In Monday's New York Post the Editorial Board wrote a misleading and largely false editorial on the superior qualities of charter school teachers when compared to the public school teachers. This editorial was an attempt to show that charter schools are superior than public schools, which education blogger Gary Rubinstein proved is not true and fly's in the face of evidence of the inferior quality of charter school teachers.
The Post editorials stated the following:
A thousand-plus charter teachers plan to march. Like the families of the 100,000 kids in city charters, these teachers have voted with their feet: They believe in the charter model — public schools that are privately run and largely free of union handcuffs.
In other words, charter school teachers are more dedicated, work harder, and don't want to be unionized while working for the public school system. Of course, the opposite is nore likely true than not.
Many charter school teachers are hired not from the public schools but from Teach For America and other alternate certification programs, some are not even certified! Moreover, the few teachers that left the public schools to teach in charter schools were either discontinued, terminated, or suspended from the public schools. Additionally, many of these teachers would rather land a job in the public schools, given a choice. Finally, the moment a unionized public school teaching job is offered, the charter school teacher jumps ship and go, even for less money but for the better benefits that a union job offers!
The high teacher turnover in the charter school universe where few teachers last three years and a 100% teacher turnover is the rule and not the exception . The result, is an unstable school environment with little teaching and continuous test prep that no longer resembles the real educational experience necessary for real student growth.
The New York Post Editorial is so very wrong on so many levels and conveniently ignores the facts that charter school teachers are not superior to their public school counterparts and most can't wait to leave the charter universe for more stability, benefits, and the right to have time with their family.
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