The North Carolina legislature is about to approve a massive giveaway of public property to private charter operators.
The charter corporation will be able to get public property for $1, then open a “school” staffed by uncertified teachers. No criminal background check required.
Call the cops!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I had heard about this and thought it was from the “Borowitz Report”.
Washington State’s charter law requires that school districts lease OR sell to charters at or BELOW market value. Not as bad as $1 but they lose money on it. And, our charter law has the terrible poison pill of conversion charters which can take over any district school – building and all – with just a majority of parent or teacher signatures on a petition.
Unfortunately, this is true. They also put in a bill that would allow said charter schools to not be required to have at least half of thier staff be certified teachers. They are also trying (and may have accomplished) to get it to where these charter schools only have to answer to a “charter school board,” where owners would be allowed to hand-pick who is on said board.
Fraud, fraud, fraud. If I were asked to design a system that would de-emphasize student achievement in the name of corporate profit, this would be it.
I wish I was near the end of my teaching career (still have 15 years to go), because I would be willing to chew glass to expose these frauds for who they are. This is NOT the way to save public education. In fact, quite the opposite.
That’s already happened in Michigan. It is the con of all cons. You appoint the board and rake in the money. You pay yourself back with interest, hire your own relatives who are unqualified, have no library, no fine arts, massive teacher turnover with no raises nor 401k. Tell everyone you know. It is a complete racket and is absolutely disgusting because they are doing it in the poorest neighborhoods.
The state govenment confiscating locally owned resources? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Does North Carolina have a court system, or did that get sold to a private operator for a dollar.
I say this a lot, but people don’t want to listen: None of these issues will be resolved in courts. These are legislative problems, and they need legislative solutions.
I say they are political problems and can be solved by electing better officials, those who protect the public interest instead of giving it away.
Diane — yes, that’s what I was trying to say.
So what if there are already existing laws on the book which are being violated? The solution is to pass more laws?
Dienne — Legislatures can repeal laws, too. And there are fewer laws on the books that are being “violated” in a way that can be redressed by courts than you may think. To the contrary, the problem is that legislatures have passed and continue to pass laws that expressly authorize most of the education reforms that people complain about on this site. Lawsuits are useful insofar as they create roadblocks and make life difficult for officials, but most will fail on the merits, and officials will press forward if they think they have the political support. The problem is ultimately political. The courts will not save public schools.
I was just suggesting that sometimes the legislature does things that are illegal under the state constitution. I’m thinking the state has limited control of locally voted funds, but I could be wrong.
Yes, but the legislature can deem a law unconstitutional. I’d think theft of property would be unconstitutional.
see: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/05/01/bill-to-create-new-charter-school-oversight-board-keeps-moving/
And it keeps getting better…
The funds to be used to create the new charter school board would come from the funding allocation for the current charter school advisory council, which would be abolished upon passage of this bill. This is money that comes out of the State Board of Education’s budget – so they will effectively fund a new advisory board over which they will have little control.
Who will be on this “board” of appointed members paid for with taxpayer money? Glad you asked….
Members of the new charter school board would consist of the state Treasurer (Democrat Janet Cowell); lieutenant Governor (Republican Dan Forest); three members selected by the government (McCrory); three from Senate leader (Republican Phil Berger) and three from the Speaker of the House (Republican Thom Tillis).
In the voice of Chandler Bing, “Could this BE any more obvious?”
We predicted this a long time ago. They not only want the money but the assets also. Then they can do what they want and potentially drive up debt and leave the rest to us when they crash. Blame the public for electing nimrods. You get what you deserve is the old saying.
George. It isn’t about blame. It is about moving forward in the right direction.
With the “r” of nimrods signifying rethuglicans and the “d” standing for dimocraps, eh!
Where the hell is ACLU in all this? Seriously! I grew up seeing the ACLU sue over what then seemed like trivial matters all the time.
Now we have ( have had) a national law that has an impossible goal ( 100% by 2014) in place with punitive consequences that punish teachers for societal problems (poverty), an entire reform movement aided and abetted by politicians. I am not even talking about the lies, cheating and scandals that go with it, I am talking about the all out war that politicians are having on schools and teachers. We are being made the scapegoat for the failings of politicians. A retarded monkey could easily see through the double speak. Now state gov. is passing laws that that effectively seize locally owned property. Isn’t this illegal? I cannot imagine that it is legal for politicians to draft laws to seize property for their own desired outcome.
Most of us on this site are teachers and dedicate our lives to honing our craft and focusing on a content area. I know science, not law, so please forgive my ignorance in that area. With that said, can some lawyer please explain how this has been able to go on so long? How is it possible that politicians are getting away with effectively re-segregating schools and doing whatever the hell they want?
Working on it. Not a lawyer but I know a few. I will check into it.
and they want to drop the class size cap for K-3, but I guess that won’t apply to a couple of charters in my area with class sizes of 14-15 (and super long waiting lists…).
http://www.wnct.com/story/22006268/class-size-caps-for-k-3-go-away-in-nc-senate-bil
I just got an E-mail from the National PTA they are going to meet in Charlotte for a town hall meeting on bullying prevention – how do we expect our children not to bully when that’s what our lawmakers are doing?
They are basically criminals. They don’t care and it is all about the money.
NC is just following the Indiana, er, ALEC playbook…they are just a couple of years behind Indiana.
And how is that working out for Indiana?
Real estate law can probably help on this. Really. NC has strict real estate law. I will keep bloggers posted.
The Charters will close and someone will build Wal-Marts on the land.