Jonathan Alter Being An A-Hole on MHP's Education Summit

[stopbush]

Alter is a vocal champion of charter schools.

One of the statistics shown on Melissa's show this am was that only 17% of charter schools do better than regular public schools (the onscreen statistics also noted that 34% do WORSE, but no one mentioned that). Alter jumped in to say that the BEST charter schools have a 95% graduation rate.

MHP then asked the panel what they had against charters. One panelist started to say, "83% of them perform no better than regular public schools," at which point Alter interrupted him and accused him of "cherry picking bad data." MHP shut it down and went to commercial (she said she would not allow people to dis each other on her show).

I guess it didn't occur to Alter that his 95% claim could be a case of HIM "cherry picking bad data," or that the other guest's claim that 83% of charter schools do no better than regular public schools - a claim that was supported by the onscreen statistics shown only seconds earlier - might be data that added clarity and perspective to the argument.

Alter has written many "blame everything on the teachers" columns for Newsweek. He believes in super teacher Messiahs who will come to rescue.

He is a biased, defensive ass.

See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/jonathan-alter-joins-the_b_214424.html

[Squinch]

1. Charter schools can cherry pick students, so they should be kicking the asses of public schools.

And only 17% are doing better, while 34% are doing worse.

Charter schools do not have to accept students who need special education services. Charter schools do not have to accept students who have emotional disturbances. Charter schools automatically self select those students whose parents are involved enough to sign their children up for a Charter school. The public schools have none of these advantages.

Discipline problems, parental involvement and special education students are some of the biggest factors that bring down the scores of public schools. Without those elements there is no reason why the average charter school should not be performing head and shoulders above the average public school.

They aren't. Charter schools are inferior to public schools. Corporations don't know how to teach children.

[Grammy23]

2. I didn't watch the whole program but I did see Alter----

And also saw MHP jump in ASAP and take control of the situation by telling him straight to his face that she would not allow anyone to diss another person on the panel. I wanted to shout, YAY! for MHP!! So many times on this type of show a panelist will act like a major a$$hole to another person on the panel and the moderator weakly sits by and allows it to happen. Melissa did the right thing and did not allow the program to devolve into a name calling spectacle. I was not able to watch the whole thing so I don't know if that continued to be an issue but at least we know she can and will take charge if necessary.

Sometimes, I can listen to Alter and he makes sense. This morning was not one of them! Thanks Melissa for doing your job as the moderator.

[reformist2]

3. The attack on the public schools is one of the most dishonest political campaigns I've ever seen.

Despite the mixed reports coming in from existing charter schools, they continue to push for more. And as that article points out, you're not going to be able to staff every charter school with super-teachers willing (or able) to work from 5am to 10pm every day, even if such teachers do make a difference over merely good, hard-working teachers.

It's obvious what the motive is - they want to lower teacher pay and eliminate teacher pensions, and they can't do that if they don't break up the public school system first. That is the one thing teachers and their supporters should never forget.

[Bozita]

4. Just where is that district where a teacher contract FORBIDS working after hours?

That comment came from the woman who was on along with the charter school teacher from Flint.

I hate to see bullshit go unchallenged.

[spedtr90]

5. Alter relative in TFA

He has a nephew in TFA and cannot stand for any criticism of TFA or KIPP schools - likely where the nephew works.

Not fair, says Alter, and anti-intellectual and anti-empirical to say that KIPP schools are bad", because while there are some "crappy" ones, some are top-performing.

Well, Mr. Alter, ditto for saying public schools are bad. Do you not see the irony?