Online charter schools are, with few exceptions a sham. They waste taxpayer dollars and, worse, they waste students’ lives.
Here is an especially egregious example. Pearson’s Connections Academy graduated a blind student who could neither read or write. they took the state’s money, but the young woman did not get an education nor did she get appropriate accommodations for her disability.
Where are the lawyers for students with disabilities?
Who will stop these zombie schools from gathering up dollars intended to educate the state’s children?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But–Pearson is cool to cone into teacher education because?…
http://atthechalkface.com/2013/02/04/pearson-comes-to-teacher-education-and-we-are-supposed-to-be-cool-with-that/
The public good can not, and should not, be privatized. Pearson has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, not our citizens. It cannot be trusted, as this story clearly illustrates. We must sever ties, not allow its hooks to sink deeper into our education system.
Just wait until all charters, on line scams and “academies” have to educate all students with a wide variety of disablities.
When there is no way to make a profit, the edupreneurs will all slither away in the night:
Autism
Deaf-blindness
Deafness
Developmental delay
Emotional disturbance
Hearing impairment
Intellectual disability
Multiple disabilities
Orthopedic impairment
Other health impairment
Specific learning disability
Speech or language impairment
Traumatic brain injury
Visual impairment, including blindness
These are the big money categories in NYC and NY state. And they’re already largely privatized.
Contrast this with the services offered at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, a public institution heralded as one of the best schools for the blind in the country that serves hundreds of residential students and thousands more through statewide outreach programs. If charter mania continues there will be more special needs students mistreated by charters, and dwindling resources for public schools will mean less seats available in places like the Texas School for the blind.
The Pennsalvania School for the Deaf is a state chartered private school that is supported with public tax payer money. Eliminating charter schools would eliminate all the seats for students there.
A school for the deaf is precisely the kind of charter school that should be encouraged. The original idea was to do what public schools could do, not to skim off the best students and weaken the entire system that enrolls the great majority.
I agree that it should be encouraged, but many who post here argue that charter schools, no matter the merits of the particular school, should be closed. Some even believe hat you share that position.
Would educating the gifted and talented count as something the traditional zoned public schools did poorly?
I guess I have had more experience than most public school teachers because I was qualified in many areas. One day while teaching regular 8th grade LA, a blind student appeared at my door with the school psychologists. The school psycholigist said her parents wanted her to be main streamed into a regular class room. I was amazed, so I said well, come on in, but I’m totally unqualified to teach a blind student. I have no experience with Braille, and have no idea what to do with this lovely child.
So, to make a long story short, I tried to mainstream this blind child into my classroom, but obviously there was no way I was qualified to deal with her disability. I wrote a long letter to the district office stating why leaving this student in my classroom was further handicapping not only her but my other student that I had an obligation to teach. Has the whole world gone crazy? It took too long to get this student out of my regular classroom. This was an awful experience for me and I’m sure for others. Let us reason together!
If you read the article, the district had to pay for the mistakes of the charter. And see the fiction that this charter school was a non-profit, though it contracted with the for-profit Connections chain.
Actually, if you read the article, you read that the district also was found to be at fault. Both the charter and the district were found to have not met their responsibilities. A sad case that appears to be moving in the right direction in part because of an active parent.
From whom/what does the Center for School Change receive funding?
Funding for center for school change comes from:
Cargill, Gates, Annenberg, Blandin, General Mills, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, Peters, Minneapolis, TCF, Joyce, Bradley and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Best Buy, Pohlad, and Wallin Foundation.
Learning First asked where CSC receives its money:
From public school districts & charter public schools who want to send their teachers and principals to workshops we do, from the Minnesota Dept of Education to help share information with low income and limited English speaking families about Dual (High School/College) Credit courses offered by district & charter public schools, from the U.S. Dept of Education to help district & charter public schools work with and learn from each other, and from several local foundations to work with district & charter educators to help increase the # of low income students who are taking challenging college level courses while they are in high school.
Also, our 3 children attended and graduated from urban non-magnet public schools. My wife recently retired after 33 years as a urban public school teacher working with students having special needs. I spent 14 years as an urban public school teacher and administrator.
Having answered your question, Learning First, I hope you will read the full article which makes it clear that both the district & charter did not serve this youngster well.
I read the whole article and understand your point. One difference, among many, between the public school and the for-profit chain involves…profit. Intentions matter. No social institution is perfect, but those concerned with profit have an internal compass that does not align with the public good.
