Bofferbrauer2 said:
Thanks for that link, was pretty helpful. And seriously, charter schools closing in the middle of the school year? Couldn't the state take over running that school at least until the rest of the school year? Also, schools without classrooms? Seriously what is the board of education doing? Shouldn't they inspect the buildings first before even being allowed to operate? While I'm certainly no friend of that charter school system, It seems to me like mishandlings at higher levels seem to be the much bigger issue in my opinion. Get more regulation into that system and that would alleviate at least some of the problems, not just at charter schools, but in all schools in general throughout the country.
Yeah, with Buttigeig and Yang as the 2 spanners, since both seem to rise in the polls. Buttigieg in the national ones while Yang is starting to make good impressions in some states. |
Indeed, our whole education system has myriad problems, and a lot of it starts from the top. However a lot also starts from other areas, like lack of funding, misappropriation of funding, unequal funding to certain school districts over others, poor pay for teachers failing to attract good teaching talent, and other problems, some very complex and systemic (a school in a poor area may have more dropouts, poorer student performance if students are trying to work to help their families, which isn't the school's fault per se, for instance). Charter schools, when they seem to work well, often only work well because a ton of money is thrown at them and they often select only the students most likely to succeed (some are by lottery, sure, but don't believe anyone who says they all are), sidestepping some of the problems other schools face. For example, with all that extra money, they often get the best teachers because they're willing to pay for talent. If the entire school system were willing to pay for talent, you wouldn't have all the best teachers at one school. The charter school didn't solve the problem, it merely sidestepped it. It's not something you could solve with more charter schools. As John Oliver notes, while the schools can call themselves not-for-profits, often they're connected to a for profit business that siphons a bunch of taxpayer money from the school and makes education more expensive than it needs to be. They get more public funding because of their better track record, which just goes into the pockets of the profiteers at the top, while the rest of the school system suffers. Education should not under any circumstances be a for profit business. It should be an entirely non-profit societal institution.
As for Yang and Buttigieg, I don't see them as straddling the two wings, really. Following the polls, it seems they rise as Bernie is slowly chipped away from, and as a Bernie fan, they're in my top 5 after Bernie and Warren, so there's definitely a lot of appeal to Bernie fans. Most of their poll rises seem to come from Bernie's numbers falling slightly, as well as undecideds coming to them, and in Yang's case, former Trump fans even, particularly the younger former Trump fans. Biden hasn't suffered much, though he seems to have a bit of a ceiling in the mid-30s thus far, as he drains what little is left of the centrist wing from the other hapless centrist contenders.
