What Does One Say About "Charter Greed"?

06/2015 Filed in: Character / Civic Education | Education Reform

Education bloggers spend a lot of their time pointing out the failures and tearing down the Charter School movement. Apparently, they don't find it difficult to find condemning data. Today, Ravitch culled comments from Sharon Higgins that seems to show profligate greed among some Charter School corporate leaders. I won't defend these cases, but neither do I believe they are strong incentives for the government to run all our schools. If anything, these comments point to the deeper moral issues of schooling.

Though there may be more to these stories than what the author has included, these do look like some bad nuts. Government run schools seem to do better at keeping exorbitant salaries down, but they have not been very successful at promoting a cultural moral foundation that combats the greed being denounced. I find this to be directly linked with the ideological shallowness that is imposed on all government schools required by the First Amendment religion clauses. A good Christian school will weave a moral pattern utilizing the diverse threads found in the curriculum, the teaching methodology, and the school community. Their first goal should not be merely academic success, but human success - and I don't mean earning potential!

All people respond as individuals, but I wonder how many of these "greedy" Charter operators might have different heart motivations if they had a stronger moral education in a private religious school concerned about such issues? Where and how might they use their talents if they were given a more transcendent vision for their professional lives than the materialistic ones that so easily slip through the filters that keep "traditional religions" out of secular schools? I am disappointed that Charters have taken the lead in school choice discussions because I believe the private non-profit school sector has more to offer. Likely religious non-profit schools keep quiet because they don't want the government meddling with the higher ideals they were established to promote. One day, I hope they find their public voices.