The D.C. Charter board turned down a request by BASIS charter school to expand. The board was concerned about attrition. BASIS said it needed more revenue.
The interesting parts of this story:
1. Charters were supposed to meet the needs of at-risk students. BASIS requires students to pass AP courses.
2. The school keeps the tuition if the students return to public schools. “The city’s funding rules allowed BASIS to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in per-pupil allotments for the students it lost after Oct. 5, while the schools that received those students got no additional money.”
3. The school’s rent is going to nearly double next year. Somebody is cleaning up with public money. “The BASIS lease was structured so that this year’s rent, about $1.1 million, will nearly double next year to $2 million.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
Very strong connections to the Rodel Foundation, but in Arizona. The “specific interest” part of enrollment preference rears it’s ugly head yet again. Are you listening CSW?
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100% pure corruption, again, and who approved this outfit in the first place? The DC Charter Board is the problem.
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Rheeform continues to live and suck the life blood out of DC and DCPS. SOrry about the rent increase fellows. But what’s in your business plan?
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Hate to mention this but the article is from 2013. BTW – here’s an interesting page from their website.
http://www.dcpcsb.org/school/basis-dc-pcs
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Here’s something of note. Sorry to hijack the thread.DCPS will assume a partial take-over of a FAILING charter school. Dorothy Height. From the NBC Washington website article: “The school’s founder, Kent Amos, is accused of diverting millions of dollars from the school to a for-profit management company he created and using those funds for his own use. The allegations prompted the board to revoke the school’s charter.” (I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Height on two separate occasions. She was sharp, witty and elegant. Too bad her name was soiled by this episode.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Dorothy-Height-Charter-School-Shutting-Down-292653401.html
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I don’t understand why contractors are allowed to pick and choose students. It seems like a really fundamental misunderstanding of the contractor/state relationship.
The state interest in “public schools” taking all comers should trump any contractor demand. The state can simply hire a contractor who meets the specifications of the state. I don’t know why the contractors seem to be running the show.
If they’re bound and determined to privatize everything that isn’t tied down, one would think we could at least get fair contact terms for the public. I get that they’re ‘relinquishing” and “agnostics” and all, but my God, they just roll over to these contractors, whether it’s testing companies or charter management orgs.
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“Basis said it needed more revenue.”
Yes, that’s always the way it is in Charterland, isn’t it?
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Well how else did you expect them to finance their old schools, except by opening new schools?
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“When a BASIS school comes into a new market, there are students who understand and know what the workload is and what it takes to be successful at BASIS, and there are students who are not prepared to do that kind of work,” Morrissey said.”
“And then we send those students to the safety net public system”
He forgot that part.
Gives you a real sense of how much the public system is valued in ed reform, although his school couldn’t exist without the public system backing him up, if we want to call them “public schools”. Maybe “we” don’t, anymore.
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Looks like Hillary Clinton will be parroting Jeb Bush on privatizing public schools:
It’s amazing how the anti-public school campaign stays the same: Bush/Obama and now either Bush or Clinton. Rolling right along no matter who is elected. .
It reminds me of trade. Both parties and 90% of politicians are lock-step identical on trade, although Democrats lie about it more than Republicans do. It’s the same with public schools. Not a dime’s worth of difference.
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No surprise here. As I’ve been saying all along–for those who think Hillary is such an ideal candidate–read Carl Bernstein’s book, Woman in Charge–I believe the info. about making the Arkansas teachers a much-needed “villain” (as in, when you, yourself are in trouble, ALWAYS blame a third party) is on Page 473.
Another DemoNcrat from ILL-Annoy, insofar as I’m concerned.
Bernie, are you reading this?!
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The first sentence of #2 in the posting: “The school keeps the tuition if the students return to public schools.”
Folks, it’s a major charterite/privatizer innovation called the “midyear dump.” *Although rumor has it that, in a galaxy far far away and long long ago, it was considered a criminal act known as “smash-and-grab.” But, in Yoda-like fashion, digress I do.*
Ah, inquiring minds want to know, what is the “midyear dump”?
This blog, from the thread for a posting of 2-15-2014:
[start thread excerpts]
Part of my query to Jack: “correct me if I’m wrong, but it is my understanding that the ‘midyear dump’ described by Dr. Dewayne Davis occurs AFTER the charters collect the funding attached to the students for the school year.
So students that would and should require greater resources—the kind paid for with dollars like, say, more desperately needed classroom aides or at least more hours for those already stationed at the school—are left behind at the charter.”
Part of Jack’s response to me: “Yes, when a charter dumps a child, the money does NOT follow that child. They have to keep the students for a week—or a month—and they get to they get to keep the entire year’s money allocated for that child.
Put another way, there is no pro rata amount of money that goes along with the child. If the charter kicks the kid out after a month, a nine-month allocation does not go along with that child. Whenever public school advocates try to change this, the charter folks throw up every roadblock and obstacle that they can.”
Part of my response to Jack’s response: “Just how does this differ from legalized robbery and abuse of public school students, staff and parents?
A charter gets a kid for 1 month out of 9 but gets 9 out of 9 months of funding. The public school that works with the kid for 8 out of 9 months gets 0 months of funding.”
[end thread excerpts]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
Which brings to mind the Rheephormish mantra “we do more with less”—
Rendered in standard English as “we do a lot more for the bottom line by doing a lot less for the neediest students.”
$tudent $ucce$$! Ain’t it grand?!?!?!?
😡
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Again, parents need to be educated (&–Milwaukee parents–you need to get out to that New Orleans “Miracle” event & hear those great speakers)–putting your children in a charter school is NO guarantee they’ll be there for even a year. I can’t imagine having my child in a school that all-of-a-sudden up & folded mid school year. WHAT do these kids do for an education?! That’s not a choice–it’s a danger and a huge risk.
Do you send your kids out to play in traffic? That’s my analogy, here. NOT choice…just CHANCE. (We could even call them “casino” schools!)
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This is you, right?!
Sent from my iPhone
>
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I pass by the Basis school in DC often. It is in Penn Quarter right by the Mall, one of the most expensive places in the city. Very few people can afford to live there. It is mostly offices apart from a few highly prices apartments. They could find much cheaper space closer to where their students live.
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