Oregon Lawmakers Consider Education-Reform Package

[L. Coyote]

Oregon Lawmakers Consider Education-Reform Package
06/14/11 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/oregon-lawmakers-consider_n_877126.html


At 6 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Tony Crawford looked at his clock in Canby, Oregon and lamented the change the next sixty minutes would bring.

"For the next hour, I am a social studies teacher at Ackerman Middle school," he said at the time. "Today's our last day. Our school is closed."

He alternates between feeling depressed and angry. His school is not closing because of issues with proficiency or performance, he said. Budget shortfalls in his district required the closure of one of its two middle schools. And since the building was the older of the two, Ackerman closed. He'll teach at the new, combined school in the newer building next year.

He's angry, he said, because the state legislature is weighing a bill that would make it easier to open charter schools -- schools that are publicly funded and can be privately run -- in Oregon. "It redirects what should be funding for public education for either private interest or expansion in charter schools who have not proven to save money," ............

[Poll_Blind]

1. I have never considered charter schools to be anything more than scams waiting to happen. At best.

PB

[LWolf]

2. This Oregon teacher is not pleased

with some of bills passed and still on the table.