A new report reveals massive waste, fraud, and corruption in the charter industry, where private corporations control public funds with minimal oversight or accountability.
“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2014
CONTACT:
Kyle Serrette: KSerrette@populardemocracy.org, 202-304-8027
Sabrina Stevens: media@integrityineducation.org, 720-295-0238
A new report released today reveals that fraudulent charter operators in 15 states are responsible for losing, misusing or wasting over $100 million in taxpayer money.
“Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud And Abuse,” authored by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education, echoes a warning from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General. The report draws upon news reports, criminal complaints and more to detail how, in just 15 of the 42 states that have charter schools, charter operators have used school funds illegally to buy personal luxuries for themselves, support their other businesses, and more.
The report also includes recommendations for policymakers on how they can address the problem of rampant fraud, waste and abuse in the charter school industry. Both organizations recommend pausing charter expansion until these problems are addressed.
“We expected to find a fair amount of fraud when we began this project, but we did not expect to find over $100 million in taxpayer dollars lost. That’s just in 15 states. And that figure fails to capture the real harm to children. Clearly, we should hit the pause button on charter expansion until there is a better oversight system in place to protect our children and our communities,” said Kyle Serrette, the Director of Education Justice at the Center for Popular Democracy.”
“Our school system exists to serve students and enrich communities,” added Sabrina Stevens, Executive Director of Integrity in Education. “School funding is too scarce as it is; we can hardly afford to waste the resources we do have on people who would prioritize exotic vacations over school supplies or food for children. We also can’t continue to rely on the media or isolated whistleblowers to identify these problems. We need to have rules in place that can systematically weed out incompetent or unscrupulous charter operators before they pose a risk to students and taxpayers.”
“The report can be found at http://www.populardemocracy.org and http://www.integrityineducation.org.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I do not believe charter school were every regulated properly. Charter schools across the country have had the freedom, for the most part, to do as they want when they want. The big corporates have seen a gold mine and they are digging into it for all they are worth. Another chance to steal from the Traditional Public Schools at the expense of the students that attend these schools.
Shocking! Just shocking, I tell you! Now, can we get our money back, please?
They need to be done away with. No more taxpayer money going to what amounts to scam schools or private schools. If any are good, let them operate as the private schools they really are and charge tuition.
No more contracting out a public good for private gain.
There are likely some charter schools that everyone supports. It would be a shame to close those schools.
Right, and Hitler was supported by virtually “everyone” in Germany, so apparently those people knew a lot better than the rest of the world, too.
The real shame is that you never jump in to complain about the massive closing of neighborhood schools just so that they can be replaced by unregulated charters.
By massive do you mean that 30% or 40% of students in charter hotbeds like NYC now go to charter schools or is the number more like 6%?
Are you in favor of closing all charter schools? That certainly would deprive students of the specialized approaches to education that some charter schools provide.
50 schools were closed in Chicago last year so that they can be replaced by 52 charter schools. That’s the most massive closing to date, but it looks like NYC is facing the tip of the iceberg now due to their new state law.
You know very well that I support public education and am against privatizing our public schools, so I’m not going to have this conversation with you again. However, I will continue to highlight how you fail to support public education while jumping to the defense of charters, due to the occasional outlier and regardless of the damage privatization is doing to our system of public education across this nation.
Actually I generally support choice schools, including public magnet schools that engage in practices frequently condemned by regular posters here.
Are there still 681 public schools in Chicago, 97 of them charter schools? That is the latest data I could find easily.
Hey, the Germans were not so bad, since some generals attempted to assassinate Hitler 11 years after he became Chancellor and it was clear the Nazis would be losing the war.
Just keep digging yourself deeper into that hole along with the corporate privatizers aiming to destroy public education.
Wars against children are not just a little evil.
TE, not sure it’s worth debating someone so deranged as to bring up Hitler so often.
I believe that CT knows that I am a believer in Godwin’s law, so it may be an attempt to end the thread.
Please tell me about the specialized approaches.
One of the older charter schools is the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. I assume the name is self explanatory. Another very recently established charter school is the Walton Rural Life Center Charter School. The New York Center for Autism Charter School is an example of another kind of specialization. You can search for “Montessori charter school” or “Waldorf charter school” or “French immersion charter school” or “Chinese immersion charter school”, etc. I would post the search links, but it seems foolish to burden the moderators.
Maybe it’s those who fail to learn from previous fascist take-overs in history who are deranged.
As a Jew, I reserve the right to listen to those who have the sense to recognize the warning signs, such as Noam Chomsky: “Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America”
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-politics/1489-chomsky-warns-of-risk-of-fascism-in-america
America: Freedom to Fascism by Aaron Russo (2006)
The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf (Sep 5, 2007)
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change by Jonah Goldberg (Jun 2, 2009)
The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War: Fascism, Populism, and Dictatorship in Twentieth Century Argentina by Federico Finchelstein (Apr 22, 2014)
Living in 1984: America’s Flirtation with Fascism by Gregg Ward Matson (Mar 10, 2014)
The Essential Mae Brussell: Investigations of Fascism in America by Mae Brussell, Alex Constantine and Paul Krassner (Oct 14, 2014)
Return of the Romans: Fascism comes to America by Gene Skellig, R Williams and Jack Tzekov (Apr 20, 2014)
The 14 Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
by Dr. Lawrence Britt
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14-defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism –
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. TOP
2. Disdain for
the Recognition of Human Rights –
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. TOP
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats
as a Unifying Cause –
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. TOP
4. Supremacy of the Military –
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. TOP
5. Rampant Sexism –
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution. TOP
6. Controlled Mass Media –
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common. TOP
7. Obsession with National Security –
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. TOP
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined –
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions. TOP
9. Corporate Power is Protected –
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. TOP
10. Labor Power is Suppressed –
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. TOP
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts –
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked. TOP
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment –
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption –
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. TOP
14. Fraudulent Elections –
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
I am a bit lost by this connection between schools like the Walton Rural Life Center Charter Charter School, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and the Community Roots Charter School and fascist governments. Perhaps it is that students in the Walton Rural Life Center Charter School have to take care of the chickens and fascists ate chickens.
