Re: Charter Schools

["George N. Schmidt" <Csubstance@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 12/3/00 7:43:22 AM, aardvark69@EARTHLINK.NET (Victor
Steinbock) writes in response to David Blomstrom:

<< Without arguing either for or against vouchers and charter schools (and
lab schools, and magnet schools, and exam schools, and SES busing,
etc.), I would like to hear your description of "the corrupt elements
that plague public schools." >>

David, you may have been burned by the corruption of public school people in
Washington and Seattle, but please don't use it to build a false image of
reality.

I agree with Victor.

And consider this fact: The main reason "corruption" in urban public schools
has become such a public issue is that public information and public
disclosure make it easier to ferret out and report. Another reason is that
the attacks on public education have had an interest in highlighting public
school "corruption" while ignoring other corruptions (especially in the
private and parochial schools that are used as positive examples by the
propagandists against public schools).

An investigative newspaper like Substance could be published in every urban
school district in America -- but also in every wealthy suburban district and
in every private and parochial school system as well. Nepotism, cronyism, and
similar problems exist in all public school systems -- city, suburb, rural.
The less public scrutiny, the more "corruption." Therefore, the wealthier
suburbs, where the struggle for scarce resources is not as great, can afford
more nepotism, cronyism and sweetheart deals. It's just that nobody is
looking.

But even more corrupt, but in a different way, are the private and parochial
systems. More than 30 years of reporting on education has convinced me of
this. The most dramatic corruptions in the private sectors (both expensive
"private" schools and their parochial counterparts) are sexual and ethical.

Saturday's New York Times ran a major story on a sexual abuse case from South
Carolina's toniest private school. Not only did the abuse take place over a
long period of time, but the cover up lasted just as long. Because no
comparative data are available, it's difficult to venture whether this
particular form of corruption is more widespread in private or public
schools, but my hypothesis has always been that sexual corruption is worse in
the private and parochial schools, but more generally covered up.

During the mid- to late-1980s, I reported (in more than 60 stories) on the
biggest sexual predator ever to walk the halls of a Chicago public school (a
principal who had been a deputy superintendent, James Moffat eventually got
15 years in prison after being convicted of abusing four boys and one girl in
his office, and the list of his victims -- like that of most serial predators
-- was much longer than those for whom he was convicted). I learned during
those four years of intense investigative reporting a bit about the problem.

Racism and anti-Semitism are also widely tolerated in many private and
parochial schools. White supremacy is still evident in the Catholic schools
of Chicago, and vicious examples pop up regularly. Other forms of prejudice
are as problematic. Last week, for example, Loyola Academy, a very expensive
north suburban Catholic high school near Chicago, publicly apologized to New
Trier High School after Loyola fans, at a recent sports event, chanted "You
killed Jesus" against New Trier (which has a large number of Jewish
students). Brother Rice High School in Chicago's South Suburbs hit the news
two years ago after similar racist stuff -- in this case against African
Americans -- was used during sports events. Nevertheless, in Chicago we are
told that the Catholic schools in particular (and parochial schools in
general) should be used as a model of both efficient management and how to
teach "character education" (or what William Bennett calls "virtue" in his
Nazi mendacity).

There have been times in my investigative reporting career that I almost felt
like stopping Substance in our critique of Chicago's public schools because
of the unfairness of it all. While the wealthy suburbs and private schools
escaped scrutiny (because no one established regular published investigative
newspapers to deal with them), Chicago always looked more corrupt (relative
to the others, because their corruptions were unreported) than it actually
was.

When the stories (plural) are told about the charter schools experiments,
with the same detail we devoted to the stories about James Moffatt's sexual
predations or the general financial shenanigans of Chicago's public schools,
they will fill volumes. Already in Chicago, these stories are coming in, but
they are generally ignored in our fellow media. It takes a volcanic eruption
of corruption (such as the recent Loyola Academy anti-Semitism) before that
group of schools gets mentioned when the word "corruption" is spoken, so at
present the predations and corruption in the charter schools of Chicago is
being covered up because the propagandists who work against the public
schools are helping orchestrate that cover up.

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance
5132 W. Berteau
Chicago, IL 60641
773-725-7502

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L
to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.