Now will the charter lobby stop boasting that they have the answers to low test scores?
Two charter middle schools run by the Brighter Choice Foundation were closed by the state’s Charter Schools Institute. At one time, reformers claimed that Brighter Choice was “the Holy Grail” of charter schooling. No more.
The two schools–one for boys, one for girls–pleaded for more time, sounding like public schools. They didn’t get it. They will close.
But long-time columnist Fred LeBrun writes:
“I have a sneaking suspicion that money and financing at stake over bricks and mortar are as much of a motivator for keeping those charters alive as is serving the community. Regardless, about 440 students after this academic year may well have to find an alternative school.
“Students, and parents, who had put their hopes in charters, Brighter Choice in particular, now find themselves associated with failed schools as defined by the Charter School Institute.
“It was five years ago that Brighter Choice got into the middle-school business, with fanfare and swagger.
The same year Albany’s first charter school, New Covenant, one of the first in the state, finally gasped its last after 11 years of teetering. The failure of New Covenant was devastating to the city’s minority community, which had invested heart and soul in it.
The leaders of Brighter Choice at the time coldly wrote off New Covenant as exactly the way not to start and run a charter school.
“But now that Brighter Choice has seen its own limitations at the middle- and high-school levels, we are not hearing quite the same bravado anymore.
I’ll get an argument, I know, but I believe that in the long run Albany is not better off for being a heralded laboratory for charters.
“In fact, a word Albany school district spokesman Ron Lesko used a while back about the effect of charters on the school district comes to mind. They’ve been ”destabilizing.” The school district has been left to constantly adjust to the ebb and flow of a transient student population and its resources have been diverted in the name of ”choice.”
“Can we really afford that choice? What has it done for the kids?
“Albany taxpayers have taken a hosing from charters, a redundant school system that adds extra cost to public education a strapped city can’t afford. State aid by percentage has been dropping away and more and more it is the local property taxpayer who supports this vital service to the community. The Albany school district sends more than $35 million a year to charters, and as state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said, exactly where that money goes is not easy to figure out.
“The state is again at one of those crossroads over public education, with the governor’s unfortunate infatuation with this same charter movement.
For whatever reason, he continues to unfairly beat up traditional public education and those who serve it, and underfunds it to a deplorable degree. If he believes he’s preparing the way for charters as some sort of a rescue option, forget it. We’ve already seen that plan in action.
“Upstate, at least, there is zero reason for giving charters anything more than what they already have. Zero.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
cue Monty Python here …
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Male entitlement drives the charter school and electronic test/curriculum/standards movements. Wall Street and Silicon Valley are ground zero for misogyny.
From Tracey Lien, at the LA Times, “50% of women working in science and technology will, over time, leave because of hostile work environments. Filling the pipeline with new female hires is like filling a bucket with one-half of the bottom rusted out.”
Flush women out of education, deliver tax dollars to the oligarchs, gut America.
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“Male entitlement. . . ”
Ooohhh?!?!?!
How may that be?
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The entitled men, of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the halls of congress, expect deference. They deny women access to equal pay and job opportunities. Citing just one example, the CEO of Microsoft said women shouldn’t ask for raises.
Men outnumber women, more than 4 to1, at Apple, Google, Facebook and other big tech companies. One-half of the women were driven from the science and tech industries, by a “hostile male culture” (Harvard Business Review, 2008).
K-12 professional education jobs were among the few, where a substantial number of women received pay and benefits that gave them independence and put them in the middle class.
It is not a coincidence that profit opportunities sprung to mind, when the “entitled” skimmed the horizon, zeroing in on the pay and status of women, in education. Granted, Wall Street and Silicon Valley will target any vulnerable populace, but, reducing the circumstance of women, had particular appeal. Also, businesses recognize that the typical women’s response, in the workplace, is dutiful acceptance.
(The reason American businesses locating in Mexico, cited for hiring female factory workers instead of male)
I hope that the entitled are proven wrong. Moms and teachers will rise up in protection of America’s children, if not their own gains in equality.
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Every district school in Albany is on the state failing school’s list. Every charter school in Albany is not.
By the criteria that these schools are being closed, every district school in Albany should be closed.
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And you now make the case that poverty matters. So instead of wasting money on charters and their lack of oversight/accountability, fiscal soundness, we need to invest in the community. Also, pardon my cynicism, my guess is that the charters that are not failing are creaming the best students and “counseling out” the challenging students.
