cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/26445083
Cartwright described for Rolling Stone a years-long struggle to keep kids safe at school. “Munitions and tear gas — we aren’t new to this,” she says. “We’d been next to the ICE building the whole time.” She emphasized that the school has coexisted “harmoniously with the protesters,” but adds: “Our issue is the chemical weapons being used against them that were impacting our space.”
But as the intensity of the conflict rose, it soon became clear that the school would have to make a dramatic change. “We were getting nightly reports that green gas was enveloping our garden — our edible garden — and all of the different chemicals were impacting our soil.” Cottonwood faced the costly prospect of constant testing and remediation, or being unable to use its outdoor spaces. When the bottom dropped out of enrollment, the school chose to relocate to a recently vacant middle-school campus where Cottonwood could take over the lease.
The fundamental goal of the charter school as a model is to cut the parents and the teachers out of the job of administering the school. Great that we can point to some number of charter schools where things haven’t gone to shit. But they’re still just trying to ignore the Private Equity Value Eating Machine and hoping it doesn’t roll over them next.
Says something that the school was moved under ICE’s privatized landlord. It really feels like a deliberate play to extort the charter.
Arm the Teachers