ABOUT

 

Defend Public Education NOW is a group of activists dedicated to protecting and furthering democratically governed, teacher-student centered public education for all students in California. We are opposed to charter schools because the mechanisms for establishing and running charter schools principally benefit their investors and not students and teachers. We are opposed to privatization in government services in general and an end to public funding of private charter schools.

Charter schools have led to racial re-segregation and support for sectarianism using public money. We are for worker rights including the rights of teachers to meaningful due process in employment and a meaningful say in governing schools and unions.

This is a public group therefore we expect lively discussion and defense of charter schools by their proponents but we stand in firm opposition to any "market" approaches to supporting education. Public education is a public good that the public has invested in over the centuries and it is wrong to "sell" it in the same way that cigarettes and booze are sold. What charter school companies advertise has not been delivered in any way superior to public schools.

Even after 25 years of charter school graft and corruption, the charter school industry cannot claim any great improvements in educational outcomes for any large number of
students in public schools.