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My kids go to Albany Public Schools. They have plenty of classmates that, at some point, went to the charters schools. Some left for personal reasons, some were counseled out.
I initially welcomed the charter schools to our city. I didn’t understand the merry-go-round of kids coming in and out of the public schools as the charters open and close. It is a complete nightmare for planning and budgeting. Our public middle schools are at capacity. The District knew these two schools were up for review this year, so they started working on contingency plans last year should there be closure and a big influx of students. But they didn’t know for sure until last week. So much time being wasted on this kind of planning instead of being spent on trying to figure out how they can actually help the kids succeed.
The most recent article in the Times-Union struck me. The charter school teachers and staff were all stating that you have to evaluate their schools on more than just scores. The teachers provide a shoulder to cry on, direct kids to social services, provide supplies, serve as father figures, etc. I do agree that you can’t just look at the scores, and I also believe that 5 years is not enough time for a charter to prove that it is actually making improvements. All that other stuff the teachers were talking about – the going above and beyond? My kids’ public school teachers have been doing the same for years.
It seems like in all the debate over this, we are forgetting about the kids themselves. Constantly opening and closing schools can’t be good for them.
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Diane et al, since I wrote the “holy grail” story that you attribute to “reformers,” I thought I should reply. As commenter John suggests, folks like LeBrun don’t understand what charters are supposed to do. And one thing they do that traditional schools don’t do is close when they’re not serving the needs of the kids. When I reported my story — this was 2009 — nine Brighter Choice charters were working pretty well. I haven’t followed them since, but clearly two of the schools have failed. I’d say the charter sector is working pretty well. –peter m.
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If I may finish your statement: ” I’d say the charter sector is working pretty well TO STEAL PUBLIC MONIES THAT SHOULD BE DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS.”
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Dear Duane. Hardly “stealing” — those are public monies going to public schools. And they’re going to community public schools to boot. pm
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No, charters aren’t public schools. They are publicly funded private schools. The employees don’t work for a public agency, the grounds of the school are privately owned, there is no long term commitment to the communities they are located in, there is no public oversight, there is no publicly elected school board to manage it.
They are absolutely not “public” schools in any sense that matters. They are a dim shadow of what a public school is.
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pbmeyer,
And, the case in Ohio courts now? Who owns the charter school real estate, bought with tax money, when the charter closes?
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Do they take any kid that applies — ANY kid ? And keep them ? And take kids in the middle of the year ? And devote ALL their resources to the school (NONE for profits or ROI!) — if the answer to any of these questions is anything other than an “unqualified yes”, then they are actually NOT public schools (just private schools subsidized by public money).
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And a couple more questions: For purposes of labor relations, are they classified as public or private? Are their books open for inspection by the public?
It’s so cute how the privatizers want to claim the “public” label when it suits them and ditch it when it doesn’t.
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Are you seriously trying to spin the failure of charter schools as an improvement over public school performance? To whom do you think you are preaching to here? I’d say you are all a bunch of “hucksters” peddling what you claim to be a magic cure-all as you rob the public blind and steal the promise of better education and a future from our children. We are going to run you all out of town.
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I’m not “preaching.” I’m simply stating the facts. Read the report that Sharon in NYS referred to, then check back with me.
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Yes, do read the report, and especially read the Albany superintendent’s letter which talks about the $260 million the district has paid to the charters in that city since 1999, and how charters now get around 45% of the district’s state aid, while educating only 20% of Albany’s students. Read also about the many other failings of these two middle schools. Shameful, shameful waste.
Charter schools were founded, apparently, on wonderful, idealistic principles, none of which they currently follow, as far as I can tell. Or, if one or two are truly innovative and effective, it is on such a small scale as to have zero impact on education policy and practice.
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Sharon,
The superintendent’s letter is full of misinformation. It doesn’t mention that the charters get $14702 vs. the > $20,000 per student that the district pays. There’s no doubt that the district makes money on every student that attends a charter. Every student in a charter enables the district to spend more money on the children that are left. If all charters closed, the district would run a huge deficit.
So, how can that be true if the superintendent said that charter take 45% of state aid? That’s just intentionally misleading as state aid is not allocated like that and accounts for about 30% of the school budget. So, charters take 45% of 30%= about 15% of the budget to educate 20% of the students.
