13th in a series.
Re: “Who Is Better – Charters or Public Schools?”
Attention, supporters of the charter school movement:
“There is no evidence that schools run by a private administration rather than a public administration are a factor in student achievement,” according to the president of the Culver City Teachers Union.
“Interestingly enough,” says David Mielke, “a big factor is labor-management partnerships, which is what we have going here.
In Culver City, labor relations, which had been contentious, won a long-sought peace during the recently concluded tenure of David LaRose, the previous School District superintendent.
Said Mr. Mielke: “For years, this guy Saul Rubenstein at Rutgers has studied 12 school districts around the country that have a high degree of labor-management partnerships.
“He finds that that factor is extremely positive in student achievement, almost to the point of offsetting the negative effects of poverty.”
Here came Mr. Mielke’s crowning home run pitch:
“If you want to address poverty, and student achievement that is low due to poverty, you don’t privatize. You don’t take away teachers’ rights.
“What you do,” said Mr. Mielke, “is have the adults in the system work together. This is not rocket science.”