TE: I, too, am in favor of magnet schools for a couple of reasons. First, magnet schools are still under the control of local, elected school boards, and, as I understand them, must follow state laws for public school, while emphasizing such focii as foreign language and science. This lets parents choose directions for students with particular talents while not ignoring the general curriculum required of other schools.
Secondly, they are given the same funds as other public schools and teachers are paid the same. When charter schools have no local school boards controlling them, in my opinion, it becomes taxation without representation. Also, they don’t drain funds from general public schools and should have to accept special needs children and those of all income levels. I don’t believe most parents would suggest a child with a tin ear to a musical magnet and there could be processes to deal with them and include students who struggle with other academics but are talented in music.
This allows for profit schools for those who want to pay for them without robbing public schools. Charter schools do none of the above and are like Wall Street in that they are deruglulated to the point of ridiculousness. Charter schools are an attack on the American public.
I am glad you agree that choice schools are a help in matching a student to a curriculum that best complements that student’s individual interest and talents.
I do think that you are mistaken about the impact magnet schools have on traditional zoned schools, however. They do compete for funding (and space) with traditional zoned schools, they do cherry pick students away from the traditional zoned schools, qualified admission magnet schools certainly do not admit special needs students, nor, do I suspect, students of all income levels.
I also think that you might construct a charter school’s governing board to be more democratic than the school board of a large public school district. Many people who post here are in favor of local control, yet seem to be happy with large districts which educate more students than live in my entire state.
If your concern is primarily that charter schools are insufficiently regulated, that might be addressed by increasing regulation. I do think that all choice schools can be less regulated than schools that students are forced to attend, but that applies both to magnet and charter schools.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx If charter schools were held to the same financial transparency/ auditability/ procurement laws as other government vendors, I’d be willing to open the conversation.
At that point, you’d have to show me that chartered schools were accountable on the same basis as public schools for stats such as state-mandated test results, retention, graduation, % college acceptance.
After passing those hurdles, you’d have to show me that chartered schools, in toto, for any locale– i.e., district, or region w/n 45mins transportation [provided by tax $] afforded equivalent opportunities for the entire district/locale population: in other words, children of all colors creeds & learning abilities have access to a charter (just as at public school).
My hunch is that such cannot be provided by any but a comprehensive public school system.
It seems to me that the call for financial transparency is reasonable, and a matter of efficient regulation. Given the problems in government procurement, however, I am not sure that having the standard government procurement regulations apply to any school is necessarily a good idea. State and local contracts are not as clean as we might wish, and sometimes badly thought out. My institution, for example, was required to buy computing equipment under the negotiated state contract which fixed the cost of the equipment for five years. By the end of the contract my university was paying double the market rate for a desktop computer.
As for the demographics, two points. First, charter schools have been criticized here for having too few minority students and too many minority students. If you are going to require a just right number of minority students in any charter school (or traditional public school for that matter), what will be your standard? What makes the percentage “just right”? Second, it seems likely that charter schools that admit through a lottery will be even more open to the whole spectrum of students in a geographic area than public schools that admit by scores on standardized exams. If we are going to have principled standards for schools, these standards must be employed for all schools.
Teachingeconomist. You still haven’t answered my question if you are being remunerated in any way by playing Freidman devil’s advocate here? Your comments are forfeit until you answer this basic question.
Nampa1,
I will repeat my often stated answer to your often asked question: no, I am not being remunerated in any way for posting on this blog, nor do I get paid a penny by any organization involved in K-12 education.
You are indeed clueless if you see no connection between the billionaire “thought leaders” who are running our plutocracy and their clandestine meeting Diane report about about to discuss the business plan to privatize education, charter school expansion and fascism.
Even ‘Willy Loman’ could see how seemingly disparate figures, united in their dash for the cash, are making strange bedfellows in this scheme to monetize public education: “Ron Paul to Cash In on Neoliberal School Privatization”
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/ron-paul-to-cash-in-on-neoliberal-school-privatization/
“How can you go wrong when Ron Paul, Deion Sanders and Bill Clinton are all on-board with the same plan?
Sign up today for a special course being taught by Cliven Bundy on the privatization of public land for your local millionaires and “MAKERS!”! That’s LIBERTY as well! He’ll teach you how to grab your gun and run out into the desert and live on beans while he and his rich, government subsidized family rest easy in the big house telling stories to the press about what they know ‘about the negro’ “
Here is another gem from ‘Willy Loman,’ “The Inconvenient Truth of Left Wing Fascists Like Rahm”
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/the-inconvenient-truth-of-left-wing-fascists-like-rahm/
Considering how the power elites have made it known that they want democracy eliminated from education etc., adore this opening quote, too:
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. ~FDR”
nampa1: TE wears clueless like it’s a badge of honor. That is not what one would expect from someone with formal training as an educator, but he has none since he teaches college. By citing exceptions, he thinks he can justify ignoring evidence of the rule and continue to promote his “choice” agenda without addressing the consequences. He probably pays himself by slapping himself on the back and erroneously thinking he’s pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.
