In Florida, where charters spring up like wildflowers in shopping malls, the Miami-Dade School Board voted to close down Rise Academy charter school.
Rise appealed to the state board, and the state board reversed the local board’s decision.
The Miami-Dade board went to court, and the court overturned the state board’s decision. That is, the court ruled that the local board was right to cancel Rise Academy’s charter. The charter school plans to sue the Miami-Dade board for damages.
I recall reading in an article in the Economist that I wrote about earlier that one of the great virtues of charter schools is that it is easy to shut them down for poor performance, malfeasance or other reasonable grounds.
This one won’t go without a fight, and the fight isn’t over.
According to the story in the Miami Herald, Rise Academy was closed because of:
unsanitary bathrooms and food storage, a shortage of textbooks, and questionable spending by administrators. The school had no science, social studies, art or writing programs, no student computers, no library — and recess was held on an asphalt parking lot, Miami-Dade officials found.
“The school was a dump,” school district lawyer Mindy McNichols told state officials at a 2010 hearing. “They refused to follow any of the requirements.”
But none of these conditions was a problem for the majority on the state board. Now that the Appeals Court has upheld the decision of the local board, the fight goes on.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The charter school plans to sue the Miami-Dade board for damages.” I think what you will see as the voucher and charter school programs increase will be the charters suing the local boards when the board attempts to shut them down. The reasoning will be that the charter is private property (you can bet they have their lawyers making sure that what they steal from the public will legally become private) and that the “government” is taking said property rights without proper (as far as the charter goes) compensation. To me that-property rights-of the charter owner is a very dangerous legal argument that could cement these entities into place as districts will not want to pay the associated court/lawyer fees and or “takings” cost. And that is the end of the game-charters forever and ever and ever!
Ironically, the conditions described above will be the future for our public schools once they give all the money away to consulting groups, management companies, charter schools, religious schools, testing companies, etc….
For the 2011-2012 school year, charter schools received $55 million from Florida’s Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) fund. Public schools received $0.00.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-01-13/features/os-school-construction-money-20120113_1_peco-funds-construction-contracts-school-construction-projects
What is wrong with the parents of these students? I sure wouldn’t want my child going to a school in this environment. I hate to say it, but I can see these conditions appearing in some of the Louisiana voucher schools and new charters that will sprout up across the state.
Yes. We always hear that private/charter schools are beholden to the “market” and that poor performers will close due when they are exposed. Well, this Miami is an example of that not being true. A school district, who is held responsible for charter school performance, closes a school, and the school fights back and wins. Hopefully, the next court will uphold the appeals court decision and will not allow this school to open again. If this were a traditional public school, it would have made the national news.
That is exactly what I thought…the public school would be raked through the coals, blasted everywhere, another failing public school…blah, blah, blah.
But can I ask you something? Who in this town or city in Florida, would actually send their kid back to this charter school?
So is it ok to shut down a charter school that is not working but it’s NOT ok to shut down a public school that’s not working?
Are you paying attention and reading? That is what they are doing…closing public schols. The point is then they open charters and they are even more difficult to close and most are not any better unless you want your kid in a military test prep factory. Keep reading please.
Linda
Are YOU paying attention and reading? If i had a child in the public education system and the school was failing him, you can bet you last dollar that I will put him in a school where he will get the education that my tax dollars pay for. If a charter school or parochial school can educate your children better than a public school, would you leave him in the failing school? It has been proven that you can throw boatloads of money at the public schools and it doesn’t help. The majority of the money goes to adminstrative costs, 85% of a school budget, depending on where you live in the United States.
People vilify charter schools as evil schools who suck the children and the money away from the public schools and have teachers that can hardly write their names let along teach children. You do your own searching, you check every option that you have, and you make your decisions based on what is best for your child. I pay taxes for my child’s education and he’s going to get the best one he can and if charters can do that, then more power to them.
When a new charter school opens up, the unions cry and gnash their teeth. They only worry that the teachers are nonunion. That translates into losing union dues to propagate more liberal crap in the schools. What opening more charter schools will do, ideally, is to raise the bar for the public schools. If a public school can’t reach the bar set by a charter school, then close the public school down. People say charter schools don’t take the special ed students, the special needs students. That is not true. Charters take their share and more because they don’t have to worry about what a union says about teaching and the ways you can teach special needs children. Charter schools follow the state core curriculum just like any other school, they just do it better.
