How The New York Times got it wrong in article attacking charter school families
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Key Findings:
- A New York Times article attacked Michigan’s charter school families.
- The article is biased and made numerous errors in logic, including:
a. Selection bias
b. Fallacy of composition
c. Post-hoc fallacy
d. Fallacy of false exclusion
e. Fallacy of authority
f. Fallacy of explanation
g. Using a double standard
- The article promotes falsehoods by ignoring high-quality research showing students in urban districts learn more at charter schools than at their traditional schools.
- Parents are not fooled by false reasoning and falsehoods.
- Parents know most public charter schools are good schools.
- Over the last ten years, enrollment in public charter schools has nearly tripled.
- Today 6,900 public charter schools educate 3.1 million students in 43 states.
- Most of Michigan’s charter school students come from low-income, minority families.
- The New York Times story is the latest in a series of ongoing attacks against vulnerable charter school families, the same families who have historically been underserved by their traditional public schools.
Introduction
Recently The New York Times Magazine published an article; “Michigan Gambled on Charter Schools. Its Children Lost.” I immediately recognized it as another unfair, ideological attack on charter school families.
Fortunately, parents are not easily fooled by these gross generalizations, no matter how long and wordy the article. Parents know most charter public schools are good schools. That is why families continue to choose them, and why most charter schools have long waiting lists.
After all, it is the voluntary decisions of millions of parents that explain why student enrollment in charter schools over the last ten years has nearly tripled, to 3.1 million students, bringing the total charter school number to 6,900 schools in 43 states. One million families are on charter school waitlists.
Download the full Policy Note.