By citing exceptions I hope to encourage the use of the word “some”, as in some charter schools should be closed, or some kinds of charter schools are too difficult to regulate so they should be closed, or some additional regulations should be applied to charter schools. Using the word “some” has many advantages, including political feasibility.
That is like saying “some” banks didn’t cause the economy to collapse so let’s have different regulations for them. Oh, and let’s have constitutional rights that apply only to “some” people, say white men, because they are so much better than everyone else.
TE is an embarrassment to higher education. How ridiculous can a supposedly educated person be?
ALL schools that accept public funds should be regulated equally. Period.
The ability to choose a school can replace some regulations, so it seems reasonable to relax the regulations for things that parents and students can easily see and choose to avoid if they wish. Your example with the banking system is really not applicable in this case.
All traditionally public schools are not subject to the same regulations, so which set of regulations would you apply to charter schools? Would you allow charter schools to have admission exams like qualified admission magnet schools?
“teachingeconomist”
“some charter schools that everyone supports”? how can that possibly be? Sounds like another marketing slogan. Or maybe you mean we are forced to support them from our tax money, as in WE HAVE NO CHOICE…Yet.
No, what I meant was that there are a huge variety of charter schools, some very old like the Pensilvania School for the Deaf, others more recent in origin like the Walton Rural Life Center Charter school that serve unusual populations or take specialized approaches to education that we can all value.
“The ability to choose a school can replace some regulations….”
Here, try this: “The ability to choose a bank can replace some regulations….” How did that work out in 2008?
I certainly agree that the ability to choose banks does replace the need for some regulations.
Suppose, for example, that you have been assigned to Citibank. Any banking transaction you do must be done through them. Lets start thinking about interest payments. Would you want a regulation on the minimum interest you might earn on your deposits? How about the maximum interest and points on a mortgage? Remember, you can not deposit any savings in an alternative institution and you can not take out a mortgage from anyone but Citibank. We can move on to expensive banking conveniences. Would you want Citibank to have an ATM machine? More than one? Some people prefer to do their banking in person, so we would need regulations about how many hours a bank is open and at what times. That regulation would be hollow if there were not enough tellers available to handle the transactions, so perhaps a minimum number of tellers needs to be specified. I could go on, but this is already a long comment.
Pretty much any reason you might have to choose a different bank would require regulation if we did not allow you to choose a bank but instead assigned you to one.
Maybe we shouldn’t be allowed to choose a bank.
Like TE, I personally believe that “some” charters are doing “some” good. The difference between us is that TE never addresses–with any degree of integrity–the Pandora’s Box that reformers and RttT have opened with the wide, unaccountable, Eldorado-like expanse of charters.
Pandora’s Box brought a few places “some” hope and choice, but it also brought with it greed, destruction, distraction, gross malfeasance and false choice. It might be best for those “some,” but it is a whole lot of bad for those other “some.”
“Ride, boldly ride,” TE.
The pandora’s box is addressed through increased regulation, not elimination. I certainly think a discussion of the appropriate level of regulation for charter schools would be fruitful. My own view is that when individuals can choose a school (or any other service organization for that matter) regulations are required when 1) it is difficult for the individual to observe the item to be regulated, 2) there is general agreement on the goals of the regulation, and 3) violation of the regulation has important consequences. Thus, a regulation requiring, say, a standard of cleanliness in a restaurant kitchen is a great idea, a regulation requiring all restaurants to serve tasty food is a poor idea.
TE selectively assumes “some” and “all” based on his personal bias. Now he presumes to know what “we can ‘all’ value.”.
I will never, ever value anything or anyone that exerts the power to destroy public education. That doesn’t matter to TE though because he has no regard for communities or the public interest.
And BTW, in many areas, there have long been specialized schools for the deaf, blind and deaf-blind populations, which are STATE schools. It is not necessary for those schools to be charters.
I am not sure why you focus on the possibility of specialized schools being created by local school boards as a justification for eliminating mechanisms that have actually created specialized schools. After all, federal court decisions were not necessary for desegregating the public school system, local and state school boards could have done it. Educating students with disabilities did not require federal legislation, local districts could have created an inclusive school system. I don’t take this as a good argument against intervention in local school districts. Do you?
Considering this country has had a long history of denying the rights of minorities and equal educational opportunity for all, when local districts and states did not comply with Brown v Board of Education etc., of course it was necessary for the federal government to step in.
Given their track record, school privatizers are the last people who can be expected to provide integration and inclusion.
“Dopey” or loopy?
Nope. As others have pointed out, TE. discussions with you are NOT productive.
Not even the oldest ones like the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf or ones where it is the elected school board that holds the charter like the Walton Rural Life Center?
Nada. Rein. Zilch. All you do is waste people’s time.
TE – explain why the school for the deaf and the rural life school couldn’t be public schools rather than charters?
Teacher Ed – explain just how Rahm is “leftist”? Because he has a “D” after his name?
Read the article, Dienne. It says Rahm is, “The Fake Left.”.
I suspect that any charter school might well have been a magnet school, but the local school board was not moved to establish one. Perhaps the majority of parents in a district felt that a Montessori school was a waste of money, or they did not want their tax dollars going to the hippy progressive school, leaving the wealthy in the town who value a progressive education to found a private school and the poor to take whatever education they were offered.
The schools for the deaf in Pennsylvania were organized long ago, before public schools got into the business of trying to educate all students. The Walton Rural Life Center Charter School was a public school that was going to close due to under enrollment. Breaking out of the traditional cookie cutter catchment admission system brought enrollment up to a level where the town could save the school. They Academie Lafayette might have been founded by the Kansas City Missouri school board, but it was not. There are any variety of changes to education that might have been made. Most were not.
Lame answer, TE. Just because they were not does not mean they “couldn’t be” in the present or future.
