Friday, December 9, 2011
Do you agree with an author who says the public school system should be dismantled?
Two stories really got you and your neighbors talking this week. One of them originated in nearby Palmer Township where the Lehigh Valley Tea Party hosted a speaker who called many public schools "abysmal" and said the public education system should be dismantled. A report on school superintendents opposing charter school funding is also a hot topic. Columnist Margie Peterson picked up the theme yesterday with an interview with a graduate of the much maligned Allentown school system who's now a sophomore at Princeton University. We'd like to hear more about what you think. Take our poll on the public schools in your community and add your comments.
40.742242
-75.300649
Nazareth Area High School
501 E Center St, Nazareth, PA
/articles/poll-are-nazareth-area-public-schools-abysmal
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/locations/5977335
Monday, December 5, 2011
Author tells Lehigh Valley Tea Party that public school system should be dismantled.
An audience of about 100 gathered at this month's Lehigh Valley Tea Party meeting to see Andrew Bernstein, author of “Capitalist Solutions: A Philosophy of American Moral Dilemmas,” published in October by Transaction Publishers, give his book talk and lecture “Free Market Education” Friday evening at the Chrin Community Center in Palmer Township. Bernstein claims there has been a “horrific decline in educational quality since 1850” and says the public school system should be abolished in favor of private, for-profit educational institutions. “Almost 90 percent of American children are forced to attend abysmal public schools,” he said. “Our education system is in a shambles.” Taxes make it impossible for many to send their children to …
40.68512
-75.27715
Charles Chrin Community Center of Palmer Township
4100 Green Pond Rd, Easton, PA
/articles/tea-party-speaker-says-privatize-public-schools
2023979
/locations/5945595
Saturday, December 3, 2011
As Pennsylvania legislature considers charter schools bill, area superintendents issued a statement condemning lack of oversight and public school funding of cyber and charter schools.
- GOVERNMENT
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Note: This is an edited version of the original story. Ed. Superintendents from five area counties issued a statement Friday condemning the use of public school budgets to fund charter schools and criticized them for not being subject to the same government oversight and mandates as public schools. "...Using vouchers to fund private schools or to funnel public school dollars away from local schools to fund charter schools is fundamentally wrong and inequitable," the group of 26 superintendents said in the news release. The school districts included Lehigh and Northampton counties. "Local schools are mandated to play by different rules than charters and private schools and private schools are subjected to far less government oversight and …
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-75.429271
Salisbury Township School District
1140 Salisbury Rd, Allentown, PA
/articles/school-superintendents-unite-against-charter-schools
1633601
/locations/5974188
Friday, November 4, 2011
A Nazareth Patch reader believes bullying could ruin public education, not voucher programs and charter schools.
- OPINION
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Friday, November 4, 2011
Dear Editor: Many autistic and otherwise disabled students are LEAVING the traditional school system for charter and cyber charter schools. Bullying is very much a problem for these students in a traditional brick-and-mortar school. Where does [Superintendent Victor Lesky] think these kids are getting services from? It is not from local school districts, it is from charter schools. If traditional brick-and-mortar schools want to keep students, then they must provide parents a safe place to send their kids, and make sure they are learning. If you can't do that, you don't deserve to have the students in your school. I for one want my children to learn about their community, but I don't feel they need to traverse an environment of social …
Monday, October 31, 2011
Superintendent Victor Lesky warns that voucher programs, charter schools could ruin public education.
Nazareth Area Schools Superintendent Victor Lesky made an impassioned plea recently that public education must be protected at all costs. The retiring school official targeted charter schools, funding issues and voucher programs as threats to public education. "Education is under attack in Pennsylvania," Lesky said. "I love competition and would relish the chance to compete with cyber and charter schools. But it has to be on the same playing field." Lesky argued that those schools don't have to adhere to such mandates placed on public schools, like special education, for example. "If we could start a school for science and technology only, I'm sure it would be among the best," he said. Lesky said that if charter and cyber schools take away…
Wayne Schissler
5:06 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2011
Mallory, you're right on the money there. Teaching involves having willing learners. Here's a quote from an education reformer: "The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners." -- John Holt I firmly believe… more ›