Peter Greene here recounts the sad story of the nation’s first all-charter district in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. You never hear about this important experiment on national radio and television. Want to know why? No big PR machine. No miracles. Instead, disaster.
Governor Rick Snyder appointed an emergency manager to impose change on Muskegon Heights. The students had low scores, and the district had a deficit. The emergency manager gave the entire district to Mosaica, a for-profit charter chain. It was “a historic opportunity” to show how private enterprise could raise scores, close achievement gaps, and succeed where the public schools had failed.
Things quickly went downhill. Teachers quit in large numbers, including new hires, wages were poor, scores remained low, discipline was erratic. The emergency manager warned Mosaica that it would be terminated if it couldn’t change things fast.
Last spring, Mosaica gave up or was pushed out or both. Even though they waived their management fee of $1 million, they couldn’t make a profit. Muskegon Heights didn’t suit their business model.
Greene concludes:
“First, Mosaica didn’t know what the hell they were doing. There are vague hints of protestations that they couldn’t be expected to fully staff and supply a system so quickly, but that’s exactly what they said they could do. They failed to recruit an adequate staff, and then they failed to retain them. They failed to provide the teaching supplies needed for the setting, and they failed to establish an environment of order and safety in the schools. The only thing Mosaica knew how to do was crunch numbers and manage cash flow (and that they did in ways that damaged every other part of their mission).
“Second, they brought no commitment, no ties, no roots, no intention of fighting to the end. They came to make money. When they couldn’t make money, they left…..
“And that is why school and business do not mix. A public school is a long-term commitment that stretches across the generations. It is a promise that a community makes to its children, past, present and future. That is not a reasonable expectation for a business, but it is the only acceptable expectation for a public school system.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The entire Inkster, MI, school district was turned over to Edison Schools back in 2001. I’m not sure if they were technically all charter schools, but the entire district was turned over to a private manager. Here’s a right-wing commentary cheering it. Actually, needless to say, it was a flop. The “reform” mindset so controls the public discourse that the failure has been conveniently forgotten. http://www.mackinac.org/3512
Here is the most recent news from the Charter Experiment
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2015/01/truant_and_disruptive_muskegon.html#incart_river
A public school is a long-term commitment that stretches across the generations. It is a promise that a community makes to its children, past, present and future. That is not a reasonable expectation for a business, but it is the only acceptable expectation for a public school system.
Elogent summary.
I agree, Laura…an eloquent summary by Greene, indeed.
Education is NOT a business and should NEVER be run as a business. Many human endeavors are NOT JUST for BUSINESS and making $$$$$. Egads…to do this is capatalism run amok.
Very sad that just about everything in this country is UP FOR SALE to the HIGHEST BIDDER. Thank a dysfunctional, corrupt government who has no business telling professional educators how to do their jobs and threatening them, the students, the parents/guardians.
Diane – The quote above is so eloquent and says so much in a few sentences that it bears repeating. Please use it !
Caligirl, which quote?
A public school is a long term commitment…
Yes, indeed. Beautifully worded.
After the Detroit Free Press did a series on charter schools, panicked politicians responded by releasing a list of charter authorizers who are “at-risk of suspension”. Muskegon Heights is on the list:
The school authorizers who were placed in “At-Risk of Suspension” are:
Detroit Public Schools
Education Achievement Authority
Eastern Michigan University
Ferris State University
Grand Valley State University
Highland Park Schools
Kellogg Community College
Lake Superior State University
Macomb Intermediate School District
Muskegon Heights Public Schools
Northern Michigan University
It doesn’t mean anything, really. It just means they may not be able to open new charter schools, maybe, unless they can.
How do people feel about public colleges and universities privatizing K-12 education? Is this why I’m supporting public colleges with tax dollars? So they can privatize K-12 schools and get a 3% cut?
Click to access Charter-school-suspensions.pdf
And what happened to the kids when Mosaica gave up or was pushed out? What were the kids learning when they failed to recruit an adequate staff, and when they failed to retain them? What kind of message did those kids retain that year?