Whatever charters can do public schools should also be able to do, if it is in the best interests of students and communities.
There are certainly many worthy things that could be, it is just that they never were in the past.
I think the basic problem is that an approach to education need not be in the best interest of the community, but instead in the best interest of some of the students in the community. If there are enough students that would benefit from a Waldorf style education, for example, it seems reasonable to give those students a Waldorf style education even if there are not enough of them to elect a school board willing to create a Waldorf magnet school.
Your disdain for communities is exactly why you have no qualms about sacrificing public education and handing schools over to privatizers. You are anti-social.
I certainly do not distain community, but do have a concern about the dictatorship of the majority. In almost every situation where it is best for us to work together for a common goal. Sometimes the best way to cooperate is to get out of each others way, sometimes the best way to cooperate is to come to a joint decision.
Oh, and never mind the fact that what we are experiencing today is the dictatorship of the minority, of the .01% of the 1%.
To repeat the FDR quote from above because that is exactly what’s happening right now in our country that you repeatedly ignore:
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
Anti-social and dopey –and much more libertarian than he admits. .
I am not sure why you think private power is more powerful than the state.
And I’m not sure why you ignore all the indicators that private powers seek to own the state and ALREADY DO control it in many ways. Get a clue about how ALEC and billionaires operate, as well as the implications of the SCOTUS’ Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions. My time is way too valuable to waste anymore of it on your nonsense.
Basically, and much to my regret, they keep winning elections.
It’s rather pathetic that an economist would identify “dictatorship of the majority” as his concern and not mention the tyranny of the minority, when billionaires have been BUYING elections across the country. One could readily surmise he supports their voter suppression agenda, too.
Many reports about such matters have been posted regularly right here on this blog, including today. Clearly, this troll just comes here to frequently proselytize about the wonders of school choice, not read or learn anything, so these discussions are just a huge waste of time.
Why do you find that I would worry about a dictatorship of the majority? It is a longstanding issue in political philosophy.
Perhaps I have more faith that people do not sell their votes than you have.
Actually I argue that choice schools have a very precise virtue: they allow schools to differentiate themselves from each other in order to better serve the individual needs of the students. The essential individuality of students is staunchly defended here right up to the point where students are assigned to a school based not on anything at all about the student but the street address where the student lives. Maintaining cookie cutter schools with uniform curriculums where students can step from one school to another without missing a beat would be far far cheaper than the diverse culture that posters like Robert Sheperd call for. Even at that low price, it would be a poor value for the money.
I think it is likely that even you want students to have choices. Almost everyone thinks that high school students should have elective classes paid for by taxpayers inside a school building. The differences arise as students wish to take some or all classes outside the school building and who should pay for it. Care to think hard about why these differences arise? I think it would be a worthwhile conversation.
Well I’ve been here since the beginning and I can’t think of even ONE conversation which involved you that has been “worthwhile.” You’d probably get more agreement at the conservative teachers blog than from your ongoing rants here.
Well perhaps we could have one now.
I have tried several times to find where the common ground concerning students ability to choose aspects of their education disappear. I take it that most people here are fine with high school students choosing from a variety of courses in a given building paid for at public expense. I also take it that most people here object to elementary students choosing to take all of their classes from a private provider at public expense. Many, though perhaps not all given some positions I have seen folks take here, are happy to allow the relatively wealthy to purchase some or all of their education outside the public school system.
It seems to me that the important dimensions that lead to disagreement are 1) who is allowed to provide classes that students can choose to take, and 2) who will pay for those classes. I think it would be a productive conversation. Would you care to have it?
Reblogged this on jonathan lovell's blog and commented:
In this National Charter Schools Week (May 4-10), where we are meant to celebrate “the great work accomplished by public charter schools across the country and the increasing momentum that [they have} enjoyed over the past year” (see the website for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools), it’s important to be reminded that what we are actually witnessing is a large scale plunder of the public till. Outrage is clearly the appropriate response. Not celebration.
This is “National Charter Schools Week”?
I thought it was Teacher Appreciation Week-at least that is what my district is doing.
That’s the point. The Obama administration has lumped “Charter School Week” in with Teacher Appreciation Week. Just another slap in the face for public school teachers.
They should rename it, “Steal and waste the taxpayer’s dollar’s week.” Just think of all of the money you pay in taxes and in went into some charlatan’s bank account. Disgusting. The worst part is that fools in the USDOE support charter expansion.
I was just speaking to a teacher today who decided to buy her first grade students most of their supplies throughout the year because her class had been added and there were no funds for left for supplies (which were ordered earlier). Well, she didn’t have to buy those supplies but she told me no way was she going to have the students go without construction paper, scissors and the essentials they needed. So here we have a typical public school teacher who puts heart and soul into teaching enough so that she was willing to dip into her own limited funds to make sure her students learn to cut with the scissors and are able to do creative learning projects. AND THEN THERE ARE CHARTERS hiring self-serving overseers with no oversight on funding and a lot of greed. In the end.. those who run charters did not get into education for the love of learning and children.. they got into it for profit. So an expensive new car over fixing plumbing .. no brainer for the “CEO charter profiteer”… What is another day of a few leaks.. there are custodians and buckets! Sickening to think 100 million of wasted tax dollars (and this is just found in 15 of the 48 states) lines the pockets of seedy “charter ceo’s”.
What is sad is that teachers everywhere are left with inadequate supplies. You described the charters correctly. It is all about the money. The teachers in charters have few supplies and low pay. The CEO has a job for life. It is all disgusting.
