The Albany Times-Union reports that Albany’s biggest charter chain is burdened with crushing debt after the closure of two of its schools with poor academic results.
“The closure of the Brighter Choice middle schools will eventually leave the foundation on the hook for a $15.1 million construction debt it guaranteed that Wall Street doubts it can pay for more than three years. The 30-year bonds were issued in 2012 through the Industrial Development Authority of the City of Phoenix; in March, Fitch Ratings called the schools’ default “inevitable. The foundation has also guaranteed another $1.35 million in related loans for the schools. A default by the schools would force the foundation to find a way to pay the bondholders — Chicago-based Nuveen Asset Management — without the $14,072 per-student revenue that is the core of the Brighter Choice business model, or face having the building sold out from under it.”
The founder of the Brighter Choice Foundation is Tom Carroll. Carroll is a leading advocate for charter schools in New York state. He is also president of the “Coalition for Opportunity in Education” and the “Foundation for Education Opportunity,” which is advertising and promoting Governor Cuomo’s Education Tax Credit. The ETC would funnel at least $150 million to nonpublic (religious and private) schools.
This financial disaster is happening in Albany. Surely Governor Cuomo knows about it. Yet he continues to promote charter schools as a panacea for children in schools with low test scores. He doesn’t seem to realize that schools don’t have low test scores; children do. They need help: smaller classes, guidance counselors, social workers, a full curriculum, not charter schools of unknown quality.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The fact that Nuveen Asset Management ended up involved in this should be a clue to anyone with a brain about what the real motive behind charters is. Such entities are all about making money/profits/dividends on their investment, not doing work for the betterment of society. But the vast majority of the public would never find out about such behind the scenes workings. I do find it interesting that Nuveen is Chicago based given the big push in Chicago to privatize their schools by the Commercial Club of Chicago. Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor Daley and his brother Bill, and new IL governor Bruce Rauner (who made his millions in vulture capitalism) are all members. I’m certain they had much to do with Obama getting elected as well (which I was happy about) and that’s why Arne Duncan ended up in DC. The CCofC websites has a link on its homepage, “New schools for Chicago”, so they’re not even trying to hide their intentions. That used to link to Chicago Charter International, but doesn’t any longer. But Rauner just appointed it’s former CEO as his state education person, not to mention that he’s paying her double what the previous person in that position under former governor Quinn made. Have to check the members list on their site and see if anyone runs Nuveen Assets Management.
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I read that Obama and other members of the Commercial Club of Chicago are heavily invested in Chicago real estate. They hope to use charters as vehicle of gentrification to cash in on increased property values.
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Yes, and Obama’s primary real estate project at be moment is his presidential library, which is cannibalizing public park space in Chicago, and like those Presidents before him, is an indirect and tax-free way for campaign funders and business interests who’ve benefitted from his policies to pay him back.
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It’s very difficult for the public to “find out” about charter schools.
They just had a string of scandals in Ohio and I read the news reports and I can’t follow the complicated trail of “authorizers” and “operators” and finance companies and then the various contractors within the school itself.
One would really have to research or at least define each entity or person, because “the school” (the legal entity) is just a shell- a collection of contracts. In one news report there can be 4 or 5 named persons or entities.
It’s part of the reason I think the for profit/non profit distinction is meaningless. Who knows what that means when you break it down and look into all the actors and companies? You’d have to examine the whole set-up.
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Ray, do you know the volume of municipal bonds for school districts owned by Nuveen and other funds as compared to charter schools?
This whole argument about charters existing for investors to make money is absolute garbage and a diversion from talking about real issues.
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Charter schools should be considered a risky investment. I don’t think the model is sustainable without outside revenue. For poor students in urban areas the per pupil expenditure is already low, and their start up costs are high. Without some hedge fund “sugar daddies” providing outside revenue, I think a lot of these schools will struggle. The middle class charters with a steady stream of revenue and outside investments will probably do better than those for the poorest students. The same is true for public schools though where the suburban schools receive a great deal more funding per student.
Here in Escambia County, Florida, kudos to Malcolm Thomas, superintendent, and the board for closing three Newpoint charter, mostly cyber schools, after reports of financial mismanagement and cheating on standardized tests. He also refused to make their last payment until the staff was paid.http://www.pnj.com/story/news/education/2015/06/02/management-company-fires-newpoint-employees-today/28361511/
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He doesn’t seem to realize that schools don’t have low test scores; children do. They need help: smaller classes, guidance counselors, social workers, a full curriculum, not charter schools of unknown quality.
