The Milwaukee Common Council passed an ordnance prohibiting the use of bribes to induce students to enroll in charter or voucher schools.
Despite the frequent boasting about “long waiting lists,” it turns out that many of these non-public schools have trouble filling their seats. Public schools are not allowed to offer cash prizes or gifts for enrolling, but privately managed schools were offering cash and other inducements to boost their numbers and get state money.
The ordinance that “the Common Council approved Tuesday also recommends the city’s lobbyists push for a statewide ban on the practice, which independent charter schools, private voucher schools and even day care centers have quietly used — in some cases for years — to boost enrollment numbers.
“Enrollment is the lifeblood for schools that rely on public funding because it guarantees a certain amount of per-pupil dollars from the state.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We’re doomed. We really are. I, and others have not given up the fight but for pete’s sake. Enough already.
hard to believe bribes have to be banned. It should go without saying. But maybe not in a “market.”
I know. Poor modeling, charter operators!
For such data driven people, they seem to have some trouble with accurate numbers:
“Thousands more students than the state had projected enrolled this fall in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, as some new charter schools have struggled to recruit as many students as anticipated.
Superintendent Heath Morrison called Tuesday for changes in how the state verifies enrollment at charter schools because the district now finds itself short on cash and teachers to serve the size of its student population.
The state’s expectations mean that CMS is receiving funding for fewer teachers than the district should based on actual enrollment.
Shirley said there’s no guarantee that the state will restore funding for the district based on actual enrollment. If it does, CMS would be in line to hire about 60 more teachers, she said. At this point in the year, the pool of qualified teachers is much smaller.”
Where did the projected enrollment numbers for the charters come from, and does anyone check to see if they have anything to do with reality?
Obviously, they want their charter approved, so they’re going to submit a number that indicates there’s a demand. Is this entirely self-reported?
How is this fair to the public school students, who now have giant classes, less funding, fewer qualified teachers and more chaos in their schools? Surely the public schools, who are acting as a public safety net for the charter schools, deserve at least some consideration.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/09/23/5195125/cms-student-growth-exceeds-state.html#.VEAkL4vF9H3#storylink=cpy
Chiara,
Many charters are hiding low enrollments while falsely claiming to have waiting lists. The charade might end if the market for charters is saturated. The ALEC crew is fighting that possibility by starving public schools of resources. See, Philadelphia.
So in addition to the midyear dump and phony 100% graduation rates and selective enrollment/push out/counsel out policies and high teacher turnover and padded rooms and all the rest that characterize the major charter franchises that allegedly do much much more with much much less for increasingly more & more students—
They bribe students?
It’s only rheeally defensible in a Johnsonally sort of way. What sort of repugnant immoral behavior are we going to model next—taping students’ mouths shut and making their lips bleed but claiming [without the slightest proof] that we’ve taken them from the 13th to the 90th percentile?
Oops, forgot, been there, done that. Rheeally. And that led to $50,000@speech for a former supernova in the self-styled “education reform” firmament.
And to nearly $60,000 ‘severance’ pay for former LAUSD Supt. John Deasy.
Only problem? $tudent $ucce$$ buys lots and lots of mirrors but folks like him can’t stand to look at themselves in them…
Really.
😎
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
Student bribes: Are they an unintended consequence of deregulated for-profit charters and vouchers or… are they a feature?