A reader points out that the U.S. Department of Education has the following program information on its website:
“The U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) has invested more than $255 million in charter schools this year. The purpose of the program is to increase financial support for the startup and expansion of these public schools, build a better national understanding of the public charter school model, and increase the number of high-quality public charter schools across the nation. More information about the Charter Schools Program is available from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement here.”
Why is the DOE spending $255 million on privately managed charters that are free to exclude low-performing students or students with high needs? Why does it support a sector that is more racially segregated than community schools in the same district?
Charter schools are not public schools. Charter schools are run by private management. Most charter schools do not have a parent association. Charter schools do not get better test scores than public schools, on average.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perfect timing…from Schools Matter:
Save Unsuccessful Charter Schools (SUCS), Now!
Increasingly over the past decade, children and their parents all across the U.S. are choosing to enroll in or are being chosen to attend charter schools that are average or failing. Since these children are our future, we must organize now and help reform the struggling charter school movement; thus, I am forming Save Unsuccessful Charter Schools (SUCS).
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/10/save-unsuccessful-charter-schools-sucs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+schoolsmatter%2FSISc+%28Schools+Matter%29
Why do AFT and NEA support charter schools?
Because Obama loves them, and they love Obama.
Yikes. I should have been more clear:
Because Obama loves charters, and the AFT and NEA love Obama.
Also, the Gates Foundation has given money to both organizations, so one wonders if that has anything to do with it.
Diane,
Urgent..you have my email…but this is very important. You may already have it from Leonie H.
I find the fact that Gates and Murdoch…hacker of a murdered child’s cell phone to be repulsive, disgusting and absolutely outrageous.
Why should they have a database of our children’s test scores. Sick sick sick sick!
Attorney and Parents Send Letter to NYS Attorney General & Education Officials Questioning Legality of Providing Confidential Student Data to Limited Corporation and Demanding Parental Right to Consent
On Sunday, October 14, at a press conference held at the midtown law offices of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans LLP, attorney Norman Siegel and New York parents released a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York State Board of Regents, demanding that the agreement between the NY State Education Department and the “Shared Learning Collaborative” be released, setting out the conditions and restrictions on the use of confidential student and teacher data to be provided to this limited corporation. The letter asked that parents be informed exactly what information concerning their children will be shared with this corporation, why the transfer of this data does not violate federal privacy protections, and demanding that the parents have the right to withhold their children’s information from being shared. The letter is posted at http://bit.ly/W6H2qV
I believe that the most damaging aspect of the U.S. Department of Education support is that charter school movement allows operators to eliminate the civil rights issues of equity and access that was fought for over the last 100 years. The unquestionable autonomy of charter schools allows them to deny students access according to race and class, practice inequity and disengage the public from the public education process.
most damaging aspect of the U.S. Department of Education … eliminate the civil rights issues of equity and access …
In the last Universal Periodic Review, the US State Department claims stimulus and RttT spending addresses concerns with racial achievement gaps. If these claims are not true, state and US attorneys general, civil rights groups, etc. need to make that case.
The use of geographic admission criteria limits access to traditional public schools, resegrigationg the school system. Look at the work done investigating this by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
Parents need to sue.
Diane,
I’m confused. The above quote does say public charter schools. There are public charter schools. I teach at one. We are not run by a privately-managed company. Instead we are associated with our district and are part of the teacher’s union. I would not work at a private charter school. It would help the conversation if you did not make an inaccurate blank statement, such as “Charter schools are not public schools”. In fact, some are…which leads me to wonder if the DOE is supporting the type of charter I work at or a privately-run charter.
The confusion is deliberate — it was created by those who seized on the original concept of charter schools to forge a weapon against public education. The facts about their intentions are extremely well-documented, in many cases straight from the horses mouth.
There is nothing for it now but to reform and rename the original concept so that people can know exactly what they are supporting.
Louisiana has a law that provides start-up loans at no interest to charter schools. http://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/2009/rs/title17/rs17-4001.html
Another source of money for starting a charter in Louisiana is through the Walton Foundation.
Even worse, wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools. Why? Under a federal program known as EB-5, wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects.
Participants can get a temporary visa, an EB-5, by investing $500,000 to $1 million in a federally approved business. If the business creates or preserves at least 10 jobs in two years, the investor and his immediate family are eligible for permanent residency in the United States.
Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/10/14/Wealthy-Foreigners-Fund-Charter-Schools-for-Visas.aspx#4FRG2eqMCEOXSPM1.99
Arne Duncan has a history with the Broad Foundation. He was on their Board before being appointed Secretary of Education. In Broad’s 2009 Annual Report when he became Secretary of Education, they said on page 5:
“The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned. With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”
On page 10 they say:
“Prior to becoming U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, where he hosted 23 Broad Residents. Duncan now has five Broad Residents and alumni working with him in the U.S. Department of Education.”
Click to access 101-2009.10%20annual%20report.pdf
My guess is that private corporations have purchased the patronage of the Department of Education.
According to Claudio Sanchez’s report on NPR (Weekend Edition Saturday), “To school-choice advocates, however, it won’t matter who wins in November — either candidate will be a friend in the White House.”
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/13/162840118/with-varied-approach-candidates-push-school-choice
School Choice: A Subject Both Candidates Support
I am also confused by this post. The majority of public charter schools are grass-roots efforts by parents and community members to reform education on a local level. In addition, charter schools in Oregon are not free to exclude anyone. In addition, why cite that most charter school students do not perform any better on tests than their traditional public school counterparts? For those of us that are working our tails off to create alternative options for our children, reengaging children iin the joyful process of learning, awakening them to think for themselves, and reigniting the flame that has been extinguished through the homogenization and standardization of education is paramount. Isn’t the high-stakes testing industry the true enemy of public education? It is widely accepted that test scores are not a good measure of the quality of the educational program. As far as I’m concerned, a traditional public school with outstanding test scores is a school that has becomes outstanding at teaching to the test.
I am also confused by this post. The majority of public charter schools are grass-roots efforts by parents and community members to reform education on a local level. In addition, charter schools in Oregon are not free to exclude anyone. Also, you cite that most charter school students do not perform any better on tests than their traditional public school counterparts. For those of us that are working our tails off to create alternative options for our children, reengaging children in the joyful process of learning, awakening them to think for themselves, and reigniting the flame that has been extinguished through the homogenization and standardization of education are paramount. Isn’t the high-stakes testing industry the true enemy of public education? It is widely accepted that test scores are not a good measure of the quality of the educational program. It stands to reason that a website dedicated to “a better education for all” would recognize or at least acknowledge the havoc that high-stakes testing has wreaked on our nation’s public education system. As far as I’m concerned, a traditional public school with outstanding test scores is a school that has becomes outstanding at teaching to the test.
My sense is that the states need the federal govt as an education partner, but that Race to the Top is an unfunded mandate for the states. How do we convince the voters to support education funding and the importance of a state/federal partnership in K-12 funding, AND simultaneously ask voters to help dismantle the current Race to the Top mandates? Without support from the federal govt, states are stuck between a rock and a hard place with budgets cripped by legislators who refuse to protect state funding to invest for the future.