But why do so many have low test scores should be the question? Yes the schools need need all that you mention. But it is the tests that are invalid and used for the wrong reasons. We can’t blame the children for their low scores in our public schools. The charters aren’t doing any better overall. I agree the charters are not needed. Investment in our public system should be where our government and investors (without strings attached) is imperative. Too many live re at stake.
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I agree that the idea that charters are a panacea has failed. The issues are far more complex than the “reformers” have believed. What disturbs me is that now that Wall St. views education as an item in a portfolio, there is more pressure to keep the money and tax advantages flowing, even though the evidence fails to support the taxpayer investment. Moreover, it is up to the independent bloggers to provide information to the public since the mainstream media seems to be paid for by the pro-charter groups.
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Our superintendent lobbied and got a charter started here. I’ve always been opposed to charter schools and will continue to be.
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The financial problems of some charters are disturbing.
It would be interesting to see a quote from Governor Cuomo or anyone else stating that charters are “a panacea.” Do you have a reference for this?
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Reading comprehension problems again? Diane didn’t say that he said “panacea”. She said that he keeps promoting charters as if they are a panacea. See the difference? Can you deny that Cuomo has promoted charters over public schools? Why would he do that if he doesn’t believe they’re better than public schools? (Well, let’s not get into his conflicts of interest with Eva et al that might also answer that question.)
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Here’s the quote, Dienne. “Yet he continues to promote charter schools as a panacea for children in schools with low test scores.”
I asked for a quote that Gov Coumo promotes charter schools as a panacea. Still waiting.
Promoting anything as a panacea is silly. Mis-representing other people’s ideas does not help more youngsters learn and succeed.
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Joe Nathan,
It must be uncomfortable for a progressive like you to see your ideas adopted by ALEC, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, and the other public school haters.
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Diane – How do you feel about some of the same anti testing arguments you make being adopted by far right advocates? Politics brings together people of different points of view who agree on a few things and disagree on many.
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Joe Nathan,
Name one rightwing foundation that funds the anti-testing movement.
I can name many large and powerful rightwing foundations (Walton) and think tanks that love standardized testing.
If you give me the names of those that are anti-testing, I will know where to do some fundraising. I don’t know any. Thanks for your help
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Diane – do you disagree that some groups and individuals with which you disagree on other subjects, agree with your criticism of Common Core testing?
Here are stories from the Washington Post, Mother Jones and MPR that note that groups across the political spectrum have challenged Common Core testing
Here’s a Washington Post story about conservative critics of Common Core tests:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-groups-rallying-against-common-core-education-overhaul/2013/05/30/64faab62-c917-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html
Here’s a Mother Jones article that describes conservative critics of Common Core tests
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/common-core-education-reform-backlash-obamacare
Here’s NPR on the same subject:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/28/267488648/backlash-grows-against-common-core-education-standards
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Joe,
I take money from nobody. My views are my own. Same for readers. No paid cheerleaders for anything. No profits for anyone. Can you say the same for charter schools? According to the NY Times, one of every four charters in the US was started by the far-right Walton Foundation. Wall Street hedge fund managers are all for chartrrs and support them with mollions of dollars every year. ALEC has model legislation for charters. I am waiting for you to name one foundation that supports public schools, the teaching profession, and opposes high-stakes testing. You are in league with powerful forces that want to privatize public education and destroy teaching as a profession.
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Diane,
It’s interesting to me that you acknowledge that you would look to them for fundraising. Almost all of the people I know who run charter schools are liberal, progressive democrats, yet you always paint us the opposite based on a subset of those who support the laws that allow us to exist, as well as the funders that financially support a few charters in NYC. You’ve gone as far to say that we are being duped by these people into doing what they want.
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John, when will the national leaders of the charter movement clean their own house? When will they take a stand against for-profit charters? Against charters whose leaders pay themselves obscene amounts of money? Against charters that exclude children with disabilities and English language learners? When will charters stop boasting about their test scores?
Let me know when that happens.
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Diane,
The vast majority of us in charter schools are focused on running our own schools, not policing the sector. This is true of those in district schools as well.
That said, charter quality is important, and we support strong authorizers that shut down lousy schools. I don’t see any “house cleaning” by traditional public schools or those that support them to shut down schools where teaching and learning are not occurring.
Lots of charter people have taken a stand against for-profit charters, including notably Whitney Tilson. I’ve said many times that I think there shouldn’t be any.
Any state that permits self-dealing, etc. obviously has a corruption problem that is not limited to charter schools.
Which charters “exclude” English Language Learners or children with disabilities? Where is that permitted by law?
