The link between charter schools and gentrification is there for anyone who looks- in Harlem, in Washington DC, in Chicago, in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in New Orleans, in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. And anyone who is in a smaller city like Camden or Newark or Buffalo which underwent savage levels of decay after industries left and factories closed had better beware because gentrification is coming to you too. Developers LOVE charters and love it when public schools are closed even more because they can turn those beautiful old buildings into luxury condos.
This is the ugly underside of school reform- the money to be made is not only in testing, and school privatization, it is also in real estate investment and spectulation.
And remember this, because charter schools, unlike public schools, are meeting places ONLY for charter parents,, turning public schools into charters prevents communities from uniting to defend their homes, their business districts and cultural institutions or to demand that ( truly) affordable housing be built to enable long time residents to stay,s
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