Hi there Dee Dee.. I was not referring to a charter in the above comment but a teacher at a public school which makes lack of funds at public schools all the more insidious when charter operators are frittering away money on their own personal luxuries.. But you bring sup a great point… charters like Harlem Zone get copious amounts of money and their teachers are likely to have plenty of supplies while their “CEO” still earns a high 6 figure salary. But what about the SO MANY fly by night charter schools…I have no doubt the extremely high salaries of the school heads (principal/CEO’s) comes at the expense of paper and paint!
Not only are these schools stealing money apparently in Ohio they are kicking out under achieving students to make them look better on state report cards…
“School forced some struggling students out.
School officials withdrew struggling students without the consent of the students or their parents consent…
They were allowed on the high-school campus only between noon and 2:30 p.m. each day and only in one of two classrooms — no wandering around. State investigators say taking those 46 students out of the equation made the school…look better on state report cards.”
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/05/04/marion-forced-some-students-out.html
“The discovery of data tampering in Columbus City Schools led State Auditor Dave Yost to realize that Marion was forcing low-performing kids into the district’s online charter school. ”
I think this is probably under-reported. I think it’s a mischaracterization of what’s going on, though. I would bet the larger picture is more subtle than that, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a district-run online charter or an independent online charter.
Ohio has had unregulated online charter schools for years. I would bet the next (statewide) scandal discredits the “gains” in graduation rates re: credit recovery schools. It occurred to me it might be happening, and I don’t even work in education, although I do come into contact with kids who go thru the court system.
We have to either regulate online charter schools or get rid of them, and we have to stop making everything about reported numbers, or this will continue. I am baffled why this wasn’t anticipated.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I read the link. The one good thing I get from this, after so much dismal news from Ohio public ed, is that somebody– for once– did something about it! But as you suggest the discovered/ prosecuted misdeeds are no doubt a fraction of what actually goes on in such a wild-west-ed state…
Sorry, my mistake, it was a district public school that was withdrawing struggling students to make their state report cards look better, not a charter school.
But, Cynthia, where were they sending them? They were sending them to an online “credit recovery” charter school.
Why do we have an unregulated online charter school sector in Ohio? Didn’t anyone anticipate that struggling kids would be shunted to online charters, given the maniacal and obsessive focus on grading schools?
Are the credit recovery center numbers included in the (allegedly) higher graduation rate? If so, is that a valid and reliable measure?
As I said, I bet this is under-reported. I bet there is a lot more of this going on, in more subtle ways.
I have learned that there’s a better way to measure grad rates in a school using something called a “cohort number”, the grad rate for a class at the end of senior year. Why don’t we use that number? I think we don’t use it because then schools couldn’t brag about “100%” graduation rates when they’ve lost half their freshman on the way to senior year. Charter schools brag about “100%” graduation rates, but they’re cooking their books.
Let’s stop using these dumb and easily gamed stats to measure schools. It isn’t working.
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
G. Pyle
Awesome.
TAGO.
I believe Gomer “was from” North Carolina, if I remember correctly.
I think so. And he was a heck of a singer too.
Yes he was!
Charter schools are communes for children. Right?
Kind of.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx what do you mean?
???!
Joanne, charter schools couldn’t be any more different from communes. Communes were places where people attempted to live in love, peace and harmony, each one doing their own thing, exploring and expressing their inner and outer lives, pursuing their own dreams, whether through poetry, protests, weed, art, “free love”, whatever. Charter schools are all about conformity in an authoritarian, top-down way. There is no room for exploration, let alone expression, of one’s inner life or pursuing one’s dreams.
Waldorf, Montessori, progressive, language immersion, and rural life charter schools are all about conformity?
Right, TE, because there are so many progressive, Montessori and Waldorf charters. Especially in poor and minority areas.
There are a large number. There is the old baby bathwater thing that you might want to think about.
Good one, Dienne! 😉
Sure, recall all those reports about the wonderful progressive, Montessori and Waldorf charter schools? NOT. Some no-excuses charters erroneously refer to themselves as “progressive,” such as Success Academy, while parents and teachers have described their harsh military style.
14% attend charters in my district and not one is Montessori, Waldorf or progressive, but we have MANY military style no-excuses charters and a choice of public schools that ARE Montessori and progressive.
The baby can go to public or private school, where she won’t be subjected to authoritarian leadership and treated like a lowly animal that must learn how to be subservient to a master: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/julia-steiny-the-trouble-with-no-excuses-schools/
It is unclear that your local district should be the test. Perhaps searching for “Montessori charter school”, Waldorf charter school”, “progressive charter school”, “autism charter school”, “french immersion charter school”, “Chinese immersion charter school”, etc would add to your impressions about the variety of charter schools out there.
As an interesting contrast, try searching for Waldorf school, Montessori school, etc. and count how many of those schools are traditional neighborhood schools. You think you will get a half a dozen in the US?
In this country, it’s the chains that grow the fastest and typically take over where mom and pop enterprises once reigned. Those chains are no-excuses military style schools, in the charter world, so referring to the occasional exception pales significantly in comparison.
What part of “huge waste of time do you not understand”? You will have no more of my precious time.
One could make chains illegal. In my state, for example, it is illegal for any legal entity to own more than one license to sell alcohol above 3.2%. We have no Trader Joe’s selling wine, no Cost Club, no wine sales in any grocery store. The same could be done for charter schools.
This argument is just as much a non sequitur now as the last time you claimed it. Blue laws are a far cry from outlawing chains. Trader Joes still operates in your state. They just have a restriction on liquor sales there.
Charter chains have a lot of political and corporate clout, in the free market, frenzied, dash for the cash climate of education “reform” today, so good luck with banning or restricting them.
Cosmic,
You are correct, there is one Trader Joe’s store in my state, but that was not my point.
