Peter Greene received a notice from the Center for Education Reform, which has led the fight against public schools for almost 25 years, promising a reward to the charter school that created a video showing how great charter schools are. This was in response to John Oliver’s devastating critique of the charlatans who have profited off the deregulation of public money for nonpublic schools.
Right after the John Oliver piece appeared, the CER asked its followers to write Oliver and tweet him to tell him he was wrong. Apparently this didn’t do the job, so now it is offering a prize of $100,000 for a video showing the awesomeness of privately managed schools.
Greene writes:
I, too, would be interested to see what opportunities charters offer that wouldn’t exist without charters. Perhaps some videos will highlight charter-only perks like “getting away from Those Children” or “enjoying a constantly churning staff of underpaid unretained teachers” or “the delightful mystery of what exactly is being done with our tax dollars” or “the warm glow of knowing that we’ve helped some investors make a buck or ten” or even “the suspense of never knowing when my school might suddenly close.” Please, somebody, make that video…The “Our School Is Great” video is a common genre. Public schools all across the country make them– for free– all the time. But it’s completely in keeping with the charter school industry that, having failed to raise a groundswell of grass roots anger over the Oliver piece (which is now over a week old and yet the righteous indignation over it seems largely confined to people who make their living shilling for charters), the charter cheerleading squad must now pay somebody to stand up for them and help them fight back against this PR disaster.
When I read the CER announcement (I am on the CER mailing list), I was aghast that a school-related organization had that kind of spare money to hold a contest. The Network for Public Education certainly doesn’t. That kind of money represents a large percentage of our annual budget. It must be nice to have that kind of money. But I feel far better having the right principles, even though it doesn’t enhance our bank account. It is good to wake up every day knowing that you are on the right side of history, fighting to create better schools for all. I feel sorry for people fighting for better schools for a few kids, while sucking resources out of the schools that enroll the majority o kids. This is akin to providing 50 life vests for a ship that holds 1,500 passengers. The donor can feel proud of saving 50 lives, while ignoring the other 1,450 passengers. I want a safer ship, a well-trained pilot and crew, and life vests for all.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Has the charter movement finally “jumped the shark”?
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Rage, they jumped the shark when the billionaires got involved in the first place.
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Or one parachute for the entire plane with the pilot calling out, “I got mine, suckers!” as he exits the doomed flight.
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Did I read it right, are they offering the money to a charter school that makes a video? Is that what students and teachers in charter scams do? Proselytize for the company during school hours?
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…and those “Our school is great” videos produced in public schools are not marketing tools; they are intended to be motivational.
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Your closing analogy summarizes one of the many problems with charters. We create opportunities for few at the expense of many. If the “charter” movement were a populist, needs based movement, its supporters would not feel the need to be so defensive. The “charter” movement has morphed into an ugly, commercialized mess that is is wasting resources and getting meager results. If the charter movement were an authentic, parent led movement, it would be gaining grassroots support. Instead, it is an elitist movement led by billionaires and corporations that seek to crush public schools, bust unions, and reinvent communities for profit. Their actions are more like a hostile takeover than a legitimate, community based movement. Instead of authentic enthusiasm, “reformers” rely on hype, spin, lies, pay for play, and data manipulation to promote their views. The most harmful impact of “reform” is that it is once again disenfranchising communities of color, and denying them the right of democratic participation and resegregating schools.
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Rt, you are correct. Years ago, in the semi-rural, semi-suburban county I live in, a bunch of parents, collaborating with interested teachers, started a charter school focusing on the Montessori method of education. It was run by the parents and the teachers, and it was a good school, fulfilling a need for kids who would benefit from the Montessori method. It is still in existence, and still run by the parents and teachers, and is still a good school.
And then the Gates, Waltons, etc, got involved with pushing charters (at the expense of public schools). These are way, way different than the small parent and teacher run charter.
It’s a shame, really, because there could still be a role for charters that focus on alternative learning methods that are not found in many of the public schools. The Billionaire Boyz (and Girlz) Club has ruined the original concept of charter schools, and turned them into money-making (for the educational companies) propositions, not to mention attempting to churn out good little robot citizens who will be good little worker-bees.
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Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post is covering his as well:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/30/john-oliver-theyre-after-you-charter-school-backers-sponsor-100000-anti-oliver-video-contest/
VALERIE STRAUSS:
“How annoyed were they? Well, the Washington-based Center for Education Reform, a nonprofit pro-charter organization, is offering $100,000 to the school that creates the best rebuttal video to Oliver’s rant. Really.
