BeIR/webis-touche2020 huggingface dataset:
Assoc. ground zero mosque with terror is like assoc. Christians/KKK.

Steve Chapman. "Ban a ground zero mosque?" Chicago Tribune. July 22nd, 2010: "A group called the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee says that 'to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous 13-story mosque at ground zero.' [...] Of course, the 'they' who planned and executed the 9/11 attacks are not the same 'they' who want to erect this structure. Both groups are made up of Muslims. But associating all Muslims with al-Qaida is like equating all Christians with the Ku Klux Klan."
Mosque wrongly uses proximity to ground zero to spread Islam

"9/11 Families Reject Towering Mosque Planned for Ground Zero Site" 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America: "Victims’ families view the imam’s expressed plan to “leverage” the mosque’s proximity to Ground Zero to engage in proselytizing and to “grow the Muslim community,” as shockingly insensitive to the history of the site where their loved ones were slaughtered in the worst terrorist attack by extremist Muslims in America’s history; following the attack, 20,000 body parts were recovered in a nine-month operation to remove 1.8 million tons of rubble from Lower Manhattan."
Feelings of Muslim 9/11 victims need to be considered as well

Fareed Zakaria. "Build the Ground Zero Mosque." Newsweek.com. August 6th, 2010: "Abraham Foxman, the head of the ADL, explained that we must all respect the feelings of the 9/11 families, even if they are prejudiced feelings. 'Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted,' he said. First, the 9/11 families have mixed views on this mosque. There were, after all, dozens of Muslims killed at the World Trade Center. Do their feelings count?"
Islam is a religion of violence and conquest.

Madeline Brooks. "Why the Ground Zero Mosque Must Be Stopped." American Thinker. May 10, 2010: "Rauf gets even trickier here. He states in What's Right With Islam that a society that follows natural law, such as America, is already practicing Sharia. However, he does not note that his peculiar definition of Sharia acceptance is shared by just about no other Imam. So what prevents him from adjusting his singular idea of Sharia back to the norm of forced conversions, murdering non-Muslims and apostates, amputations of thieves' hands, stoning of adulterous women, execution of homosexuals, etc.? Throughout his writing, Rauf floats an image of a harmonious, pleasant Islam -- nice to everybody. But this is totally disconnected from Islam's actual history of bloody conquest, enslavement, and humiliation of other people -- which he never acknowledges."
Radical views underlie the ground zero mosque

Sarah Palin: "Just days after 9/11, the spiritual leader of the organization that wants to build the mosque, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, suggested that blame be placed on the innocents when he stated that the “United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” and that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel, and refuses to provide information about the sources of funding for the $100 million mosque. Rauf also plays a key role in a group behind the flotilla designed to provoke Israel in its justifiable blockade of Gaza. These are just a few of the points Americans are realizing as New York considers the proposed mosque just a stone’s throw away from 9/11’s sacred ground."[10]
9/11 victims are not entitled to make bigoted demands.

Abraham Foxman, the head of the ADL, explained that the anguish of the 9/11 victims "entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted." Fareed Zakaria responded by saying. "does Foxman believe that bigotry is OK if people think they’re victims? Does the anguish of Palestinians, then, entitle them to be anti-Semitic?"[5]
The mission focus of charter schools helps promote success

"Contracting for Success: Charter Schools Offer Choice". Duke University. Summer 2005 - "The charter that establishes each school is a performance contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, enrollment limits, assessment methods, and criteria for success. Approval of the charter is contingent on a clearly described instructional program. Most charters are granted for three to five years, but they can be revoked if the state determines that student achievement has not been demonstrated or that the terms of the contract have not been met."
Charter schools don't add efficiency, but more administrative costs

Larry Kuehn. "Ten Problems with Charter Schools". British Columbia Teachers' Federation. 1995 - "Charter schools don't reduce spending on administration. While some have argued that administrative efficiencies will be improved with competition, experience doesn't bear this out. In Britain, grant-maintained schools have spawned new agencies to serve administrative needs. Many individual schools have had to create jobs for people to handle finances; where schools have not, the principal ends up spending a great deal of time on day-to-day business administration, like insurance, benefits, and building repair, rather than educational concerns. The advantages of bulk purchasing and efficiencies of scale are lost, making materials and services more expensive. Salaries of principals in the grant-maintained schools have soared."
Charter schools focus more on behavior and self-esteem

