Students in charters are selected by lottery. It may be that charters could do a better job of marketing to SPED and ELL students. Happy to hear how and help make that happen, but they certainly are not shunning them. So your charge that they “shun” those students is nonsense. My point was two-fold: (1) That apples-to-apples comparisons of schools the majority of whose student bodies are poor and minority shows charters to perform better. See the 2006 DOE report, and see the Boston Foundation report. (2) If charters are shunning all these students, wouldn’t people get the sense that they are being shunned and stop applying? But, no, there are thousands (8,000 in Boston) of students on charter waiting lists. Same with METCO, where they want in to districts like Brookline, Newton, and Wellesley.

What is bizarre is that you trot out gated communities and private competition, when all you are doing is denying that someone can make a dent in the view that demography is not destiny. Please note that 2 of the more than 60 charters in Massachusetts are private. In most every other state the percentage is quite a bit higher.

All charters in Boston are doing poorly? Gosh, you live in your own world. It is a pessimistic world where demography is deterministic. Happily, data shows that the real world is actually a better place. Go to RoxPrep, BostonPrep, the MATCH School, City on a Hill.

Maybe you should attend a lottery day for charters, and see the heartbreak in the faces of the hundreds of parents whose kids cannot get in to a charter. It might dissuade you from typing such nonsense and you might even gain a conscience. Shame on you. Really, I mean that.

Well, the data say it all–yes, charters fail to enroll challenging students–including low income– at the rate of traditional schools. Pretty clear, no ambiguity–see my post above.

Apparently, charter proponents simply cannot/will not admit the import of this observation. It is bizarre to see the workings of what I suppose is pro-charter ideology in your response: If then .

That’s quite a impressive metaphysical argument!

But of course it is utter rot. From the view point of the reality-based community, the data being what it is, your dubious inference is false, that’s all.

It’s the next point that is more subtle though. Let’s be quite concrete. School A has high rates of SPED, low income, and English language deficient students. School B has substantially lower rates of all of these classes of challenging kids. Where would some arbitrary parents making a school choice want to send their kid?

Probably most such parents would prefer school B (with the charter school profile). That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that people who should know better, and whose responsibilities extend to include all students in public schools, should assume that this choice represents the basis of equitable public policy, of school reform.

It represents the abdication of equal educational opportunity to all public school students. And so we enter the era of charter schools, gated communities, and the ideology of private competition run amok.

Well Jim, looks like saltydog has cleaned your plate with the data, so there is no reason to go over it again.
Tell me, Ed, why can’t we shut down and hold accountable district schools in the same way we do charters?
Good question as all Charter schools in Boston are doing poorly and not one has been closed here in Boston. The only Charter I know has been closed is the one using extreme innovative practices during MCAS testing. That one was closed by the state as they claim the school was cheating.
And would you support that?
I know that in Boston every single school that is underperforming exists inside what is called zones of poverty. All 14 schools Dr. Johnson selected as underperforming reside in areas of extreme poverty. Should they be closed? If we shut down those schools should we bus these kids to Brookline, Weston or Wellesley? All those liberals will be up in arms. I do not see that happening. The legacy of segregation is too strong so I believe these schools will remain segregated. There, of course, will be a lot of talk about educational reform as a cover up for segregation.