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No, John, that is not how charter funding works in NYS (at least the district’s portion of it, not the private financing some well-connected charters get from who-knows-where). In NYS the districts pay the per-pupil charter tuition directly from their budgets. It is not just the state aid that passes through to the charter; the per-pupil amount is higher than that, an amount determined for each district by the SED.
School districts DO NOT “make money” from sending students to charters. They emphatically DO NOT have “more money” to educate those who remain as a result of losing students to charters. In fact, they will have less or they will need to raise taxes to make up the difference.
And, districts likely incur new costs, such as transporting students farther away or having to arrange special services. There is also the problem of students who return to a district from the charter. Is the charter school tuition then pro-rated and refunded to the district? Hahahaha!!! Great good luck getting them to do that!
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If the Albany District was actually making money off of charter schools, I don’t think they would be writing letters adamantly opposing them.
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Private charter schools whether for profit or non are just that PRIVATE. They are not public by any stretch of that word’s meaning (as ruled by courts and agencies). But I guess you might call them community but that word really is too close to communism and the money grubbing capitalists that run those private schools wouldn’t want to be saddled with that moniker.
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What will happen to the infrastructure that these charter schools have created? If experience is any indicator, these buildings, furniture, etc. will NOT go to institutions owned by the public. That’s a major difference between charter schools and true public schools.
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“Ohio’s largest online charter school spent at least $2.27 million of state education tax dollars last school year on advertising to attract students, or about $155 for each student who enrolled that year.
And that’s only part of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow’s advertising budget, because other advertising — including those featuring Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, as an ECOT spokesman — are paid for by the school’s for-profit management company, and its records are not public.”
The remarkable part of the story in Ohio is not that we’re finally looking critically at charter schools after 15 years of blindly promoting and funding them, it’s that the Columbus Dispatch is now reporting on it.
There is no bigger charter cheerleader in Ohio than the Columbus Dispatch 🙂
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/08/charter-spent-2-27m-on-advertising.html
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More on for-profit “credit recovery” schools. I knew Ohio had them but I did not know they were a national ed reform strategy and were expanding into other states:
“One month after Quazzo, Hines, another CPS board member Andrea Zopp, CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s then-education deputy Beth Swanson attended the conference, the Chicago Board of Education approved another $6 million in startup money for for-profit alternative schools. It was the second round of a multi-year expansion. (Quazzo has also come under fire in recent months after a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found that companies she invests in have tripled the amount of money made through contracts held with CPS schools.)
A WBEZ and Catalyst Chicago investigation found most of the new for-profit alternative schools are running half-day programs where students earn credits in a matter of weeks, through mostly online coursework. Yet, students are getting regular high school diplomas, with the name of the school they left. Many students never officially dropped out and some are not at all off-track.
WBEZ and Catalyst Chicago also found that many of the for-profit companies running alternative schools stand to make millions off the deals.”
Does this call the increase in high school graduation rates into question? How much of this is going on nationally?
http://www.wbez.org/sections/special-series/meet-companies-profit-when-cps-students-drop-out-111665
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Cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Hello-Gov-Cuomo-Two-Mor-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Boasting_Charter-School-Failure_Closed_Diane-Ravitch-150309-251.html#comment536510
with this comment: NOTE, AT THE LINK ABOVE THIS COMMENT HAS EMBEDDED LINKS TO THIS BLOG, AND OTHER SITES…because Oped News IS aNEWS SITE, AND ONE CANNOT OFFER OPINON without links
I published this comment (below), before, but if you have not gone to the links, do, because this is not about SCHOOLs, it is about the INSTITUTION of public education which is the only road to opportunity for our people. It is going down fast, because there are 15,880 districts in 50 states, (see that series here in my quick links) and they are taking them out, one by one, in the same genius strategy that let the GOP take over the states, one by one, turning them red so they can gerrymander the districts and stay in power for a decade of destruction… with EDUCTION their biggest target… because shared history underlies all democracies. (You will love that link to Maddow’s piece on this strategy).
My already published comment, in case you missed it.
The dollarcrats are winning the war because they own THE GREATEST PROPAGANDA TOOL IN HISTORY… television, (plus most of the newspapers).
Grassroots movements show the destruction of the LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICT in America, but who has seen it.? Have you? More people will see Birdman than The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman on Vimeo
Grassroots people are outspent and have no voice, which is why the NPE is so important. IT IS HONING ITS VOICE RIGHT NOW, SO GET ACQUAINTED WITH IT… THE N IS FOR NETWORK, and it is a NETWORK OF genuine, AUTHENTIC educators… the real voices, led by Diane Ravitch who is Politico’s choice for one of the FIFTY most important Americans, (in case you do know who she is.)