"Charter Schools' Big Experiment". Washington Post. June 9, 2008 - "many New Orleans parents are embracing charter schools. Shajuandra Steptore, a nursing student, said she was not impressed by the regular public schools that her bright but sometimes troublesome daughter A'sha attended before the hurricane. When Alford's school opened, Steptore said, she was drawn to its promise 'to focus on behavior and on self-esteem.' After a year at Langston Hughes, A'sha is finishing fifth grade. Her behavior has improved along with her reading and math, and Steptore plans to keep her in charters permanently."
Charter schools have a poor return on investment

Scott Elliott. "The case against charter schools in Dayton". Dayton Daily. November 12, 2005 - "If charter schools are about free enterprise, markets and bringing business sense to the world of education, then I’ve got three words that the proponents should consider: return on investment. [...] Last year, Ohio spent $424 million on about 250 charter schools statewide. In Dayton alone, the cost was about $45 million on 33 charter schools. So what did we get for our money? [...] Statewide, 71 percent of charter schools were rated in 'academic emergency,' the lowest rating category. [...] In Dayton, no charter schools were rated excellent or effective at the top two rating categories. Many Dayton charters, about 39 percent, got no rating for a variety of reasons, while another 40 percent were rated in academic emergency. [...] And this is part of a continuing pattern."
Regulations restrict charter schools and their competitiveness

Elly Jo Rael. "A Summary of Arguments For and Against Charter Schools" - "Charter schools do not create school competition. The instability of reform laws, lack of adequate funding, the lack of a profit motive, and many remaining restrictions on who can establish a charter school and how it can be run will restrict their creation, as will the lack of technical assistance, start-up capital, and facilities. The application process (e.g. through a local school board) and accountability procedures (e.g. annual standardized tests) will both restrict the number of charter schools and reduce the variation between them. Most state laws also restrict the number of charter schools allowed."
Charter schools can unconventionally reward student success

Michael Kunzelman. "In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Educators, Students Embrace Charter Schools". Associated Press - "Beignet rewards. Indeed, KIPP schools employ virtually theatrical teaching methods and routines. Teachers and students frequently interact through singing, chanting, and hand gestures. 'Sparking' in the classroom means sitting up, paying attention, asking and answering questions. Students earn a weekly 'paycheck' that rewards good behavior with treats like hot cocoa and beignets, the fried pastries that are a signature snack in New Orleans.' Lessons on behavior are as much a part of the school's curriculum as reading, writing, and arithmetic."
Charter schools do not achieve economies of scale

"Reining in Charter Schools". New York Times (Editorial). May 10, 2006 - "Edison has long insisted that its fortunes would improve with "economies of scale." The flaw here is that renovating schools, buying computers and training teachers remain expensive, no matter how many times you do it. Some experts argue that economies of scale do not exist in education, especially in a charter system, where schools are meant to vary in focus and size. In addition, the costs of managing large systems have proved to be high."
Public schools are cushioned from enrollment losses to charter schools

"Does Charter School Competition Improve Traditional Public Schools?". Manhattan Institute for Public Policy. June 10, 2000 - We studied Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts, Jersey City and Trenton, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia (D.C.), to appraise how charter schools are affecting the traditional public school system.2 We found that charter competition has not induced large changes in district-wide operations, despite the fact that a significant number of students have left district schools for charter schools. [...] This may be explained by the fact that state policies generally cushion districts from the financial effects of departing students. Demographics play a role, too. Rising total enrollments, a by-product of the 'baby boom echo,' and recent high rates of immigration, have helped districts avoid fiscal pain; some have maintained absolute enrollment (and budget) levels even as their market share has shrunk."
Schools are not like businesses; can't just let bad ones die

Scott Elliott. "The case against charter schools in Dayton". Dayton Daily. November 12, 2005 - "schools are not mutual funds. If you pick a mutual fund, all you care about is performance. If it starts to lose money, you dump it. Schools are much more complicated. Once you pick one for your child, it’s awfully hard to switch. You arrange your life around the school’s schedule, your child makes friends. It’s more than a business relationship. It’s an emotional investment. And those ties are awfully tough to sever, even if the school’s performance is disappointing."
Entrepreneurs exploit corrupt officials to create charter schools

Seth Sandronsky. "Rethinking Charter Schools". Weekend Edition. September 27, 2008 - "In New Orleans, public officials and charter school operators exploited the awful devastation from Hurricane Katrina and shameful reaction of FEMA to turn the city’s schools upside down. Consider this. 'In one short year, New Orleans had become home to the highest concentration of charter schools in the nation,' writes Leigh Dingerson, a community organizer, educator and co-editor of the collection, along with Barbara Miner, Bob Peterson and Stephanie Walters."
Flexibility of charter schools can better serve disadvantaged

