Schools in Texas have been forced to absorb huge budget cuts in recent years.
One casualty was the two KIPP schools in Galveston, Texas, which could not afford to continue. They will close.
“Galveston ISD paid KIPP $5.5 million this year – about $1.5 million more than it would have spent on those students in district-run schools….
KIPP, which operates 141 campuses that serve 50,000 students nationally, has closed or returned schools to local districts eight times nationally, but this is the first time it is to happen in Texas, where KIPP started 20 years ago….
“The Costal Village elementary and middle schools opened in the months following Hurricane Ike in 2008 to help draw families back to the island. After the contract was negotiated, the 6,800-student Galveston ISD lost $7.4 million in state funding for the biennium in 2011. About $1.7 million was restored by the Legislature last year, Nichols said.
“The original agreement was no longer workable after GISD had to live with quite a bit less money,” the superintendent said.
“KIPP leaders said they couldn’t maintain their model, which includes a longer school day and year, for less money. The charter chain spends about $6,200 per student in Galveston, compared to Galveson ISD’s $4,623. And KIPP’s costs were higher earlier in the contract, officials said.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“KIPP leaders said they couldn’t maintain their model, which includes a longer school day and year, for less money.”
I don’t see why not. In Chicago, Rahm expected CPS to do it, why wouldn’t KIPP be expected to do the same?
Dienne: an inconvenient query directed to one of the brightest stars in the no-excuses charterite/privatizer firmament.
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” [Ionesco]
I add my own:
Could it be that $tudent $ucce$$ is threatened when edupreneurs have to spend more on, er, students?
😎
Awww… you mean KIPP won’t raid their teachers’ pensions to stay open too? Oh… I guess their teachers don’t have any pensions to raid.
In Missouri Ibelieve that charter teachers are part of the pension system.
Sorry, no money to be made here. Best of luck to you all. Thanks for the extra cash, but it wasn’t enough. In case you were wondering, we spent it all.
And there goes trouble down the drain
As if it wasn’t always clear — I guess it wasn’t to some people — this is the difference between a private enterprise and a public institution. The charterbaggers and the edufrackrers will always pull up stakes on their revival-reform tent and hit the road with your jack before you know what a load of elephant droppings they left behind. Public institutions don’t have that, er, choice.
“charterbaggers and the edufrackrers”… if that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what does.
“charterbaggers and the edufrackrers”
Another nominee for the best turn of a phrase for 2014.
This is from the comments:
“We have all heard that charter schools get results. According to the state’s 2013 rankings, KIPP’s two campuses in Galveston were some of the lowest performing schools in the district, and now to hear that it was costing the district more per student to educate them at KIPP is disheartening. No wondering closing those doors make sense.”
It might be worth looking into whether they “return” schools with lower-performing groups of kids to the district.
One COULD look at that, because the article says they’ve done this 8 times (nationally, not in Texas). In marketing and sales terms, it would be a way to protect “the brand”.
It would be good to know because public schools might take less abuse from ambitious pols if there were a recognition among the public and in media that a local public school can’t just pack up and go like this. We’re comparing apples and oranges.
Public schools don’t close when there’s a budget crisis. They just get closed so a charter school can open!
Very astute comment.
Some have predicted that the megabucks in foundation funding for charters would not last and would be drying up once charter school expansion was firmly established. One can only hope that time is now.
Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism Baruch College/CUNY 1 Bernard Baruch Way (Lexington Avenue between 24-25 Sts) New York NY 10010_ aagabor@aol.com_ (mailto:aagabor@aol.com) twitter: @aagabor_ http://www.andreagabor.com_ (http://www.andreagabor.com/) 917 685 7666-c
And???
It looks like KIPP fails the grit and perseverence test. Guess you can tell the Wash Post that is one measure when they close.
It is refreshing to see that the corporate raiders are subject to their own creation, an unsustainable economy that relies on constant expansion to stay afloat. The bucks are scarce, the dumping grounds for charters are drying up, and their costs are unsustainable. May they crash and burn soon. When they are gone we may begin to see our students as unique individuals and publicly acknowledge them as such. I do not wish the charters well, I hope the hedge funders short sell them the way they have the rest of us.
The numbers quoted by the Superintendent do not seem to fit with these budget numbers.
http://www.gisd.org/education/page/download.php?fileinfo=RGlzdHJpY3RfQUVJU18yMDExLTIwMTIucGRmOjo6L3d3dzUvc2Nob29scy90eC9nYWx2ZXN0b25pc2QvaW1hZ2VzL2RvY21nci8zNzgwZmlsZTgwOTkucGRm§iondetailid=30985
Take the money and run. Show that charters (corporate anyway) are interested in the bottom line only.