Edward F. Berger is a retired educator who lives in Arizona and builds community support against privatization of public schools.
In this post, he explains the failure of charter schools (which he calls “partial schools”).
This is how the school choice movement went wrong:
Politicians, ideologues, so-called libertarians, and crooks attracted by profit motives, took over the charter school experiment. They decided, with no educational data to back their decisions, that charter schools, regardless of whether they worked for children or not, whether they served America’s need for an educated populous or not, would become stand-alone schools that could be run with little accountability, certification, or even democratically elected boards. Now, tax money is often used to create private Real Estate empires. Our tax dollars that we pay for children and their education are siphoned off to individuals, corporations, and companies that contract with charters to provide “services.” Is it any wonder that hedge fund operators and the self-appointed reformers see charter schools and outfits like K-12 as income generators? Is it any wonder that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies cannot keep up with the criminal activities of those milking the system? These thefts are criminal even if approved by legislatures. Are you surprised that the largest Charter School operator in America is a Turkish political movement using our tax dollars to bring their people (they call them teachers) into America to support a political agenda in a foreign land?
Groups motivated by Koch, ALEC, and those with hedge fund mentalities of fraud and greed, have gone against the clear and expressed wishes of the great majority of Americans (exceeding 85%) who support community based, public, comprehensive schools. Let’s be very clear. The great majority of Americans want children exposed to and involved in these areas of learning: Art, music, the sciences, history, civics, theater, health, languages, social studies, reading, writing, critical thinking, physical education, athletics, cooperative experiences, computer sciences, computer literacy, clubs, projects, research… and this is only a partial list of what public comprehensive schools provide. We citizens want the development of self-motivated children, children with ethics and empathy. Children with heart. Constant testing for data does not serve our children.
Parents, educators, and communities united can push back against the corruption in the charter industry.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think it goes back to one of the central ideas in ed reform. The belief system is grounded in the idea that everyone is “self interested” except for ed reformers.
That’s ridiculous. It never made sense. Because it doesn’t make sense it had to come from their conviction that ed reformers are just BETTER PEOPLE than those who work in public schools.
If “self interest” is the measure, charter operators in Ohio are exactly as “self-interested” as teachers unions. They can’t apply this “self interest” test they use to only one side of the equation.
It’s both are assumed to be self-interested or neither are assumed to be self-interested.
Chiara: I think you bring up a key point.
Exactly why almost to a person those leading the charge for corporate education reform are genuinely offended and upset—“they feel swarmed, poor things!”—when their policies and mandates and methods are even lightly criticized.
And why they don’t feel obligated to be honorable in dealing with facts and logic. If by their very nature they are irreproachable, who are we to reproach them?
Thank you for your comments.
😎
The plan those who hide under the title Reformer started on many attack fronts. One really damaging one is the denigration of teachers. What followed are the lies that our schools were broken and needed to be fixed by these wise and benevolent billionaires who, almost exclusively, had no experience with public education. But they had money so of course they were smarter and wiser. Great insights! Thanks. If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c ,or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
Thank you Lloyd. As we all netweave and join together to share information we are making America aware. If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.injsightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
Let me know more about Crazy Normal so I can share your information.
Why do so many people like the idea of charters? I think it is the basic postulate of this thinking that profit motive is the best recipe for success. Anything government is bad , so to mitigate the bad from government, you can sub out the specific jobs to profit-oriented companies and they will show you the way to the best of all possible outcomes.
If Voltaire were around, he would write Candide about this Pollyanna view of unregulated capitalism. He would have his unfortunate hero destroyed by government subcontractors of all kinds, road pavers, prison companies, charter schools, the list could be endless.
O Voltaire, where are you?
I think it’s tough for those of us who live in states where ed reform has been a disaster (Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona) because we get the same national narrative that everyone else in the country gets but we KNOW it’s not true.
It simply isn’t true that charters are better than public schools in these states. It simply isn’t true that market-based ed reform has “improved” existing public schools. Those things are false.
We live here. We don’t live in Boston or NYC or DC. This national ed reform narrative simply doesn’t apply, yet we hear it over and over and over.
Chiara, the charters here in New York are no better, and frequently worse (by any measure), than the public schools. But massive hype/PR, combine with a credulous/uncritical/bought off mainstream media to pretend otherwise.
