Not long ago, I was in Kentucky to speak to local school boards and superintendents. The walls outside the Grand Ballroom were festooned with pictures, quilts, and murals made by students from different communities. I took many photos of beautiful student work. I left with a sense that Kentucky has strong and united communities.
But the corporate reform movement can’t stand the thought of any state that hasn’t unleashed the power of competition and free enterprise, sort of like bringing Walmart into town to compete with the local stores in Main Street. So the usual right-wing funded groups have been pushing charters, promising the innovation and results that no one else has gotten.
Every year, the Republican-controlled Senate votes a charter bill, and every year the Democratic-controlled House ignores it. But this year may be different because all of the candidates for governor say they favor charters. The Democrat says he will support charters as long as they don’t take funding from public schools. Where does he think their funding comes from?
He says:
Democrat Jack Conway said in an interview he supports the concept of charters as long as they don’t take funds away from public schools.
“If it’s a charter where bureaucracy is getting out of the way and allowing for innovation, and it’s transparent, and we’re not in the situation where we’re siphoning off public dollars, then yes, I’m in for more flexibility in the public school system,” Conway said.
He added that he wants to make sure for-profit charter school companies can’t “cherry pick” the best students, leaving an underclass in the rest of the public education system.
How can he make sure that for-profit charter school companies don’t cherry pick the best students? How can he make sure that nonprofit charter schools don’t cherry pick the best students? Why does he think he can figure this out when no other state has? He should learn about the experience of Pennsylvania, where charter schools are bankrupting community public schools. Or about the many financial scandals in Ohio, Michigan, and Florida.
Why not protect the community schools of Kentucky where everyone works together for the benefit of the children?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Conway is Republican-lite in blue dog clothing. Another example of why public education advocates shouldn’t expect change should Clinton be elected.
If we assume that the governor is not a fool and furthermore has more than a cursory knowledge of the charter sector and of reform, his statements indicate to me that he has set a high bar for charter proponents to get over, one that will cause them to change the way they do business and are funded. In essence “If you want to have the legal and managerial benefits of a private entity, then don’t come to us looking for a handout of public funds. Get your startup money from the private sector since you are operating as a private entity.” When it comes to preventing the cherry picking, if they are operating as a private school, albeit a free one, there may be no solution for that other than the possibility that the funders may not want to continue to pay for such an enterprise. Charging tuition would quickly change the demographic of the school and hence what other schools they would then be competing against. Basically, I view this, through rose colored glasses, as a politicians way of saying no by making yes an impossible knot to reach and untie.
I’m sure they don’t need my advice but I’d tell them to look at the reality in other states – take a field trip instead of relying on lobbyists.
Do ed reform politicians in Ohio really think the public is going to be happy that they’re sending tax money that was collected in this state and supposed to be allocated to public education to this? :
“Concept Schools probed by the FBI operate 19 charter schools in several states and the Cleveland branch of the FBI leads the investigation into alleged wrongdoings in its activities. Vicki Anderson, the bureau’s Cleveland Media Coordinator, told Anadolu Agency “a white-collar crime investigation” into the school chain was underway and she would not disclose further, as the investigation was ongoing. Anderson said an indictment will be released by the attorney’s office soon.
Lawyer Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam and Partners LLP, a law firm employed by Turkey to assist in the global investigation into the Gülen Movement, said at a press conference on Monday that companies in the United States linked to the movement had actively abused the visa system and brought in more foreign workers than large companies like Google into the United States. Amsterdam had said that most of those foreigners were not capable of teaching and had a limited knowledge of English. He claimed many of them were hired by charter schools and diverted nearly half of their income to the Gülen Movement.”
I don’t pretend to understand the internal political wrangling in Turkey so I don’t know what kind of spinning is going on here, but which politician in the US ed reform “movement” thought getting involved in this was a good idea? How are they planning on explaining this to constituents?
http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/2015/10/28/gulenists-face-white-collar-crime-charges-in-united-states
Being pro charter seems to be the expedient political theology – that is until our voting citizens wise up to this faulty philosophy.
The more families opt out, the less attractive this stance will be.
Conway’s opponent, Matt Bevin, is from Louisville; in essence a “state of its own” if you will. Charters are being pushed in Louisville right now because of the large, diverse population (it’s tests as an urban district for NAEP). I think Conway may be saying some of these things because he’s trying to get the votes from that area.
And the reason this issue doesn’t pass the House is because the House Education Chair, Derrick Graham, is a retired teacher and he refuses to have the Senate bill called up for discussion. He understands the issues.
Besides the headline and column quoted in another entry into today’s blog
Again, Unbelievable – especially in Indiana
but
a guest editorial by one of our elected legislators wrote in Today’s paper [two articles like this in one day]
Headline “Indiana’s traditional schools have taken a big hit”.
This is not news to educators and has been spoken of in these blogs untold numbers of times
but
this legislator did a study [himself] and gave statistical data – much of which readers of these blogs are familiar – showing how the charters have taken money away from traditional schools and given it to charters, etc.
UNBELIEVABLE HERE IN INDIANA.
AGAIN; ” maybe it is darkest just before dawn”.
We can hope can’t we?