Any why shouldn’t any school, traditional or charter, talk about results, including test scores? They should be called out if their attrition is high or their students not representative, but results do matter.
You like to lump all reformers together, which I think makes it impossible for you to have any affect on the sector. When you imply that philanthropists benefit financially from charters, you lose credibility and the opportunity to identify the few people who actually *are* financially benefiting from them.
You like to talk about “hedge fund managers” “investing” in charter schools in order to take advantage of confusion. Why not acknowledge that that is philanthropy by people you disagree with so that you can identify people who actually are taking money out of public education? Why talk about investors who fund charter buildings as if they’re different than investors who fund district buildings (the only difference is that charters are riskier as the pending huge loss in Albany shows)?
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John, check out the boards of Success Academy charters, loaded with hedge fund managers who would never send their own kids to public schools. Or the list of donors to the multi-million dollar TV campaign to get free rent for Eva’s schools and all other charter schools in NYC. And, yes, John, there are many for-profit charters, although not in NYC. Ever heard of White Hat in Ohio? K12 Inc? ECOT? Academica? Imagine? Those are all charter chains that operate for-profit. As to the exclusion of ELLs and special ed, that has been documented repeatedly, including by the federal GAO.
My advice to the charter sector is to clean your stables out before the public identifies charters as pits of corruption and malfeasance.
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Diane,
Do you have a link to a GAO report that says that charter schools pick and choose students, or are you referring to the report that says that ELLs are underrepresented in charters? There is a huge difference between these things.
One is illegal and anyone who does it should be sued. The other is a challenge that charters face that many are working to resolve.
Which are you accusing charters of and with what evidence?
“Free rent” for charters shouldn’t be an issue since they are public schools. In New York, the only schools that have to pay for their buildings out of operating expenses are charters in NYC that aren’t expanding and charters outside of the city.
Yes, as I pointed out, I think for-profit charters shouldn’t exist, and they don’t in NY (not just NYC).
There is plenty of corruption and malfeasance in traditional schools. Read through every charter school audit the Comptroller has done and then tell me if you think they add up to what happened in Roslyn. The Comptroller’s overview from 2009 said “six of 200 internal control reports (3 percent) issued on school district and BOCES internal
controls contained positive findings in the areas of purchasing, payroll, and cash disbursements.”
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John, I was referring to the GAO report about the underrepresentation of ELLs in charters. I also suggest you read the posts of Bruce Baker and Jersey Jazzman, who have documented the very small proportion of ELLs and students with disabilities in New Jersey charters. As you may know, there are lawsuits in several districts–including New Orleans–about the treatment of students with disabilities by charter schools. I have posted several analyses on this blog about the under-representation of these students in Success Academy charters. Forgive me, but I don’t have time to do research for you. There are many such studies.
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Diane,
Yes, there are plenty of studies about under-representation, as there should be.
That is a far cry from evidence that charter schools that “pick and choose” their students.
Under-represented groups under-apply for charter schools, and we should all be working on that instead of alleging something nefarious without evidence.
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John, with enough campaign cash, I could get the New York legislature to declare a rabbit a horse, but that doesn’t make the rabbit a horse.
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Yep. Reading comprehension issues.
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Willful obtuseness, to put it politely, and nothing but, from Mr. Nathan, who always finds bad behavior on the part of the so-called reformers “disturbing,” but never, ever predictable, part of a pattern or systemic.
I’ve got news for you, Joe: while the people funding charter schools and so-called reform clearly have contempt for unionized teachers and public education, don’t think for a moment that they have any more respect those doing their dirty work, glad though they are to use their reputations for their own greedy, power-hungry ends.
Maybe when the house of cards comes tumbling down, and the factotums of those friendly billionaires inexplicably stop returning your phone calls, you’ll see that you’ve been used, but I sometimes wonder…
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Here’s what I’ve been working on Mr. Fiorillo.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2015/05/whats_are_priorities_for_a_pro.html
I’m always interested in what specifically people are doing to help improve public schools and help serve students, particularly those from low income families.
Our work is described in some detail on our website.
We help urban district & charter public school teachers make connections with local and neighborhood newspapers so that they can and are writing about what they’re doing.
We help urban and rural district and charter public schools create more opportunities for students to earn college credit while they are still in high school.
We’ve helped convince the Mn legislature to provide several additional millions to support courses in high school where students will earn college credit.
We run a leadership program where educators learn from outstanding district & chartered public schools.
