer months pilot schools within the public school systems of Massachusetts. Let us put our money into improving the public schools and pedagogy. Let us not throw more money away creating a competive and unproven school system of charter schools.

Governor Baker’s continued support of charter schools can be inferred by a reasonable person to be a pretext for the anti-public institution philosophy of his Republican party. If this is so, his limiting charter schools to low-income and people of color neighborhoods is racist.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

And while we’re talking about the Worcester Public Schools …

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By Rosalie Tirella

If the WPS teachers’ union feels its members are underpaid (average salary seems to be about $70,000, with lots of Worcester public school teachers making $80,000+), then our teachers can do what the teachers have done at the New York City charter school I wrote about yesterday. Yes, our teachers can earn $125,000 a year but ONLY if they skip union membership. No unions to protect hacks! If any teacher is underperforming, he/she can be fired – at any time. A new, competent teacher will replace the incompetent one.

Teachers always complain about not making the money their pals make in the private sector. Well, if they want the really big bucks, then they should be willing to embrace the same working conditions as their friends in the private sector: no unions. You make a lot of money only if you are so good at your job that you DESERVE to make a lot of money. The teachers making $100,000 will be truly excellent teachers – doing their jobs so well that they will be deserving of their hefty paychecks.

You do not get $100,000 just because you’ve parked your arse in the same seat behind the same teacher’s desk for 25 years.

Everyone is sick of the way lots of bad – or even average – teachers continue to teach. This doesn’t help our kids – especially our neediest students. For years and years and years due to union protection below average teachers have continued to teach! Many people – including President Obama, a progressive enough fellow – would like to see a merit system in place. If you are a better teacher than the teacher down the hall, you should be making more money than that teacher, regardless of whether your colleague down the hall has been working “in the system” longer than you have.

And let’s not forget: Teachers or anyone who works in municipal government has always known this: You may not make a ton of money working for your city/town, but your benefits will be super and you will have job security. So to scream for more money, a la WPS teachers, is silly.

And finally, we agree with City Council Vice Chairwoman Konnie Lukes: get rid of some of the dead wood at the WPS administration building on Irving Street. Lukes is correct: Let’s not take anything away from the education side of our public schools, but let’s dump some of these “administrative” types who make $80,000 a year and do … very little … or nothing at all.

A case in point: Last week I went to the WPS administration building on Irving Street to find out about a program. I entered the first room I saw. Inside this room: three women at desks. They were just sitting at their desks – doing nothing. Not answering phones, not filling out paperwork, not filing, not entering data into a computer. It was about 2 p.m.

I asked them my question. Could they help me?

No response from these ladies. Then: We don’t know.

And they went back to doing nothing.

So I said I was the owner of InCity Times and then puff! Like magic, they began to use their brains, one of them made a call and then directed me to the right place.

I told this to a friend – a parent whose child used to go to WP school. The parent said: At Irving Street, they don’t want to see adults – they think they are WPS students’ parents. They don’t want parents asking questions.

Let’s dump these useless people on Irving Street and save our city some serious money. Like Lukes says, the City side of local govenment can help handle any overflow (probably not a lot).

InCity Feature, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

What do parents want from their kids’ schools?

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By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee

Parents are the consumers; all schools should make every effort to attract them in a most competitive way. No longer are public schools a given, for parents now have options in the form of charter and private schools, as well as school choice. As Dr. Boone, superintendent of the Worcester Public Schools has stated on several occasions, “We want the public schools to be the school of choice for all of our parents.”

Thus far, in general, the Worcester Public Schools have been the choice of parents in Worcester. In 2009 and 2010 the Worcester Public Schools enrollment was 24,006 students. Worcester’s private, parochial and charter enrollment was 4,302 students. In addition, 342 School Choice opted out and 75 students School Choice opted in. Therefore, roughly 84% of the students in Worcester attend the Worcester Public Schools.

However, times are changing and, if a school system is to meet the needs of all the students, it certainly must continue with a strong education system and listen to the voices of the consumers – parents. Continue reading What do parents want from their kids’ schools? →

InCity Voices

Charting a dangerous course: the fallacy of Charter School superiority

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By Worcester School Committee member John Monfredo

Throughout our city much has been said recently about the Charter School movement and its impact on our kids. Worcester will have its third Charter School: the Massachusetts Department of Education has approved the “Spirit of Knowledge Charter School.” The school will house students in grades 7 to 12 and classes will begin this September with 156 students in grades 7 and 8. While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are part of the public education system and are not allowed to charge tuition.

The general purpose of the Charter School program is to establish an alternative means within the existing public school system in order to provide innovative learning opportunities to improve the education of students.

There has been a great deal of controversy regarding the effectiveness of charter schools and whether they give additional benefits to students. A study performed by the American Federation of Teachers, which strongly supports charter schools, found that students attending charter schools do not fare any better or worse statistically in reading and math scores than students attending public schools. If one looks at the number of Charter Schools state-wide and looks at the research, you will find that Charter Schools are more expensive, more segregated and do not offer a better education to children. Continue reading Charting a dangerous course: the fallacy of Charter School superiority →