In this month’s issue of New Jersey Family, I look at the basics:

Time for a pop quiz. Charter schools are: A) profit-hungry pseudo-public schools intent on draining money from cash-starved traditional school districts and creaming off high-achieving students, or B) innovative public schools that offer educational choices to families, especially those trapped in chronically-failing districts.

No test anxiety necessary; this question confounds educators, lobbyists, and policymakers, transforming educational issues into political ones.  For a sense of heated rhetoric that charter schools inspire, consider teacher union president Wendell Steinhauer, who punches “A,” railing that charter schools are “the pernicious corporate reform agenda of large-scale privatization being promoted and financed by people with a financial stake in the outcome.” Buzz. Wrong answer. Let’s strip away the rhetoric.

Read the rest here, or pick up a hard copy in your library, grocery store, or other location.