This is from 2012:
“Muskegon Heights teachers said they had no advanced notice of Weatherspoon’s plans for the district. All staff had received layoff notices May 16.”
I wonder why local people resist ed reformers? It’s a mystery. We should collect more data and hire another management expert.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/05/a_historic_move_muskegon_heigh.html
Bizarro World. Superman comics. From wikipedia:
[start quote]
The Bizarro World (also known as Htrae) is a planet in the DC comics universe. Introduced in the early 1960s, Htrae is a cube-shaped planet, home to Bizarro and his companions, all of whom were initially Bizarro versions of Superman, Lois Lane and their children and, later, other Bizarros including Batzarro, the World’s Worst Detective.
In popular culture “Bizarro World” has come to mean a situation or setting which is weirdly inverted or opposite of expectations.
In the Bizarro world of “Htrae” (“Earth” spelled backwards), society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states “Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!” In one episode, for example, a salesman is doing a brisk trade selling Bizarro bonds: “Guaranteed to lose money for you”. Later, the mayor appoints Bizarro No. 1 to investigate a crime, “Because you are stupider than the entire Bizarro police force put together”. This is intended and taken as a great compliment.
[end quote]
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World
The “education reform” establishment aka Rhee World?
My bad. Turns out that the self-styled “education reformers” are actually visitors to Earth from Bizarro World where everything is “weirdly inverted or opposite of expectations.”
You know, like more charters invariably means more EduExcellence. And it turns out that the opposite is true.
😱
And people think reading comics is a waste of time…
😎
This is funny. Duncan is promoting it on Twitter. It’s a story of a public school district that has a good summer program.
He’s all excited they “invented” it. It’s basically a solid public school program, except in the summer.
They discovered that “experienced grade-level teachers benefit students”, for example! This is new information for Duncan. VERY innovative:
“In all five districts, students received at least five weeks of daily math and reading instruction over the summer. They also spent part of the day doing field trips, physical education, art, music, dance or theater — activities that increasingly get short shrift in public schools.”
So…. that’s like a fairly well-funded public school prior to ed reform, right? Pretty much? 🙂
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20150105-dallas-isd-summer-program-helps-students-excel-in-math-study-finds.ece
Like you said, Diane “You never hear about this important experiment on national radio and television. Want to know why? No big PR machine. No miracles. Instead, disaster.”
those of us who read this, need to show NPR how we feel about their coverage of this STORY… THE REAL BEHAVIORS that are driving this national disgrace.
I for one, love WNYC and cannot turn off the only radio that I love, but when they do what the do, and IF they expect ME knowing what I know, to TRUST THEM TO TELL THE TRUTH AOBUT ANYTHING… they cannot slant the news like this.
I taught a unit on ‘slanting news’ by its absence.
Shame on them and if you are reading the shenanigans that go on, and NOT hearing it there, bu tin stead are hearing gthe very narrative that has ended public schools,, THEN LET THEM KNOW YOUR DISPLEASURE… CALLTHEM, TWEET IT,
let them know THEY NEED TO follow diane’s lead!
“slanting news’ by its absence.”
Unfortunately, NPR has perfected this technique.
They used it on Iraq.
They used it on torture.
They used it on Wall Street fraud.
They used it on Fukishima.
They use it on fracking.
They use it on education “reform”.
And I “used to” listen to NPR, but their purposeful silence on so many subjects has become so deafening that I can no longer listen.
Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman once made a comment to the effect that an honest scientist must present all the data, not only that which supports the hypothesis, but especially that which tends to refute it.
Hiding data is simply dishonest and certainly behavior that is unbecoming not only of a scientist but of an organization that claims to be about “journalism.”
‘ “And that is why school and business do not mix. A public school is a long-term commitment that stretches across the generations. It is a promise that a community makes to its children, past, present and future. That is not a reasonable expectation for a business, but it is the only acceptable expectation for a public school system.” ‘
No need to say more.
Greene’s quote is on the mark… but… we have 32 legislatures who are likely to use the ALEC playbook in the next two years and the last time I looked ALEC wants the public sector to “run like a business”…. and it’s not just the schools who will suffer from this short-term mentality but ALL of our public services and assets…