My point was to illustrate the power of regulation to shape practices. It seems to me that increased regulation of charter schools is a far more politically achievable goal than elimination of charter schools. It is even likely that you would find advocates choice schools your political allies.
Being unregulated is one of the things that political and corporate supporters of charter schools like most about them, so I would not hold my breath waiting for regulations across the country to suddenly start being imposed.
Which do you think is more likely: increased regulation of charter schools or the elimination of charter schools? I think it is the former.
TE, In case you missed it, and to demonstrate how off base and out of touch you are on this matter, legislators are intent on expanding charter schools AND they have no intention of seeing them regulated or held accountable: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/05/08/republicans-reject-grijalva-efforts-to-make-charters-accountable/
Cosmic,
Is it your position that 1) legislation that increases regulation on charter schools is not feasible but 2) legislation that closes all charter schools is feasible?
What we have been seeing at the federal level, and in many states, is legislation that places more and more demands for standardization, accountability and regulatory oversight of public schools, and at the same time, we are seeing increased legislation for the expansion of charters which do not have standardization, accountability and regulatory oversight requirements.
The pattern in many large urban areas across the country is that if public schools can’t meet those demands, which are often untenable when states and districts starve high needs schools of necessary resources, those schools are then closed and turned into charters.
The lack of accountability and regulatory oversight for charter schools is a distinct privilege earmarked for privately managed K12 education receiving public funds. It does not apply to education for other age groups, such as in programs for birth – Preschool and higher education which receive public funds, as they are accountable regardless of whether they are public or private. Politicians and billionaires, like Mike Milken, who’ve had investments and involvement in all of these educational arenas, know this very well. It’s no coincidence that K12 has become “ripe for the pickins,” when this is the arena where the majority of our nation’s children are served. This is a business plan for those who stand to profit from privatizing our schools and it’s a convenient ideological plan for those who are opposed to public education.
This is clearly a rigged game aimed at privatizing public education in this country. Any educated person who spends significant time on this blog that fails to acknowledge this is either a fool or a promoter of privatizing public education. –And also a complete waste of time to those of us who support public education. Tired of explaining this to you. Finis!
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Soon, the Corporate Department of private sector Charter School Education will be as corrupt as the Department of Defense.
Well, I suppose it could be worse – Hillary Clinton can’t seem to find 6 Billion!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/4/state-dept-misplaced-6b-under-hillary-clinton-ig-r/?page=all
The WashingtonTimes? lolololololol
That’s your response? Seriously?
Jack – yes, the Washington Times is a joke of a paper. It was founded by the Moonies and is to the right of Fox, in a league with something like World Net Daily.
Do you remember when Donald Rumsfeld reported that the pentagon could not account for 2.3 trillion dollars in expenditures. He stated this on September 10, 2001. So you can imagine after the pentagon got physically attacked the next day how a little issue like 2.3 trillion dollars missing did not ever make it to the front page. Ever. Ever. We are still waiting for that investigation to occur.
That’s trillion with a “T.” That’s enough to educate every child in the U.S.A. from pre-K to PHD. Exactly what are U.S. priorities these days?
Do you think those first two items are related?
And to answer your question: Priorities are re-worhting all value to the top 1% of the top 1% through using the death and destruction machine that is the Banking/Military (and those two are intimately connected) Industrial Complex
Yeah, that would be a great story… if it weren’t total bunk:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-the-pentagon-cannot-track-2-3-trillion-in-transactions.165/
So one guy named Mick West, the editor of Metabunk, thinks that Rumsfeld was simply saying that the pentagon couldn’t exactly say how 2.3 trillion dollars was spent, because of antiquated accounting systems and the inability of the military departments to communicate with each other regarding purchases and expenditures, but the money was well spent. The accounts were not up to the standards that would be acceptable to an auditor but the money was well spent. The money cannot actually be matched up with any specific pentagon expenditure, but the money was well spent. The money is not in fact missing and it was well spent.
Come on now. That is bunk.
The Arizona Republic reported that no one knows just how much money was lost at the beginning of the charter school era here. No one was paying attention. TE wants to support good charter schools. The top ranked Basis School here operates under a charter school management company. While it is supposedly non-profit, the way the money is spent is kept from the taxpayers. For a while the accounting was outsourced to a relative in Eastern Europe. It is a well known scandal that many charters use these management companies to direct $ money to family and friends. My public school district was required to get bids for any purchases over $5000 with any one company.
I don’t know why it matters if it’s nonprofit as far as accounting for public funds. It’s just meaningless. It’s always offered as a rebuttal by ed reformers and newspapers, “it’s nonprofit!”
Who cares? Why would that excuse the management company from accounting for public funds? As far as accounting and transparency it means nothing. Nonprofit, for profit, they should have submit the same documentation a public school does. What could the possible justification be for not doing so?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I so agree, Chiara. Your common-sense message needs to reach all taxpayers ears. The laws now allow ‘non-profit’ 501(c)this-and-that vehicles to underwrite election campaigns & thus open the door to bought-&-paid-for legislators. Thanks to Citizens United & the latest SCOTUS decision on that. That’s a tough nut to crack for us small taxpayers.
However I suspect that we little guys could make a difference with our legislators on charter laws. No reason on earth local taxpayers should be supporting schools whose spending habits (let alone curriculum, admission policies etc) are barred from public view & thus an open invitation to graft & corruption.
Really simple explanation of how Philadelphia helped to bankrupt their own public school system:
“Fast-forward to 1997 and the passage of the Pennsylvania Charter School Law: Act 22. This effectively deregulated the public educational system. Act 22 made the financial crisis facing the Philadelphia School District inevitable.