“It’s called the “Hey John Oliver! Back Off My Charter School!” Video Contest, and all applicants have to do is come up with a retort explaining why charters are fabulous — in no longer than three minutes — and properly submit their video. You can read about it here. Who can compete? The official rules say the $100,000 winner will be a charter school (so nobody else need apply). Submissions are being accepted from Tuesday through Sept. 26, 2016.”
Here’s an interesting back-and-forth with Jeanne Allen, the mastermind of this, in the COMMENTS section of the above piece:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/30/john-oliver-theyre-after-you-charter-school-backers-sponsor-100000-anti-oliver-video-contest/#comments
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ThatOneGuyYouKnow
8/30/2016 12:26 PM PDT
Seems like $100000 would be better spent on education some how, books, teachers salary, anything that might improve the quality and images of charter schools. This contest just makes Oliver seem right
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Jeanne Allen
8/30/2016 12:34 PM PDT
Because by giving a school 100K they wouldn’t spend it on teachers or books or anything that might help kids?
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cryptic_pickle
8/30/2016 3:07 PM PDT
Hmmm…you know what Jeanne Allen? If a charter wins the money, you won’t KNOW where it is going because there is an incredible LACK OF TRANSPARENCY with most charter schools!
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CrunchyMama
8/30/2016 4:15 PM PDT
Jeanne, we have NO WAY of knowing what a charter will spend it on – but (it going towards) a big juicy CEO salary (not that 100K would come close to a charter CEO salary) is a good bet.
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There is considerable evidence now of what Oliver alluded to. Still not enough public awareness, but obvious to anyone working in the charter system 10 years ago.
Just look at the teacher employment adds. The same schools are always hiring. I was at a new teacher orientation for the start of the year that had 60 new teachers and they still didn’t have all the vacancies filled! The growth mindset is always more important than getting the program right. Many of these charters have magnificent building that give the impression that education is going on inside. The appearance is everything and building, hiring, and cheerleading are the easy things. But the nuances of teaching, and their ignorance and bullheadedness to the education process is unfortunate. You can not mandate a prescription for teaching and learning. It is counter human nature. My way or the highway is unacceptable in a school environment . Students aren’t widget. Enrollment grow runs counter to program development. Why would we allow these schools to grow before they prove their system works? It is true that many use a cut and paste approach in writing their charters without a clue on fullfilling it. The mentality is get the charter first at all cost, then figure out how to make it work. But they never get to make it work because the growth mindset runs counter to program development . How can you fix and develop your program when a) you really don’t know what you’re doing; b) the newness of hiring and enrolling provides no stability; c) the my way or the highway governance treats teachers as widgets or interchangeable parts; d) the unrealistic expections and checklist teaching evaluations by novices; e) the low pay, high turnover. All are acceptable criteria and normal conditions for a charter school. Getting the education model right is secondary and they feel will evolve along the way. Their focus is not on education but the imagery, or impression that all is fine, buildings are shiny, and enrollment and waiting lists are a mile long. It is all smoke and mirrors with the hope that some day, some how, they will get the education program. But growth runs counter to developing a good education model. It is much easier to develop a model with 100 students than 1000 students, yet we let these schools grow as they experiment on our kids. It’s like developing a vaccine using the general public instead of a small test group to work out the kinks. We are doing this horribly wrong. Not all charters are rotten, but most are. They are because of human nature and the incentives do not produce good education.
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The need to grow into new markets and create new products will always take priority over the needs of students. Corporations will always focus on lowering the bottom line over meeting the needs of diverse learners. The goals are not the same. Parents need to understand this.
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“My way or the highway is unacceptable in a school environment.”
Unfortunately I’ve been through (and that’s putting it nicely) the “my way or the highway” attitude in the public schools. I’ve seen it in business, where it can make sense if the person saying it is the owner.
It’s the fallback for all ignorant insecure supposed “leaders”.
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And whether it’s a charter or public school, an oppressive administrator can ruin a fundamentally sound program.
And that applies to superintendents of entire districts
Or, for that matter, Mayors and Governors.
You can fill in the blanks,
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The Wall Street Journal seems to have increased charter school coverage. Today there was an all sweetness and light report on the opening of one charter school, against the wishes of the teacher unions and unreasonable rules, like the need to get school board approval for any purchases over $10,000. That obstacle was removed by a direct appeal to the school board. It caved in. In the meantime the charter had attracted about a $500,000 in private funding. All WSJ reports blame unions for school ” failures” and for opposing charter schools.
Coincidently there was a long column on the virtues of increasing the use of for-profit “best value for outcome” services in all matters of national defense.