GO TO THE LINKS…THIS, friends, is as grassroots as you will ever get in education… our voices!
Over and over, here at OEN, in the comments following the important articles about educations’ destruction, which I post, I say that in the area of education how charlatans sell magic elixirs with no evidence ever required, and how they Bamboozle the people, as I did in that article I wrote in 2011.
AT THIS VERY MOMENT the schools are going down fast, the real professionals, the veteran experienced teachers are gone — over one HUNDRED THOUSAND terminated or hounded out, in a process that no American ethnic population would tolerate the total departure from their sixth amendment rights, as the UNIONS looked the other way… They had to be made to disappear — GONE — because every authentic classroom teacher knows that tests are for THEIR own use to meet learning objectives for each child, not to measure a teacher’s efficiency !
THE TESTS are the mandate of BUSH’s NCLB — if schools want federal money, then tests are the blackmail point.
HOW sweet the irony. The victims get blamed for what the top-down scoundrels put into place in THEIR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE, their classrooms, convincing the people that businessmen and politicians could run a public institution which is created for the benefit of the people.
Gosh, it is so easy to subvert the public conversation, when there are 50 states and the legislatures are filled with the liars who are purchased by the lobbyists, and belong body and soul to Koch and friends… did you read this yet????
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The SUNY Charter Schools Institute’s very detailed report to the Trustees re the “Boys” school is here:
Click to access I2_Brighter%20Choice%20Boys%20Renewal%20Report.pdf
The Albany City School District Superintendent’s letter opposing the renewal can be found at the end of the document. Dr. Vanden Wyngaard wrote similar letters about the “Girls” middle school as well as the Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls, which was granted a 3-year renewal only. I highly recommend reading these letters because they lay out the stark facts of attrition, dissimilarities of student populations, and the finacial impact of charters on the Albany public schools.
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This is good. Worth reading. Too bad each of our struggling public schools doesn’t get this kind of work-over
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Pbmeyer, are you in NYS? Our public schools are highly regulated, scrutinized, and ranked all the time by the State Education Department, from student test scores to financial audits to facilities surveys.
The SED knows which schools are struggling, communities know which schools are struggling, and apparently, our Governor even knows which schools are struggling because he’s created a hit list of them. Sadly, we can’t get the SED or Cuomo or anyone else in Albany to do what’s necessary: fund public schools appropriately.
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Sharon,
Sure, district schools are “highly regulated, scrutinized, and ranked all the time by the State Education Department”, but there are zero consequences for failure. As I mentioned, *every* district school in Albany is on the failing schools list, and some have been for a decade.
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Public schools are a basic public service. They are integral to communities, like public parks, pice, and fire departments.
Charter schools are basically private schools with private boards of directors. They are typically neither accountable nor transparent. To the extent they get higher scores, it is because they exclude the students who might pull down their scores or push them out. They are excused from most state regulations. They are private schools with public money.
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Diane,
Clearly, in this case, the charter schools are both accountable and transparent, whereas it is the surrounding district schools that are not.
The charter schools are shutting down. Where is the accountability for the district schools that have been performing worse than the charter for a decade?
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If you want repercussions for “failing” schools, come to Newark.
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John, I don’t see how you can say the charter schools in Albany are transparent. Today the paper printed yet another article on how they are not transparent. This is from the State Comptroller, who has no vested interest in the argument. http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Charter-school-s-woes-mount-6124623.php
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Susan, the article in the Albany TU about Brighter Choice is behind a paywall. Could you forward?
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Diane,
Well, unfortunately, transparency doesn’t mean that nothing questionable will ever be done, it means that it can be seen, whether by the Comptroller via audits, the authorizer via reviews, or the media or public via the public meetings.
This is a case of transparency working to expose something that appears questionable. Hopefully, other charter boards will see this and question every transaction to make sure it is arms length.
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Sorry, replied to as if it was Diane who had posted the question.
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John is a ‘proponent’ of charter school (i.e. shill). He is just wasting your time.
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Susan Lee Schwartz,
Is the definition of “a shill” anyone you disagree with?
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@ Susan and Diane, I use the Google cached version of Albany Times-Union articles to get around the paywall.