The problem with Act 22 was it reduced revenues without limiting costs equivalently. When students transfer from a public school to a charter school, those children take much of the state funding with them. But public school costs do not decline equal to the loss of aid.
For example, if the class size is reduced only modestly, there may be no change in the number of teachers or classrooms needed. Any cost declines are minimal, but the revenue losses – from the state funding – are large.
The financial issues don’t end there. The public school system is mandated to provide capacity for everyone who wants to attend. This required construction of large numbers of schools and the acceptance of the costs associated with financing, equipping, supplying, and maintaining the classrooms and buildings. Those capacity-related expenses don’t disappear when a student transfers to a charter school. Those expenses just become a larger portion of the budget.”
We have to stop pretending public schools and charter schools are the same. They’re not. The public schools in Philadelphia are essentially acting as a subsidy/safety net for the charter schools. Once the public schools are gone, that safety net will have to be re-created in the privatized system, and that will cost money. This is like musical chairs. As long as there are public safety net schools, everyone has a chair. Remove them, and some kids don’t have a seat.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140504_Government_actions__unintended_outcomes_with_S_Ls__schools.html#fIaRshbaXoZ6WS3l.99
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
Shocked. ….not
This is shocking and just one more reason Charter schools are not what they purport to be. What will Arne Duncan, Bill Gates and others who degrade public schools say about this?
So, the privatized schools – are frauds that we do not now or have we ever really needed? They mis-treat our children while mis-spending our hard-earned money?
We the people don’t need them, but the corporations need them.
I shout this and more from the rooftops, because the neoliberals are hell-bent on doing us all in.
The Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes passionately about how damaging neoliberalism is to people.
He speaks about neoliberalism eroding trust and causing inhumanity. This is the most corrosive thing about charter schools – we cannot trust them, and they erode the public trust in us, actual public schools.
It’s a serous essay by an amazing voice.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/635555.html
Charters are like communes for children.
Sorry, but you can’t just put that out there without explanation and expect to be taken seriously.
Really, Dienne. For those of us who’ve lived on communes, such as on a Kibbutz in Israel, this is a bad joke. Kids are not expected to be automatons on communes. They are progressive, not militaristic –even in such a war torn country.
This is too far away for me but I thought someone else may want attend:
“A meeting about “Ohio’s Charter Schools: Where Are Our Tax Dollars Going?” will be held May 7th, 6 – 7:30 p.m., at the Upper Arlington Public Library, 2800 Tremont Rd., Cols, Ohio 43221.
A state senator, public school treasurer, school board member, former Department of Education charter school consultant, former charter school teacher and former superintendent of Ohio Virtual Academy (K-12, Inc. for-profit company) are on the panel to discuss what is “thorough and efficient” about the charter school industry.”
That “former superintendent” of Ohio Virtual Academy might have some interesting things to tell us 🙂
We could all ask our libraries to provide a forum for the discussion of the corporatization of schools.
Mercedes Schneider’s book could be the catalyst.
Over $100 million — sounds like a lot, but the anecdotes in the report span a 10 year period, so that’s about $10 million a year. How much did the 15 states spend on charter schools in total over that 10 year period? That’s the kind of essential background without which the $100 million figure is impossible to interpret.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/romano-voucher-expansion-doubles-down-on-separate-but-unequal-schools/2178185
Ed reformers in FL push thru vast expansion of vouchers:
“Students, teachers and administrators are seemingly held captive by standardized tests in public schools, and yet tax revenues flow into private schools with few checks and balances and virtually no oversight.
Vouchers were sold as a way for poverty-level students to attend private schools with public funds, but legislation passed Friday will dramatically expand the program into middle-class territory.
“This is a sad day for public education,” said Mindy Gould, the Florida PTA legislative chair. “This is just part of a much larger plan to privatize public education in Florida.”
I think it’s great that ordinary people are using “privatize” regularly now, in the states (if not in national media) and it’s accepted as a perfectly apt descriptive word for what’s happening.
It’s accepted because it’s obviously true to anyone who lives in these places where ed reform is dominant.
As I’ve said many times, charters are the best con in America. Why didn’t deBlasio have info like this at hand to being put the charters on the defensive? He needs as much info as possible to be able to show they are frauds and that anyone who supports them supports the theft of taxpayer dollars.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Will this report show up in any national media? I doubt it.
For those who see no problem with privatizing public education, because charter expansion has not grown large or fast enough to their liking, remember that the report indicates the number of charters has been doubling exponentially.
Also try to learn something from Chile, where neo-liberal MIlton Friedman exported his privatization scheme. Only 55% of their kids attend privatized schools, with the remainder dumped in public schools that are starved of resources, and yet their society rapidly became highly stratified and segregated.
I don’t know what the tipping point is, but in our major cities, we can already see how neighborhood schools are being strangled because resources have been earmarked for charters instead. I’ve never heard any charter supporters mention when they think we will have enough charter schools. However, considering we already have a very stratified society, I, for one, do not want to wait until we get to the point where thousands of students have to demonstrate in the streets for years, because they’ve had enough of privatization, before the government finally responds and ends privatization. It’s been predicted that it is going to take years to reverse privatization in Chile.
The current dearth of regulations clearly attracts a lot of opportunists aiming to get rich quick off the backs of our nation’s children. I think that halting charter expansion and regulating ALL schools that receive public funds are the two primary keys to preventing a debacle here similar to what occurred in Chile. ..
Today a retired state senator came to my house to help me address envelopes for my son who is running for office. When I complained about the charter school fraud, she advised me to call my state representatives and to get to know their staff. She suggested I call and ask questions so they will know who I am. I plan to follow her advice and I hope you do too.
