A recent Pulse of the People article entitled “Why choose a charter school” by Susan Sliva of Schenectady was full of errors and misrepresentations. She falsely claims that “someone” other than you, the parent, will put your child in these “segregated” and “substandard” schools because your inner city child cannot learn the way other children do.

I am surprised at the Record for printing such inflammatory rhetoric. What ever happened to the fact checking that newspapers used to do to ensure that they weren’t contributing to the spread of false information?

No one puts your child in a charter school. You as a parent are the person who makes that choice. Sliva writes that 125 of the New Covenant Charter School students have chosen to return to the public schools. She fails to mention that charter schools are still public schools. Or maybe she just doesn’t know.

Another fact that Sliva doesn’t seem to recognize is that when the parents removed their children from the charter school, they exercised their right to choose. No one forced them to stay there, something that cannot be said about public schools in general.

Maybe some of the parents who left New Covenant were wooed into returning to Albany’s conventional public schools by the improvements inspired by the threat from New Covenant. This is the true benefit of school choice. It’s the rising tide that lifts all boats. It’s not just the fact that private schools in general are better than public schools in general. It’s the competition derived from choice that compels diversity, value and survival of the fittest.

Why would someone from Schenectady write to a Troy newspaper about an Albany school? There are some who will go to any extreme to stop the advance of freedom of choice in education. They are usually those who feel threatened by competition. They may not be confident that they can improve their ability to teach. Maybe they are just too comfortable in their rut and are afraid of change. Or maybe they have a political agenda.

David R Crawmer