What are you working for? What are you working on? As mentioned, I’m always interested in – and frequently learn from others who go beyond posting on websites. Posting is interesting, but I’m not sure how much direct benefit there is for students.
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Joe, very few people on this forum can speak without using strawman arguments like reformers calling charters panaceas. They’re just used to it and think it’s normal, because they hear it from each other constantly. It makes the arguments easier to argue with something fictitious than something real.
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Yes, John, the word “panacea” is used fairly regularly around here
I also think it makes sense to ask what people are doing to help improve things for youngsters, in addition to posting here.
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Wow, Joe Nathan, it sounds like you are more than happy to try to help the low-income kids who want to go to college get early college credit. What are you doing for the kids who DON’T want to go to college and don’t care about school? Oh yes, NOTHING. Besides some pretense that if only they had a spot in a charter school that would drop them like a hot potato when they didn’t “fit” their program, everything would be hunky-dory.
Do you know what I think is the biggest shame on what you are doing, Joe Nathan? The biggest shame is that I am starting to feel that the only way public schools can begin to compete with the well-funded lies that charter schools keep offering the gullible public is to simply open their own “charter-model public schools” that get rid of all the kids who don’t measure up. That way they can make the same claims as charter do. They can offer all kinds of pre-college credit courses for those at-risk kids who are dying to go to college and are happy to do whatever is necessary to remain in public schools and not be “encouraged to leave” by suspending them over and over again and offering only “misery” if they stay. I don’t know what will happen to the other children, but apparently the only way to get rewarded by billionaires is to not care about what happens to those children, so I guess that’s what you want us all to do.
Hey, maybe some of those billionaires will feel sorry for all those kids who don’t get to stay in the “new-style” public schools and open charter schools to educate them! Maybe you can teach in one. But don’t feel bad when every politician tells you what a horrible teacher you are because you aren’t getting those kids to pass those pre-college courses. Don’t feel bad when we tell you that if only your school had union teachers, it would be great, just like the “new-style” public schools are that get rid of those kids. Don’t feel bad, because that is what YOU think education is supposed to look like!
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NYC public school parent,
Attacking somebody’s work to help students is pretty lame. If you don’t like the fact that his organization supports both district and charter schools, that’s your opinion, but why attack his work.
Also, it’s pretty condescending for you to call parents who send their kids to charter schools “gullible”.
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NYC – before responding, I’d be interested in knowing what you are doing to help more students succeed. I’ve learned a lot by listening. Please share what you’re doing.
As to your assertions,
NYC already has a number of district schools that use admissions tests to keep out students who can’t pass tests. I’m opposed to such schools. Are you? Those are “public” schools that have no interest in working with troubled youngsters who can’t pass stiff admissions tests
We’re working very closely with a number of union leaders to
a. Convince legislators to provide startup funds to teacher led district public schools, something like what happened in District 4 – East Harlem
b. Convince local boards to allow teachers & other educators to do what they did in East Harlem and more recently Boston and LA with (district) Pilot schools
Working with the local teachers union here in St Paul to challenge several school board members who they and I agree are not treating district teachers with the respect they deserve, or doing a good job of creating a positive learning/teaching environment in the district’s public schools.
We’re also working closely and calling attention to outstanding district & charters that work primarily or exclusively with youngsters with whom traditional schools are not succeeding.
Here’s a recent newspaper column praising such schools:
http://hometownsource.com/2015/05/14/joe-nathan-column-students-describe-triumph-over-tragedy/
One of the values of posting here is to learn from people such as you about your efforts, as well as sharing. So – please tell me more about what you are doing to help more students succeed.
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John, I don’t believe that telling the truth about something is “attacking” someone. Unlike the pro-charter people who call union teachers “lazy” and “incompetent” (were you one of those?) or public schools “failing” because they DON’T get rid of the children who struggle, I merely posted that public schools should follow the “model” of charter schools. I thought that is what you wanted! Funny how you pretend that, but when someone actually states out loud what it is the “successful” charters do, you call it “attacking”! Absurd! I guess you are scared that public schools might call your bluff someday! Don’t worry, unlike the pro-charter advocates like yourself, the vast majority of public school teachers actually care about the kids who don’t care about education and aren’t looking to take pre-college courses. Unlike you, most public school teachers even care about the kids who HATE school and have parents who won’t “do all that we ask them to do” in order to get to have their kid remain in their charter school. It may surprise you that there are even some charter schools who care about those kids, but pro-charter people never talk about those charter schools because guess what? Their test results are just as bad as failing schools so they don’t get cited as proof that all union teachers are terrible and we need to privatize education. And they also don’t get all the millions in donations that the charter schools that DON’T care about those kids get.
