I don't think I can overstate the importance of this recent blog post on San Jose Inside by Joseph DiSalvo. He said:
...is the competition with one more Rocketship [charter schools] in the neighborhood a good thing for all children, or might it do harm to some?
...competition that weakens an excellent traditional public school working on all cylinders, in all the right ways, is not what I think the SCCOE Board intended when it cast its 5-2 vote last December [to approve 20 new Rocketship charter schools].
I am extremely heartened to see the Santa Clara County Board of Education president finally beginning to understand what so many in the community have been saying for so long: charter schools do not operate in a vacuum. If not implemented carefully and thoughtfully, a charter school —even one that may do well for the students who happen to attend—can negatively impact the greater community. We have seen this all too clearly in Los Altos with Bullis Charter School. I hope our lessons learned here can prevent the same mistakes from being repeated elsewhere.
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