In December, the York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch tried to meet with representatives from Charter Schools USA, the Florida for-profit chain that has been selected by the district’s receiver to take control of the city’s financially strapped public schools. The company canceled the meeting. The newspaper submitted 36 questions. The company did not respond to 12 of them.
“Those questions include the following: Will Charter Schools USA allow employees to unionize? How much does the average teacher make at a school operated by Charter Schools USA? What is CEO Jonathan Hage’s annual salary? How much profit does Charter Schools USA expect to make on the York City contract?
“The Dispatch recently reiterated those questions to the company.
“Due to the current status of contract negotiations, Charter Schools USA will not be visiting our market for one-on-one media interviews until more information is known regarding the future of a potential contract in York,” Kernan wrote in response. “Should the situation change indicating potential movement on the contract, Charter Schools USA will welcome face-to-face interviews regarding the students of the York City School District. Charter Schools USA continues to be focused on providing educational opportunities for students.”
Kernan said Charter Schools USA would also decline phone or email interview requests.”
Meanwhile CSUSA has hired a prominent lobbying firm to represent its interests in Harrisburg.
“Malady & Wooten lists a diversity of clients on its website — from major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite Aid to smaller interests like the Pennsylvania Golf Course Owners Association and several schools for deaf and blind children.”
“Calls to Malady & Wooten were not returned.”
Two questions occur:
First, how can any corporation make a profit managing a district with a tax base too small to support its schools?
Second, doesn’t the state have a constitutional obligation to provide public education to all children? If the district can’t afford to maintain its schools, doesn’t the state have an obligation to subsidize its schools rather than giving them away to a company whose first responsibility is to make a profit?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
please comment on my blog posts its required for a grade in my web class. Thanks!
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Seriously? Your grade depends on getting people to comment? How can you control what other people do or don’t do? How can your teacher grade you on that?
Well, anyway, now you know how your teachers feel being evaluated by how well you do on your standardized tests.
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Not to mention that you didn’t state your blog address.
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if you click the user’s name, it links to the blog; not that I’m promoting it; it may have been assumed by the poster.
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Awesome questions Diane! I’m sure a court somewhere sometime soon will be answering them:
First, how can any corporation make a profit managing a district with a tax base too small to support its schools?
Second, doesn’t the state have a constitutional obligation to provide public education to all children? If the district can’t afford to maintain its schools, doesn’t the state have an obligation to subsidize its schools rather than giving them away to a company whose first responsibility is to make a profit?
Makes you wonder what the priorities are? I feel for the students and parents and the community for whom this experiment will be visited upon.
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Obama promised us transparency, but his education policy gives us nothing but obfuscation!
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Something really smells rotten in Den … er, York and PA.
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I like this report. There are plenty of obvious targets in the charter industry……many of them so bad they make other charters ashamed of them……attacking the stronger ones, with monetary experts and spin doctors…..a tougher challenge in some ways….but vitally important.
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please understand….I am not bragging for them……I want to know if this will be anything significant…..or revealing…..or will Jeb Bush be avoiding it…..it was on their website….School choice supporters to ring in National School Choice Week 2015 with Official Kickoff at Florida Theatre, January 23, 2015.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, Joe Trippi, Rev. H.K. Matthews, Superstar Athlete Desmond Howard to headline first of 11,000+ events nationwide
JACKSONVILLE – The largest celebration of school choice in US history will officially start on Friday, January 23, 2015 at a special event in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Why answer questions when you can buy our legislators? Questionable actions? Does it really matter when they have such strong propagandists? It seems that it is no longer whether something is true or not, only the perception of truth which can be manipulated. Germany succumbed to this. Are we next? Money and power buys more money and power it seems.
Sadly, tragically it is not only in the field of education.
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Who pays for the lobbyists fees? My tax dollars??????????? Sickening. Its like living in the looking glass where big is small up is down. Lunacy.
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and larceny.
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Lunacy and Larceny – sounds like a good name for a garage band.
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“The Ruinatic Fringe”
Larceny and Lunacy,
The twins of school “reform,”
Lead us all to ruinacy
Where ruinatics are the norm
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DAM, should I be at least a tad flattered? 🙂
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You know you have really achieved something when your astute observations inspire a goofy poem.
And you know you have rheelly made it when you become the subject of said goofy poem.
…which leaves you something to work toward, though let me warn you, Grasshopper: the latter is not easy to achieve and takes years of preparation (or at least 5 weeks in TFA summer camp)
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Tago as they say on here.
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24 out of 36, that’s a pretty good ratio for an interrogator who’s not a government prosecutor.
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I wonder why this doesn’t get any national attention.
I can’t find a word about it on any of the national charter promotion lobbying group sites.
You’d think they’d be celebrating. This will be the third all-charter district in the US. That’s extraordinary. In addition, the brother of the Vice President of the United States made a special trip to York to sell this charter operator. That seems worthy of comment by pundits of The Movement.
Muskegon Heights, Michigan was completely ignored too, when it was privatized. It hasn’t been a big success so maybe that’s why we don’t hear a word about it.
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Is anyone in government who promotes “choice” ever going to address how privatizing a district promotes “choice”? These people aren’t even choosing which national charter company that will take over their schools, let alone “choosing” charters.
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In New Orleans, students can’t choose a neighborhood public school because there are none.
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Sure, but there have been loads written about New Orleans. National politicians like Arne Duncan go there all the time to promote charter schools.
Why no love for Muskegon Heights MI or York PA? York will be (I think) the second largest all-privatized district in the US, after New Orleans. Seems worthy of a column or two, or a visit from a national charter promoter in government or one of the hundreds of charter promotion orgs.
Joe Biden should go. He can appear alongside his brother.
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Since 7 of the ten employees of the lobbying firm are former Pennsylvania lawmakers or are the former staffers of Pennsylvania lawmakers or governors the charter management company should voluntarily release all communications with state and local officials so people can determine what transpired and how they got this contract.
Shouldn’t be a problem if it was competitive.
http://www.malady-wooten.com/
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I have another question… why doesn’t York City SD have enough taxes to support its schools? When you look at the school district borders, It’s like someone drew a little line around the poor people. The district has only 5k students (1 hi sch); free/red lunches [i.e. 185% pov level) are at 81%. Surrounding districts have 31% or less. No surprise that per-pupil costs are higher (on the order of 2k-3k more pp) & state has to kick in over half their budget (compared to about 30% in bordering SD’s).
York county does not lack for industry, & corporate tax generation. York City school district has a large mfr w/n its borders (Dentsply intl hdqtrs). Within 1.5 mis of district borders lies the plant that assembles 60% of Harley-Davidson’s motorcycles, the huge York Int’l HVAC/bldg. efficiency arm of Johnson Controls, & Stauffer animal crackers mfg. Go another 1.5 mis & you’ve got Voith Hydro large eqpt mfr, & Bon-Ton hdqtrs. & just a couple of mis further, BAE Sys mfr defense vehicles, American Hydro mfr large eqpt, York Barbell mfr.
How can it be that w/n its borders or w/n 1-6 mis outside its borders, there are 4 major, 3 mid-size, & 2 small mfg facilities paying into state coffers, yet this one little district is singled out by its poverty/ poor student achievement/ higher per-pupil cost/state aid, & relegated to be closed/ replaced with a mediocre charter chain?
I think the something rotten in York must have to do with the state tax structure.
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