The governor and legislature in North Carolina are determined to privatize as many public dollars as possible.
They have approved vouchers for religious schools, private schools, and even home schools.
But their main privatization strategy is charter schools.
They are set to expand the number in the state, thus creating a consumer mentality and simultaneously draining funds from the public schools.
A news report says that:
The next two weeks will determine how rapidly North Carolina’s charter-school movement expands, at a time when supporters say the schools are giving families more choices and critics say they’re harming traditional public schools.
On Thursday, the State Board of Education will vote on whether to give final approval to 26 charter schools – four in Wake County, one in Durham, one in Harnett County and 11 in the Charlotte area – that want to open this fall. It would mark the state’s largest single-year expansion of charter schools since the program was in its infancy in the late 1990s.
Next week, the state Office of Charter Schools will recommend which of the 71 charter schools that have applied to open in 2015 should go forward for further review. Those applicants includes eight in Wake County, eight in Durham and 31 in Charlotte and surrounding areas.
North Carolina could have more than 200 charter schools open in 2015 – double the number that existed until a state limit was lifted in 2011. With the help of a sympathetic state legislature, charters are poised to become a larger part of the public-school landscape.
Last year, state legislators approved several changes to help charters, including lowering the number of certified teachers they must have and allowing them to expand by one grade level each year without seeking state approval.
The General Assembly also created the Charter Schools Advisory Board to make recommendations to the State Board of Education on charter school applications and renewals. The new board consists of members who, according to last year’s state law, “shall have demonstrated an understanding of and a commitment to charter schools as a strategy for strengthening public education.”
On Jan. 13, the advisory board will begin the process of reviewing the 2015 charter schools that the Office of Charter Schools has determined to have submitted complete applications. The board could accept the recommendations or opt also to review the applications that were rejected as incomplete.
The advisory board will make its recommendations on new schools to the State Board of Education by the summer.
The charters harm the public schools, taking away money needed for their programs.
Durham school officials say they’re losing more than $14 million a year because of students attending charter schools. Durham students are going to not only the 10 charter schools in the county, but also to schools in other nearby counties.
Heidi Carter, chairwoman of the Durham school board, said charter schools are also making it hard to plan for the future.
“It’s difficult to factor what our space needs will be,” she said. “It’s difficult to accurately predict what the elementary school population will be in the district in the next five years.”
Carter said she worries that there’s no longer a formal process to raise concerns about charters to the State Board.
“I doubt all their passionate pleas will go very far with this state board,” said Terry Stoops, director of education studies at the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank that supports charter schools.
Some applicants have ties to well-known political figures in the state. For instance, the chairman of the board of Providence Charter High School in Rockingham County is 6th District congressional candidate Phil Berger Jr., the son of Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger. The school is seeking final approval this week.
Republican political consultant Chris Sinclair would be the vice president of the boards for Capital City Charter High School and Central Wake Charter High School, both proposed for Wake County in 2015. Sinclair said he agreed to be part of both schools because they’re targeted at at-risk teenagers.
The John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Foundation are both associated with Art Pope, the multimillionaire ideologue who is not only state budget director but mastermind of the far-right takeover of the legislature. His money helped to defeat moderate Republicans and guaranteed control by politicians hostile to the public sector.
Francis DeLuca, president of the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank in Raleigh, has agreed to be on the board of the proposed James Madison Academy, which wants to open in 2015 in Wake County. One of the school’s goals would be to “emphasize building strong moral character.”
“I believe in charter schools, and I want to give parents more choices,” DeLuca said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let’s beat them at their own game and open union run charter schools. We could dump the administrative overhead and streamline. We would run as a non-profit and suck up teaching talent thus damaging the buisness model of the for profit movement.
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“The charters harm the public schools, taking away money needed for their programs.”
It isn’t just charters harming public schools in North Carolina. Ed reformers are directly harming existing public schools in North Carolina by disinvesting in them, and going after public school teachers.
In Ohio, I have started to focus on how ed reform policy and practice harms public schools. Not in relation to or in comparison to charters, but existing public schools as something worthy of support independent of whatever they’re doing with charters and vouchers, etc.
I think it goes to the bigger question around ed reformers in government, overseeing or running existing public schools. Ohio public schools have been harmed under ed reform leaders separate and apart from any voucher-charter system they have set up.
I don’t think public school parents should hire people who harm public schools to run public schools.
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The thing to remember here, for me, so I don’t get overwhelmed with frustration or exhaustion is that those of us working in the public schools must work as hard as we can to make them the best, finding new ways to be resourceful and positive. And this market experiment might just prove that the market prefers strength in consolidated public schools—-not a long list of choices, some of which have questionable motivation and approach.
This is an experiment in public education encompassing public options for schooling. And whether or not we see that as potentially harmful (likely harmful) to public schools, I find myself more motivated than ever to help my public school be fantastic.
As the famous shirt says: “Keep Calm and Carry On.” And of course, be mindful of for whom you cast your vote.
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Maybe we should call this type of thing “charter operator welfare handouts”, to help conservatives understand that this is not free market education, this is cash giveaways to a few selected charter operators.
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Set to approve 26 new charter schools this week with four of them in Wake County.
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Correction: state has already approved the 26 new charter schools, with five opening in Wake County.
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and I understand there are 71 more charter applications waiting in line.
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I must be missing something. All the people who talk about separation of church and state and they allow money to at least in some cases here religious schools. AND with all the shenanigans going on with money use in many of these charters?
Our local PBS TV program, Chicago Tonight, had an extended interview with reporters on what has happened in this regard with charters in Chicago. Appalling and as Dr. Ravitch has pointed out, this has happened in numerous places in the U. S.
“Best government money can buy” it would seem.
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