Michigan had a cap on charter schools because the MEA whined and cried that charters had an unfair advantage. Well, suck it up buttercups. A charter school can achieve more results because they don’t have to worry about appeasing a teacher’s union. The cap was set at like 20 schools. That is not an exact number, but it will suffice. Our governor, a liberal progressive, managed to get a bill passed that lifted the cap on charter schools in Michigan to 500 within a few years.
You can whine and cry about the poor, failing, public schools and how badly they are treated, you can accuse the charter schools of being sub-par in education and standards, and not giving a balanced education, but when push comes to shove, I am going to do what is best for my child. If a charter school can do that, then that’s where he goes. As a matter of fact, that is where he is now. The difference in his grades in one semester was astounding. The difference in teachers who really and truly care about the students makes the difference.
Your comments exemplify what’s wrong with charters. You are thinking only of what is good for your child, not about what’s good for your society. If everyone thinks only of himself–and never of the common good–our society is in deep trouble. I assume you pay taxes to provide benefits for other people in need. The reason that public schools were created in the 19th century was to preserve our democracy for future generations. If we abandon public education, then we have no right to ask people who don’t have children to pay taxes—each one takes care of their own, and everyone else can rot. Sad future.
With all due respect, our society is in deep trouble already.
What I am saying is that every parent has the same opportunity that I did to pull my child out of a poorly performing public school. Parents have to be the advocate for their child(ren). The state or federal gov’t cannot make the decisions needed concerning our children.
When a high school cannot even manage a 50% graduation rate, then there is something vastly wrong with the educational system. My son’s home high school had a graduation rate of less than 35%. The only thing he would have learned was how to wear his pants down around his ankles and how to fork gang signs. That is not the education I wanted for my child.
There is nothing wrong with charter schools. If the public schools were such beacons of hope and bastions of educational excellence, there wouldn’t be a need for charters and we would be raising a nation of kids who actually respected their country and knew about their country’s history. One of our local community colleges pays close to $10K PER STUDENT for remedial classes for incoming freshman. REMEDIAL CLASSES. This is to teach them stuff that they should have learned in high school.
The local public schools in the 19th century DID teach and preserve our democracy. Google the classic “5th Grade Test in 1890 something Kansas.” That’s what they taught. The public schools today are not preserving our democracy. They don’t teach the history of our country, they teach revisionist history. They teach that Columbus was an evil person who took advantage of the Indians and spread diseases. They teach that Islam is a religion of peace and that the Christians were horrible people for going on the Crusades, they teach that the gay lifestyle is normal. Our schools need the Pledge of Allegiance, our schools don’t need to have the gay lifestyle forced down our throats, there shouldn’t be any need for bullying legislation, the minority should not be able to tell the majority that you cannot have a picture of the 10 Commandments in your school. When a school caters to one group over another, then there is a problem in the schools, which is what happened in Dearborn for a school prom.
This is the generation of kids our public schools are turning out. They can’t tell you who the Secy of State is, they can’t tell you who the Speaker of the House is, they can’t even tell you the 3 branches of the gov’t. Ask them about Brittany Spears, the Kardashians, or LeBron James, and they can recite everything they ever did from the day they were born.
This is the reason why there will always be charter schools and parochial schools. Every parent HAS to get involved in their local school. They can’t be absentee parents. They can’t expect the teachers to chief cooks and bottle washers, babysitters, disciplinarians. Give the teachers the authority that they should have, give them the power to deal with the kids who don’t care about school. Do away with the unions who don’t care about the kids, and let the teachers do what they do best…teach. Until that happens, charter schools, vouchers, schools of choice, or parochial schools will always be needed.
I applaud you for advocating for your child. Charters in my state have
an extremely low % of sped and ELL. That is a fact.
I will continue to advocate for my children and the children I teach. I am a public school parent and a public school teacher and they are both quality schools systems. Our experiences are different but we probably have more in common.
The fact is here in the northeast closing public schools that have been starved into destruction happens much faster than closing the failing charter. Best of luck to you and your family. Keep reading and stay informed.
This is a reply to MI patriot’s first reply to Linda.
!st paragraph—As far as sending your children to a private, parochial, etc. . . school is your option. Do it. Or move to another district where the public schools are doing a bang up job. Your 85% figure for administrative costs is completely wrong. From a quick online research it appears that average public school administrative costs for a district is about 10-12%. I think what you are trying to refer to with that 85% is the total personnel costs of a district, i.e., all the staff costs the district incurs-salaries, benefits, etc. . . .
2nd paragraph—I understand your feelings of wanting a quality education for your children, who doesn’t?
