Last Friday, a judge cleared the way to put the York City schools into receivership, meaning under state control. The Pennsylvania Department of Education previously announced its intention to hand over the entire school district to the for-profit charter chain Charter Schools of America.
Be it noted that today’s education “reformers” don’t much care for democracy. They would rather turn public schools over to a for-profit corporation that siphons off 20% in management fees and pays itself outlandish rental fees rather than trust parents and local citizens to do what’s best for their children.
Choice? There will be no “choice” for the families of York City. Their children will have to attend a charter school whose headquarters are in Florida. Yes, it is the death of local control and democracy in York City.
The news story says:
“State officials have said they would, if approved for a receivership, bring in Charter Schools USA to operate the district.
“So this means York likely will be the first city in the Commonwealth – and only one in the nation – where public education is provided exclusively by a private company.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association plans to appeal, according to a statement released by the statewide teachers union immediately after the ruling Friday morning.
“York’s citizens don’t want this, the elected school board doesn’t want this, and parents and educators don’t want this,” said PSEA President Michael Crossey.
“Citing the district’s financial problems, PDE declared York schools in recovery status and appointed David Meckley chief recovery officer, or CRO, in late 2012.
“State law triggers a receivership petition if officials in a recovery school district act against the wishes of the CRO or in violation of their approved recovery plan, which is supposed to be collaboratively developed.
“In this case, one action was the board’s refusal to vote on a charter school operator contract until the company provided more information.
“The other was its vote on a teachers and staff union contract that didn’t cut as much as set out in the recovery plan.”
This is what we would expect from the outgoing Corbett administration, which actively promoted privatization.
What will the new Tom Wolf administration do?
Here are some thoughts from Mark Miller, a local school board member in Pennsylvania and an officer of the Pennsylvania School Boards Assiciation:
“PSBA was disqualified as a party of interest in the case despite the fact we are a state chartered agency with a membership of 4,500 elected officials sworn to uphold the constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which guarantees a free and appropriate public education to all children. On that count alone, how can the court force any child to attend a charter school?
“Linebaugh also disqualified NAACP, PASA and twenty-two parents of children with special needs who combined their money to retain special education counsel. Commonwealth Court upheld the ruling on NAACP, PSBA, PASA and parents did not appeal as we were saving our war chest for this new fight.
“There was never any question in my mind that Linebaugh was going to hand the district over to privateers. Governor Elect Wolf is a resident of York County and a political ally of the Receiver (David Meckley). While he did ask for the courts to leave this matter wait until his term of office begins, he has been absolutely silent on his position in this matter.
“Wolf’s wife Frances resigned from the Board of York Academy Charter School two months before he declared for office. some observers think that CSUSA will sub-contract to York Academy and CSMI (Charter School Management Inc is Vahan Gureghian’s company) as CSUSA does not have the resources at hand to run these schools.
“York Academy and CSMI have been silent and CSUSA non committal http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_27186647/charter-schools-usa-mum-york-city-schools-special (Although Vahan Guerghian is building a $28MM mansion within a 45 minute drive to CSUSA headquarters in Florida.
“Obviously, we are going to file an appeal of the ruling handed down today.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It really makes you wonder how these folks dare to appear in public. How do they teach democracy in York, now?
2old2teach: “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” [Ionesco]
You’ve inspired me to come up with my own: “Is knowing about democracy necessary for college-and-career readiness”?
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
And she means that, in a most Johnsonally sort of way…
But I must admit, I prefer your question rather than her answer.
😎
I seem to remember that some old guys pushed separation from Great Britain over taxation without representation. It sounds like the people of York are being forced to fund an education plan they neither control, want or approved by ballot. H-m-m-m.
I’m afraid, though, that the real question might be how do we teach about democracy in this country before we lose it altogether?
Well, on the bright side, this just might be the make or break for charters. Isn’t this the first time a charter has taken on an entire district? Will they still be so “excellent” (cough, cough) if they can’t cream the best kids and kick out all but the best of those? This will be the real test for the rephormers – do they really believe in “excellent” schools as they claim, or is it really about privatizing? If they really believe what they spout, then they should hold Charter Schools USA to the same standards public schools have been held to. If the schools are still “failing”, then they should be “turned around” and CSUSA should be out on their collective fanny. Something tells me, of course, that it won’t happen that way, though. Suddenly we’ll be hearing all kinds of acceptable excuses for failure. But at least that will make it obvious what the rephormers are really all about – and it’s not excellence.