By the way, some of my dearest friends and close relatives teach at charter schools. The schools and their personnel are not the problem; they simply work within a system whose funders are seeking to destroy public education.
Joe,
I wonder if this was presented the other way around…a public school and charter that failed a student with the focus on the public, you would have brought up he failure of the charter, too…right?
Linda, on this message board and in a variety of other places, I’ve readily acknowledged that some charters are not doing a good job. I’ve strongly advocated, sometimes successfully for some charters to be closed because of poor financial management, questionable use of funds and consistent low student achievement.
Nope..sorry..your track record here is looking for holes in Diane’s posts, arguing with her and others, defending charters, and promoting yourself and your organization.
I teach in a public school. This year, 25 percent of my students have IEPs. Their issues range from autism to ADHD to developmental delays to dyslexia. In previous years I have taught students with hearing and vision impairments, seizure disorders, Down syndrome, and physical disabilities. Some of my students are English language learners. Some have battled illnesses such as cancer and lupus. Each child is just another member of the human family who deserves my best efforts. They then reward me with their best efforts. The challenges these children face are so much easier to deal with than the disorders exhibited by those who promote and run charter schools and who seek to reduce children to bits of data:
Compassion impairment
Citizenship disorder
Avarice syndrome
Empathy development delay
Kindness blindness
OY! CREEPS…how can they sleep at night. Oops…they …. Fill in the blanks. These folks are empty and have no morals.
This is just plain tragic.
Usually students with this level of disability have advocates, and connections with transitioning from high school into the working world. I think this also highlights what can happen when parents aren’t aware of their rights, etc. This is terrible. This is 2013, how can this happen.
Recent post from a securities analyst who covers for-profit education.
“Apollo Group disclosed receipt of the peer review team report in conjunction with its accreditation review. The draft report, which was presented to the Board last week, recommends probation status for the University of Phoenix (UOP), contending that the University is not in compliance with respect to the standard of institutional autonomy.”
Here’s something to consider on The Oregonian’s article, where right in the headline it says this charter school graduated this young woman “unable to read and write”.
Had the journalist done her due diligence and checked the public record, this young woman actually testified before the Oregon Department of Education on how great this charter school was for her AND SHE IS READING from a script. I understand that her eye condition is degenerative and that her eyesight may not allow her to read now. That is not what the article headline says nor what is implied in the article. Here is her testimony:
http://video.orvsd.org/ode/6-24-10_State-Board-Part-4.mov
This woman is remarkable. Betsy Hammond’s use of her to further her anti-charter school, and now Diane Ravitch’s anti charter school message is a shame.
Diane Ravitch’s position on charter schools is not the shame. The shame is that they have destroyed local representative government e. g. school boards. The second shame is that privateers are robbing taxpayers and “real” public schools of money that should be going for academic achievement not “privateers” that could care less about children. Diane Ravitch is a real educator. It is people like this Mom who are the shame of our nation. Either she is ignorant or has a vested interest in charter schools.
1) Show me how there are not “privateers” already in the classroom? Scholastic books, dry erase retailers, computers, book publishers, chalk makers, food vendors, desk retailers…..if you are going to accuse and excuse charter vendors as big, awful, profiteering bad guys, that standard needs to be applied across all the services provided students.
2) In the state of Oregon, charter school students ARE public school students, deserving of the services and funding that comes with that. They are not the evil step children of the state.
Ms. Herzer,
Your points are valid. I share your concerns about for-profit interests in these schools and the loss of funding for local districts, but on the other hand, I see students in online school succeeding when they did not at their local public school. Many of them come to this school because they have anxiety or have been bullied. They excel here and I just can’t fathom taking that away from them. (I’ve worked in the online and bricks and mortar environment).
Also, it is rude of you to make assumptions about “A Mom.” You do not know her and all she did was present a perfectly valid piece of evidence. At one point in time, Katherine B could clearly read and she loved her charter school. Now, obviously her condition deteriorated and something went wrong during the switch over from local districts providing SPED services to students within their boundaries to charter schools providing those services.That was a huge legal shift and clearly something went wrong.
Please don’t call people “the shame of our nation.” What a hurtful statement.
As a parent of a special needs child, I have had negative experiences in both the online charter school system and the regular school system. I just want my child to learn and in both systems she is just a $ maker.