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Sharon, replying to your other comment (“Our public schools are highly regulated, scrutinized, and ranked all the time by the State Education Department, from student test scores to financial audits to facilities surveys….”), I do live in NYS and, as mentioned haven’t seen as comprehensive a report on a school as SUNY Charter Institute did on this one. The scrutiny and regulation you refer to is hardly the same as a full-blown analysis of what’s wrong with these schools. And do you want these charters to complain that they didn’t get enough money? That’s why they’re failing?
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Maybe it’s because public schools are just that, public. Their budgets are an open book. They are required by law to keep public all of their dealings. Private, excuse me charter schools can hide behind the “we’re not really public schools ” excuse
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I certainly agree the SUNY CSI report is thorough, and I would prefer that that expertise be put to work solving the problems of our NYS public schools — after abolishing charter schools.
NYS charters have been complaining they don’t get enough money for a while now. I’m sure you know there’s even a lawsuit, which is so ironic because their big selling point was that they could get better results for less cost. My answer is the same one that critics of public school repeat ad nauseum, that money can’t solve everything.
The report certainly showed that the school mismanaged what funds they had and had many other problems besides, such as high staff and board turnover, abandonment of its original curricular plans, poor teacher developmen and assessment, inadequate board training and oversight, and bad classroom management.
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In response to Holley, there’s nothing in the report that suggests that the charter school’s books were not open; on the contrary, the report criticized the school for bad financial management. Charters are certainly not getting any breaks (except, in NYS at least, their ability to avoid certain regulations like having to hire union teachers). Read the report and ask yourself whether traditional public schools should be held to these standards.
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Sharon in NYS, you’ll note that the report also cites the fact that many parents, teachers, and other staff, did not want the school closed. These are kids of the community! If it were a “private” school, it surely would not have been closed if a vote of the parents and students were taken. But the fact that a public body closed it in the face of such support, should put to rest the suggestion that it’s not a public school.
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Of course the parents, students, and staff don’t want the school closed! The same is true for every school, public or private, facing closure. I think your argument about private schools staying open if parents and students vote is completely specious. A private school in trouble will close anyway.
And, your last sentence, pbmeyer, doesn’t even make sense. Typo?
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@Holley, it’s only recently that charter schools in NYS have been audited by the state comptroller. The Legislature had to amend the charter school law to require audits, in 2010 I believe. But, it’s part of the SUNY charter approval/renewal process to look at school finances. Schools must be fiscally sound.
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Sharon, my last sentence was not a “typo” — but thanks for the benefit of the doubt. It’s a poorly expressed thought 🙂
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I don’t live in NYS. But the argument that public schools that are “failing” should be closed as well provides an interesting question:
Since failing schools are nearly always found in impoverished areas, what would happen if we closed every failing school after a five year attempt to succeed?
I believe the answer is that urban areas would see endless school closings and rotating authorizers perpetually. Can we just admit that poverty is a liability for schools? And if so, what is the solution to this problem? What can be attempted that is fair and reasonable?
I know that these questions have been addressed before. My point is that arguing for school closings as a punitive response to accountability (regardless of the type of school) is a dead end.
We should be asking: what is the most common reason for any school failing?
I’ll bet it has less to do with the school than other factors.
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I’m curious about the hours charter teachers work. I looked online at another charter school in the capital region, not Brighter Choices and saw that the school day is 7:15- 5:00. How do charters get away with teachers working more than a 40 hour work week?
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Oh, don’t worry Diane, The unfashionable “public sector schools” will admit these students.
The bold transformational leaders have a public safety net that absorbs all the risk and downside of their experiments. Who cares if it disrupts the existing public schools? No one values those schools anyway.
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The teachers at these schools now must find new jobs…teachers should avoid working at these charters in the first place. Hopefully new charter teachers are aware of the harm they are doing to public schools, if not they should be…I think most would rather work in a public school. This alone should be the biggest red flag to the public about the charter school movement.
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They would rather teach in a public school. But teaching jobs for new grads are very difficult to get in this region of NY, especially with all the recent cuts. I don’t blame these young people for taking jobs at charters. Once they gain experience and their resume looks better, they tend to move to public schools.
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Mpmeyer2014 said : “Too bad each of our struggling public schools doesn’t get this kind of work-over”
I am replying to her and writing this for every teacher and parent here who feels they are alone in this battle.
NYC, teachers got no help, either… and in fact they were systematically disabled. It worked, and teachers like you, MPMEYER2014 in other systems had no idea what was going on… they count on that, and the media makes it possible.
