Charter Schools:
Churn the Teachers, Attack the Students

Sep 16, 2013

“Education on the cheap” makes the news again. The charter school movement is enthusiastic about the youth of its teachers, teachers who come and go quickly.

Every study ever done, unless paid for by the private companies behind the charter schools movement, show two things that improve class results: small class size and the experience of the teachers.

But charter schools are run as a business. So, like bosses do everywhere, they hire their work force as cheaply as possible. Charter school teachers earn on average $20,000 per year LESS than public school teachers, for working longer hours in classrooms, meaning less time to prepare their classes.

The real point of charter schools is to offer education so cheaply that the schools’ owners make a profit. Even worse, the funds for most charter schools come straight from the funds available for public schools. That makes the profits a direct theft from the taxpayers funding education.

Charter schools can “cost” less when they pay teachers less, send them off after two years, force fewer teachers to teach more students and work longer hours. But how on earth can this help the students? It doesn’t, as studies have shown again and again.

Behind all the talk about “improving” education, the push for charter schools come down to one thing: profit. And to make that profit, they’re ready to destroy the education of a whole generation of working class children.