This year, Ohio will spend $1 billion on charters and vouchers. These schools enroll 8% of students in the state. Their funding is taken from public schools, most of which are far superior to the choice schools.
Stephen Dyer writes:
I get and am sympathetic to the argument that kids need opportunities to escape struggling schools. And I have little problem with the few really excellent school choice options that are out there that genuinely do give kids opportunities to achieve their potential.
But when the vast majority of those opportunities aren’t any better (and are usually much worse) than the struggling school, and paying for these mostly worse options means the kids who remain in the struggling public school have far fewer resources with which to achieve, or the school to improve?
Well, I’m sorry. I just don’t get that.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, school funding is a big deal. I wonder what the year over year increase in education funding is over several decades versus health care? I bet that education looks very frugal by comparison.
Why oh why are all of these states so foolishly allowing all of these charter schools, backed by corruption and greed like so much else in America these days?!?
From my Android phone
It’s about the $$$$. The biggest recipients of money are the folks who contribute big bucks to the Republicans, so the Republicans make sure to steer significant tax money their way. In their view, everybody who matters wins. It works for them in the short term and that’s all they’re concerned about. Long term? They don’t give a hoot. And public school teachers certainly make a fine whipping boy (girl) with which to distract the masses. It’s really a lot of fun and it makes them rich, at least until it all blows up. I’m really afraid of what they will do then.
Not just the Republicans…Obama and Duncan have played right into the hands of the predatory reformers…
Upcoming Kasich State of the State to be delivered in Medina, Ohio.
http://innovationohio.org/2014/01/30/state-of-the-states-education-funding-on-display-in-medina/
…”kids need opportunities to escape struggling schools.” After 35 years in education, I could fix a struggling school. Just give me the funds. Jumping straight to a charter school is “extreme”. My point is that any “struggling school” has a cadre of teachers and staff who know exactly what is needed. This whole thing is not about kids and teachers and learning. Charters are for-profit…do people really not “get” that yet? We are going on 10+ years here!! I totally paraphrase Diane, but the profiteers have done an amazing job of “selling” the idea of charter schools and vouchers.
Also, I was actively working when NY went to charter schools. The “deal” was a political exchange with the legislature. “You give us charters and we will give you_____________” I can’t remember…..but it was NOT for the benefit of children. Teachers should never have entered into that fated exchange.
I recall that the charter movement was announced to us in a hotel conference room. We were a large group of unionized /regional teachers. The guy next to me and I looked at each other and said “,What the hell are they doing??!!”
It has been steadily downhill since, but David slew Goliath. Keep it going.
We don’t have any advocates for existing public schools in state government, Diane.
We have charter/voucher school advocates in state government and then we have state actors who are “agnostics”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that disparity, public schools have taken hit after hit after hit under ed reform. There’s just no concern at all for the effect of any of this on existing public schools, which of course means the effect on 93% of students.
It’s nuts. We have an agenda that was sold as “public education reform” that harms the vast majority of public schools.
I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t watched it happen over the last decade 🙂
This is what happens when you put people who don’t value existing public schools in charge of your public schools.
I am hoping Becky Higgins, new OEA president, will do better than her predecessor or national counterpart, DVR, in protecting our public schools. We shall see. We definitely don’t have anyone in
Government who has our backs in Ohio. There is some glimmer of hope in a few groups (besides the bloggers and advocates on this site, of course!) that have formed in the past year. There is an OhioBATS group (led by Kelly Ann Lough Braun) that is working hard to convince gubernatorial candidate Ed Fitzgerald to commit to an anti-corporatization platform. Maureen Reedy and allies have formed COFPE and there is an NWOFPE as well. Both have teachers, parents and school officials working to fight for public Ed. Greg Mild of Plunderbund has exposed the ugly truth of Ohio’s horrible Charters and the tax dollars spent on their shady, but politically connected owners. I’m sure I am leaving people out, but I have to stay hopeful that at least people, myself included, are waking up!
Don’t forget Bill Phillis’ efforts to get equity in school funding for over 10 years and the legislature’s failure to implement the changes needed despite the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling.
So many have worked here so long, to no avail.
“that is working hard to convince gubernatorial candidate Ed Fitzgerald to commit to an anti-corporatization platform.”
I sent FitzGerald (well, his campaign) a piece by the Michigan Dem candidate for governor on how we have to “recommit to public schools”.