The oligarchs and their lobbyists and money, are working district by district, legislature by legislature, doing what Maddow showed was a simple strategy to give them the power to win each state, and then to draw electoral lines. If they can do THAT, taking the schools out is easy pickings! We are even more separated, and there is no journalists watching the charlatans at work in the many state legislatures.
You do know that there are 15,580 districts, and that they count on you not getting what you need so the system crashes, but no one in the next state knows why. In vulnerable places, like LAUSD,the teachers can be sent packing!
That is rule one: — silence the voice of the professional, remove their legal status, and their salaries.
Read on, and I will show you how your isolation and mine, works for them as they dismantle public education at a frantic pace, while they can.
You need to watch the Maddow video…. I posted it 3 times at this blog, and will be writing about it at Oped, and on my own blog, (if I ever get to launch it.). You see, Maddow identifies THE process, and calls it a “genius” strategy, because it is SOOOO SIMPLE, and it works so well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAq9sIvTJE#t=119
Simply put, if they take out the most vulnerable districts of the larger community, and battle by battle –pour money into places which they can control, then little by little, they will conquer the entire field.
The GOP did this simple strategy, Maddow explains, and turned the states RED, in local elections! The entire nation — RED, GOP led! Now, district by district the GOP can gerrymander the states, in essence re-drawing the electoral lines and thus, maintaining the chokehold on the states for a decade.
They seek to do this, in the schools, re-writing the curricula to suit their needs. And, folks, Diane showed how the revision of our history is being done in North Carolina.
By legislative action, they are currently engaged in ‘taking out’ the biggest and the most vulnerable systems. Cuomo is their NY state agent. Hey, It worked in NY and if it they can make it there, it will work anywhere, …as the song goes… almost.
Hey, If it works like it did in NYC and LAUSD, why not do it in Arkansas, next. Chip away , state by state, at due process, and the law.
No one should be able to label a teacher as ‘bad’ or ‘ineffective’ without proof. THAT is a sixth Amendment right, and as Diane posted here this week: ARKANSAS is INSIDIOUSLY disabling teachers and schools, district by district, in its move to PRIVATIZE EDUCATION.
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/03/07/bill-allows-outside-nonprofit-to-operate-school-district-taken-over-by-stat
I cannot be the only one saying this, that they are using the identical process they used to paint the states RED — a process that works because we are so scattered and no one is seeing the big picture… but US!
THAT PROCESS, NEEDS TO BE MADE PUBLIC —exposed for what it does, IN THE MEDIA.
Once they control the schools, they can say anything they want, because once history is re-written democracy is over. Hey, getting the citizens when they are kids, worked in the Madrases of Saudi Arabia.
The scattered nature of the school systems, and the total lack of transparency makes it so easy to isolate the teacher’s voice, and victimize them… blaming them for what they do to cause systemic failure. Watch it happen legally, now, before your eyes! Because, you see, it is going to be the process state by state, and with it goes the remnant of DUE PROCESS for teachers.
Hey , they did it behind a curtain of secrecy — to tens of thousands of veteran teachers for 2 decades already!
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
Why not make it legal?
Legislation filed Friday by Rep. Bruce Cozart (R) chair of the House Education Committee, would expand the state’s sweeping powers to operate a school or school district in state receivership for academic reasons, including allowing the state to contract with an outside nonprofit to operate the district. The law significantly advances existing takeover powers by allowing the commissioner to waive the teacher fair dismissal act. Due process in firing? GONE! The state can also waive the fair hearing law and any requirement to engage in collective bargaining. Employees become at-will — fireable for any, or no, reason!
The oligarchs are using our legislatures to ensure that that the road to opportunity is OVER, so that the population will be divided into:
* those who lack skills who will labor for the benefit of the wealthy, because the only jobs available come with strings attached, like no benefits and low wages.
* and those who can afford to get the skills education in K 12 and to finish the job with a college degree will prosper as scions of a wealthy class should
Sounds like a plan to me, and the evidence is right on this blog! Any dictator and fascist knows that an ignorant citizenry, purposely confused will never be able to grasp what is afoot. When when all the teachers — the authentic, educated , experienced ones like those who write here — are GONE, then the Robber Barons get to run the show for the next decades.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/12/19/web-extra-new-robber-barons/
This privatization process will GIVE these oligarchs what they must have… the Weapons of Mass Instruction.” *John Taylor Gatto.
