This reader reports on the for-profit charter chain that took control of the students in Muskegon Height, Michigan:
“I have a close friend who works in this very charter school in Muskegon Heights.
“If Mosaica isn’t the worst charter operation in America, it’s in the top ten.
“A few observations from my friend:
“1. They instituted a homeroom period at the start of the day. Students were ASSIGNED to a classroom and were supposed to show up for assistance / tutoring. My friend said that one student showed up. Administration did nothing to address the fact that kids weren’t coming to school.
“2. His building administrator locked the office doors and told teachers that she would only speak to them via e-mail.
“3. In April of last year, he was told that he must purchase paper because the school would no longer provide any.
“4. When MLIVE (The Grand Rapids Press), reported that nearly a third of the teaching staff had quit halfway through the year, the school responded by calling all the teachers in for a meeting. At the meeting, they had the teachers write down areas of improvement / complaints they had about the way Mosaica was running the school. After collecting all of the complaints, they threw them in the garbage. They then berated the remaining teachers and told them to quit because they have “loads of qualified applicants” dying to teach there.
“I could go on and on and on. This despicable company has stolen millions of dollars from Michigan taxpayers. On top of that, they’ve eliminated 50+ middle class jobs (former public school employees) and have created more paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by jobs. My friend makes $31,000 a year. He is better paid than several other staff members because he had previous years of experience.
“I am a FORMER REPUBLICAN. I voted for GW Bush twice. Knowing what NCLB and Republican efforts have done to public schools and to public education (the narrowing of education, total focus on standardized tests, elimination of liberal arts programs, loss of rigor or accountability for students, destruction of the teaching profession), I have left the party and have helped convince many of my friends to leave as well. I’m also a married white male (the backbone of the GOP). Lose guys like me, and you’re screwed.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Muskegon Heights was Michigan’s first fully privatized district. First they dissolved the school board then they fired all the local people who worked there.
http://www.michiganradio.org/post/muskegon-heights-has-high-hopes-3rd-high-school-principal-6-months
In spring of 2013, they went through three principals in 6 months.
Michigan public radio is the only media outlet who bothered to cover that we now have entire privatized systems.
In Muskegon Heights, Michigan, parents cannot “choose” a public school. There is no public school. They use a privatized charter chain or they move. That’s the “choice”.
High staff turnover is common in charters. Where is the local news?? Totally bought out. Exactly, there is no “choice”. All a lie. They’ve been destroying minority districts all over the state. I’m sure they will try to destroy the suburban ones next.
Unfortunately, the GOP and the Democratic party are irrelevant in this — both bought off by the same money. When did he leave the GOP — just in time to vote for Obama? HA! The corporate reformers hear about people switching parties over education reform and laugh until they wet themselves.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for writing this!!!! This is how charter schools operate in the state of Michigan. I’ve worked in two and they provide very little resources to teachers while paying subpar wages and benefits. They try to pass on expenses to staff and students while the CEO and family get filthy rich. They love to put money into construction which I believe is where they make more money. Remember, Mosaica was guaranteed 8 million upfront. Why isn’t this reported constantly in the news???? Why wouldn’t legislators be fighting to put an end to this waste of tax dollars??? The unemployment rate in Michigan is high and that is the only reason the schools can keep teachers. Writer, if you know of a group to join fighting against this in Michigan please let us know. The GOP in Michigan has sold its soul just to destroy public education. They’ve definitely forsaken some of their principles.
They honestly remind me of an organized crime racket. They funnel money to a top boss and use fear and intimidation to manage people. It is just a money making scheme. Where is the CEO? Flying around the country in his Learjet and raking in money from many, many miles away.
This post reminded me of myself. I graduated high school in 1998, and then went to a conservative, Christian college. I considered myself a Republican. Now, I consider myself a Democrat. But, as I’ve heard others say, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, they left me. I was clearing out my filing cabinet earlier this year. I found a paper I wrote in college that made the case for universal health care, but from a conservative position. A position like that is simply not possible in the Republican Party today.
Does anyone remember Ken Goodman’s books: quote: where he described “A stealth campaign to privatize American education, George Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) threatens to close more than 6,000 public schools, pushing dedicated teachers and disadvantaged children out of our neighborhood schools.
In Saving Our Schools, leading educators and researchers show how NCLB shifts control of every aspect of American public education to a faceless Washington bureaucracy while marginalizing successful methods, materials, teacher education, staff development programs, and curriculum.
Saving Our Schools investigates the devastating results of forcing financially strapped schools to squander meager resources on high stakes standardized tests. It reveals how the government blacklists successful professors, institutions, methods, and materials that deviate from the NCLB party line. It exposes George Bush’s top education advisors who call National Education Association members “terrorists” and would like to “blow up” teachers’ colleges.”
this has been and continues to be a purposeful campaign to do harm to students in their public schools
If you find a good party to join that supports public education please let me know.
“creative destruction” is said to come from Schumpeter’s work (taught at Harvard)
Vocabulary he used: He used the German word for entrepreneur but had to drop it because it also meant undertaker.
Strategy (like tactics and strategy of war) quote: “In using the term “business strategy”and likening corporate initiatives to military behavior , Business strategy and “corporate strategy” are used in popular media and business schools teach courses in it. since the 1940s. Schumpeter was investigated for Nazi leanings but there was no proof uncovered sufficient to follow through. His “creative destruction” has developed into “shock and awe” and the language that Fordham is using in Ohio to describe their aggressive charter school moves.
Galbraith was teaching at Harvard at the same time but why has his language been lost? and the concept of “economics and the public purpose”? i.e., public schools….
We need a national education summit with representatives of all aspects of education (the best the country has to offer) to discuss strategies to identify and improve the educational process.
First step: rethink all the current untested and unreliable “improvements” made to education over the last fifteen years.
Second step: stop treating school as a business and children as commodities.
Third step: stop using charter schools as a way to break the unions and get rid of tenure.
Fourth step: replace standardized tests with better measures of individual growth and development for each student (comparing their personal results from the previous year and not with the results of other children).
Fifth step: develop an individualized education plan for every student and meet at least once a year with children and their parents to discuss their progress and strategies for improvement.
Sixth step: stop using education as a money maker for various organizations, such as Pearson, National Charter Corporations, Textbook Publishers, etc, without regard to the educational value of their output.
Seventh step: you take it from here. What are your ideas as educators?
it’s the worst school. students get credit for classes that the school doesn’t even offer(Spanish). The principal accused yachts of sterling copy piper, yo sell on ebay. and words of encouragment included ,”you are either on my bus or you will get run over by my bus” spoken to the entity district staff by the newest high school principle. The worst school district run nut tube worst for profit company.