Charters here, ostensibly non-profit but indistinguishable from their for-profit peers, are the same institutional tapeworms that can be found in the states you mention.
Excellent metaphor: Charters/test-reform are tapeworms. They invade, suck up the money; they solicit more money for changing names, programs and personnel — and then suck up all newly available money. They’re never satisfied and always looking for, and finding ways to swallow up, more money.
And in Boston, it’s the same dreary list of high suspensions, selection of easier to remediate SWD, few ELL’s, etc, all the while sucking the lifeblood of tax money from the public schools. “Boston’s swell charter schools” is just another talking point with no reliable data.
In addition to the fraudsters and thieves that have cost us millions, this post does not address the billionaires that buy their way into creating public policy. Gates and Broad, wealthy arrogant dictators, have decided that public schools are unworthy. Using their vast wealth as a weapon, they believe they know what is best for everyone. Democratic, local public schools do not suit the billionaire agenda so it really doesn’t matter what families want. Billionaires want to circumvent democracy and use students as guinea pigs. They don’t want to hear from us, but they want to use public money to implement their non-evidence based plans.
Roy, this is the best of all possible worlds… and it follows that whatever happens is actually the best that can be. Pangloss would probably explain that man’s search for corruption rather than perfection explains why we attack ourselves (government) and ignore the idiocy of privatization. In this perfect world, we can ignore that every dollar taken for profit is a dollar that does not serve our children. Or so it would seem. Thanks for the jog! If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.injsightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
The charter movement is characterized by double-talk and double-think. The word “choice” comes to mind. How could choice be a bad thing? Everyone likes to have choices. “Free market solutions” is another term. Sounds wonderful! That is until one digs a bit and finds that choice is an illusion and that the market is not free but highly manipulated. The charter school issue does not split along traditional political party lines anymore as lack of local control and hedge fund operated charter schools make many libertarian leaning individuals uneasy. Talking about specifics rather than political labels will bring more to question the wisdom of charters.
Mary, your comments hit home. Thank you for sharing your insights and observations. I hope you are writing and speaking and sharing this information. When we win the war they have declared, it will be because you educated your peers and the parents and the community.
If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.injsightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
Keep sharing. Keep educating.
crossposted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/We-Can-Recover-From-The-Sc-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Accountability_Choice_Corporations_Corporations-160615-708.html
with embedded links in the comment
I have posted for years about the destruction of our INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION where the national media is silent. See my series, using information that Diane provides HERE about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! Here is a link to my series on charter school corruption .
http://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
Of all the hidden conspiracies, the one that has dismantled our schools is the most insidious, as our schools are , the only road to opportunity for all our people. See MY SERIES HERE. Series Page for 15,880 Districts in 50 States: already divided for conquering.
http://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
Hi Mary,
Your comments are right-on. Getting this information out is vital to ending what Diane Ravitch has called the war on education. Education is the solution to stopping these so-called reformers. If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
Thanks for sharing. I will recommend these links. You are doing the work every educator must do for kids and community. The de-formers have had over 20 years head start while educators did not educate the public as to what was happening. Now what you have don-are doing is needed and listened to. If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
It is good to know you are out there!!! Thanks Susan.
Where can we read more about the Turkish political movement?
To read more about the Gulen schools, google Sharon Higgins and Gulen.
Also google “Killing Ed,” which is an eye-opening film by Mark Hall about the Gulen movement.
It is affiliated with Fethullah Gulen, and most teachers are Turkish as is a majority of the school boards
I don’t know how you can reclaim the public schools when the deck is stacked against the public schools.
1. Marketing and PR. No public school can spend public dollars on a marketing team that
can bombard parents with slick flyers.
http://danley.camden.rutgers.edu/2016/01/06/the-camden-enrollment-system-has-a-thumb-on-the-scale/
2. Keeping out the trouble makers, those with more severe disabilities, and those with
uninvolved parents
3. “Buying” themselves all the seats at the table so no public school voices are heard.