You won’t hear any promotion of this charter chain in York PA from the Obama Administration, although Duncan’s DOE promotes charter schools constantly.
The Vice President’s brother traveled to PA to promote this operator. I imagine they’ll steer clear of this one. Doesn’t fit the narrative of brave local ed reformers battling the mighty teachers union thugs and creating innovative local schools.
The giant politically-connected multi-state charter chains just destroy the romantic narrative.
That educational romance started with a de-petaled dried thorny rose.
York isn’t the first public school district that was completely privatized by a politically connected for-profit charter management company.
Muskegon Heights MI was the first.
It was privatized but it’s never mentioned by ed reformers (unlike say, New Orleans) because the charter management company pulled out and left town when they determined they couldn’t turn a profit. Muskegon Heights doesn’t fit the ed reform narrative so it simply isn’t discussed.
“MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI — Mosaica Education Inc. will no longer manage the Muskegon Heights charter school district, and plans will begin immediately to seek a replacement company.
Muskegon Heights Public Schools Emergency Manager Gregory Weatherspoon said the separation came down to an issue of finances. Mosaica, a for-profit company, was running a deficit budget and not making a profit.”
I think they dump the for-profit charter chains in states where there’s no regulation, lawmakers are completely captured and there’s no national media focus – states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida.
OH, MI, PA and FL get all the ed reform garbage. It washes up here.
OH, MI, PA and FL should serve as a warning to other states not to lift charter caps and deregulate further, but it won’t. They’ll all end up like the least regulated states. It’s a race to the bottom.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/mosaica_out_as_manager_of_musk.html
Also, it should be mentioned that the Vice President’s brother personally appeared for this company to do the take-over:
Frank Biden (yes that Biden) steps up 2 #York PA mic 2 explain why he supports @CSUSAhq effort 2 improve the schools.
CSUSA should release all communications with PA lawmakers so we can see which relatives of politicians, former politicians and current politicians were involved in this. They should do that voluntarily, without a lawsuit or FOIA demand.
Crony capitalism is a huge issue for the public. I don’t know why ed reform would be exempt from media inquiry on that. If this were a defense contract we would ask about that. Why should ed reformers be special snowflakes? It’s government contracting and that’s ALL it is. Nothing unique about the revolving door and profiteering in government contracting. Happens all the time.
Arne Duncan and Joel Klein say over and over and over that people “don’t care” who runs and owns their local schools as long as they get “results” but to say that and believe it’s true they have to completely ignore how people in these places always work like hell to oppose these take-overs.
People always fail when they resist because the decision has already been made and the “public meetings” are pure political theater – phony-an imitation of democratic process- but still. It seems like a flat-out lie to say they “don’t care”.
How do such powerful, high-profile people get away with repeating this lie all over the country?
This judicial conduct is appalling, but it is another manifestation of the power of monied and politically connected people to capture any tax-subsidized social service for profit. I hope the legal challenge to this decision is succcessful.
It isn’t on the judge, IMO, reading his order. They wrote the school code to end in exactly this result. He is simply following the code.
It was a done deal before they had the public meetings. Anything other than a rubber stamp triggers receivership. Those local people never had a chance.
I don’t know why they bother with these public meetings. All their doing is discrediting democratic process, generally. They would do less structural harm if they’d just cut to the chase. This is why people check out and don’t vote, etc. “process” like this. They know it’s fake.
Well, the judge did exclude the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the NAACP, and counsel hired by parents of students with disabilities. That was his decision, and it limited the testimony he had before him.
The judge wouldn’t listen to counsel for parents of students with disabilities? I would take it higher than this judge if I were those parents. I know I would in my state if a judge tried to pull that here.
I thought all states had to offer free public education. The people of York should challenge this ruling on the grounds that a privatized school is not free public education since they cannot elect a school board, have a say in the curricula and budget and the teachers hired do not have to adhere to the same certification rules as those in public schools. Due to these differences, the citizens of York are being denied the same level of democracy granted to citizens of other cities and towns. I don’t know if they could win, but it is worth a shot if it stops charters from gobbling up an entire city district.
For a long time now, I have been saying here and at ON, that the conspiracy to take over our public schools is far more insidious than the the profiteering which robs the taxpayer to pay for an often inferior education.
It is well known that getting them young is the way to indoctrination, and we see the beginnings as Gates and Koch decide what shall be read, as they decide how their version of history will become THE version ion our country. I have written, here, how my students read Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” and discussed the ways in which the social contract (their new constitution) which the animals fought and died for, was totally transformed by the pigs in the farmhouse, as the old generation died and memoir of the truth faded.
