The Center for Media and Democracy has compiled a list of 2,500 charters that closed since 2000, either because of financial or academic problems.
This should dispel the myth that charter schools are superior institutions that “save” children.
Some of the schools closed before they opened, but their founders collected public money for “planning.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good info.
In the business world, this just means the system works – the bad schools close, so only the good ones are left, no?
And it’s all, always and forever, “about the kids.”
Third paragraph:
[start] Some of the schools closed before they opened, but their founders collected public money for “planning.” [end]
This is what the self-anointed leaders and beneficiaries of the “education reform” movement mean when they talk about challenging the status quo that, they say, puts the interests of adults before those of children.
They mean they want to be—and increasingly are—the type of education establishment that benefits a few adults at the expense of ever growing numbers of students, their parents, and associated communities.
Public schools? The public good? Where’s the $tudent $ucce$$ in that?
😎
A giant, expensive “Brainstorming Blitz.”
What about the schools that close during the school year? What does that do to kids? http://www.sltrib.com/home/2859936-155/charter-school-facing-closure-shuts-downs
What, kids? Students? You mean human beings? Nah, nah, you got it all wrong. They’re just customers. They’ll go elsewhere. Vote with their feet and all.
Dienne. :-).
In Ohio they just say that means the system is working. Well, some of them do. Those on the “policy” side say that. Those on the ground sometimes argue that their school should stay open because it has value to parents and students but that’s of course a tough argument to make since shuttering a public school that has low scores, low enrollment or budget problems is considered a huge success in ed reform, no matter the value to local people.
I feel bad for charter parents and kids when their schools are closed without warning in Ohio (and it happens a lot) but I also feel bad for the public schools that absorb the effects of all this groovy, very fashionable “disruption”, including the kids IN public schools.
My superintendent says the “disruption” caused by online charter “churn” in our district is her problem, because it means she deals with the fallout. So does every other kid in that public school and they have no “choice” in the matter. There’s collateral damage to what I consider reckless risk-taking and no one in ed reform “leadership” is suffering from the consequences of their actions. People on the ground are. We all take the hit for their failed experiments.
Insightful comments about the risk-taking and the fallout from failure. Heads the charter school owners and proponents win; tails public schools, including the students, parents, communities, etc. lose. Just like Wall Street. It is clearly all about money and power.
Ohio media reported that Columbus was “flooded” with charter schools. 17 then closed in one summer. Was that “flooding” done deliberately and what are the effects of “flooding” on the existing public schools? Does anyone care?
Because there’s only two possibilities- it was either deliberate “flooding” and to heck with the consequences or it was negligence where the consequences weren’t even considered by “the adults”. There’s no third possibility.
One of the goals among the so-called reformers is an ever-increasing rate of throughput – speed and volume of “production,” which in this case means disruption or “churn” – throughout the system, destabilizing it, and thus making it easier to consolidate and assert power, extract public dollars, and, to adapt the words of Tacitus, create a desert (albeit one that serves the interests of the Overclass) and call it “Reform.”
But don’t the rheephormsters continually wail and whine about how any delay or omission or loss for students is a vile crime against nature? Gotta get those charters and online academies and vouchers up and going tout de suite!
😜
But when they butcher gobs of learning time off of an increasing number of students:
Silence is golden aka $tudent $uccess. And silence, my dear rheephormistas, is also compliance. Y’all are what YOU warned US against.
But in all honesty, and riffing off my last sentence, the enforcers and enablers of the self-style “education reform” do have one small redeeming quality—
They love providing us sterling examples of John Steinbeck’s remark:
“Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.”
Thank you for hoisting yourselves by your own petards.
😎
There should be some stipulation that requires charters to pay back tax dollars if they shut down, especially if they never actually open in the first place. In addition, maybe there should also be some kind of proof that their students are outperforming the public schools they are taking funding away from in order for them to continue to get the tax funds. The “bottomless” well of the public trough should be limited – and they should prove they’ve earned what they are given. This should be true especially for the chains with poor track records.
Drake straw,
When charter chains and their allies, like the Waltons, give major campaign contributions to buy charter love, you can’t expect their bought legislators to regulate the failures or even to hold them accountable.
