Comments on Fordham's Adam Emerson's latest pro-CCSA screed

The driving assumption for the pro-charter side, of course, is that market competition in education will be like that for toothpaste — providing an array of appealing options. But education, like healthcare, is not a typical consumer market. Providers in these fields have a disincentive to accept or retain “clients” who require intensive interventions to maintain desired outcomes—in the case of education, high standardized test scores that will allow charters to stay in business. The result? A segmented marketplace in which providers compete for the “good risks,” while the undesirables get triage. By design, markets produce winners, losers and unintended or hidden consequences. — Christopher Bonastia

Fordham troglodyte Adam Emerson stepped up on behalf of the billionaire funded California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) today with an essay attacking the Los Angeles Unified School District's mulling a charter moratorium while investigations into widespread fraud, graft, and criminality are conducted. Short on facts, but chock full of propaganda, Emerson defends the lucrative charter industry and its nefarious trade association, the CCSA. I had some choice comments for Emerson and his fellow baggers, birthers, birchers, and choicers:

Social justice activists have been attacked by The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) for using the phrase "burgeoning charter sector" describing their revenue hungry activities undermining our public school system. Glad to see right-wing Fordham confirming our turn of phrase, since it's the most appropriate description of what the CCSA is all about. Let's never forget that the CCSA was founded by racist nativist Steve Poizner, that their primary funders include the Walton Family Foundation, and the only thing the CCSA has ever been a "partner" in is activities to grow market share. Their wanting to "weed out bad charters" is nothing more than a public relations campaign coming on the heels of a decade of abuse, scandals, discrimination against special needs students and a total lack of transparency. We're all familiar with Andy Smarick's essay, and we know why percentage of market share is so important to the lucrative charter industry.

Rest assured that when I am elected to LAUSD in March, we will be creating a Charter Oversight and Enforcement Department in LAUSD to finally reign in these revenue-first minded charter executives and put the charter industry on notice that if they aren't willing to educate every child, then they won't be in business for very long. That's a promise.