Denis Smith is a veteran educator who ended his career working for the Ohio State Education Department, overseeing charter schools. This is the first of a series of five articles. In it he considers the question of charter school governance.
Who runs the school? Who appoints the board? Who is responsible? Is it public or private? Deregulation and privatization go hand in hand.
Denis Smith is a retired school administrator who worked both as a sponsor representative for charter schools as well as a consultant in the state charter school office. In this five-part series, he offers his perspective about charter school governance and how this mechanism designed to provide transparency and accountability for public entities is sorely lacking and may in fact be the “fatal design flaw” of these schools.
Part One
A few months before I ended my career as a consultant for the Ohio Department of Education’s charter school office, a sponsor representative approached me and asked why I was so critical of charter schools, and particularly the ones his organization had helped to open.
“It’s all about governance,” I replied. “In my community, I can drive around the neighborhood and see the campaign lawn signs of the candidates and what they propose to offer for the office they seek. I can see names and contact information for school board candidates and observe them at community forums. But I know nothing about the people on the boards of the schools you sponsor. Who are they, why were they chosen, whom do they represent, and how does a parent contact them when they have a grievance with the school and its administration?”
My response to the charter school industry rep’s question was based on musings at the end of a forty-five-year professional career, informed by service as a school administrator in two states at the district, regional and state levels, by experience in a for-profit environment in marketing communications, and as the director of a non-profit national professional society. In every aspect of that long and rewarding career in the public, for-profit and nonprofit sectors, I worked with boards that were elected by the voters in a school district, elected by members of the professional society, or through processes detailed in the organization’s by-laws. In the case of charter schools, however, the governing board and how it was selected did not fit into any of these processes. Therein lies the problem.
For me, the murkiness of how boards are populated and by whom remains the fundamental design issue with charter schools, and the problem with these proliferating entities begins – and ends – with governance. Or the lack of it.
A classic study conducted more than 20 years ago indicated there were more than 4.5 million boards in the United States that provided some measure of governance and oversight for all kinds of organizations, including for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental institutions. One can only imagine the plethora of various statutes, by-laws and corporate specifications that propose to direct the formation of all of these governing boards.
With full knowledge of the variety of governance models in all of these organizations, one should be able to see clear evidence of a visible board in action, responsive to its constituents. But when the subject is charter schools, we see in all-too-many cases an invisible board that has an ill-defined constituency which is determined by who selected the members.
And there is the fatal flaw in charter school genetic code. Based upon the method which formed the governing board, whom does the board represent? Is it the school developer, or the management company that operates the board? Since the board and its members would be expected to have a natural affinity for the individual or company that appointed them, the students and parents are in most cases not going to be the natural constituents to be represented at the table due to the manner of selection, not election.
Tomorrow, we will examine the clearest example of why governance is an issue with so many charter schools, evidence of the “ill-defined constituency” and a “natural affinity” for who appoints the board members.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As is currently fashionable, Ohio lawmakers have decided to spend all their time regulating public school teachers:
“Ohio Senate Bill 229, a bill designed to modify the new teacher evaluation system in Ohio, has finally made it back to the agenda of the House Education Committee. Despite passing 33-0 in the Ohio Senate in early December and being assigned to the House Education Committee on December 10, Chairman Gerald Stebelton delayed bringing it to his committee for consideration until February 12.
Now, six weeks later, the bill has slowly crept back on the agenda for the March 26 committee meeting. According to the Education Committee notice, the bill will still not be up for a vote this week — in fact, the announcement denotes that a substitute bill could be introduced. This means that a bill that passed unanimously out of the Senate will once again be picked apart by the House Education Committee members and contain significant changes. The effect of this will be a further delay in the adoption of reasonable changes that schools need to start planning for now.
To remind you, Senate Bill 229 would provide some much needed relief to Ohio’s principals who are being run ragged trying to keep up with the onerous processes required by the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) and better allow them to be the instructional leaders in Ohio’s school buildings instead of the paper-pushers that they have been forced to become to implement the new law.”