Click to access john-taylor-gatto-weapons-of-mass-instruction.pdf
http://www.icope.org/#!news-views-2/c8vd
Thus, mpmeyers2014, it is your very isolation that lets them divide and conquer, so that can keep their chokehold on democracy…unless we amend the Constitution to stop dark money! That, my friends is what we need to do.
http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/25/end-big-moneys-chokehold-democracy-amend-constitution/?utm_source=General+Interest&utm_campaign=3e81ce4555-Midweek12171412_17_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4ebbe6839f-3e81ce4555-168347829
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Susan, pmeyer is a man, not a woman. He writes for the conservative journal EdNext and is very pro-charter.
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Well whadya know.
Now, maybe he got an earful of the truth. And if he is one of the charlatans or their pitchmen, then shame on him, he should not be writing here!
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Albany’s public schools are not “failing”, not by any metric that counts. And the metric that counts the most is opportunity. The hard working teachers of the Albany public school system work against all odds, yet continue to provide every opportunity for school success possible within their means – despite eviscerated programs and class sizes that have ballooned to unmanageable numbers. No teacher or administrator denies the children of Albany their fair chance at educational success. And when all is said and done that is the best they can do. They cannot cull the chronically disruptive or cherry pick their population. They cannot force feed knowledge and skills, they cannot solve chronic absenteeism and they cannot make their students care enough to persevere despite family dysfunction, crime and drug ravaged neighborhoods, and parental neglect. They cannot teach away the debilitating effects of generational poverty and the hopelessness that it spawns. What they can do, they do far better than pbmeyer or john or any other pro-charter guest who comes here to spew their ignorance about “failing” schools – they care about all kids. And they show up every day to offer all kids their fair shot at success.
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NY Teacher: you stole my thunder—
And from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for saying it far better than I could.
😃
If I may, let me add a few more brief points.
First, public schools have lots of fixed costs. Hence, when painting school budgets with a broad brush, this helps make public schools look more expensive than charters and other private schools.
Second, charters often [not always] have significant extra funding from extremely rich individuals.
Third, the ‘midyear dump’ is what charter schools do to public schools, not vice versa. It significantly affects budgets and resources and metrics. And just what is the ‘midyear dump’? For one example from this blog, read the thread under the following posting—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
Fourth, as Chiara has repeatedly pointed out, charters use public schools as a ‘safety net’ for all those expensive SpecEd students and ELLs and behavior problems and ‘test suppressors.’ Hypocritical to complain when they aren’t willing to take on all comers, whatever the cost.
Fifth and last, your last sentence is a keeper: “Albany’s public schools are not “failing”, not by any metric that counts.”
Always good to remember that the language of Rheephormish [thank you, Bob Shepherd!] must constantly be retranslated into plain English. Otherwise we run the risk of sincere and useful conversations and phrases being used to deflect, distort and demean.
Thank you, again, for keeping it real.
Not rheeal.
😎
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Charter schools cannot fail…they can only be failed. “Success” is when charter schools keep open with substantial outside donations and “success” is when charter schools are closed.
As for Brighter Choices: the bondholders seem hold more sway than either the parents or the the state.
May 19, 2014
“Observations and Recommendations on the Financial Condition of the Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls and the Brighter Choice Charter School for Boys”
The Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls and The Brighter Choice Charter School for Boys (“the Schools”) were established to provide a quality educational alternative for at-risk elementary students in Albany, New York. The Schools operate under separate charters granted by the New York State Board of Regents. The charters are up for their third renewal on June 30, 2015.
The Schools’ facilities are jointly owned by the two Schools. The facilities were acquired through financing provided by the City of Albany Industrial Development Agency (IDA) in March 2007. The IDA issued taxable and tax-exempt Civic Facility Revenue Bonds totaling $18,490,000 to acquire and renovate the facilities of the two Schools. The bonds are held by Nuveen Asset Management and Oppenheimer Funds.
In September 2011, the financing agreement was amended to include covenants for a liquidity requirement of maintaining days cash on hand of not less than 20 days as measured semi-annually, and for maintaining a debt service coverage ratio of at least 1.10 to 1 as measured annually. Based on the audited financial statements, the Schools did not meet the debt service coverage ratio covenant (on a combined basis) as of June 30, 2013. Therefore, the Schools’ Board of Trustees retained JLP & Associates LLC.
