This arrived in response to the post about the poor results of charters in Ohio:
“My first teaching job out of university was a charter high school in Toledo. The director’s husband was convicted of stealing public funds and sent to prison. The politically connected company that held the charter cut off the faculty’s health insurance without telling us midway through the year and didn’t plan on paying us once summer hit. The charter company closed the school immediately after the last day. If those who run charters are willing to steal and lie and cheat teachers out of their salaries, they’ll be willing to cheat on graduation rates and in-house test scores too.
“One more note: The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools just sold my current charter school a “data collection system” that we’ve spent every single PD day working with, and in conjunction with the Ohio Dept. of Education, both enthusiastically push vendor assessment on us as the best path. If I could find a public school position, I’d leave and never enter a charter again. 90% of the charters I’ve worked with or subbed at in Ohio are an affront to our system of education.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
starvation bill appears dead in the water for now http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/apr/11/campfield-abandons-welfare-bill-year-after-stallin/
Yes!
Interesting facts about the reality of charters, not only in Ohio, but nationwide, I fear.
The “selling point” to the public is the ability of charters to ignore teacher’s rights, and as this essay so poignantly depicts, even basic laws. I hate to tell this pummeled teacher that the public systems are not far behind in abusive treatment of faculties!
My experience with the Denver Public Schools has the same type of “unconstitutional treatment” as deemed by the arbitrator to the system’s teachers’ union charges they received in their 200+ teachers’ case against DPS for horrible treatment. Did the locale paper inform the public of this shocking decision? NO! The Denver Post edits the news about the epidemic problems that system has…to whose benefit? Not a hard thing to deduce! I, along with hundreds of other ill treated, eliminated, experienced teachers are now awaiting a THREE YEAR DECISION from our mutual EEOC charges of age discrimination and related unjust treatments by DPS. THREE YEARS of “soon, very soon” which mock the very words by NO decision! Even the EEOC website says that after filing a charge, the “normal” time to receive a decision is 18 MONTHS TO AS LONG AS THREE YEARS!
The reason for this unending delay is chalked up to “new information.” What rubbish!
So, from my perspective, teaching is a snake pit where respect for faculties, just treatment from schools, and adherence to the bogus claims by the corporate and
locale boards of a commitment to educational excellence is the height of dishonesty!
The erosion of education in America is deplorable. Now, the corporations have discovered the millions to be gained in charter schools, which prior to the advent of these imitations of educational institutions had been milked by the same corporations through NCLB and RtTT programs, printed material, etc. Just ask Jeb Bush and his
clan how many MILLIONS they have made off the destructive pseudo educational
scams! The system is rigged, the public is feed a constant diet of “BAD TEACHERS” to legitimize the Trojan Horse of “reform” that is the saccharin veneer to the whole charade!
YES, YES, YES, YES! Thank you for saying it so well!
“If those who run charters are willing to steal and lie and cheat teachers out of their salaries, they’ll be willing to cheat on graduation rates and in-house test scores too.”
Great insight – its all about MONEY.
Oh but, “wait”, says the public – isn’t all about money for me too? I mean I am getting a salary.
Oh but, you just wait. I make 43K after 15 years of experience (with Master’s), and its about the money for me?
Ya right!!!!
Speaking of Ohio, you might want to read Matt Taibbi latest article on Dan Loeb:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/dan-loeb-simultaneously-solicits-betrays-pension-funds-20130411
This guy manages the money for the Ohio Public Employees’ Retirement System and other pension funds. Now he wants in on the California Teachers pension.
Guess what organization Dan is on the board of? (Hint: Students First New York)
I have a post lined up about that.
Responding to the Ohio teacher. By your logic, every employee of the Columbus City, Toledo City, Loveland City, Marion City and Cleveland City should resign immediately in protest of the wrong doing of employees of the district (these are the Ohio schools recently found guilty by the State Auditor for cooking attendance, graduation and test data – NOT ANY CHARTER SCHOOLS by the way). And, they should never work for a traditional district again, because, of course, if one district does something wrong, they are all evil. You know, once a black man assaulted a white woman, therefore, all black men are bad and should be in prison. That is the sophistication of your thinking. Also, all Race to the Top participating schools are REQUIRED to adopt a data collection system. The money from the RttT grant pays for that. Vendor Assessment is only an option of either the OAPCS or ODE system, the main objective is for teachers to keep track of how students are performing on any type of assessment – primarily teacher created assessments. I’m glad you are seeking other job opportunities.