Dora Taylor, a parent leader in Seattle, has written a post about how the Gates machine has stepped up to protect the state’s fledgling charter schools that are not currently eligible to receive public funding. The highest state court in Washington state ruled that charter schools are not public schools, and of course the Gates team is working the legislature to do an end run around the court’s decision.
But as Taylor explains, the Gates team has quietly set up a deal where a small rural school district is paid to supervise the charter schools and keep them alive while Gates and company works the legislature.
This is how it went. The Gates Foundation, contacted the Washington Charter Association and had them contact the Mary Walker School District to discuss with the Superintendent, Kevin Jacka, the idea of taking on the charter schools that had opened in the state and placing them under the umbrella of the Alternative Learning Experience program (ALE).
The Mary Walker School District is located in Springdale, Washington, which is a rural community in the northeast corner of Washington State. The district consists of eight traditional and Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) schools.
The plan was to have the Mary Walker School District provide oversight for the charter schools scattered around the state and receive a percentage of the per student state allocation before sending the money onto the charter school therefore providing tax dollars to the charter schools.
According to the contract between the Mary Walker School District and Rainier Prepcharter school, the Mary Walker School District will receive 4% of the per student state allocation of approximately $6,000 per student and the remaining 96% will go to the charter school.
You see, when you are the richest man in the country, you don’t give up. You win. Unless the courts and the legislature intervene to protect public education. If Bill Gates wanted to give the charter students an education (there are fewer than 1,000 of them), he could open private schools for them at less cost than he is spending to lobby the state. But he wants to establish the principal that privately managed schools should get public funding, even though the public has nothing to say about how they are run.
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This is exactly like the “authorizer” system in Ohio. They’re just passing public money thru a public school instead of an “authorizer”.
Are people from that “small rural district” really going to provide “oversight” to charter schools all over the state? How do they plan to do that? They have enough staff and time to take on a whole new duty for the district, traveling the state overseeing these schools? Come on. That isn’t going to happen in Washington anymore than it happens in Ohio.
No, but they get more money for nothing!
Thank you for this comment. The Center for Reinventing Public Education (Gates funded) is flying the Mary Walker School District around the country. They are looking at charter schools across the country. Gates provided the Mary Walker School District with a $2.1M grant and they will look at charter expansion.
It should also be noted that Gates provided the Mary Walker School District with $150K to cover legal costs and $15K for PR specialists.
I think we need much more investigation into who is actually supplying the money for fighting the lawsuits filed inside those districts most prone to abusing teachers and schools. I have been told that inside my own district there are so many lawsuits these days that suits are being carefully suppressed and delayed until the plaintiff can be quietly bought off. But with whose money?
Please see my comment at the end of this thread. The Mary Walker School District has significant audit findings.
Was that “small rural district” perhaps strapped because of budget cuts? Having to meet payroll can be a powerful “market” incentive for a public school in this anti-public school political climate! 🙂
Highly probable. In general, rural districts live on the edge. Lucky to have a few good teachers who want to live in the community despite lower salary; teacher recruitement is almost impossible without incentive of competitive salary scale. Have to meet same state imposed reporting requirements and mandates as the big schools, the list is endless. With creative leadership, some rural schools are truly remarkable, several identified in the original list of Schools of Opportunity. But the loss of a few students in the annual headcount can mean a huge difference and ripe for plucking.
Does this mean that the board for that rural district approved this? That they are functioning as the “publicly accountable” board for these charter schools?
How can they be accountable for a school that noone in the district can drive to? Do they have to provide evidence of supervision like rating the school or their principal?
That district could be accountable for a whole lot of things but I don’t see how they can choose to release charter schools from all the laws they are used to dodging any more than they could a public school.
Eactly. The Mary Walker School District is responsible for the oversight of Rainier Prep and other charter schools that are located 300 miles away.
Hi, does anyone know if there are privacy concerns with Microsoft’s offer to provide all NYC pubic school children free access to Office 365 at their homes?
