Thread by @julianakilrose

I taught at a charter. There were no lies told by those #AbbottElementary episodes. Move on 😭

They deserve every bit of smoke they’re not getting from the government let’s put it that way

Unregulated and uncheck af.

In terms of like…quality and treatment it didn’t seem much different than neighborhood schools. Our specific charter was in deep budgetary issues so we ain’t have more money than neighborhood schools, but it was really an exception

It wasnt a “charter network” so they weren’t tryna expand or take over schools or nun like that. It was founded by a local activist who was a Black woman from the community in the 90s before the whole “charter boom” n shit and it becoming a whole industry for predatory white folk

Years before i was there it DID have an embezzlement scandal. Which, does happen in neighborhood schools too but there’s so much more red tape from govt regulation that it’s less frequent and caught earlier I guess

Teachers at my school seemed to have way more latitude on the net than teachers at neighborhood schools. This felt like a good thing for us and felt really unfair to my homies who taught at other schools.

Folks at neighborhood schools seemed to have more support, though. Simply bc they were on teaching teams whereas at my small charter it was just me teaching my curriculum. That was hard sometimes. But thankful I was in community with other science educators throughout the city

Teachers at my school were paid less than the neighborhood schools. I made anywhere from 5k-10k less than a comparable teachers. BUT, I had way smaller classes. Idk. Benefits and drawbacks.

My thing has always been that in my experience, my school was plagued by similar challenges as the neighborhood schools. Charters wouldnt need to exist if neighborhood schools were funded well period.

I don’t think “chartering” is inherently bad — like the idea of community-designed schools n shit — the idea of being able to raise funds for said school— but under capitalism itll always be problematic.

The lack of regulation in contrast with how neighborhood schools are surveilled is heinous honestly. I don’t think any teachers or students should be monitored like that.

You’ll hear a lot of charter folks talk about accountability of schools. I think that’s interesting convo . “If parents think a charter is harming the community all they’d have to do is unenroll to shut them down”

It’s true that it’s not that simple to hold neighborhood schools “accountable”, I guess.

But this is just an argument for privatization though, right? “Take your money elsewhere”

How does this argument land in the context of these fascist attacks on education?

Anyways, the imperialist charters really need to fuck off 😭

Like I said, I feel like I had a super unique charter experience. But 99% of the people that engage with charters will never engage with a school like the one I taught at.

I don’t have a universal perspective on this, I just know that I’ve learned a lot through it

Unchecked**