For the anti-charter crowd, it's always a full moon

They're howling mad over charters

Just in case anyone in the public charter schools movement was unclear about the level of vitriol that charter-haters are ready to employ, or unsure about how low they're willing to sink to denigrate, discredit, and defame charter schools, a quick glance at www.Charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com will clear up the confusion.  As the name implies, the blog is:

"A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits."

Of course none of these things ever happen in traditional district-run schools, right? 

Uh-huh.

It would be easy to dismiss the blog as ridiculous, almost to the point of being amusing.  But as you peruse the blog for cheap chuckles, keep this in mind.  Every time a story about real or suspected irregularities in admissions, testing, handling of funds, etc., makes it into print, the image of public charter schools is tarnished.  And that tarnish hurts our case when we're fighting the anti-charter establishment in the General Assembly and the State Board of Education for better laws or equitable funding.  

Charter school boards, administrators, and teachers have a tremendous responsibility, not just to run their schools in accordance with the spirit and letter of the law, but to make sure the public understands that's what they are doing.  It's not good enough to just be doing things right; charter schools must be seen to be doing things right.

In addition, charter schools must have an effective program of media relations.  They must be willing and capable of working with local media to respond quickly and professionally to any emerging threat to the school's public image.  The charter school board president or principal who doesn't have a good working relationship with the education beat reporters in his or her area is falling down on the job. 

The anti-charter establishment will do everything it can to frustrate and impede the growth of quality charter schools, and they are not above using things like the Charter Schools Scandal blog to press their case with the public.  We can't stop them from taking their shots.  But we can make it very difficult for them to find ammunition. 

~Update~

August 14th

Turns out, the anti-charter crowd in North Carolina has its own version of the Charter School Scandals blog.   Viewers of www.nceducationpolicy.com can find just about every anti-charter myth, half-truth, and discredited 'study' used in the recent debates over Senate Bill 8, all in one convenient place.  Run by lobbyists for traditional school district intrests, the site also offers helpful links to what it considers "edgroups," such as NCAE and the NEA, and "friends" such as Blue NC (the Democratic Party's website) and Progressive Pulse, a far-left website. 

The site does not appear to have been updated in recent months, or roughly since Senate Bill 8 passed.