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They painted themselves into a corner with the “opportunities unique to charter schools” caveat. They have nothing to offer that the Catholic schools of the 1960s didn’t do first.
Uniforms – check.
Underqualified teachers – check
Limited curricula – check
Rote, test-prep instruction – check
No-excuses discipline – check
Self-selected students – check
Forced attrition of non-compliant – check
Indoctrination – check
Unless we want to count, mouth bubbles? eye tracking? posture policing?
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Totally on the money. What’s old is new.
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You had to have experienced that Catholic education, eh Rager!
Although I did learn a lot of the unspoken curriculum: How to be sneaky. How to surrepticiously attack authority. How to become a tight group of friends to counteract the crap we were experiencing to name just a few.
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Only indirectly. Us pagans from the public school were bused to the local parochial school on Monday afternoons for religious ed classes. The nuns gave us a pretty good taste of what it was like. Most charters don’t seem that much different to me. Coercion and disrespectful disciplinary practices can definitely backfire.
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I couldn’t agree more. Having the kind of money…and time… to make this kind of video would be obscene. YET, there are individual charters that are doing wonderful things, like Growing Up Green, in Long Island City. One of the very few racially and socioeconomically integrated (ALL kinds of children!) charters in NYC, the school demonstrates all that a progressive non-profit charter (that raises little to no private funding) can do. This charter is one of the good ones and they are out there. Caps on charters are necessary and they need to be set low…and where they are located also needs to be regulated closely so the re-segregation of our schools by charters is stopped! As I’ve always said, there is NOTHING public schools can’t do that charters are doing, given the same resources. BUT we shouldn’t forget that the origins of the charter movement lie with the progressive ed reform movement that wanted the freedom to try new techniques and curricula. THEN the conservatives came along and usurped it, realizing they could run schools like “businesses” and make a profit. But there ARE still a few good progressive charters out there, like Growing Up Green!
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“THEN the conservatives came along and usurped it, realizing they could run schools like “businesses” and make a profit.”
No, not the conservatives but regressive neoliberal capitalists. Conservatives work to “conserve” what they consider the best and most needed sectors of society and public schools are that.
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How is a progressive charter like “GUG” any different (better) from one of the many specialized, public magnet schools? And does its progressive approach include transparent financing and democratic oversight??
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Unlike a magnet, there is no testing involved to get in. Yes, there’s a lottery, unfortunately, but as few as possible are turned away (the local district schools are pretty good) and NO child is weeded out once admitted because s/he has an LD or is learning English. In fact, in many of the classes, there are as many as 12 languages represented amongst the children. And the answer to your two questions are yes: there is transparency with regard to financing and an extremely active parent/administrator/teacher association. The school’s not perfect, of course, but the head and other administrators always try to keep lines of communication open with teachers and parents for ways to improve. Best practices in education at work, as far as I can tell. And, I am NOT, NOT, NOT a charter advocate!!!!!!!!
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To Melissa, who is not a blind advocate for “reform,” and who sees good in private/charter schools. What you say may be true–I don’t doubt it a bit. But those good things can happen in public schools as well–and better, because they are directly connected with the principles that guide and the regulations that flow from being grounded in a public-interest institution.
Make no mistake about it: the “dark” loosening of democratic bonds from the education of ALL of our youth underpins the temporary light and shine given to privatization by big money interests. The youth of today is the polity of tomorrow–or its absence.
Public education is more likely to keep what’s good and to improve what’s not working well, and remain on that track of thought. Whereas (1) private corporate-run institutions can change according to their ideological whims, especially if self-regulated (ha!) in all areas under their control and in ways that will spin our heads around (with little public-interest oversight and with the money to make “snow jobs” into long-term systematic projects).
When there is a conflict, who and what do you think will take precedence: our children and their education or corporate CEO’s and their interests covered in the sheep’s-clothing of symptomatically-attractive but misleading names. They know that parents have other things to do besides becoming full-time police for those whose interests are at least divided, and at worst, consistently and totally self-serving. No one can grow good education on the root of anti-education.
And (2) it’s difficult to blame parents, whose interest is in here-and-now education for their children, for hyper-ventilating about the glitzy “brand identity” afforded instances in the privatization movement–until, as another person here said, their children or their neighbor’s children get thrown over the boat-rail on some reasonable-sounding but self-serving pretense or other; and until public schools have become so bad that, there is no going back and, for those corporate funders, as Rene Zelwegger said in the movie: “Cold Mountain,” “They make it rain, and then the say, ‘Shit, it’s raining!'”