I hope your son is running in Ohio.
At the national level, in my district, Democratic candidate, Kundrata, is running against Congressman Chabot, Kundrata’s platform is
support for public education. I sent him a campaign contribution.
When I contacted my state representative, I was stunned when he said, “…ALEC is a federal agency…” The senator you quoted is right. We each need to better inform our politicians.
When I contacted my state representative, I was stunned when he said, “…ALEC is a federal agency…”
OMG! Voters really need to become more informed about who they are putting into office, too!
Unfortunately my son is running for a local position in California. However, through him and his colleagues, I have learned that our representatives DO listen to people who bother to call or write.
$100mi sounds like a chicken-feed for some zombie charters living on million dollar sausage…
Did you read the report? It looks like just a drop in the bucket to me –a few examples from 15 states of how charter management organizations and CEOs have fraudulently scammed the system by not complying with the few regulations that exist.
I saw no figures on what charters are getting away with because the regulations are so lax, such as by pilfering legally. For example, there was no info about how many millions were raked in by Ron Packard, CEO of the online K12 Inc., or about the many for-profit and “non-profit” CEOs getting six figure incomes that surpass the salaries of superintendents of many more schools –taking in even more money than Duncan and Obama earn.
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
Apparently they’re polling kids on the Common Core tests (in addition to their other duties, they’re polled on the tests) and they’re using those results to push this politically:
“We have never been more ready for a test than we are for this one,” said state Superintendent of Education John White, the state’s top proponent of Common Core and the tests that go with it.
“In general, I think, it is another validation that the direction our education system is headed is the right one,” White said.”
“The survey results were released on the eve of a key House Appropriations Committee hearing at 9 a.m. Monday.”
“In the trial run, White said test takers were given the option of filling out the survey and about half did — around 12,500.”
The release of the results was politically timed to occur on the eve of a hearing. Why are the adults using the responses of (half of) the kids in this purely political manner?
We’re ALREADY gaming results, and using them politically. It’s like we can’t stop doing this. We get a number from the kids and we immediately use it to push an agenda. This number isn’t valid. Half the kids didn’t answer the questions.
Adults shouldn’t behave like this.
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/home/9080875-172/students-give-common-core-tests
$100 million sounds like a wild underestimate. UNO alone has probably stolen that much. I think they’re only counting that which can definitely be proven as theft, not all the money that is unaccounted for. And even that doesn’t include all the money squandered on things like executive salaries, advertising, supply contracts with the owner’s cousin, etc., etc.
In all fairness, however, it should be noted that public schools aren’t exactly bastions of efficiency themselves. The administrative bloat in public education, for instance, is a national shame. People in glass houses and all of that stuff….
Dawn Hoagland,
Thank you for the listing of Fascism indicators.
Germa Bol, wrote a paper about Germany’s, pre-war privatization (2006). The collusion of industry and government was an agenda that other European nations did not follow.
Yes, Thank you, Dawn, and thank you, Linda, as well!
Here it is, “Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany” by Germà Bel:
Click to access nazi.pdf
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~George Santayana
I saw that quote posted in Germany at Dachau concentration camp. At least the Germans have learned.
of course there should be transparency and no school that accepts public dollars should be for profit……..that doesn’t even bring into accounting all the fund raising that Teach for America does and spends on its supers, principals, administrators….they don’t spend it on the teachers or the children, that is for sure….all the millions of donations ands “awards for excellence” by Broad, etc…. When does the nonsense end? What happens after all the schools are privatized, and the profiteers decide they aren’t making enough? Do they close the schools and leave the kids education-less? Is that when we start to properly fund public schools again? Do we rent back the buildings from the charter managers? Perhaps that is the long-term goal?
Just study what happened in Chile where 55% of all schools became charter schools. Now they have new leadership looking to reverse that privatization back to public schools and it will be a long process. Too bad for the children who are growing up fast and can’t wait for an education.
Requiring charter schools to be non-profit seems very reasonable, but the orthodox poster here would still close them all.
Oh, please. Read more than your own writing. Even former charter supporter and WMU researcher Gary Miron said, “There’s not much difference in profit and nonprofits… It’s really a scam…”
“Big Profits in Not-for-Profit Charter Schools”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/charter-school-executive-profit_b_5093883.html
I am responding to poster Donna who said ” no school that accepts public dollars should be for profit…”. If you have a dispute, it is with poster Donna and your comment might be better directed there.
No, wake up. It was very apparent that I was responding to YOUR claim that “Requiring charter schools to be non-profit seems very reasonable,” because that is no solution when there is virtually no difference between for-profit and non-profit charters. “It’s really a scam.”
Again, if you think there is no distinction between for profit and not for profit charter schools, your disagreement is with the poster that drew that distinction, not with me.
Again, you were the one who preferred the notion that non-profit charter schools are a “very reasonable” alternative to for-profits.
Quit trying to scapegoat Donna when the issue I was addressing is what YOU said.
If poster Donna was concerned with all charter schools, perhaps poster Donna should have not said for profit charter schools.
The charter school in my town is a non-profit. The charter was granted to the elected school board and it is run by the school district. Could you explain how this charter school is the no different from a for profit charter school?
I have no idea how the charter in your town is run. I only know that in some of our big cities, like Chicago, where for-profit charters are not permitted, the district grants charters but they impose virtually no regulatory oversight of them. So, one charter chain there that was awarded $98M in a state grant engaged in mismanagement and fraud and the only consequence was a temporary suspension in the distribution of the remaining funds. The CEO felt pressured to resign, but nothing else changed, so it’s business as usual for non-profit charters raking in big bucks there. NYC’s charters are also non-profits and have very little regulatory oversight.