[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ There has been plenty of criticism about the way just about every charter school operates, but I don't buy it. People make up these hypothesis that somehow the organizations are only motivated by endless expansion of their schools when in reality they are run by people who, at the end of the day, just want to educate children.

I say this after throwing myself into the debate in my neighborhood over the new ASPIRA school going up at Milwaukee and Central Park. I've gotten to know both sides of the issue and a lot of people who run ASPIRA and my conclusion is that the opposition almost always has ulterior motives (usually NIMBYISM / racism) behind their arguments.

The missing part of this argument is simple, what motivation do these schools have to just try to gorge themselves on grant money at the expense of the students? If they don't perform, they get shut down. So why would they neglect their students just to get another grant? Its not as if there is some profit motive or something driving them to try to expand recklessly at the expense of children and the people running these places couldn't be more down to earth. ASPIRA, I know, is run by a 60 something year old lady who is just another adorable abuela who happened to get into charter schools because she was given a chance to set up a better education for her grandchildren. UNO is probably a little more corporate than that, but still, its not as if there are these dark motives.

The first Reader article demonstrates these arguments all too well. It is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on charter schools as a whole because the leftists over at the Reader don't like that "UNO is taking over a wing of the government" and is towing the dastardly CPS Teacher's Union line with complaints that UNO teachers are paid less. Well guess what chumps (directed at the Reader) the CPS and it's teachers union have demonstrated time and again that they are either utterly incompetent or really don't give a shit about educating children. This is why we created charter schools. The teachers unions exist for one reason: to represent the interests of teachers. They do not exist to teach. They do not exist to serve. They do not exist to help the children. They exist for teachers to help themselves. They are in panic mode that charter schools are paying "scabs" less and doing much much better than the CPS schools. They see Rahm closing in on them and their absurdly short work day. And this kind of anti-charter tripe is what results.

Let's not even get started about the neighborhood groups that are thinly veiled racists bent on quashing any attempt of hispanics to set up community centers in their neighborhood. In particular there is a fellow who calls himself "Logan Square Concerned Citizens", but is really just one person with a lot of leaflets. This fellow (an awkward white guy in a trench coat, creaper) is vehimently anti-charter and a bigot. His name is Larry Ligas and he once handed me a pamphlet suggesting that the Avondale ASPIRA school should not be built because ASPIRA "teaches radical politics" in their schools.