The subject has come up on previous threads, but more prominent attention is due a response issued by Texas-based charter school operator Responsive Education Solutions to a powerful piece of investigative reporting in Slate on the organization.
It's important in Arkansas, because Responsive Education, with Walton Foundation help, has a growing footprint in Arkansas. It will open its fourth Arkansas charter school next year in Chenal Valley. The Quest middle school is designed as a haven for parents in the upscale neighborhood from the supposedly inferior Little Rock School District. Just last week, a state advisory panel approved conversions of three public schools, including the high school in West Memphis, into charters for which Responsive Ed will be paid to be a consultant and curriculum provider.
The Slate article reports that Responsive Education teaches creationism in its Texas high school classes. It reports multiple examples of factual problems with history instruction. It provides rich details of the web of relationships between Responsive Ed people with organizations aimed at increasing the role of religion in public life and providing "Christian education," as opposed to simply education.
Responsive Ed didn't respond directly to my request for response. But Chuck Cook, CEO of the Lewisville, Texas Responsive, posted the company's prepared statement distributed in response to the Slate article on my earlier item about the issue. I've put it on the jump in its entirety. It's interesting reading, to say the least. Readers have already commented on that item and here.
Charter school leader defends creationism in schools' curriculum | Arkansas Blog | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art
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