Why don’t you call my bluff? Make it mandatory for successful charters to give priority to at-risk kids from failing public schools and NOT suspend the ones they don’t want when they are only 5 and 6 years old. Tell them to figure out a way to have parents want to KEEP their struggling child in that charter school instead of spending as much money as necessary to convince that parent that his struggling child will be served better at any school BUT that charter school! I dare ya!
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By the way, I did NOT call parents who send their kids to charter schools “gullible”. They aren’t gullible! If their kid gets to stay, especially at the ones notorious for hounding out struggling POOR kids, their kid gets the benefit of millions of dollars in donations and gets to go to a well-funded high school along with the 25 or so other kids (from a class nearly 3x the size) who are deemed “worthy” of the riches bestowed by their billionaire friends.
The gullible people are the politicians and member of the public who believe the claims that the very few successful charters have any interest in educating ALL the at-risk kids whose families enter the lottery. LOL!
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Joe Nathan, it sounds as if you are doing some good stuff. But here is what I am asking you to do: BE HONEST. Why is that so hard? And criticize the charter operators who are NOT being honest.
Here is what I am doing as a parent: trying to post on blogs like this to keep the pro-charter people honest. Because it is their dishonesty that takes money away not just from public schools, but from the honest charter schools, too. If their “success” is built on NOT educating all students, then OWN IT. If you want to be a charter school that drums out kids who can’t keep up with your “high standards”, then OWN IT. If you believe you need a majority of affluent college educated parents in order to achieve good results without ridding yourself of half of the at-risk students who win the lottery in schools that are primarily low-income, then OWN IT. If you don’t really want to educate the majority of at-risk kids in failing public schools because they will never “fit” in the type of charter school you want, then OWN IT. But it is outrageous to pretend that failing public schools who educate at-risk students — and must keep them — are supposed to match your results on LESS money with LARGE class sizes because of some myth the pro-charter people absolutely refuse to dispel. Why?
By the way, I am NOT opposed to public schools that have admissions exams (except elementary schools since I think testing 4 year olds is nonsense) because they are HONEST about having admissions exams! They aren’t pretending that their top test scores are because they have some “secret sauce” that makes them superior to other schools. That means you and I can have an honest discussion about the pros and cons of separating high schoolers into advanced learners and less advanced learners. But we can never have that discussion if I keep insisting that specialized high schools are better because their test results prove they are better because I don’t actually WANT to have an honest discussion, I just want to say whatever misleading statements will help keep specialized high schools in existence. Do you understand the difference?
My frustration with the charter school movement, especially in New York, is that the charter schools getting the most rewards, and allowed to proliferate the most, are not being at all honest about how they operate. I get it. It is HARD to keep getting results you can brag about if you educate too many at-risk students because people start questioning why so many leave. But the answer is not to try to undermine public schools by waving all the bells and whistles that millions can buy to get middle class and affluent parents to stop trying to improve their neighborhood schools and instead come to where they won’t have to donate a dime and their child can get all the bells and whistles millions in donations can buy. The answer is to use those millions in donations to figure out how to reach ALL the at-risk students, not just the much smaller % of them who are easiest to teach.
What bothers me is that charter advocates seem terrified to speak the truth. That Democracy Builders report showing the large number of disappearing students in the “top” charter chains went practically unmentioned. Robert Pondiscio is one of the few pro-charter folks talking about honesty in this discussion and he is virtually drowned out by the public relations folks insisting over and over again that these charter schools are achieving near-miraculous results with the exact same students. Honesty. Try it.
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Joe Nathan,
What am I working for? What am I working on?
I am a career public school teacher (public school, not private charters) who works in a Title I school that is attended by 100% English Language Learners and over 80% recipients of free school lunch, so you can’t try to play that card against me.
Regarding all the things you do such as shill for charter schools, I’m sure you’ll also claim to be “disturbed” when the public schools in Minnesota start to disappear, thanks to you and the people who fund you.
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Thanks for sharing the info about your work.
As the newspaper columns I’ve written since 1989 show, I look for and honor outstanding work by public school educators working in a variety of settings, alternative, district & charter.
Here’s a link to information about a wonderful book, Teaching with Heart, that you and others might enjoy, with sections written by teachers from different settings.
http://hometownsource.com/2014/06/04/joe-nathan-column-teaching-with-heart-a-great-summer-book-for-educators-families/
“If you care about learning, teaching, schools or parenting, get a copy of “Teaching with Heart,” edited by educator Sam M. Intrator and writer Megan Scribner. The book has 90 brief, one-page essays by educators, explaining and describing a poem that has inspired them. The book contains some of the most majestic, memorable writing I’ve ever read.”