This is a MODIFICATION of the new “teacher evaluation system” and they’ve been working on it for months.
Prior to that they spent about a year on an “A-F” grading system for schools, and WITH this modification of the teacher evaluation system they are fine-tuning the new “punish the third graders” law they also lobbed at public schools.
So, basically, grading systems for teachers and schools, modifying said systems, and coming up with new and inventive ways to leave third graders back.
It’s like they line up, tie on a blindfold, and each lawmaker gets a whack at public schools.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/03/23/teacher-evaluation-system-changes-still-bogged-down-by-house-education-committee/
I have lived in Ohio for almost fifty years working in varied roles on behalf of arts education in public schools. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has morphed from a highly professional service organization for which I did some occasional projects-(all relatively free of political entanglements) to a punative enforcement agency for federal policies and re-publisher of nonsense professional development circulated by the USDE supported Reform Support Network (including the infamous Oak Tree Analogy for VAMs and the equally infamous models for Student Learning Objectives promoted by the Boston Consulting Group and USDE).
I am looking forward to Denis Smith’s reports on the charter environment in Ohio, especially how it intersects with vouchers.
I also appreciate the information from Chiara Dugan on pending and past moves by ODE, some of these clearly from ALEC, like the A-F grading system designed to hide from easy public view how the VAMs are calculated by SAS and Ohio’s use of a black-box formula to calculate whether teachers have met their “approved” SLO targets.
I love this article. The board merely rubber stamps the CEOs demands. The CEO is there for life. What power does the board really have when the CEO is buying property using tax dollars, making a profit from hiring his employees (from tax dollars), firing people constantly, etc. The CEO tells the board what to do. A total scam.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?id=9479587
Typical charter school insanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The author states, “For me, the murkiness of how boards are populated and by whom remains the fundamental design issue with charter schools, and the problem with these proliferating entities begins – and ends – with governance. Or the lack of it…” In these circumstances those who control charters can be anything from a former tennis star to someone who was successful at running a widget factory. And tragically the same applies to our national educational policy effecting public schools… there is no true governance when a secretary of education has absolutely no public education experience and consults with many who have equally NO EDUCATION EXPERIENCE. This has led our nation down the murky path of COMMON CORE. Indiana just said “No thanks” to common core! And I believe reality is beginning to hit the public-at-large over all the nonsense whether it be charter schools run by tennis stars or the implementation of common core. Evidence??? When I can read “Yahoo News” and see the following article… http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/common-core-parent-facebook-post-indiana-school-181841158.html… Yes Coleman REALITY BITES FOR YOU!!!!
This parent is a gem!!!! He says exactly what so many teachers say as they are forced to follow the ramblings of David Coleman and company!
Just had to share this post from Parents Across America – Suburban Philadelphia’s facebook page:
Refrigerator worthy 2014 PSSA note from Suburban Philly 8th grader – bless his heart: “These standardized tests are boring, long, and a waste of time and money. I would literally go to school on the weekends for a month if it meant I could get out of these tests.” Read on…and please like and share!
Dear Whoever is boring enough to be reading over my scratch paper,
I have a few questions for you. I would like to know what good could come out of me taking this test. I am an honors student and have already shown that I am capable of graphing and solving equations in math class. Why does my teacher have to take my test if I close it, even if not complete? I see how tests could be beneficial if I was in math or reading support, but I am not. These standardized tests are boring, long, and a waste of time and money. I would literally go to school on the weekends for a month if it meant I could get out of these tests.
Sincerely,
XXXXX
*This is not the original scratch paper. Removing scratch paper from the testing room or “secure storage area” is prohibited by law for some strange reason.
___________________________________________________________
FYI from PAA – Word on the street is that he is referring to a new state rule that the teacher must immediately take a student’s test off his desk as soon as the test is closed. Not allowing re-checking seems like another attempt to lower scores by the state. Note to our next Governor: We don’t want charter schools here. Stop the high stakes testing and let our kids get back to learning.