In addition to repaying money, we should change the laws giving incentives to businesses to open charters. This “free money with little oversight” attitude has turned investing in charter into the wild west. Corporations are treating schools like pancakes. If they don’t turn out, throw them away. Investing in charters is more than speculation; it is investing in future voters’ lives. It is reprehensible that the very children that crave the most stability because their lives are already in turmoil, get their neighborhood school destroyed. All this repeated disruption is wrong and exploitative of poor minority children.
While watching Bill Maher, I heard Ron Reagan say, “Privatization might be great for tennis shoes; for prisons and education, not so much.” It is a rare occasion when anyone other than privatizers mention education at all on this show, even though Maher’s sister is a public school teacher in New Jersey. He had Randi on a few years ago, but nothing since.
In Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled that the charters that entered into contracts are entitled to ownership of the desks, computers, etc that were bought with tax payer dollars.
I don’t understand what is going on with this country. This kind of immoral stuff keeps happening and people such as Jihn Kasich present themselves as the “reasonable” candidates when nothing could be further from the truth.
“The charters that entered into contracts are entitled to ownership of the desks, computers, etc that were bought with tax payer dollars.”
The court ruled that “the charters” don’t own the property. The court ruled that the management company owns the property.
“The charter” in that case was simply a shell- a legal entity- the management company made 96% of the decisions for “the charter”.
That way they can say “the charter” is a nonprofit, which complies with state law. The management company that actually runs the schools is not a non profit. It’s why no one should accept the “nonprofit” label. It’s meaningless in practice.
Columbus Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel described/spun the ruling as establishing fiduciary responsibility for the operator/sponsor. ??????
How many public schools got closed to make way for these failing charters?
Good question, and how many other public schools had to operate in a chronic state of austerity with many needy students due to the grand experiments of the “market.”
Donna, I cannot answer your question, but Ohio’s evaluation system for public schools is rigged to fail many schools in urban districts. That makes the whole district a target for unelected charter operators, many with profit-seeking as the priority. In addition to Youngstown, the following districts are vulnerable to a district-wide takeover…
Akron City
Canton City
Columbus City
Cleveland Municipal
Cincinnati City
Toledo City
Dayton City
http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Pages/District-Report.aspx?DistrictIRN=043752
Anyone who closely follows what is going on across the nation in this corporate war against public education would know that it is obvious that any improvement in the corporate Charter sector comes from three factors:
1. The closing of 2,500 (39%) of the total number of charters, 6.400, still open today—the worst performers almost always go first in the competitive capitalist market.
2. Enrolling and keeping lower numbers of students who are at high risk and are more difficult to teach.
3. Using authoritarian, boot camp like methods with longer school days and a focus on test results over teaching in addition to demands on lower paid teachers that has created a significant increase in teacher turnover. Also, corporate charters suspend and/or kick out significant numbers of students when compared to public schools, but there is no outcry in the media about this—the media only screams the sky is falling when public schools suspend students.
Since 2000, 2,500 hundred corporate charters have closed. Fifteen years later, there are 6.400, according to Stanford’s CREDO center that’s funded by Bill Gates, and that must explain the language in the CREDO study that alleges that corporate charter schools “provide significantly higher levels of annual growth in both math and reading” compared to their public school peers—this is incredibly misleading as you will see.
In the latest comparison (link below), the CREDO is attempting to salvage the recent comment made by their Bill Gates funded leader at Stanford that market forces don’t work in education by comparing the 2013 National Study to only 41 Urban regions instead of the entire nation. Even then, it is a stretch to claim “significantly higher levels of annual growth in both math and reading” with these results.
In Table 11, in the most recently published CREDO study, there are two info graphics.
One compares traditional schools with corporate charters for math and reading in 41 urban regions. The second comparison are the results of the 2013 National Study (there is a typo that says 2103, a Freudian slip maybe?).
In the 41 Urban Region comparisons, CREDO says that in math 57% of the Charters are Worse or the Same and only 43% are better than the traditional schools they are compared to in each region. In reading 62% were Worse or the Same and only 38% were Better.
In the 2013 National Study, 71% of the Charter schools were Worse or the Same and only 29% were Better in Math. For reading, 75% were Worse or the Same and only 26% were Better.