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Joe Nathan, does your definition of “fraud” include students who mysteriously disappear over the years so that more than half your starting K or 1st grade class goes missing? Does your definition of “fraud” include an investigation as to why 2 charter schools in the same district — thus the SAME students are in their lottery, end up with one being primarily affluent students and one being primarily poor students? If it doesn’t, then you obviously have a very interesting lack of curiosity about the “best practices” of charter schools.
Fraud isn’t only “stealing” money by paying your friends and family to be “consultants” and provide “services” to your charter school. Fraud is telling the public and members of the governments who fund you that you are doing your best to educate every child that wins the lottery when in fact, you are doing your best to get rid of every child who doesn’t “fit” with your vision of your school — especially when the majority of children who don’t “fit” happen to be at-risk.
Joe Nathan, if you can look at a charter school that gives out of school suspensions to as many as 20% of their 5, 6, 7 and 8 year old students (almost all of whom are POOR), and you do not speak out LOUDLY, then you really don’t give a crap about those kids. And that is why I find all your pretense that you do quite offensive. You are terrified of going up against the charters that are expanding most rapidly and taking the most resources and increasingly marketing to the RICHEST students, not the poorest. You are condoning the drumming out of struggling poor children, and I don’t know why you don’t speak out to stop it already. Why did charter folks like you enable such a practice to go on for years and years, and continue to this day?
I’m sorry, but until you speak out, you are just another apologist who knows exactly where his bread is buttered. Sorry, but shame on you.
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John, while it is true that NYS charter school law calls them public schools, a close reading of the text – after all, I’m an obedient Gates-nik and follow the Common Core religiously! – shows that to be boilerplate language intended to mask what precedes it, which clearly states how charters function as private entities with public funding.
Talking points and deceptive rhetoric from their promotors notwithstanding, there is nothing public about charters except their funding.
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Michael, at the very least, it’s also their students that are public.
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I agree with Michael Fiorillo. If public funding turns a privately managed operation into a public school, then Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and all but about three colleges (like Grove City College and Hillsdale College) are public. A law can call a rabbit a horse but it is still a rabbit.
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Joe, you can keep repeating that charters are public schools until you are blue in the face, but it won’t make it so. They are private entities that are publicly funded, and every dollar they receive is a dollar taken from the public schools.
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And you, Michael, can keep saying they are not public, but the law says specifically that they are, and you wishing it were otherwise doesn’t make it so.
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And I might add that any dollar donated to them is a dollar donated to public education, and that teachers in them are public school teachers.
If you have trouble with the concept, try thinking about it from the perspective of the student instead of the perspective of the school district that thinks that they are entitled to the money they public spends on them even if they are not the public school educating the student.
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Always helpful to think about how the world looks from the student perspective.
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John and Joe, can you cite some other “public” organizations that are allowed to keep their records secret from the public? Are there other “public” organizations that have sued in court to prevent state controllers to audit them and are resisting city oversight, claiming that only a politically appointed charter board is allowed to see any of their records? Does the public library get to tell the government “you can’t audit us” only our own board can do so? Does a REAL public school get to say that?
Joe, I noticed you didn’t address my question of why you dislike my desire for HONESTY in this debate? Is it beyond your desire to criticize any powerful charter organization because their big funders might not like it? If you don’t, who is supposed to ever note if their practices are not helping the majority of at-risk kids they claim they are in the business of helping?
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I’m a big fan of honesty & transparency, which is why I use my name. I’ve already posted an Ed Week column in which I described some of the things I like and don’t like about chartering. Transparency about financial records and contracts should be a parent of every public school, whether district or charter.
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I agree that transparency is important. My school has public budgets, public meetings, is subject to FOIL, submits annual audits by independent auditors, got a clean audit from the Comptroller’s office, etc.
A lot of what you’re alleging about secrecy is third hand and false. Please tell me a school in NY for which you can’t find a budget or can’t attend a meeting or FOIL?
The fight about NY Comptroller’s office was one about appropriate scope. Since we are already audited by our authorizers, we fought having yet another audit that takes time away from education. The comptroller’s audit took 6 months and was a pain for all involved.
Keep in mind that most of this FUD comes from NYSUT and other anti-charter organizations. They’re the ones that supported the comptroller’s audits, not out of any desire for transparency or public good, but as part of their continuing effort to whittle down charter school independence if they can’t shut them down altogether.
