"Won't Back Down" Film Pushes ALEC Parent Trigger Proposal

[Squinch]

9. This movie is a joke! Maggie's learning disabled kid would be rejected by a real charter school!

The premise of the movie is that Maggie's character starts up the charter school for the love of her learning disabled child.

The fact is that charter schools usually reject kids with learning problems. If a kid with a learning problem gets in by mistake, they are strongly encouraged to leave (by a variety of distasteful means) before "testing season" each spring so that the school's scores don't suffer as a result of that child's existence.

In real life, after Maggie's character had won her "victory" and gotten her charter school, her child would be booted within a few months. And now that the local public school is a charter school that won't accept Maggie's kid, the kid will be bussed out of the neighborhood to go to a public school that welcomes children with learning disabilities.

In real life, the other parents who thought the charter school was a keen idea, would find that they had no say in how their child is treated in that charter school, and if they are unhappy with their child's treatment, there is no place they can go to get help.

In real life, the children in the charter school have a 37% chance of doing worse than they did in the public school, and a 17% chance of doing better than they did in the public school.

Charter schools are a freaking scam!