I think that comparing oranges to lemons is not valid, and in both cases the public schools are still outperforming the corporate charters.
Click to access Urban%20Charter%20School%20Study%20Report%20on%2041%20Regions.pdf
Is it possible that their use of “significant” is the fact that in the 41 urban regions compared to the nation, corporate charters in those urban regions significantly outperformed their corporate peers across the nation by 14% in Math and 12% in Reading—but they failed to mention the fact that across the nation and in those 41 urban regions, public schools were still matching or beating them SIGNIFICANTLY?
I would like Ohio lawmakers to release a complete list of the people they consulted now that they’re finally claiming to be drafting charter school regulation.
If our laws are being written by national charter lobbying groups I think Ohio lawmakers should be forced to reveal that.
93% of the kids in this state attend public schools. Public schools should have some representation when these charter decisions are made, because “choice” affects our schools, whether lawmakers are willing to admit that blindingly obvious fact or not.
If the Fordham people and the StudentsFirst lobbyists are drafting our newest charter law that law will have an effect on every kid in the public schools. There should be an advocate for public schools at the table. I’m sick of having zealous charter promoters and then weak and spineless “agnostics”. I want an unapologetic advocate for existing public schools in on these decisions. It’s ridiculous that 93% of the kids in this state don’t have an advocate for their schools in government. It’s ludicrous. It makes no sense.
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
This could never happen in little old Delaware! Oh wait, it already has and will in the NEXT WEEK!!!!
Now where are all those Charter School promoters?
cross posted the report itself,
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CMD-Publishes-Full-List-of-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-School-Failure_Charter-Schools_Closed_Democracy-150927-610.html
with a comment Copied below) which has links back to they site i you go to OPED,
“The corruption is rampant . Go to my quicklinks here at ope ed,, and see how reform, and ‘choice’ stole taxpayer money to privatize public education.
“It is alarming to see private capital and equity investors getting into the business of financing charter schools. And making a handsome profit. Of course, they would not invest unless the profit were there. If you think the privatization of public education represents “positive social change,” this may be the fund for you.
Turner Capital, in partnership with tennis star (and high school dropout) Andre Agassi, predict returns of 12%. In these days of low interest rates, that is a handsome return.”
New For -profit charter chain is expanding in Ohio and in Arizona , “Governor Doug Ducey appointed a commission to fix school funding. The commission has decided that The schools don’t need more money, even though the state is one of the lowest spending in the nation. What’s needed is more funding for charters. The pie stays the same, but the underfunded public schools will lose money to the charters.”
Question:
How many public schools in the United States have closed?
Response:
While the total number of public schools in the country has remained between 98,000 and 99,000 in recent years, new schools have opened and some schools have closed. In 2011–12, there were 1,840 school closures. The schools that closed had enrolled about 301,000 students in the prior school year (2010–11). Of the schools that closed, 1,340 were regular schools, 87 were special education schools, 11 were vocational schools, and 402 were alternative schools. The number of schools that closed in 2011–12 was higher than the number in 2000–01 (1,193); however, the number of annual school closures has fluctuated during this period, ranging from around 1,200 to 2,200. School closures do not necessarily reflect the number of school buildings that have been closed, since a single school may share a building with another school, or one school may have multiple buildings.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Digest of Education Statistics, 2013 (NCES 2015-011),Table 216.95.
A total of 21890 public schools have closed from year 2000 to year 2012. We can assume an additional 2000 per year to account for years 2013, 2014 and 2015 making a total of about 28000 school closures from year 2000. Since the Department of Education considers charter schools as public schools and since this post says about 2500 charter schools have closed in the last 10 years, charter school closures is approximately 9% of the public schools closures. It is clear that approximately 25% of all schools have closed from year 2000 to year 2015.This data from the U.S. Department of Education clearly shows that public schools are not immune to closures.
Raj,
Contrary to your assumption, no one is arguing that “public schools are not immune to closures.” They are being closed for several reasons, but what drives the closure is the assault by politicians, billionaires, and pro-privatizers.
