Guess All that "Learning to Think Critically" Didn't Pay Off for You, Huh?

Continuing her guestblogging stint on Eduwonk, Newoldschoolteacher rips into common "good liberal" arguments (in this case, typed by Peter at Schools Matter) against KIPP and other high-performing, highly-structured urban charter schools, with both righteous anger and humor. I'm kinda surprised, though, that she missed this doozy:

KIPP schools are basically charged with raising these children. That in itself may or may not be a good thing, e.g., should a publicly-funded educational institution overseen by the state be charged with unofficially raising children? Maybe yes, maybe no. But if yes, what kinds of parents are these KIPP schools? And whose interests do they have in mind? Biological parents have an investment in the well-being of their children that differs on several different orders of magnitude from the interest that a state-controlled parent might have. In some instances, the KIPP parent might actually be better than the biological parent. But in other cases, the biological parent might do a better job inculcating in the child the values that are important to his/her family, race, religious tradition, and practices of ethnic origin.

Did Peter somehow miss the fact that because KIPP schools are schools of choice, BIOLOGICAL PARENTS ARE MAKING A CHILDREARING DECISION TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO THESE SCHOOLS (in some cases, of course, family breakdown means foster parents, grandparents, and other relatives are the ones making this decision, but you get the picture)? Does he think parents can somehow be simultaneously too dumb to choose a school that supports "values that are important" to them and better at inclucating those values?

There's also incredible irony in the fact of a blog entitled "Schools Matter" making the following argument:

Until we look at the totality of education reform and stop insisting that education reform should be exclusively about school reform, we will never come close to closing the gap.

Maybe they should retitle their blog "Lots of things matter more than schools."

I think there are reasons to wonder how broadly the KIPP model can really be taken as urban school reform. The resources it requires are very intense; it's not clear how large a supply of high-quality teachers exist that are willing to do the work KIPP demands; and some families are, unfortunately, too dysfunctional to live up to the parent side of the KIPP contract. But that is no excuse to dismiss the incredible blessing KIPP is for large numbers of children and their families.