I meant it as a challenge 🙂
If the Michigan Dem can find a spine and commit to something so (formerly!) uncontroversial as public schools, so can the Ohio Dem, right? It shouldn’t take extraordinary bravery to support PUBLIC SCHOOLS, should it? I mean, how did we get to this ridiculous place where that’s a vulnerability? What is he afraid of? Michelle Rhee and the editorial page of the NYTimes won’t approve? Who cares? None of them vote here.
I would like to add my, er, “shrill” and “strident” voice to that of the owner of this blog who has the incendiary words “better education for all” posted right under the title of her blog. *I kid you not; look at the top of this web page.*
For all the charters, an equally incendiary idea: “Open the books.”
When y’all claim to do a lot more and to do it much better and to do it with a lot less, we are confident that y’all are anxious to provide proof—
“Open the books.”
Remember, charters are the rising tide that lifts all boats. They have so much to teach the rest of us. Above all in the area of the frugal and wise management of resources of all kinds. And since “data-driven” is the North Star of their education philosophy, I am sure they are just dying to show us the numbers. All the inputs and outputs in their Excel files. If nothing else, to show that the few don’t succeed by ensuring the failure of the many. You know, moral and decent and honest and such…
“Open the books.”
We should expect nothing less from those spearheading the “new civil rights movement” of our time.
Any takers?
😎
It is time to stop confusing market choice with free choice. You might as well have said that 92% were offered Regular while 8% were offered Menthol. Not too coincidentally, the adversizing [sic] strategies in both tobacco and education markets are largely identical.
And when the so-called “struggling” schools were actually manufactured by the same players now profiting from the charters and vouchers well, it is no longer an accident, the product of ignorance or the absence of oversight. It is the deliberate destruction of a central democratic institution and that constitutes treason.
Logic has been long gone. Politics are about politics and who is in charge of politics anymore. In my book, certainly not the general public and it would seem that a host of others believe this also, Money rules and who has the most money? Best government money can buy.
Tragic. Not only our children suffer but in the long run our nation will find out too late that people with money are not necessarily the most informed and/or intellectually astute.
Your mistake is trying to get the point. The point is simple: to give politicians the chance to say they gave poor people a choice, and to break teacher unions in the process.
The “choice” reformers describe is ala’ Romney: all the education you can afford. Except in the case of these types of schools, it’s public dollars paying, and most of the public is left behind.
Hello All,
The tide is turning… Our grassroots Public Education protests are gaining strategic momentum in Ohio, and across the country, thanks to our strong voices, and networking across party lines and into the community, to inform, engage and educate all stakeholders. There are hundreds of people, too many to name, in Ohio, standing up and taking control of the smoke and mirrors of the Education for Profit “reformers.”
38 people, including Frances Strickland, former First Lady of Ohio, drove through a terrible snowstorm to attend our last Central Ohio Friends of Public Education meeting in which Greg Mild (Cols teacher and Plunderbund reporter) and Kevin Griffin (DEA President), knocked it out of the park with a powerpoint exposing the corrupt corporate 100 million $ empire of ECOT’s CEO William Lager. Watch for future action steps with taking this ECOT power point on the road to our parents, educators and taxpayers.
Upcoming OHIO events:
• Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 7th:
NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER…. Saving Public Education…
Dan Greenberg, NW Ohio Friends of Public Education organizer, and myself, are giving the keynote speech at OEA’s collective bargaining conference on Feb. 7th, hope to see some of you there.
• Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 22nd: (we have folks from Indiana coming, take a road trip & join us!)
Community Forum Panel Discussion on High Stakes Testing… Here is panel and info:
• Columbus’ 1st Community Forum on High Stakes Testing!
• February 22 @ Upper Arlington Library… join our panel and concerned community members, as we discuss the impact of increased High Stakes Testing upon our children, our teachers and our schools:
• Dr. Steven Guy, Neuropsychologist
• Dr. Jill Smith, OSU Prof. of Education
• Daria DeNoia, Columbus, Teacher
• Courtney Johnson, Hilliard parent
• Kelly Hicks, Principal, Plain City Schools
• Michelle LaRowe, parent, Marburn Academy
• Samuel Nacho Runta, OSU student
Together, we are taking control of the conversation and shifting the story towards the truth,
Maureen Reedy
Thank you Maureen!! I hope your work will spread to Southwest Ohio as well!! Cincinnati needs a “Friend of Public Education” chapter!
This is great news!!!
Thank you Maureen! You and others like you give us teachers hope that is badly needed. Even though I am not in Ohio, you are definitely advocating on my behalf. I am heartened and can also continue this struggle for public education.