The recurring theme in the various discussions we had with the Administration and the Board was that there was a lack of communication among the prior superintendent, Mr. Grebe, and the Board Members. As a result, the former superintendent often hired teachers and made purchase commitments that were not within the budget. However, since Mr. Puccioni was hired to replace the former superintendent, the communication among the Board, Mr. Grebe, and Mr. Puccioni reportedly has improved significantly and expenses are checked to ensure that they are within budget. Also, hiring decisions and purchase commitments no longer are made without due consideration of the Board approved budget.
We had the opportunity to speak with several members of the Board of Trustees. Many of the members have strong academic backgrounds and some financial background. However, many commented that the finances are not challenged adequately at the Board meetings when financials are presented. Accordingly, it would be prudent to add a member to the Board with a strong accounting and finance background.
In addition, we believe it would be beneficial for the Schools to implement the following recommendations:
1. Reduce the teaching staff to appropriate levels. More specifically, there is no need for two certified teachers in a classroom, especially with average class sizes of approximately 15 students per class. We understand that the Administration is reviewing the staffing levels and is prepared to make changes for the 2014-2015 school year. Since this is the largest expense for the Schools, it is imperative that staffing level be managed to appropriate levels. In addition, no individual should be hired without checking with the Accounting and Finance Department to make sure the position and salary are included in the budget.
2. Look for opportunities to share costs among the Schools. We believe that there is an opportunity to reduce costs among the Schools (including the Middle Schools) if services are provided by single vendors. Some of the areas that should be explored include janitorial, facilities management, security, special education support, and CPA firms (i.e., both weekly accounting services and annual independent audits).
3. The support services that are provided by the Brighter Choice Foundation should be assessed, monitored, and documented to ensure that the Schools are receiving an appropriate level of cost efficient services for the fees charged.
4. Improvement is needed regarding the Schools internal accounting and finance team. More specifically, the current team lacks the appropriate accounting and finance knowledge necessary to prepare monthly financial statements, and relies on outside professionals for support in this area. As a result, the team is unable to proactively identify issues that should be brought to the Board’s attention. Accordingly, we recommend adding a member to the team (who potentially could oversee the accounting and finance function for the Elementary and Middle Schools) who has a strong background in school/fund accounting, has experience dealing with banks/lenders (or bondholders), has experience with charter schools and charter renewals, and has knowledge regarding the reporting requirements of the charter school. This may reduce or eliminate the need for the outside accounting firm to perform day-to-day fundamental accounting. In the interim, the Schools should request
more accounting and finance oversight from the Brighter Choice Foundation’s CFO.
5. Continue to improve internal controls. The Schools went through a period during which the Administration reportedly did not adhere to the budgets and there was little to no communication between the Principals and the Accounting and Finance Department. Communication reportedly has improved and there is more collaboration preparing the annual budget, since the retention of Mr. Marcus Puccioni. It is imperative that the Administration continue to work together, and that once the budget is approved by the Board, the Schools adhere to the budget. In addition, a more structured purchase or commitment approval process and a more standardized reporting process should be implemented.
6. Add a member to the Board of Trustees with a strong background in school finances. The candidate should have a strong background in school/fund accounting, experience dealing with banks/lenders (or bondholders), experience with charter schools and charter renewals, and knowledge regarding the reporting requirements of the charter school.
7. Routinely monitor all bond covenants to ensure compliance. The calculations should include all necessary adjustments to revenues and expenses and should be presented to the Board monthly. Any significant estimates or assumptions used in the calculations should be disclosed and explained to the Board.
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If Meyer is at EdNext, he knows the Ohio legislature is continuing its 10 year discussion,
in anticipation of the first decanal correction, for the problem of charter schools that close and then reopen under other names.
And, he knows Ohio taxpayers/students continue to be victims of corrupt, failing and/or FBI- raided charter schools. He knows the GOP continues to collect campaign donations from charter operators and, that Fordham continues to get funding from the Waltons. whose 6 heirs have the same wealth as 40,000,000 Americans.
BTW, pbmeyer, do the Waltons take more in profits out of Ohio than they pay in taxes to Ohio?
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Great article. The Assembly will be giving King Cuomo some more realistic ideas. They see he is destroying education systems that need to continue to function in any modern society. His educational reform is like his reform of fire arm ownership, poorly conceived and damaging not only to New York but to the entire country. Cuomo is damaging an entire generation of learners and educators. His canned, “250,000 students left to blah blah blah” is just another way for the Governor to attempt to justify another ridiculous proposal.
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