A Charter School Trolls For Students To Fill Seats

Bridgeport leads the state in charter schools that operate independently of traditional education districts. The debate rages between charter school supporters who embrace more choices and opponents who declare they suck financial oxygen from local school budgets. One charter in Bridgeport stands to lose $11,250 for each seat unfilled by Oct. 1.

CT Post reporter Linda Conner Lambeck has more:

The city is now home to six charter schools, a half dozen traditional high schools and a smattering of private school choices.

Maybe it’s reputation. The Bridge Academy Charter School struggled enough on the state’s standardized achievement test last year to earn probation, even as it manages a 100 percent college acceptance rate for graduating seniors.

Whatever the reason, one of first state-funded charter schools to open has encountered something for the first time in its 21-year history: unfilled seats.

Licensed to accommodate 280 students in grades seven through twelve, enrollment stands at 266.

Full story here.

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19 comments

  1. Ron Mackey. I respect you but I thought that you had more smarts to see through the Charter Scam. Charter schools cherry pick their “students” aka source of income. Any and every source of income aka students that are problems in amy way are sent packing back to BPS ASAP. We have charter “School” here at the Cherry Street Lofts. The so called teachers will be given housing. Some story. Cherry pick sources of income/aka students as long as they are not a problem. It’s called SEGREGATION. Ron,I thought you could see segregation a mile away but you are blind to the new segregation seeping into the BPS. Give me a break. In 2016, the people of Massachusetts voted to END. Charter school expansion because the information showed that charter schools were a false messiah.

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    1. Frank, I made no comment or personal opinion, I post the link to a news article that was in the New Haven Independent but you feel the need to criticize me. Tell me Frank how is the public education going in Bridgeport to educate children of color?

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      1. Hi.. Ron.. i did not mean to point you out but you did have the first reply was from you. According to my memory,you have been generally supportive of charter schools and you have demanded that public schools(BPT) that sre failing should be closed dowm. I do not want to make it personal so if I do make any more comments here it will be for the general audience instead of directed towards one person. So,I apologize if you felt my comment was directed only to you.

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  2. *** Freedom to send your kids to what-ever school you feel will be safe, has a good staff record, a good educational curriculum, an active PTA, & positive after school programs is a parents right.*** Public Schools in Bpt. are in complete turmoil & just throwing more money at them without a professional study never seems to work!***

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  3. Frank, what is it that you expect from the parents of school aged children that are educated in Bridgeport’s schools fully knowing that most are failing? Do you leave them in a failing school or do you try an alternative like a charter school? What do you have to lose by moving your children to a charter? What alternatives does a parent have when your only choices are a failing school or a charter?

    Frank, these questions are merely rhetorical as I’m sure that you don’t have children in a failing school so you don’t have to make a choice that could define your children’s education, their future or their station in life.

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    1. Donald Day,you are right. I do not have any children in BPS. However,I was born in Bridgeport and let me tell you you local educational experience. I went to kindergarten in “Whittier School” on Whittier St in Black Rock. I have one picture where we went to a class trip to the Beardsley Park Zoo. Everyone is smiling. As my parents had to make a decision to place me into elementary school,they chose St.Emery’s in Fairfield,CT. First of all it aligned with my religion and my parents activities(they were married there,I and my three sisters were baptized there) and it really was the go to school for first generation Hungarian?American children The question is…Are Charter School parents ready to throw the countless other unlucky students under the bus so that the child in their family can go to a charter school. Let me remind you. Many here have excorciated Betsy Devos but Betsy Devos is the poster child for charter schools. There is a new charter school planned in then “Cherry Loft development.” Thi swill include housing for the charter school “teachers.” This new school should not be named la-di-da academy or la-di da prep. It should be name the Donald Trump Charter School or the Betsy Devos Charter School.

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  4. Frank, the main issue is the education of our children and not protecting union jobs. Frank why are the school books that are purchase from Texas, why are we using their valves? Here are a number of school systems.

    Types of schools listed:

    Traditional public school
    Charter school
    Magnet school
    Virtual or Online school
    Traditional private school
    Boarding school
    Language immersion school
    Montessori school
    Private special education school
    Parochial school
    Religious school
    Reggio Emilia school
    Waldorf school

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    1. @Ron Mackey
      The school books purchased are NOT from Texas, they are books approved by the Texas School Board.
      Unlike most states, all Texas Public School books are purchased by one state agency, not individual school districts. This makes the Texas agency the larges purchaser of school books in the nation. THIS, publishers have to have their books edited and approved for purchase by Texas, and these Texas approved books are what the major publishers such as Holt offer to all publics school districts across the nation.
      The Texas agency just voted to remove all references to Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller from their curriculum, so expect that new US History book purchases made in the next couple of years will neglect these women. Teachers will need supplemental materials to teach about them.

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      1. Marshall, your are correct about the purchase part but they decide what values are important to by taught that has a negative impact about the history and the role of blacks in America and the American history that blacks have played in America.

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        1. @Ron
          This is why Black History texts and other supplementary materials need to be purchased from ’boutique’ publishers who do not kowtow to the Texas school board or be developed and printed by the individual school system.

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    2. IMHO..existentially..there remain two types of schools in the United States;Public or Private. However,the boundaries between the two have been intentionally blurred to the advantage of the non-public schools.

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  5. This issue is sooo important and we all need time to research and then come back here with educated opinions. I wish Lennie could pin a posting and keep it front and center for like a week. I really think that this subject deserves that attention and time.

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  6. I dare KYLE LANGAN and other CC reps tp put through a resolution calling the next Charter School at the Cherry Street “development: as the Betsy Devos School. It wont happen because they are dishonest about charter schools.

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    1. Frank, I see that you are having problems with making your case and that you need help. You don’t seem to have a open mind about education, your mind is set on the public school system. Frank, at what point do say that this system is not working and maybe, maybe we should see what’s out there that’s working in education. I’ve provided a list above of other school system. Those who only believe in the public school no matter are not looking out for the best interest of our children.

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  7. Frank, you say,” Are Charter School parents ready to throw the countless other unlucky students under the bus so that the child in their family can go to a charter school.” Are you saying that parents shouldn’t look for better academic pursuits for their children, like your parents did, or should they allow their children to stay in a failing school because charters can’t take every Bridgeport student?

    Are you and other Bridgeport taxpayers willing to pay an extra 10% on your house taxes to ensure that Bridgeport spends as much per student as Cornwall which spends $36,176 per student. As you can see there is a resource gap and until someone bridges that resource gap then Bridgeport parents need to continue to look out for the best interest of their children like any responsible parent should.

    To insinuate or intimate that parents that send their children to charter schools are throwing children that can’t go under the bus is disengenous at best and just mean spirited at its worse.

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