Moreover, many public schools have decades of history, while a bunch of charters appeared in the 90s and the 00s go out of business too soon. Many of those don’t last long for more than 10-20 years. They are being screwed for bad decisions made by charter charmers and deformers
We don’t have enough information to draw conclusions about school closings of any kind. I am not a fan of judging a school failing by test scores public or charter. Starving public schools is a documented strategy to close public schools particularly in urban areas. I want to see how many public schools close vs. charter schools. And I want to know how many charter schools are in or planned for a community when a public school closes. I want to know how many tax dollars are lost by the public schools to charters, and I want to see what it does to a public school budget. The gains appear to be illusory for the public schools. Anybody adopted any neat charter school strategies lately? I know there are some interesting charter programs, but I have yet to hear of one that cannot be done within the public school system. It is too bad that a potentially promising idea was high jacked by people more interested in $$.
Raj,
Thank you for this information. It is documentation of the damage done by NCLB and Race to the Top, which mandates school closings for public schools that dont make progress towards 100% proficiency on tests of reading and math.
Charter schools were supposed to be a “remedy” for public schools that were closed for low scores.
Since 2500 charter schools have closed, your data demonstrate that charter schools are no remedy.
The closure of so many public schools is a tragedy caused by the Bush-Obama policy.
Diane,
I am just pointing out that your statement that 2500 charters closed in 15 years is just half truth. Public schools also close in greater numbers. There are multiple reasons for school closure. I must emphasize that when a school closes another one opens keeping the total number of schools nearly constant. That was the point.
I left out the fact that charter schools close at about twice the rate of public schools which none of your followers were able to figure out.
Your final statement that “The closure of so many public schools is a tragedy caused by the Bush-Obama policy.” is irrational and can not be supported by facts. Blaming Bush-Obama administration for all the ills of public education is wrong. Every one has a share in the problems in education. You may be able to argue that your share is smaller than someone else and that is all.
I will agree with you if you are stating that public education is ailing and is in need of help.
Most school closures are related to demographic change, not enough kids in the given area due to aging of the population. But they have to build new schools where the kids are in the new suburbs and exurbs. Many in the inner city are closed to replace aging infra structure.
A few, I stress the word few, are closed for poor performance and such closures make headlines.
So you were playing a “gotcha” game rather than actually trying to inform. And now, after the fact, you are including information many of us indicated was necessary for understanding the issue. I seriously doubt you would have said anything if you hadn’t been questioned. Diane often posts information/news reports/studies out there for just the sort of dialogue that you tried to hijack.
Raj,
You sure don’t get it. The law of the land–NCLB–is forcing the closure of public schools because of scores. Obama’s Race to the Top is forcing the closure of public schools because of scores.
Charters are supposed to be the remedy. Yet, as you point out, they close twice the rate of public schools.
Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in Chicago in a single day, a day of infamy in American educational history. He is now opening charter schools to replace them.
How many of them will close because of low academic performance or financial corruption?
What kind of a cure is that?
Raj,
You obviously cannot see the forest for trees. Your explanation of school closure relying on numbers is a classic example of that.
And you just really don’t care. Done.
dianeravitch:
Who could have predicted that said commenter would help underscore the toxic effects of the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement?
I add my thank you for the info.
😎
And this is relevant how?
You do understand that you are clueless!
Raj,
The reasons for closure in my district are primarily due to the lower student enrollments. My district has seen the community undergo a significant graying (aging) and an increase in empty nests. Our closures had nothing to do with quality issues (since we’re typically in the middle and slightly above) but rather a lower number of K-12 age kids in our community.
Not all closures are created equally.
Steve. that man is like Trump– the observable reality, the facts and the truth have no place in his world. Probably no one listens to his nonsense in his own little world, so he enjoys plaguing us here; he does not understand the purpose of this site, even though Diane has explained it , and the serious minds who write her have told him to stop. He cannot learn and is wedded to his beliefs, and in fact constantly berates us for not tolerating what he believes is his rational argument. So sad.
Trump was on 60 Minutes last night, Sunday, September 27, 2015, and he is a scary clueless, ignorant and arrogant idiot. What’s even more frightening is the fact that so many ignorant, foolish Americans think that Trump can pull off all of his bogus, impossible to achieve goals.