Katie and Deb,
We are reaching out at the OEA conference for folks to start up SW & SE Ohio Friends of Public Education groups. The great news for SW Ohio is there are a number of active and vocal superintendents in SW Ohio, who worked closely with Bill Phillis to organize and testify last June at the State House, pushing back against the state budget bill. We had a contingent of SW Ohio, superintendents and district treasurers, attend our initial statewide meeting in July of ’13, where we named our group Ohio Friends of Public Education. We reached consensus as a statewide group, that we should organize regionally/locally around the state. We currently have active groups in NW, NE, Central and are looking for people to start SW and SE Ohio Friends of Public Education groups. We can then organize further as a state, and develop a statewide steering committee, sharing local action steps and plan statewide action steps. Let me know if you want me to put your names on the list for SW Ohio.
Thanks, Maureen
Yes! Please do include me on the list. I will happily join/help in any way I can.
Katie,
Great! I am proud to know an amazing women and parent of 5 public ed kids who was the kingpin organizer of her community to build bridge between parents and educators to push back against Tea Party board members in Springboro, near Dayton, Ohio. Her group’s activism helped to avert a strike in the district by building a groundswell of community support for the educators in the public schools.
Her name is Lynn Greenberg and she is looking to help organize SW Ohio Friends of Public Education.
Send me an email if you want me to put you in touch with Lynn, I will be seeing her in Austin, as she is part of our national grassroots group attending Diane’s Network for Public Education conference.
I will also have some additional folks after OEA conference this Friday.
Here is my email: maureen.reedy@gmail.com
Thanks!
who are your aligned groups in NEO? there is a large community of people here in our inner ring burb of Cleveland district reading Ravtch’s book, participating in a trio of discussion groups, and planning for next steps. one of those first steps will be seeking out other groups to reach critical mass. would you keep me posted on your efforts?
HI Patti,
Great to hear from you!
Here is the recently launched FB page for NE Ohio Friends of Public Education, although the group has been meeting since last Sept., 2013. They are planning an April event on school finance, our tax $, where are they going? Bill Phillis will be guest speaker, along with district treasurers.. It would be great if you could help to jump in, with friends, colleagues, etc from your book group. I have an awesome friend/parent whom is a member of your group, Karly Whittaker – perhaps you know her?
Anyway, here is FB page link and also, email for organizers ….
Hope you all can connect, Maureen
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northeast-Ohio-Friends-of-Public-Education/578297102259736?ref=stream
Tom Moscovic ~ moscovict@yahoo.com
who are your aligned groups in NEO? i am just outside Cleveland, and there is a growing momentum of pushback against high stakes testing here in our district. we hope to link up with both Ohio and interstate groups to help reach critical mass.
Patti Carlyle, contact Bill Phillis of Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy
The DC lobbyist group, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, has a clueless op ed in the Toledo Blade trumpeting their successes in lobbying Ohio lawmakers.
As usual with ed reformers, there is no mention of existing public schools in this state, and how ed reform has affected 93% of students in the state by damaging and weakening their schools. Apparently kids in public schools don’t exist.
Why are ed reformers so obsessed with public employee pensions, BTW? Is it because they are funded by anti-tax groups? What possible business is it of a DC lobbying group how Ohio compensates state employees? Why don’t they butt out and get busy “reforming” the charter schools they’ve flooded this state with?
I don’t remember asking Michelle Rhee for any help for with my local public schools. She never even attended public schools in this state and none of us elected her.
https://www.toledoblade.com/Opinion/2014/02/02/Ohio-s-school-policies-are-working.html
In Ohio, choice means cheating because reformers and charters admit that they are inferior to public schools? No, it’s not the same as schools cheating test. It’s a fraud.
Thank you for this timely post. Our Game On for Kansas Schools grassroots organization is under attack by the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Kansas Republican Party, the president of the Kansas Policy Institute (our local State Policy Network “think tank”) and one of their fiscal policy analysts who’s also our governor’s former budget director. They are attempting to portray us as bigots for fighting against vouchers and charters, saying we are trapping kids in failing schools. The former budget director said we should research Cleveland and have a program like that in Kansas, so thank you for providing the data that shows what we already understand-that vouchers and charters divert funding from our public schools without providing significant improvement for the students who use them. They are responding to two recent letters to the editor, one in the Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303947904579339240495815388, and one in the Lawrence Journal World, http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2014/jan/27/letter-education-boosters/?opinion.