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Thanks, John. There are many people in both district & charter schools who are disgusted by fraud, excessive salaries and lack of transparency, where-ever it occurs.
There also are some charlatans.
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Please supply a reference for your allegations. Charters in NY have public meetings and are subject to FOIL. They are all not-for-profits and also fill out 990s each year.
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So, charters are public schools, and thus function as a “political subdivision” of the state?”
Charter school managers would disagree with you there, at least when their teachers want to unionize under public employee labor law. When teachers at the Chicago Math and Science Academy wanted to unionize, the school’s Board claimed they were not a public school (www.nlrb.gov/case/13-RM-001768)
I guess the people who fund yo, Joe, want their cake (actually, they want everyone’s cake) and to be able to eat it, too. They want to be able to take public dollars, disingenuously claim to be public schools when it suits their PR purposes, but run them as private fiefdoms.
And congratulations: you help them do that.
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The question in Chicago was whether faculty could organize under local or federal regulations. They are allowed to organize a union if they wish.
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As usual, you ignore the point, and attempt to misdirect.
The point, which you refuse to acknowledge, is that charter operators call their schools public when it suits them, but seek to function as private entities.
None of your shilling and attempted misdirection can change that.
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A public library is public, without being an “entity of the state”, just as charter schools are. Perhaps you’d consider moving your argument to the library forum and attacking librarians for being part of the privatization movement.
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John, comparing charter schools to public libraries is an strange analogy. Anyone can walk through the doors of the public library, without entering a lottery. They serve the entire community, not just those they want to serve. They don’t suck money out of the public libraries to support themselves because they are the public libraries.
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Diane,
re charters and libraries:
If demand for public libraries were high enough that they didn’t have room for people, they to would have some kind of lottery, expand, or find another way to fairly serve as many people as possible.
Charters don’t “get to serve those they want to serve”. Repeating it doesn’t make it true. It’s against the law to pick and choose, and you haven’t provided any evidence of this. Where are all of the lawsuits from parents whose children were denied entry because charter schools didn’t “pick” them?
And to your point, charters don’t “suck money out of the public schools” because they *are* public schools.
I haven’t seen one library try to close down another because they don’t like the way they operate, nor block the opening of another library because they don’t want patrons to have a choice about which public library to go to.
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Michael,
Sometimes, people argue about things where there are no facts and only opinions. Other times, people argue despite the existence of facts. This is the latter case.
Your rants against Joe are a little silly considering NYS Education law says “A charter school shall be deemed an independent and autonomous public school…”. Charter schools in NY are defined by this law, so there isn’t any room for interpretation about what they *are*.
We get it, you think they shouldn’t be. That doesn’t make them non-public any more than you thinking red should mean go on a traffic light makes that true.
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John, charters have gone to court to block public audits. Public schools don’t do that. They won, but the Legislature intervened to give the State Comptroller the power to audit them.
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Public libraries are subject to audits by the state. Public libraries do not say “hey, here’s our 990-pf and our “independent” audit (by the auditors we pay ourselves – lol!) and you don’t get to look at anything else”. Neither do PUBLIC schools.
Do the “paid” auditors of charter schools check that wait lists are moving appropriately? Nope, there is not a word about that in the audit. Do the “paid” auditors of charter schools mention the fact that 20% of a class disappeared one year and do a bit of research to see what happened to those kids? Nope! They take the word of the charter school because the charter school pays them ONLY to check very limited financial information.
If a charter school spends money to sue in court to prevent a TOTAL audit by the state, then that charter school almost certainly is desperate to prevent a full audit of their practices. The question is, why?
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Let’s not forget that with the 2007-08 global financial crises that lost trillions of dollars across the globe and cost tens of millions of working people their jobs (9 million in the U.S. and 20 million in China, for instance), that a handful of individuals walled away with hundreds of million of dollars and none of them have seen the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell (well, maybe one but he was far down the food chain—a scapegoat for sure).
I’d be willing to bet that there are a few individuals at the top of the Brighter Choice pyramid who will still walk away with millions of dollars they didn’t have when they launched their charters and then open again for business in another state where they will fatten their fortunes even more.
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Risky is hardly the word, AND not just monetarily.
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Diane, 2 things.
1. You wrote that that Gov Cuomo “continues to promote charter schools as a panacea for children in schools with low test scores.” Do you have any evidence that he continues to promote charters as a panacea?
2. You wrote, “It must be uncomfortable for a progressive like you to see your ideas adopted by ALEC, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, and the other public school haters.”