Look here to see the original in the kid’s own writing:
https://www.facebook.com/paaphillyburbs
Board seats are often unpaid positions for board members, whether in non-profits or for-profits, so it can be challenging to follow the money in order to identify the advantages to board members for getting such appointments. I hope Smith describes examples of what they are. “Boarding,” as I call it, is a resume builder for power elites, one that brings a lot of accolades and gets people a foot in the door of many different kinds of enterprises. Often, those who do this are connected to political clout as well.
The “Boards” are what the CEO wants them to be. A Gulen charter has only it’s members on the “board”, we have two in Baltimore now. Some charters here use weighted voting (not all voters are equal) in which parents get as many votes as they have kids at the school. Also, they’re supposed to write a paragraph explaining why they want to be on the board. They like to say things like “I love God” and “This school is always a blessing” which seems to work pretty well. In the end, they all have kids in a boat they don’t want to rock, and so follow whatever the Captain Ahab /CEO says…(sorry, this is a port town)
Gulen may be the largest charter chain, but I think their governance practices may vary by location, based on differing state laws, because the websites for their charters in my area say nothing about boards or governance.
I don’t think having parents on boards is typical for charter schools, based on my investigations. Many charters have no parent representatives on their boards, nor a PTA or PTO. Due to state laws, they might have one community representative who is assigned to address parent concerns, while the others can be and often are from other areas. A lot of them have a single board for the entire network, not a board for each charter school in the network. The boards are often stacked with business people, friends and relatives, not educators or parents of children in the schools.
The false reformers aren’t reinventing the wheel, they’re throwing it out and ignoring everything that’s been learned about education in more than two thousand years.
The idea that public money is being spent without responsible oversight is one point that makes conservatives like my brother-in-law stop and think.
We need to get this into the national conversation.
Another point is the millions of dollars spent to change public policy without the general public’s knowledge, or vote.
Very good point. Liberal or conservative, no one wants to see tax money wasted by corrupt or ineffective charter schools.
Since they lack the oversight of democratically elected school boards, charter schools have no accountability.
Agreed.
On a slightly different but related point, charter schools completely lack accountability to taxpayers who do not have children (or children not in the charter).
Those people are still being taxed to “support education”, but lost the voice and oversight they had with one elected school board representing their interests.
The same point is made by Charlotte Iserbyte who is an intense critic of public schools. Charter schools or other types of “privatization” have a lack of accountability that is inherently a problem for the public that entrusts their children to those running the schools.
Note to Diane. Please please post a report on the latest developments in Philadelphia’s school crisis, as reported in today’s Phila. Inquirer. The School Superintendent, a Broad graduate, has filed a motion with the state Supreme Court for an advisory opinion that he can strip the unionized teachers of their contractual and state guaranteed seniority rights, right to prior notice of layoffs, and right to adequate staffing levels for counselors nurses and librarians in the public schools. There is no doubt that he seeks this authority, not for the betterment of education (his claim)in this school district starved of resources by the state and city, but to drive even more overworked and senior teacher leaders out through firings and retirements so that more schools can be closed, more charters opened, and more TFA types hired on the cheap.
Thanks for all you do for teachers and the kids.
Who Governs Charter Schools?
Cui bono?
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” [Ionesco]
😎
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I think Denis Smith’s thesis may be very effective in converting ‘pro-school-choice, anti-union’ voters. My evidence is purely anecdotal. I am a frequent contributor to comment threads of articles on charters & school choice. I have noticed I very rarely get a rebuttal to the argument that goes something like this: ‘Problems crop up in areas where public school funding has been cut to the bone– charter school caps are lifted, there is little financial or quality vetting for charter application, nor is there money for financial/quality oversight– usually in the hopes that the market can provide public education more cheaply. The result seem to show that ‘free market capitalism’ cannot efficiently provide a public service. Many new places open, take 2/3 or more of the per-pupil taxpayer cost for each enrollee, and 50% lose their charters or simply close & run off with the money, leaving students to return to the zoned public school which is out the money but must accept the pupils.
I’d like to know what is going to happen down the line when the charter schools will need upgrades. Will the public be on the hook to pay for the needed changes when the building is privately owned by the CEO?