When I lectured at the University of Florida, I met Sue Legg of the League of Women Voters. She informed me that the League has undertaken a county-by-county study of charter schools across the state.
Florida has nearly 600 charters, including for-profit charter chains and non-profit charter chains. (Vice-President Biden’s brother Frank runs one of the for-profit chains.)
These schools draw money away from public schools, and their record is spotty, at best.
When preparing for my lecture at the University, I idly googled the terms “Florida charter schools failing,” and up popped more than 200,000 stories about schools that had been closed for financial mismanagement, fraud, low performance, or other reasons.
Someone should conduct an impartial investigation, and the League of Women Voters is ideally suited to do it.
Since so many charter advocates and board members hold key positions in the State Legislature, funneling public money to charters instead of public schools, it is for sure that the Legislature won’t conduct any investigation of the use and misuse of public funds by charters. (Those connections and conflicts of interest should be examined and disclosed.)
Here is the League’s first report, covering the charter schools of Alachua County.
Here are some of the background reports: Alachua County League of Women Voters Study on School Choice 2011-12 research articles:
1. Understanding School Choice: Funding School Choice in Florida http://www.lwv-alachua.org/pdfs/LWV_EdFunding.pdf
2. Understanding School Choice: Standards and Accountability http://www.lwv-alachua.org/pdfs/LWV_EdStandards.pdf
3. Understanding School Choice: Social Impact http://www.lwv-alachua.org/pdfs/LWV_EdImpact.pdf
Can’t wait until they get to Dade County, Broward County, and other charter hotspots.
Hopefully the League will take a close look at the charter empires in south Florida, like Academica, the one owned by the Zulueta family. Jersey Jazzman reported on this chain (and see here), but it should be of special interest to Floridians, who pay for its operations.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, can you repost the link to the most recent report. I can’t seem to get it to come up. Thanks.
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Click to access LWV%20Study%20Charter%20Schools.pdf
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Ms. Ravitch’s link is missing an “L” in the domain name. Here’s a link to the document, in .PDF format.
Click to access LWV%20Study%20Charter%20Schools.pdf
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The more people digging into these scams of educational malpractices, the more the truth will come to light!
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This study is big. I attended the Hillsborough County League consensus meeting and was shocked to see how our tax dollars are being diverted to these corporate hucksters. When the full study is released, we need everyone in every state to help spread the word.
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Isn’t it sad that politicians do nothing to protect the taxpayer?
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Google Search: florida district schools failing -charter
https://www.google.com/#q=florida+district+schools+failing+-charter
About 10,600,000 results (0.83 seconds)
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I don’t think the number of results in Google for specific search terms is all that useful and indicator of anything except controversy.
For example, the terms failing public schools in america give you about 23,700,000 results (0.48 seconds)
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I sense a startled Gates Foundation flurry to “donate” to League of Women Voters. Hope it doesn’t happen, or it has no gravitas if it does.
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Thank you for posting. The League of Women Voters is doing great work on behalf of public education. Another great rip-off are the vouchers for private schools. The organization fronting this is called “Putting Students First” and they are looking to get some more support from the Florida legislature this year.
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