Today, in ‘The NY Times,’ an article appeared discussing not merely how one boy became ensnared by ISIS, but how these dictators used the knowledge… that getting them young was the way to ensure their ideology prevailed.
While this shows the extreme lengths that human dictators will go to, it is only different in that extreme, as the premise “get ’em young,’ is the truth that underlies the practice!
It is only different in degree, and it is time that we began to talk about the end of public education as the road to ending our democracy. I have been saying this from day one.
I quote:
“The United Nations wrote in a report last month that “ISIS prioritizes children as a vehicle for ENSURING LONG-TERM LOYALTY, ADHERENCE TO THEIR IDEOLOGY and a cadre of devoted fighters that will see violence as a way of life.”
“The United Nations has released a catalog of horrors inflicted on children by the Islamic State. In Raqqa, Syria, the militants’ de facto capital, the group has gathered children for screenings of execution videos. It has forced children to participate in public stonings. And in many of the group’s grisly execution videos, children are seen among the audience. (Usaid said that his parents did not allow him to attend the public executions in his town, typically held after Friday Prayer.)
“In the areas it controls in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has established centers for the military and religious training of children, in anIN AN EFFORT TO INDOCTRINATE THEM AND BUILD A GENERATION OF WARRIO” RS. One of the group’s videos, depicting a camp near Mosul, in northern Iraq, calls the children the “cubs of the caliphate.” At the camP… children are shown doing physical fitness exercises and reciting the Quran, while an instructor explains that they are being trained to fight “hate-filled Shiites.”
Am I the only one who is saying that we are already divided for them to conquer?
IN ALMOST sixteen thousand districts in FIFTY States, the billionaire plutocrats who are our home-grown ideologues, are taking over the schools. 15,880/50 is my series at Oped News,
And while the truth is ‘out there’ and Diane Ravitch points to the constant erosion of public education, the media goes from one circus to another, and the people I meet as I travel in state after state, have no idea what is happening in their own schools, let alone in NY, LA or Pa.
The ignorance is overwhelming and they will win.
The other story that underlies the war on public education is also nowhere to be found!
The story of the trauma to the tens of thousands of teachers who were deprived of justice, who lost their careers and were vilified is the human interest story of the century, and yet, 16 years after I experienced the lawlessness, there is no place in this country where the story is known. The real professionals and THEIR VOICE IN THE CONVERSATION are GONE, SO GATES, KOCH AND CLONES CAN do their thing.
it is time that the story of how the professionals were sent out the door so the schools would fail, and the plutocrats could ‘fix’ them in the name of reform, needs to be told.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
Agree with all you say, Susan.
This is a movement that has been taking place for decades. The Kochs quietly invaded public ed and have poured a fortune into developing their own curriculum of free market profiteering in both primary and secondary schools, but into higher ed colleges of their own making. They have been quoted in Forbes and Fortune and other sources, how much they believe in developing teachers, professors, legislators, who follow the rules of their version of the Constitution and the Free Market. The text books they commandeer reflect their revisionist history.
There are colleges devoted to religious radicalism, and if the Kochs curriculum is taught there, we can foresee and new religious/free market marriage to overtake freedom of thought. The billioniares are clear in wanting legislators they can easily control who are products of these repressive institutions of higher ed. (e.g. Bob Jones, Liberty, and others.)
I am in the field every day in LA and am constantly amazed and dismayed at the ignorance of the public. People do not want to hear about privatization, and they know absolutely nothing about the rapid takeover of Amercian public ed by corporations and profiteers.
Note ….Also like your blogsite Speaking as a Teacher.
Thanks. I have been putting together a new site for a while as things are happening so fast. What drives me crazy is when I mention Diane Ravitch and people say, “Diane Who?” I want to cry.
I go to a myriad of sites where education is the topic and educators like yourself discuss the most important issues., Leonie Haimsion, and Anthony Cody are two, as week as the activists who tell the story of the war on teachers, like Karen Horwitz, Lenny Isenberg, Betsy Combier, Francesco Portelos, Rene Diedrich and many more.
But it Diane who covers the most crucial issues, and her last book, Reign of Error, said it all. Her name should be not only familiar, it should be an authority… but look who the media interviews. 9% are educators and few are the ones who have the truth about the assault.