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2015/02/13/nyc-students-get-office-365-free-microsoft-welcomes-sunrise-soldiers-schooled-civilian-skills-weekend-reading-feb-13th-edition/
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
My school district just let a,superintendent go after 2 1/2 years. She could think of no other way to help low testing students than to give the entire school district training on “a close read” this cost the,district over $2 million. This a Gates method and she also believed in the “business model” for schools. For this important training 10 teachers per building were out once a month for 2 days, that’s 20 days of missed teaching a,year. Two schools came together for this “important training” so 20 teachers were out at a time for 2 days. Subs were considered just as,good as the class teacher. The school’s were crazy, but the superintendent assured the parents that all the subs were certified teachers. The attitude was that it matters not who or what the teacher did they were expandable. This year due to a,shortage of subs the program,had to be curtailed. Thank,god. It was a complete waste of the districts money. We have a new superintendent and I hope she will be good.
Thank you for this blog post.
The Supreme Court found charter schools unconstitutional and charter schools would not be entitled to state funding.
Gates and the Washington State Charter Association ( Bill Kiolbasa) were instrumental in providing an end-run around the Supreme Court.
Those behind the charter effort got the State’s Superintendent of Public Education to bend Alternative Learning Experience laws to fund charter schools. We’re looking at corruption of ALE laws and they are being used in an unprecedented manner to fund unconstitutional schools.
One charter bill got passed out of the Senate and the bill is very likely unconstitutional. Thus far, the House has not scheduled a hearing for charter bills, but Rainier Prep and Excel charter schools are enrolling students for next year.(!)
The Superintendent of the Mary Walker School District is a a former Wa. State Charter Commissioner. Millions and millions of dollars will get laundered through the small school district (500students) to charter schools. Mary Walker has a history of poor audits”
The Washington State Auditor audited the Mary Walker School District and published this report on May 21, 2015:
“The general fund ending balance as of March 31, 2015, was a deficit of approximately $189,800. In addition, in fiscal year 2015 the General Fund borrowed $170,000 from the Capital Projects fund in order to meet immediate cash needs. ”
and:
“While the District has an informal strategy for addressing this concern, it has not established a formal, comprehensive financial management plan or contacted OSPI for assistance in managing its position. The District’s informal strategy has not been effective in improving the District’s financial condition. ”
Please see page 6-7:
http://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1014225&isFinding=false&sp=true#search=%22Mary%20Walker%22
As well, ALE dollars in Wa. state have poor oversight.
http://www.kplu.org/post/critics-say-alternative-learning-program-raises-red-flags
So much for Supreme Court decisions and protection of taxpayer dollars.
Gates will never be held accountable to the voting public.
I doubt if there are any Trump supporters who read this blog — and I’m a Bernie supporter myself — but I want to make this point: Gates is NEVER going to be held accountable, he is not willing to allow himself to be held accountable. On the other hand, Trump is — he may be wrong in most or all of his policies, but he’s willing to hold himself accountable to the voters — for this reason, he is, in my opinion, far more respectable than Gates.
Yes, I resent how rich men have arrogated to themselves the policy-making powers that belong to our hard-won American democracy.
How is Trump making himself accountable to the voters? Accountable for what? I think I am missing what you are trying to say. As far as I can tell, he is catering to our basest instincts for self interest and preservation. Anyone who criticizes his ideas he dismisses with juvenile epithets. I’m sure he will make a big hit with foreign leaders when he snidely dismisses their concerns and lets them know how he despises them with his ignorant stereotypical rants.
I agree with you about Gates (and I probably just don’t understand what you are saying about Trump). Gates has anointed himself King of the Council of Oligarchs destined to rule the masses, for our own good, of course. Just as our forefathers argued over who should be allowed citizenship, Gates and his cohort would like to revisit those misguided decisions that gave us a voice in our country’s destiny.