Scott Elliot. "The case for charter schools in Dayton". Dayton Daily. November 12, 2005 - "At ISUS, they aggressively recruit dropouts, through juvenile court, word-of-mouth or other referrals. These are kids nobody seemed to care about six years ago. The kids get intensive instruction to try to raise their test scores to the point where they can pass a state exam and graduate. [...] The whole story of ISUS was made possible by the freedom of charter schools. Once the bonds of bureaucracy were broken, Higdon was able to put her innovations into motion and create a remarkable opportunity for kids who were mostly overlooked and ignored in the past."
Charter schools create two-tiers; lets public schools fail

Charter schools, and the competition they introduce, produce a two-tiered education system in which public schools are essentially abandoned for what are supposedly better charter schools. This is because charter schools have the power to deny students enrollments if they do not qualify, generally on the basis of merit. This stands in contrast to public schools that must accept those in the district that enroll. The problem is that this creates an "exclusive" tier in the public schooling system, leaving public schools with those that are "less qualified". This degrades public schools and their intellectual environment, and makes it harder for public schools to show statistical improvements and obtain needed funding. Instead of this, why not make public schools work for all students, including the gifted and less gifted.
Competition created by charter schools distracts from the classroom

"Reining in Charter Schools". New York Times (Editorial). May 10, 2006 - "uncertainty has created budgeting havoc and simply forced the diversion of much of the attention of district leaders away from the classroom as a matter of financial survival. Every year, there were schools to close and costs to cut. Three years after the first charter school opened, Dayton had slipped to last in the state’s rating system â€” worse even than Cleveland, the traditional testing doormat in Ohio. Three years later, Dayton still is at the bottom."
Charter schools are damaging private schools

Scott Elliott. "The case against charter schools in Dayton". Dayton Daily. November 12, 2005 - "unexpectedly, charters have also devastated private schools. The trend line is stark. Private schools were having a strong decade in the 1990s. Many hit 10-year enrollment peaks in 1999, just as charter were getting off the ground. [...] Five years later, private school enrollment was collapsing â€” better than three-quarters hit 10-year enrollment lows. I just pulled updated private school enrollment data last week â€”Â since 2003, 18 of 20 Dayton private schools saw enrollment drops. This is no coincidence."
Public schools can offer everything charter schools claim

Larry Kuehn. "Ten Problems with Charter Schools". British Columbia Teachers' Federation. 1995 - "The concerns of most parents can be addressed by the current system. Many program options are currently offered in public schools and schools are increasingly open to program options. Particular languages, areas of focus such as the arts, and special needs are already met by programs within the public schools. This approach better serves the public good than setting up what are often essentially private schools with full public funding. Parent advisory committees, mandated in the School Act, provide an opportunity for parents to provide input into the school policies."
Charter schools can exclude special needs students

Larry Kuehn. "Ten Problems with Charter Schools". British Columbia Teachers' Federation. 1995 - "Charter schools may exclude students with special needs. [...] In a system based on an educational marketplace, students with special needs may detract from the marketability of the school. Research in Britain indicates that the 'most effective strategies are 1. to recruit more students who are likely to perform well academically, and 2. exclude students who are likely not to do well academically. [...] There is concern in Britain over the trend away from integrating children with special needs into the regular classroom. These students are seen as impediments in achieving test scores that can be used to comparison-market the school."
Competition b/w teachers in charter schools incentivizes performance

New Orleans KIPP Believe College Prep school teacher Scarlet Feinberg said in a October 2006 NPR article: "It's great pressure, I mean it's pressure that makes you work harder, that gives you a sense of urgency every day that they must learn these skills. If you don't produce the results that need to be produced, it's very possible that you could lose your job."[3]
Charter schools are about niche education, not broad reform

Larry Kuehn. "Ten Problems with Charter Schools". British Columbia Teachers' Federation. 1995 - "Charter schools don't encourage system reform and improved quality. [...] The theory put forward by many charter school advocates is that the competition of charter schools will lead to reform and improvement to the mainstream of the public schools. [...] In the U.S. and Alberta, most of the charter proposals have been for 'niche schools' that serve a particular special population. Charter schools end up serving special interests, rather than creating programs that develop alternatives that would be offered to most students. They divert money and attention from improving all schools to enhancing a few."
Charter schools are based on funding students not schools

Bruno Manno. "The Case Against Charter Schools". School Administrator. May 2001. - "Allegation No. 1: Charter schools rob funds and students from regular public schools. While they may benefit a few youngsters, they hurt those left behind by biting into district budgets. [...] While it is true that charter funds are typically subtracted from district revenues, that is because their students are subtracted from district rolls. The fundamental concept of any school choice regimen is that the money follows the child to the school the family selects. Public dollars are meant to be spent for the education of that particular student, not entitlements for school systems. The premise of the allegation is backwards."
Charter schools promote teacher independence and character

