The Noble charter chain in Chicago has picked up millions of dollars from the Chicago public school system for running its dozen charter schools.
Next year it is budgeted to receive $69.9 million.
It is also getting a nice chunk of change by fining parents when their children misbehave.
The schools charge $5 for each rule-breaking.
This is not the first complaint about the charter chain’s policy of fining students for misbehavior. Last year, a civil rights group complained after learning that Noble had collected nearly $200,000 in the previous year by fining students.
Apparently, nothing has changed.
In the most recent incident, a mother complains that she has paid $2,000 in fines.
Her son was suspended fifteen times; he was held back a year and required to attend summer school at a cost of $1,400.
His infractions (according to her): Godard said her son’s offenses have included having shoes untied, buttons unbuttoned on his polo shirt and failing to keep eyes focused on the teacher — all at three demerits apiece.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How many schools would fine kids in wealthy suburban districts? You can abuse poor kids of color, and get away with it.
Next they’ll be taking away their lunch money. My ex taught briefly in a charter school where students routinely publicly shamed for minor acts of “insubordination”.” These students were forced to wear papers on their backs all day with their “infractions” written on them, i.e. “I chewed gum in school,” or “I wore the wrong tights today,” etc. He locked horns with the principal so much that he was eventually fired. On the day she terminated him, he was escorted out of the building by security as if he was some kind of criminal.
So, how can this be legal?
My guess is —
In many states, charter schools do not have to follow the state’s education code, which includes lengthy rules and protections for students, teachers, etc….
That’s why it’s so much easier for charters to, for example, kick students out. In a typical district, a locally elected school board must eventually approve expelling a student after the district does a lengthy process. For charters, the free market reigns, so for this parent, they’ll probably just tell her to go back to the local public school if you don’t like the fines.
Imagine being ordered to keep your eyes on the teacher at all times all day long or you earn 3 demerits. Reminds me of Clockwork Orange.
From the article: “”We do charge a fee when students get a detention,” said Angela Montagna, spokeswoman for Noble. “It’s a $5 fee, a disciplinary fee, and that goes to offset the cost of administering the discipline.””
Huh? What cost is there in “implementing the discipline”? Just how much do they pay someone to sit there and watch a bunch of kids in detention?
Of course, they are just looking for every possible excuse to make money. That is the only rationale — no point trying to figure them out. Really, five years ago, i would have confused this for an Onion headline.
“I would have confused this for an Onion headline.” That’s what we thought. The satire business is not what it used to be.
A fee for detention? Wow, I’ve been doing this all wrong. For the number of detentions I’ve assigned in my career, I could have made a nice profit. Instead, I stupidly stayed late and did work while my students served their punishment.
I wonder how many kids get introuble, just because someone is trying to raise funds.
It is bad enough that young people are treated like dogs who must be sent to obedience school. They are then trained to accept financial penalties for disturbing the peace.
Rather than the best of twenty first century education [think Cranbrook, Sidwell Friends, Chicago Lab School], sounds a lot like preparing youngsters for the regimentation of prison life.
Call me “KrazyTA,” but I think I’ll stick with Diane’s notions concerning “a better education for all.”
🙂
It’s a very dangerous path when there is a profit motive to punish. You can already see that in our for-profit prison system
One of the main problems is that parents are bamboozled into thinking this is the best possible education for their children. Maybe their child did not do well in a traditional public school, and they think this is their last hope. Yes, children need to learn self-discipline, but this sounds like the school is creating robotic students who parrot the appropriate response. Like many others, I don’t think this would happen in wealthy, or even middle class, areas. We should not allow it to happen at all. Teaching children blind obedience is not the answer to schools’ problems.
No news here. Montgomery County PUBLIC Schools in Maryland have been charging students to ATTEND CLASSES for years. Illegal? Yes. Who cares? Not the Governor or any of the rock star Superintendents that tour the country building up their resumes for the next education job. This Charter is just doing what public schools do. But, you won’t see Ms. Ravitch mention what the public schools do.
http://parentscoalitionmc.com/Guide_to_Fees.html
Making a buck (or a million) off of students who are required to attend school is not a new scam.
I don’t know if it is legal to charge curricular fees in my state or not, but I do know that the schools will adjust by limiting the curriculum. Students can’t be charged for lost books? Then you can’t check them out anymore. Students not responsible for breakage of lab glassware? Then you do without if necessary. Language classrooms use a workbook at student expense. No problem. No workbook. Graphing calculators required for math class. Well, we used to do work by hand and with slide rules, so they can too. Field trip fees? Easy, no field trips.
Don’t get me wrong. School fees cost us thousands of dollars for our four children. We paid for their textbooks in high school. Those fees meant changes to budgeting. Living in a high rent district without high rent careers was not easy, but we chose to stay for the quality of the education. Is it right? Is it fair? No, but I don’t see anyone jumping in to provide “the extras.”