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Reader Poll: Do You Approve of the Private Takeover of York City Schools?

Map_of_York_County_Pennsylvania_School_DistrictsIt was perhaps the most consequential, controversial and under-the-radar story of the past month.

This week, a York County Judge affirmed the decision to convert all of the city’s public schools into charter schools.

The district’s Chief Recovery Officer Dave Meckley will become receiver and plans to switch all schools to charter institutions by July 1, 2015.

Meckley will serve as receiver for the next three years.

With unilateral authority, Meckley will now transfer the York public school system to the for-profit group Charter Schools USA.

So, we ask you our readers, do you agree with this decision?

Do you Agree with the Decision to Privatize the York City Schools?


  • No (64%)
  • Yes (36%)

Total Voters: 554

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23 Responses

  1. No difference asked, “…didn’t Wolf support the privatization of York City Schools?”

    The answer to that is simply NO.

    Governor-elect Wolf is on the record as saying he does not support this plan to make York City schools all-charter.

  2. I’m guessing that since the privateers will be taking over, every school budget item will on the chopping block to some degree. Will there be any sports programs allowed? Music? Art?

  3. It’s not fair to demonize Republicans on this issue. Plenty of Democrats support charter schools. Just ask Mayor Nutter whose wife was recently appointed to Wolf’s team; there’s a couple singing the praises of charter schools for ya! Also, didn’t Wolf support the privatization of York City Schools? Seems to me Rs and Ds are in bed with the same people.

  4. The problem is not the schools. The problem is the homes these kids come from. Unless we have some serious cultural change we can throw as little or as much money as we want and we are going to have these subpar schools.

  5. Read what was reported last week in Philly Inquirer. A charter abruptly closed abruptly with one day of notice to parents. That is why charters should not cover an entire school district. The students have no school until their parents can get them into a new school.

  6. The quality of students graduating from Pennsylvania public schools are for the most part below mediocre. The education that is actually taking place in most schools is gone and I say lets try something new. Maybe the York Schools under a new charter system will be able to actually hire and motivate people who can teach instead of spending all the time and money on pensions. Current salaries, huge level of administrators doing nothing and most importantly pension promises have sucked the life out of meaningful education in this state. A change is needed

  7. It’s about how much is reasonable for the taxpayer to spend on public education without results.

  8. If you want to know the problem, read the comments. Of the first 10 I read, only one even mentioned the children. Anyone who thinks this is about teachers compensation is part of the problem.

  9. Ironically it doesn’t make it right to pay the CEO’s the highest salary over the last ten years when not paying the state obligations to the state retirement system. The state has NEVER missed a tax break payment.

  10. Ironically, we are all shareholders in companies with CEOs by virtue of invested retirement funds. Some of those public accounts ended up bailing out Wolf’s company. Doesn’t get any more corrupt than that.

  11. There are less teachers than anytime in the history of Pennsylvania thanks to Corbett, the problem is that the state and local school boards never paid their share of contributions into the fund for many years. But the state never missed giving away corporate tax breaks every year so the CEO’s could get their bonus’s yearly. The CEO’s salary has increased by 200 percent over the last ten years that’s your tax dollars at work.

  12. The teacher’s union worked to shut down the only scientific school choice study in America–DC’s–because it proved that apples to apples students were better educated at significantly less cost when the union-state wasn’t involved. Unfortunately, their idea of supporting members is factually different from educating/preparing children. Taxpayers get it, and that’s why the teachers’ unions are resented. What they did to families in Washington, DC, makes me puke.

  13. My wife, sir, was a proud member of the PSEA. The PSEA works to support its members so they may educate our children. This education means children grow to be productive and contributing members of society, but you believe it some sort of plot to bilk taxpayers. It is you, sir, that could not be more wrong.

  14. Leaders in the private sector unions have told leaders in PSEA you will lose the support you have among taxpayers if you keep pushing for more than what private sector unions have.

    My problem with public education is mostly administration. They don’t work 260 days a year. In many districts they get 20 holidays. They are 12 month employees. They should only get 10 to 12 holidays. They need to be treated like management, but the are more like union employees. Administration. Should not have preset raises. Sick days should not carry over by the hundreds with payout at retirement. They get 20 days of vacation from day one in most cases and never have to start over when they change districts.

  15. @Tommyd, read closely…I spoke of teachers’ organizations, not teachers…and it was a parody of Observer’s moronic comments. this may blow your mind, but I have once paid a “fair share” to one of these organizations. Have you? Teachers are dedicated, but their unions have ruined public education. Taxpayers resent teacher unions, their pensions, and their whining when taxpayers have no retirement money and they’re asked to dig deeper to increase teachers’ benefits. To summarize, you couldn’t be more wrong.

  16. Unsanctioned R insults my wife, who dedicated her life to teaching children, without ever having met her. He has no understanding of teaching, what it takes to be a teacher, and what the motivations of most teachers are. Does he really think teachers are out to “to bilk taxpayers who have no savings while bringing down America to the international mean?” What kind of paranoid fantasy world does he live in?

  17. If this development doesn’t make you wonder why right-wing radicals are destroying the legacy of equitable education in PA, you’re not capable of rational thought.
    Possible answers include: classism/narcissism/entitlement, backward religious fundamentalism, greed, selfishness, and/or a desire to turn America into a Third World workforce.
    The solution is simple: Their media is their All-Being All-knowing Master. Cut the head off the snake, and nobody’s afraid of that snake anymore. Their media tells them privatizing education is good, and they mindlessly nod in agreement, having already benefited from their own public education. This York takeover will end in spectacular failure, and York’s children and taxpayers will bear the weight of it.
    The only bright side is that, after the 2014 elections, the GOP will be under great scrutiny, and will actually have to govern instead of complaining and blaming. They are now RESPONSIBLE, and all blame will be directed at them.
    2016 will be very interesting.

  18. The Public School Teachers’ organizations have no interest whatsoever in whether children learn or not. They are exclusively dedicated to making money. This is part and parcel of the Scheme to bilk taxpayers who have no savings while bringing down America to the international mean. They have been very successful. Anyone who thinks businesses wants uneducated labor so they can pay them less is a moron with zero business experience. Fact.

  19. The Charter School Education Profiteers have no interest whatsoever in whether children learn or not. They are exclusively dedicated to making money. This is part and parcel of the Scheme to dismantle the Public School education system which made America great. The billionaires who control the Republican Party want to dismantle it because an uneducated populace means malleable voters and cheap labor. Everyone who supports vouchers and charters is a traitor to the American Dream. Everyone.

  20. Governor-Elect Wolf along with the House and Senate need to address declining enrollment, especially in Western PA. Allegheny County has 43 school districts, when you compare that to Suburban Philly, it just doesn’t make sense. In Suburban Philly you have districts with mulitiple high schools. So in Western PA you could have North Hills, Shaler and Hampton as one school district with local elementary schools and 3 high schools. The biggest fear in Western PA is among districts that boarder the old mill towns. The rich districts don’t want to become the next Wooodland Hills. Fox Chapel is the richest district in Western PA, but it is very diverse economically compared to Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and North Allegheny. Beaver County is really simple. Either 1 county wide school district with 5 high schools or 5 school districts. I will end with this controling the jobs that are created by school districts is like controlling the outcome of the Daily Number. Many districts scratch each others back districts.

  21. Just another effort by republicans to privatize profit in govt and socialize cost. Corbett and Zogbys cuts to education had a purpose

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    Total Voters: 30

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