3rd paragraph—You stated “When a new charter school opens up, the unions cry and gnash their teeth. They only worry that the teachers are nonunion. That translates into losing union dues to propagate more liberal crap in the schools.” Please cite sources for this propaganda you propose. “liberal crap”?? What is that liberal crap?? “Charter schools follow the state core curriculum just like any other school, they just do it better.” That statement is not true, a very small percentage have higher test scores than the corresponding public schools but higher test scores does not mean that the charters are doing “it better”. Standardized test scores are meaningless and invalid at face value. See Wison’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577 .
4th paragraph—“Well, suck it up buttercups. A charter school can achieve more results because they don’t have to worry about appeasing a teacher’s union.” Why would one want to “suck it up” when what is being sucked up is the bovine excrement you are serving up with your diatribe.
5th paragraph—I’m glad that your son has “improved his grades” whether that means he is actually learning is something entirely different. Grades as an indicator of learning are invalid and therefore meaningless, see Wilson’s study above. “The difference in teachers who really and truly care about the students makes the difference.” Yes, that is the case no matter what type of school it is, public, private, Islamic, Catholic etc. . . .
In response to MI Patriot’s claim, “I pay taxes for my child’s education…”, but in fact you don’t. You pay taxes for every child’s education. I doubt it is anyone’s intent to demonize the children and teachers in charters, but the issue is with allowing public funds that are to benefit all be siphoned off and allocated to the select few whom charters choose to admit and keep enrolled. In my opinion, reenvisioning education as a personal commodity instead of a public good is the most damaging effect charter schools have had in their short existence.
Duane, I really don’t care what you think about standardized test scores. Public schools “teach to the test.” In Michigan, the MEAP is a prime example.
1st paragraph…are you an expert in the educational system in Michigan? Are you an expert in the budgeting system and financial considerations in school funding in Michigan? What makes you an expert in Michigan school aid funding?
3rd para
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123985052084823887.html
“The highest quality studies have consistently shown that students learn more in charter schools. In New York City, Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby found that students accepted by lottery to charter schools were significantly outpacing the academic progress of their peers who lost the lottery and were forced to return to district schools. The most telling study is by Harvard economist Tom Kane about charter schools in Boston. It found that students accepted by lottery at independently operated charter schools significantly outperformed students who lost the lottery and returned to district schools. But students accepted by lottery at charters run by the school district with unionized teachers experienced no benefit. When charter schools unionize, they become identical to traditional public schools in performance. Unions may say they support charter schools, but they only support charters after they have stripped them of everything that makes charters different from district schools.”
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/detail/union-propaganda-cant-hide-charter-schools
“The AFT intentionally ignores what 90 percent of the nearly 100 studies of charter schools have found, that charter schools are more effective and efficient than traditional public schools. Although academic results vary by state, most studies find that charter school students learn more in a year than do comparable district school students. As in so many aspects of public policy, to understand why traditional district employees and labor unions so hate charter schools, you have to remember that education policy is all about the grownups, not the children. parents whose kids are doing great in traditional district schools rarely choose charters. Instead, charters educate children–many with special needs–who were floundering in traditional public schools.” Show me your sources that say that charter schools have very small margins of success.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/what_the_unions_hate_J9p2vlsaqTa9SWEo7frw0N
“State test scores this week showed 100 percent of eighth-graders in the Harlem Village Academies achieved proficiency in science and social studies.
By contrast, in Harlem’s traditional public schools, only 35 percent of eighth-graders made the grade in science, and 22 percent in social studies.
This continues a trend: New York charters — public schools that operate free of union work rules and bureaucratic mandates — are wildly outperforming their traditional counterparts in student test scores, graduation rates, college acceptances and other measures.”
Here is some liberal crap for you…learning how to put condoms on cucumbers in grade school, learning how to perform anal and oral sex in middle school, teaching that the gay agenda is the new normal, teaching that if it feels good do it, same sex marriage, anti-bullying legislation, telling the children that their parents can’t send them their own lunch because THE GOV’T says you can’t eat potato chips in your lunch. Students in public schools don’t know the first things about gov’t, economics, and math. Don’t teach that it’s okay if you don’t finish the race, here’s a medal anyway. Teach that not everybody can be a winner. Now Johnny, you know you shouldn’t have pulled Susie’s hair, but that’s okay because Susie has hair that just begs to get pulled. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
5th para
The grades on a report card may be meaningless to somebody from Australia who writes in educational double speak, but to me they show the difference in what my son is learning. I know that my son is learning more than he did in a public school and that is all that counts. That he will be more prepared to go on to college or a trade school is all that counts as well.