4. Creating learning spaces that are superior to the public schools especially those in
co-located schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4h3ee6oiPQ
5. Creating those single applications (example One Newark) where parents have to prioritize the schools they want from a list which includes the charters. Then the students are “randomly” assigned to a school which may be far from their home and which may not even be their first, second or even third choice. It’s a great way to funnel kids into the charters and fill their seats. And of course, no one can see the algorithm that assigns these students.
6. Holding charters harmless from funding cuts while the public schools take a hit.
How do you fight against all this???
Pick the battles that pertain to you and your district, speak constantly with others, find allies, attend meetings, etc. . . .
I agree with you… you can fight, but you aint’ gonna win.
Hi Flmlk…?
WOW, you really understand the issues. Your question is daunting. My take on this is: We are educators. We can use our skills to educate our fellows and our communities. We can expose the de-formers and stop their war on education. Bulwer Litton said it best. The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword. Identifying the problems (as you have done so well) is 50% of the battle. Every professional educator (and there are many) needs to enlighten parents and change lethargy in their community. If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
Take each issue and blow it out to the public…
The so-called “reform” movement isn’t about “choice” — it’s all about racial segregation. The first calls for “choice” in the form of vouchers arose immediately after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education in which the Court declared that separate but equal was inherently unequal and ordered racial integration of the public schools. That ruling triggered “white flight” from public schools to private schools — but parents quickly realized that the tuition cost of private schools was more than they wanted to pay out-of-pocket. That realization led political and private resegregationists to the concoct the “reform” of vouchers, and to sell it to eager parents by deceptively marketing it then (and now) as merely giving parents free “choice.”
But the 1950’s voucher reform faded away when it became clear that because of school attendance boundaries no more than a few token blacks would be attending formerly all-white public schools. In 1972 when the Supreme Court finally ordered busing to end the ongoing de facto segregation, the reform movement rose from its grave and has been alive ever since then trying new tactics to restore racial segregation because it’s unlikely that the Court’s racial integration order can ever be reversed. When it became clear in the 1980’s that vouchers would never become widespread, the segregationists tried many other routes to restore racial segregation, and the most successful has been charter schools because charter schools can be sold to blithely unaware do-gooder billionaires as well as to unscrupulous profiteers who recognized charter schools as a way to divert vast amounts of tax money into their own pockets and into the pockets of supportive politicians at every level of government.
An essential part of the strategy to mask their underlying motives has been for segregationists to sell the public on the necessity for charter schools because public schools are allegedly “failing.” With all manner of “research” that essentially compares apples to oranges against foreign nations’ students, and with the self-fulfilling prophecy of dismal public school performance generated by drastic underfunding of public schools, and with condemnation of public school teachers based on statistically invalid student test scores, the segregationists are succeeding in resegregating education in America via what are basically private charter schools that are funded with public money.
Scisne, I couldn’t agree more! I live in a hate state. I see powerful forces aligned with the Koch, ALEC, r-Wing of the GOP, KKK and so-called Libertarian groups that are driven by every rotten Trumpish form of …. Enough said? I know that education changes this hate to tolerance. I do not see educators working to educate their communities as you are doing. Being a teacher – a professional – is more than managing a classroom. It means educating parents and community as well.
If you can, listen to the Podcasts Dan Kenley and I are doing – primarily for parents and teachers. INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION. Subscribing and commenting help us a lot. Apple devices. https://itun.es/us/deo5bb.c or Podcasts. Search for insightsintoeducation.
Other devices: http://www.insightsintoeducation.libsyn.com.
These podcasts, plus blogging and speaking are reaching those who can make a difference.
Seriously though…. First it was the denominational schools ruining public schools … and now it’s the Charter schools ruining public schools … But soon enough you won’t have to worry about losing students and money to those who entities when families go looking for school choice ….. you will instead be berating the HOMESCHOOLING community next. Those that are not necessarily credentialed yet doing no worse and many times better in ensuring that the students are making meaningful progress at least at the rate they had in the past bloc school classrooms.
Yet many times at a much higher rate for those children that are homeschooled when compared to prior years in a traditional classroom setting….. More and more families are choosing homeschooling and I cannot wait for this next showdown in the education and school choice battles…. Ps- Pass the popcorn please.
Ps2- An edit button would be nice for when the “smart” phone isn’t as smart as it masquerades itself to be…