Why was anyone so gullible as to believe that entrepreneurs would be better at running schools than professional educators? Bill Gates wanted charter schools in Washington State; he wouldn’t give up. The state held 4 referendums whether to authorize private charter schools, and the idea was defeated time after time after time. Until 2012. Gates raised a multimillion dollar war chest -- the referendum passed by less than 1%! And so the bold experiment began and went bad. First, the Walton-funded CREDO from Stanford University evaluated the charters and found that overall they did not get better results from public schools; fledgling charters folded because of low enrollments. Read this equivocal editorial in the Tacoma News Tribune, reminding readers that “the voters” approved charters, but not reminding them that Gates for the vote and it passed by a hair."
At dianeravitch.net