Elly Jo Rael. "A Summary of Arguments For and Against Charter Schools": "Charter schools promote teacher autonomy and empowerment. Due to decreased regulation teachers can maintain a greater sense of freedom to develop their own unique styles of pedagogy, and are able to adopt new methods without fear of administrative sanctions. Thus, the best teachers in the educational system will be attracted by higher levels of autonomy. Furthermore, by empowering teachers, charter schools will increase teacher motivation and innovation making the profession attractive."
Charter school choice helps pressure school boards to reform

Elly Jo Rael. "A Summary of Arguments For and Against Charter Schools" - "Charter schools add financial pressure to break up inertia. Putting financial pressure on the public schools is the only way to force them to change. As mentioned before, parent and student choice pressures schools to be accountable, and to accommodate their interests. If public schools fail to address concerns and interests, then they will ultimately lose students in their respective districts and a given percentage of per pupil expenditures."
Charter school competition distracts from teaching

"Reining in Charter Schools". New York Times (Editorial). May 10, 2006 - "uncertainty has created budgeting havoc and simply forced the diversion of much of the attention of district leaders away from the classroom as a matter of financial survival. Every year, there were schools to close and costs to cut. Three years after the first charter school opened, Dayton had slipped to last in the state’s rating system â€” worse even than Cleveland, the traditional testing doormat in Ohio. Three years later, Dayton still is at the bottom."
Charter schools can generate strong funding from foundations

Matthew Yglesias. "The Case for Charter Schools". Thank Progress. September 19, 2008 - "it’s important to understand that the charter schools that have shown the most impressive results get substantial additional funding from foundations and other charitable sources over and above their public funding. The evidence, in other words, suggests that structural reform in the direction of more charter schools is a necessary complement to more funding, but not a substitute for it."
Many factors constrain "choice" introduced by charter schools

Larry Kuehn. "Ten Problems with Charter Schools". British Columbia Teachers' Federation. 1995 - "Hidden impediments get in the way of real choice. [...] Proponents of "choice" through charter schools often claim that the choice is open for any parents. In practice, hidden factors, such as the cost of transportation or the lack of skills to take part in meetings, get in the way of any real opportunities for many to choose. A case study on one California district demonstrated that a school choice program designed to overcome economic inequities resulted in increasing stratification because of these hidden factors. [...] As James Guthrie told Education Week, 'let me tell you why schools aren't like chocolate bars. When you or I eat a chocolate bar, the gratification and the effect is virtually immediate. Schools have a lagged effect, some of the consequences of which are not immediately evident.' In the absence of data, he says, 'parents will make a judgment based on the social class of students.'"
Charter schools spend more on administration

Deborah Bach. "School Board digs in against charter schools". Seattle PI. December 17, 2003 - "The Seattle School Board intends to make a pre-emptive strike against charter school legislation that came close to passing last session, despite being turned down by voters twice in the past. [...] At its Jan. 7 meeting, the board is expected to adopt a resolution opposing charter schools. [...] The proposed resolution cites a study last year by the American Federation of Teachers that found that charter schools spend a greater percentage of their resources on administration, less on infrastructure and provide fewer services than the districts they reside in."
Charter schools exploited aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans

Daniel Pryzbyla. "Katrina exposed charter school carpetbaggers". EdNews.org. October 1, 2007 - "Katrina's aftermath brought recent and past history onto center stage. Seizing on education 'disasters' was one of them. A dictionary definition for 'carpetbagger' is 'U.S. history; a Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War and became active in Republican politics, esp., as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during Reconstruction.(2) Any opportunistic or exploitive outsider (1865- 1870).' Welcome to new New Orleans."
Charter schools make good use of empty school buildings

Robert Holland, Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute. "Use the empty school buildings". Washington Post. August 9, 2008 - "Across the nation, charter school operators report that finding adequate space is their single biggest challenge. Fearing competition, officialdom often hoards surplus property that could house these independently managed public schools. [...] One might think that things would be different in the District, where charter schools have been a lifeline for families more than they have been just about anywhere else in the United States ["Respect for Charter Schools," editorial, Aug. 4]. Long a model of education failure, Washington has a chance to be an exemplar of urban education reform, largely because of its charter schools, which now serve almost one-third of the city's schoolchildren. Yet D.C. officials are being super-stingy about letting charter operators lease the city's surplus school buildings. [...] Washington's families deserve better. School stewardship should be about what's best for children, not how best to conduct turf wars."