Do these stupid and totally ignorant Americans who support Trump have any idea that the only way Trump can cut taxes, fix our aging infrastructure, fix Social Security, provide medical care for everyone, arrest 12 million illegal immigrants and kick them out of the country, increase the military so every other country in the world would do exactly what he wants them to do or else, bring back all the jobs that allegedly were robbed by China and Mexico, get rid of NAFTA, and build a cheap (yea, he said cheap) but impregnable wall along the U.S.southern border that would rival the Great Wall of China would happen only if it became the first dictator for life with total power after Congress was disbanded and the Supreme Court shuttered—I heard Trump say all of this, and every time the 60 Minutes person challenged Trump repeatedly, Trump’s come back was that he could accomplish every claim because he was Trump and he always gets what he wants because he knows how to work with people.
I really think that the U.S. NEEDS a law that limits wealth to $999 million per person/family and not one penny more and the rest of the money that belongs to oligarchs like Trump, Gates, Elli Broad, the Koch brothers and the Walton family,, etc should go to pay off the national debt.
LOL… that proposal for limiting wealth!
I try to visualize that mouth narcissistic clown greeting and meeting world leaders .
This NY Times piece offers a view of how Obama meets and greets leaders. ” Clues to U.S. Relationships Can Be Seen in U.N. Body Language” By PETER BAKER and GARDINER HARRIS http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/world/clues-to-us-relationships-can-be-seen-in-un-body-language.html?emc=edit_th_20150928&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50637717
and here is a great one analyzing the appeal to a television audience with thrives on ‘reality tv’ posing as real life.’
The gist?
Reality shows thrive on high stakes, and there’s nothing higher than leadership of the No. 1 country in the world.”
“Donald Trump is the presidential candidate that reality TV made. Reality television has always been fixated on the trappings of wealth; the rich for a lot of reasons — they live out our aspirations, and their mistakes and foibles shrink the gulf between their lives and ours. In a sense, Mr. Trump’s immersion in the medium of reality TV normalizes his wealth. He connects with an audience for whom he represents the sort of rich guy they would be if they had the money.”
The author states: “I’ve been working in reality television for 10 years, and I can tell you that Mr. Trump is exactly what we look for in our casting process. He’s uncomplicated and authentic: You can understand his entire personality from a 15-second sound bite. His brand is blunt self-promotion. His buildings are big and gold, shouting TRUMP in all caps. The Donald has absolute confidence even in his most wrongheaded opinions, and doubles down on every mistake, comfortable in the assurance that his wealth provides evidence for his intelligence. He doesn’t need to be good at his job — if he fails, he creates chaos, and chaos makes good TV.”
“In the various guilty-pleasure/train-wreck formats of reality TV, development execs look for larger-than-life personalities who speak their mind and don’t shy away from conflict. Self-awareness is a liability. They reveal their character through conflict, and the bigger the character, the deeper the conflict, the better the show.”
The author continues: “A few years ago, I worked on the WE TV series “Bridezillas,” a show that thrived on the conflict between a bride and anyone in her path. This subgenre of reality TV — terrible people behaving badly — works because friction is baked into the format. At the very least, I could usually count on drunken bridesmaids brawling over the tossed bouquet. Political campaigns have their conflict, too, but it’s often too nuanced for a broad audience. Mr. Trump has cut through all that. His ad hominem insults have become his signature move. Even when he professes to be holding back — as when he said of Senator Rand Paul, ‘I never attacked him on his looks’ — he still gets a jab in there somewhere: ‘Believe me, there is plenty of subject matter.’ ”
SOOOOO…. call everyone you know and be sure they are registered democrats so they can VOTE for BERNIE SANDERS!
Oct 9 is the deadline to register for the Democratic Primary…
I WANT TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE BERNIE SANDERS IS PRESIDENT!
I cannot IMAGINE what it might be to live in a country who elects not merely a charlatan, but a CLOWN who is a born liar!
Trump is to the U.S. as Nero was to Rome.
Trump would also fiddle while the U.S. burns, and then he would fly off in his private jet to live in another country.
did charter schools make up 9% of the public school population over the last ten years?