Charter Schools
Q What is MSTA’s position on charter schools?
A MSTA supports public charter schools as long as they meet
these criteria:
* Under the control of local boards of education
* Admit all students who wish to attend
* Are held to the same standards as other public schools
* Staff members of charters have same rights to representation
by the Association
Q What effect would charter schools have on other public schools?
A Given a set amount of public funds for public education, giving money to
public charter schools could stretch the existing dollars further and take
some funds away from existing public schools.
Q Why does MSTA insist that charter schools admit all students?
A All public schools are obligated to provide access to students regardless
of their ability, special needs, parental involvement, etc. Charter schools
should not be treated differently if they are to share financial resources.
It would be unfair to expect the existing public schools to handle a disproportionate
number of students with special needs and allow charter schools to pick
and choose which students they will accept.
Q Why does MSTA oppose private charter schools?
A A school should have one goal—to provide the best possible education
for the students. Private firms owe their first allegiance to the bottom
line or making a profit for their investors. We believe that student welfare
should never be competing with a company’s need to make a profit. We
also believe that there should be adequate safeguards covering contract and
employment provisions. That might not be possible in a private charter school
run by a for-profit corporation.
Q How does student achievement compare between charter and other schools?
A Recent data suggests that achievement in charter schools is lagging behind
achievement in public schools. This is based on the 2003 National Assessment
of Educational Progress data. This causes alarm among those who would convert
failing public schools to charter schools.
Workload Issue
Q What is the Association doing about the unending increases in our workload?
A Your Local and MSTA are hard at work trying to do several things. NEA is
working with MSTA and your local association to modify those parts of the
No Child Left Behind legislation that put undue emphasis on creating more
paperwork for educators.
At the state level, MSTA proposed legislation to create a task force to study teacher workload. It passed both houses of the General Assembly, but was vetoed by the governor in 2004. At the local level, your Association is trying to negotiate language in your contract that will minimize the impact of paperwork on your job and provide additional time for you to do some of the required reports and other items required by existing regulations.
Local Associations are also working to negotiate more planning time, including time to collaborate with other educators around instructional issues.
Q What can I do as an individual to cope with all of the tasks that keep
me from teaching?
A You can take advantage of opportunities provided by the Association to
sharpen your time management skills and talk with colleagues about ways in
which some tasks can be shared.
You can also play an active role in voicing your views about your workload to state and local legislators through MSTA’s Monday night lobbying activities and by setting up individual appointments with your local officials.
If face-to-face meetings are not your choice, write letters to those officials or telephone them at their homes during the evening or on weekends. You can also ask questions of candidates for local and state offices to determine which candidates would be most likely to address your concerns about workload. If you can’t do this personally, ask your local Association to give you that information and then vote accordingly.
Vouchers
Q Why is MSTA opposed to vouchers?
A We have long held that every available tax dollar provided by Marylanders
ought to go to meet the needs of the public schools. There are plenty of
unmet needs in our public schools and our state ought not to be giving
money to people to spend on private schools. There is a constitutional
requirement that the State of Maryland must provide for public schools.
There is no similar requirement regarding private schools.
Q How are vouchers working in other places?
A They’re not working very well. In Milwaukee, for instance, where
vouchers were embraced early on, several voucher schools have closed and
top officials at two of them have been indicted for criminal fraud. In Cleveland,
the voucher program went way over budget and it was discovered that it spent
$1.5 million on taxicab fares.
Q Do private schools that accept vouchers have to meet the same standards
as public schools?
A No. They do not have to meet the same accountability standards as public
schools. They are not required to release student test scores, dropout rates
or even hold open meetings. More important, they can pick and choose which
students to accept and many will not take special needs students. The absence
of standards is clearly evident in staffing. Far fewer teachers in private
schools meet the definition of “highly qualified” than do those
in public schools.
Q Given the above information, why would anyone want vouchers?
A For- profit corporations see vouchers as a lucrative investment opportunity.
They can start private schools, hire teachers and other staff for less
than public school employees are paid (no unions and no one to advocate
for them) and not be held to the same standards as public schools. In addition,
some parents who would choose to send their children to religious or other
private schools for a variety of reasons see vouchers as a way to dip into
taxpayer funds to offset their own out-of-pocket costs. Lastly, those who
would like to see the unions representing public school employees weakened,
see vouchers as a means to accomplish that because they could weaken the
public school systems by siphoning off funds and prohibiting unions for
the employees.
