Arkansas is the home of the Walton Family Foundation, which gives heavy support to charters and Small change to local public schools. But even in Arkansas, there is local pushback.
The North Little Rock School District turned down a charter application from the Capitol City Lighthouse Charter School, in North Little Rock.
“North Little Rock officials said the school wouldn’t meet a need not already being met in North Little Rock. They noted the school proposed to locate in a neighborhood already served by achieving schools. They said North Little Rock schools were outperforming schools operated by the same organization in Pine Bluff and Jacksonville.
“There’s no education need for this charter school in North Little Rock,” said Beth Stewart, the assistant superintendent in North Little Rock. The panel voted 5-1 to deny the application.
“North Little Rock said Lighthouse’s application was virtually identical to applications made elsewhere, hardly a sign of “innovation.” The petition for the school also included the signature of a North Little Rock school official who said she had not signed the petition. Stewart raised questions about service for disabled students and poor students who can’t provide transportation to the school. Dennis Glasgow of the Little Rock Schiool District said the Little Rock Board also opposed the application…..”
“Also today, the Springdale School District will oppose an application for another open enrollment charter school, the Ozark College and Career Academy.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Columbus Dispatch is doing a great investigative series on a for-profit charter school chain:
“After resigning this year as superintendent of a financially troubled Internet charter school amid allegations of nepotism, James McCord had a new plan, and it again involved a charter school employing him and his family.
This summer, McCord opened eight Olympus charter schools, including four in Columbus. They would be managed by a for-profit corporation formed by McCord called Education Innovations International, or EII, which would get most of the state money each month, own all the schools’ property and employ all the workers.
His wife, brother, children and an in-law all had jobs with the company, former employees said.
And again, it all collapsed. The school’s sponsor suspended it last month.
Olympus’ sponsor was a Cincinnati orphanage, St. Aloysius, which also sponsors 45 other charter schools. But St. Aloysius has little to do with overseeing them. Instead, the orphanage contracts out the oversight to a Pickerington company, Charter School Specialists.
That company also worked for McCord as his schools’ treasurer. In other words, McCord hired the same firm that acted as his watchdog. Charter School Specialists was required to report to itself by email each month on the operation’s finances.”
The charter contracted for 700 students but only enrolled 125, despite offering free stuff to public kids to entice them to enroll. All the public school kids in Columbus will suffer, because of course the money for the charter came out of public school funding.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/11/19/ohios-1-2m-propped-up-owners-2nd-charter-bust.html
I thought this was interesting:
“Meanwhile, the number of students living in the Columbus City Schools district who are attending charter schools is down by about 600 so far this school year compared with the close of last school year. It’s the largest drop in the number of charter students since the first 770 local students signed up for charters in 2000.
Since 2000, the number of charter students has climbed steadily, typically rising each month, records provided by the district show. But after peaking at 15,319 in June, the number for October had dropped to 14,714 charter students. Columbus City Schools said this week that its October head-count enrollment was up 559 students over last October.”
Charter enrollment is dropping. I wonder if that’s why ed reformers pushed for more taxpayer funding of charters in November (the charter levy failed).
I love the fact that the Dispatch is actually reporting the truth about these charters. There are so many CEOs ripping off the people and the community. The word is getting out to the neighborhoods that these schools aren’t doing anything special for children. It is all so corrupt and shameful.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
From the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools website:
“Fostering Innovation: Charter schools allow teachers the freedom to be more innovative while focusing on improving student achievement. By giving teachers the ability to try new methods to help students learn, charter schools are developing effective new teaching models that can be replicated in traditional public schools. With the flexibility to modernize and develop successful new education practices, teachers improve learning and share results with the wider public school system for broader benefits.”
Hmmm. So this isn’t true?