I pointed out that some of these same conservatives also criticize Common Core testing, as you do. I asked how you felt about that? I also pointed out that sometimes politics brings together people who mostly disagree, but agree on some things.
I don’t agree with right wing people on most things – but I do agree on a few things – as apparently you do when it comes to criticism of Common Core/Testing.
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Joe makes lot of alleged claims and doesn’t offer evidence from reliable sources to support his allegations, but at the same time he repeatedly challenges others to cough up the evidence that has already appeared on this site or in comments with links to that evidence from other sources.
And it can take one person a lot of time to find this evidence and reply to Joe’s endless questions.
For instance, the last time Joe challenged me with similar questions about Cuomo being corrupt, I provided a long list of links to the sources that offered the evidence, and I never heard back from Joe.
I recall that one or two of those links were to other posts on Diane’s blog that had links to evidence supporting the fact that Cuomo is a two faced, backstabbing, psychopath, lying, corrupt fraud RheeFormer.
Since I already answered this last time Joe challenged me with his time wasting questions, I will not answer again if he asks for me to defend my allegations again. Instead, I refer him back to all the links I provided last time. The one’s it is obvious that Joe ignored.
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Lloyd, when asked about evidence that opposition to Common Core comes from the right as well as left, I provide inks from the Washington Post, NPR and MOther Jones – 3 quite different sources.
Sorry, I seem to have missed the evidence that Cuomo is a ” two faced, backstabbing, psychopath, lying, corrupt fraud RheeFormer.” Those sound like opinions. I the case of “psychopath” – wouldn’t that be the diagnosis of a psychiatrist?
But I’m not asking for evidence that Cuomo – just asking for evidence that he regards charters as a panacea.
Unquestionably Cuomo is a fan of charters. But I don’t think he regards charter as a panacea.
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I think everyone should criticize Common Core and Common Core testing. I am not funded by rightwing foundations or anyone else. The charter movement now belongs to the rightwing: to Scott Walker, John Kasich, ALEC, Bobby Jindal, the Walton Foundation, Rick Scott, Rick Snyder, etc.
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So apparently, Diane, it’s ok for you to agree with a few things that far right wing people agree with (Opposition to common core testing)…But apparently it’s wrong for liberal public school choice advocates to agree with a few things that right wing people agree it.
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Your faux-civil tone is belied by your refusal to argue honestly, which is why you should be exposed for your hypocrisy.
Are you so incapable of recognizing the difference between “agreeing” to oppose Common Core testing, in which the opinions of Diane and some right-wing groups coincide, and the creation and support of a huge philanthropic/academic/advocacy/media infrastructure? I don’t think so.
Your funders spend billions, that’s billions with a “B,” capitalizing the education reform industrial complex, while Diane receives no outside funding whatsoever, yet you attempt to misdirect by suggesting they are commensurate.
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I think the evidence of his own words suggests strongly that Joe Nathan demonstrates that he has NPD (Narcissistic Personalty Disorder).
To understand what this means, I suggest reading this from :
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201404/the-vampire-s-bite-victims-narcissists-speak-out
If you read enough of this info—and there is a lot of it on the net (select wisely what you read)—you soon realize that attempting to reason with someone who has NPD is futile and frustrating.
After all, they are perfect and everyone is isn’t.
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Joe Nathan,
Your logic escapes me. Democrats and Republicans together elected Glenda Ritz in Indiana. Should she have disavowed Republican supporters? I don’t think so. You, on the other hand, champion a cause (privatization) that is heavily funded by foundations, corporations, ALEC, and the far-right with the intent of destroying public education and crushing unions. 90% of charter are non-union. They pay teachers less than public schools. You can’t seem to understand that you are (in a term attributed to Lenin: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot) “a useful idiot” on behalf of the far right.
I will not discuss this further. I have repeated the same thing to you repeatedly. Either you recognize the billion-dollar privatization juggernaut or you don’t. You don’t. End of exchange.
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The late, great US Senator Paul Wellstone recognized the value of working, sometimes, with people who he generally disagreed with. He sometimes quoted the 1800’s abolitionist Wendell Phillips about the source of his passion, “I am on fire, understand, because there is so much ice to melt.”
Some of us are fine about
* working with teacher union leaders & faculty, faith community members, students and business leaders to help improve Cincinnati public schools;
* working with district & charter leaders to help increase the number of students from low income families who are able to take college level courses in high school;
* working with business and teacher union leaders to encourage state legislators to provide startup $ for new district public schools.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose.” (Ecclesiastes) Coalitions sometimes make sense, sometimes not.
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