Publicly funded charter schools that target students raise concerns

Chief Correspondent for Our Schools, Jeff Bryant, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed his recent article, “Right-Wing Indoctrination by Charter Schools at the Taxpayers’ Expense.” Bryant also explained the work Our Schools performs and his concerns about the separation between Church and state.

Our Schools is a media project by the Independent Media Institute. It goes to the front lines of the nationwide effort to privatize and undermine the public education system. The group exposes the false promises of charter schools, voucher programs and corporate-style reforms. It also spotlights how communities are fighting back and often succeeding against the school privatization agenda.

In his article, Bryant’s discussed a report by the Network for Public Education, which looked at Charter Schools and their mission to return education to a classical or traditional way of learning. The report found 276 such schools and many of those schools catered to a more conservative-leaning family. Bryant spoke about potential problems such as more religious-based schools, with the biggest issue being the public funds those schools receive.

He is concerned this creates a breach of the separation between church and state. With Christian-based charter schools receiving funding from the government, Bryant thinks these schools have crossed a line. While he contends there are many reasons for the line crossing, Bryant blames the U.S. Supreme Court and its past rulings that created this environment. With the rapid growth of these types of charter schools, he is concerned it will turn into a trend that could set the educational system back to the 1950s, he argued.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more.