Charter foes are conspiracy nuts

SAM HINKIE, the Sixers' "Master of Disaster," has led the team on a two-year tanking mission as part of his plan to return the Sixers to prominence at some future date in a galaxy far, far away. He seems to relish their "0-fers," such as their 0-for-17 record to start the season.

Sam, meet Marjorie Neff, School Reform Commission member, who pulled an 0-fer of her own, rejecting 39 charter school candidates at a recent School Reform Commission meeting. When Neff was first appointed she told local media, "There is a national trend toward an abandonment of public education."

The Notebook, a local public education blog, reported that Neff saw this abandonment as a manifestation of a belief that "I've got mine, I'm not going to worry about anybody else's. . . . Part of the problem here is that people in Harrisburg are talking about other people's children, not their own children."

Of course, she completely ignores those parents and students who are wanting to vote with their feet and flee to various charter schools. She is even being viewed as a hero by some quarters whose only solution for the Philadelphia Public Schools is to say we need more money . . . and if you won't provide it, then you are part of a conspiracy to destroy public education.

I'm always amazed at how much people love conspiracies. My line is, "For some, conspiracies are better than sex." Many of the people who were rallying against charters believe that corporate interests are using charters, vouchers and other techniques to control the public schools and students.

The latest and most bizarre conspiracy theory of those who see corporate interests trying to take over America's public schools involves Teach for America. Teach for America recruits some of the country's highest-achieving college students and sends them to spend at least two years in the nation's poorest, toughest school districts. The complaint against this group is that many of them go to non-union charter schools, and that many of its alumni have become advocates for charter schools and things like the use of standardized testing for the evaluation of public-school teachers.

The New York Times reports that Teach for America does have corporate sponsors, such as Wells Fargo, ComcastNBCUniversal, the Walton family and foundations overseen by the families of the billionaires John D. Arnold and Eli Broad. These associations and their advocacy for reform has led to movements at places like Harvard to try to stop them from recruiting on campus in much the same manner that people protested the ROTC on campus.

This movement and its conspiracy-mongering are insane and another hurdle toward helping all kids get a good education. Locally, this mania manifests itself with the opposition to the $35 million offered to the Philadelphia public schools by the Philadelphia School Partnership, a local nonprofit group that advocates free-market solutions to school problems.

Lisa Haver, co-founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, writing in the Daily News, even said, "The U.S. Attorney's Office should immediately open an investigation into the action of the Philadelphia School Partnership." This statement is an apparent reference to the charge that the money was being offered to influence the SRC to vote to approve more charter schools.

So, a school district now facing a new $80 million deficit is being urged to reject almost half of that in order not to capitulate to greedy corporate interests that want to take over the public schools. This rejection and the actions of people like Ms. Neff on the SRC, which resulted in only five of 39 applicants getting approval, will collide with the world of political reality.

First, there is an appeals board in Harrisburg that may approve more charters in Philadelphia. I predict they will approve more.

Second, the Pennsylvania legislature granted Philadelphia the right to have an increase in the cigarette tax with the understanding that they would add more charters. On my show, House Speaker Mike Turzai made this point, and added that if Philadelphia wanted more funding then more charters must be approved.

These last two points are not conspiracies but public knowledge. It's time to stop the romanticized fairy tale of the public schools needing only more money to succeed and let parents have more choices in getting an education for their kids.