I get the same reaction when I mention Bernie Sanders, or Liz Matthews.”Bernie Who” or “Hmm, yeah, I heard the name Liz Matthews, but I can’t recall…”
Our people are ignorant of everything that matters
Stressed as they lose their home and their jobs, choosing between rent and food, or health care, and inundated by the media circus, the people have lost their connection to the ruling elite. Now a plane has crashed, and the endless coverage of that will replace the 2 dead police officer coverage, which replaced Ferguson and …
Sometimes, I just want to give up, and figure that one more voice in this swamp will not matter.
dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 at 10:56 am
Well, the judge did exclude the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the NAACP, and counsel hired by parents of students with disabilities. That was his decision, and it limited the testimony he had before him.”
Thanks, I didn’t take that into account. I don’t know what the rules are in Pennsylvania for an interested party to join as a party or intervene, but if there’s a lot of judicial discretion or he veered away from what is generally accepted practice, the rules or case law interpreting the rules on that it may well be an issue.
Pennsylvania has really weak charter regulation, as you know. I tend to give the judges the benefit of the doubt in race to the bottom charter states because they often genuinely have very little to work with in the state code. The judges in the White Hat case in Ohio had no law- the charter laws are not regulations they’re authorizations. They AUTHORIZE charters- it’s a grant of authority to the private operator, not a regulatory scheme.
Like I have said from the start, all this miss-mash of regulations is exactly what the plutocrats are exploiting… finding the weaknesses, district by district and there are 15,880 of them in fifty states. No need to divide and conquer… there is no federal regulation, no policies about who to educate our citizens fro success in a complex world. They own the mdid and it is free for all UNTIL THE VOICE OF THE TEACHER becomes THE voice as to what constitutes and educated American and then, WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO TEACH… a topic I am preparing gfor my own blog, where I hope my voice as a teacher will finally lay bare this assault on democracy, but taking out the citizens WHEN THEY ARE CHILDREN.
Am I the only on easing this?
If you think it too, say it, everywhere…. democracy is going down, if they get the children, if as John Taylor Gattos said, the are dumbing us down, with ‘WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION,’ n (his latest….READ IT) as we argue about charter schools.
I don’t get why it’s not news. That’s a great story. The Vice President’s brother appears on behalf of a for-profit charter school chain. A lot of people would be interested in that.
Half the country believes government is completely corrupt. They’re interested in crony capitalism.
My (grown) daughter sent me an email after Congress made that disgusting deal with Citibank with a one word comment: “gross”
She’s done. She thinks it’s an ethical collapse in both government AND the private sector. She thinks they’re “gross” 🙂
This case is not over. Watch for PSBA and other excluded groups with a direct interest to sue to overturn the decision.
It seems to me that this is a good example of “no taxation without representation,” so I think the residents of York City should stop paying school taxes to protest. Why should their public school tax dollars go to for-profit Charter Schools USA?
How many charter school seats are for-profit in PA, MI, OH and FL now?
SEATS, not schools. Ed reformers game the percentage by counting schools instead of seats because the for-profit charters are giant. Count seats.
At what point do liberal, well-intentioned ed reformers realize they got played? Never. They will never, ever admit that 🙂
Next up! Backpack vouchers! Liberals will say it was their idea and it’s very, very progressive if you just look at it correctly!
Forget democracy and democratic principles. Autocracy, plutocracy now reigns supreme.
I do not understand this legislation in some respects.
How can the legislature on one hand dictate that the power to raise taxes lies with the board – but that the receiver can do basically anything he wants to force them to raise taxes?
How can it dictate that the receiver can petition in court for basically anything he wants, and the court must grant it to him?
Doesn’t the district have a leg to stand on in that they made the decision to get an advance under a different set of legislation? Normally, loans are sacrosanct and approved only under the terms they began under – this entire situation is beyond the absurd.
They are saying that the board basically committed public education suicide by requesting a particular form of relief, that, had all stakeholders known the consequences, might have been different, and now they have no power at all?
It is a vast conspiracy to end public education. If you faced the kind of lawlessness that i faced when I was at the top of my career,
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
or if you went to
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
or
http://www.endteacherabuse.org.
or
http://www.perdaily.com
or Hear Lorna Stremcha tell how they do it in Montana.
not to mention her book (which is no novel but the reality)
Then, you would grasp that what i going on now is phase 2… with the teachers gone, and their voices silenced, the oligarchs are doing whatever they please to dismantle public education.
With a do-nothing Congress, a supreme court that made corporations into people, and a president who made a critter like Duncan the voice of education, you have the answer.
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware.