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Dear Clay,

I saw your cartoon in today’s edition of the Seattle Times (Jan. 24, 2015), and I felt compelled to write. You are clearly a talented artist, and your cartoon is bold and well-crafted. However, I feel that there are two possible interpretations of this cartoon, and I’m curious as to which one you intended. The cartoon is of charter schools represented as a big, shiny apple and teacher’s unions are the sickly green worm coming out of the apple.

Interpretation A (my first impression): Charter schools hold a lot of shiny promise like a big, juicy apple, and teachers’ unions are preventing charter schools from being allowed to operate and proliferate in WA. The implication here is that charter schools promise an excellent education to children and teachers’ unions don’t. In other words, teachers’ unions are holding back the promise of success that charter schools make and are, in short, bad.

Interpretation B (my second thoughts after mulling over this for several hours): Charter schools appear to hold promise, like a shiny red apple, but they can’t deliver on what they promise. There is plenty of research showing that charter school students do NOT perform better than their public school peers. In addition, there is also research showing that charter schools cost more to administer than public schools. Furthermore, charter schools should not be receiving public funding since they do not operate with elected school boards and therefore do not meet the definition of a “common school.” This is why the Supreme Court of WA ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional. Finally, there are many corruption scandals with several leading charter schools in other states. They are not a model to emulate in any shape or form. So, in your cartoon, the flaws of charter schools are possibly being uncomfortably brought to light by teachers’ unions.

I don’t think that Interpretation B really works, though, do you? Because teachers’ unions are not responsible for bringing the shortcomings of charter schools to light.

There is also one major character missing in your cartoon – private schools (I mean independent schools, not charter schools which really are run as private schools even though they receive public funding). The billionaires who have major influence over the attempted destruction of the public education system (e.g. Gates, Broad, Zuckerberg, Walton, even Andre Agassi!, etc.) and have contributed substantial amounts of money towards charter schools do not send their own children to charter schools or public schools. They send their kids to private schools. Likewise, many highly educated folk in the middle and upper classes also send their kids to private schools, often favoring low-tech schools like Waldorf over the public schools which they push their tech products onto. Imagine if all of the super-entitled private school parents sent their kids to public schools – do you think they would put up with all of the standardized testing and the deplorable conditions in many schools? I highly doubt it. Change would happen, because those people have the time, the money, and the lawyers to make it happen.

Private schools have to be put in the picture. How would you include them in your cartoon?

Which interpretation did you intend, A or B?

I look forward to your response. (Please e-mail it to me, if you do respond, in addition to replying on this blog.)

Kind regards,
Laura

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Leave if up to liberal idiots to think the superbowl was won because of Russia. You people are pathetic.

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Hi Clay,
I’m following you on Twitter. I find you very interesting and love your cartoons & commentary.
I wonder if you’d be open to talking on the phone? We could be phone friends?
Vivian Martinez
707-327-3922 😃

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