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You got it right: “But those good things can happen in public schools as well–and better, because they are directly connected with the principles that guide and the regulations that flow from being grounded in a public-interest institution.”
The public schools did it, and do it where they are funded. The US Constitution’s preamble speaks of THE COMMON GOOD as an intention of our democracy.
The GOP defunded the states, which promptly starved the schools. Public ed needed more classrooms and more teachers and smaller class, so individual kids don’t get lost and teachers NOT TESTING can evaluate each child — IN ORDER TO PLAN LESSONS TO ENABLE AND FACILITIES THEIR LEARNING.
With support for teachers, including training for novice practitioners, and teachers in difficult, poverty stricken areas, the public schools would NOT have failed, and parents would see their kids go to neighborhood school that commits to the COMMUNITY.
Reform was a BIG CON BY the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf
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To Susan Lee Schwartz–at the end of your note is this phrase and link:
“Reform was a BIG CON BY the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf”
It shouldn’t go without notice, again, that the meaning of “reform” has been appropriated (and twisted in meaning). The subtle assumption that accompanies the appropriation of “reform” by privateers is that public schools are old and haven’t continually REFORMED for the better, for instance, in terms of new research and understanding in our fields of study. It follows (of course) that private schools (et al) are “new and improved” and forward looking–another great irony since the “new” movement comes from the (so-called) “conservative” crowd.
This political meaning-grabbing of otherwise-generic terms like “reform” subtly lends credence to the idea that (a) privatization is GOOD while (b) public schools are BAD. So that if anyone wants to talk about reform in public institutions, we have to peel that term away from its now-assumed association with privatization movements, or find another term.
And while we are at it, “conservative” does not translate to “big money interests,” anti-government, or government regulation in the public interest. In its legitimate meaning, “conservative” is not averse to public education, democratic institutions, or public anything, for that matter. Catherine
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Indeed, the language is clear.
As a writer and a language teacher, I notice how words are used.
I feel as if Orwell is directing the charlatans in couching their terms. StudentsFirst makes them last, and All Children Left Behind is Bushes’ NCLB act…and then there is ALEC.
Whew. Lies are the new truth, and Trump is the metaphor for this.
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Hello again Susan: Orwell was probably aware of the potential misdirection of his insights in Animal Farm. Similar to what occurs when we read Machiavelli, however, we can be aware of Orwell’s horses and remain well-meaning and hard-working, but NOT naive and self-defeating. I remain thankful for Diane and her hard work in this regard. Catherine
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Me, too. I post most of her crucial blogs at Oped. My series there, based on her reports gets over 50,00 views. She is unique.
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I checked out their website – and does indeed look like one of the few reasonably good approaches to charters. Thanks.
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It’s not that the charters are saving 50 lives. It is how they are saving those lives.
Their lifeboat pushes the expensive kids overboard to make room for kids who provide better PR for them.
It is akin to the 10 mil/yr NCAA Division 1 football coach at a state university explaining how he teaches unpaid student athletes who benefit tremendously from his program. He neglects to mention the caveat that the student athletes who benefit must benefit his program first and continue to benefit his program by their sterling play or he will pull their scholarships and send them packing. He “teaches” only the players who make him rich and expects praise for his good and charitable work.
The NCAA and charter overseers are two peas in a pod. Their desire to police their own is secondary to their personal bank accounts
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It’s the school reform motto, If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with billions.
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“. . . baffle them with billions.”
Yeah, billions of buckets of bullshit.
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I take it Corinthian Colleges and ITT won’t be competing to make this video. When Ted Mitchell and John King are stopping the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money to the privatization of education, something’s going on.
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I cross posted the original article by Peter Greene, but added 2 links that contain links to posts here that show what is happening.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CURMUDGUCATION-Charter-Fa-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-School-Failure_Charter-Schools_Education_John-Oliver-160831-103.html
comment ONE:
Just look at the scandal of this charter school days after Oliver told the truth: “Nicholas Trombetta, founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, pleaded guilty to stealing $8 million from the school and diverting it for his personal use. Trombetta’s school was often featured on television as the nation’s first virtual charter. With an enrollment of 10,000 students from across the state, Trometta had receipts of $100 million a year. What to do with all that dough rolling in from taxpayers?
“Another cyber charter leader in Pennsylvania, June Brown, who ran the K-12 Agora Charter, was arrested and charged with stealing $6 million.”
I put charter school fraud into the search field at the Ravich blog!
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Charter+school+fraud Charter school fraud | Search Results |
Ohmygosh! The charter school movement has one gaol, to make education (i.e. ‘schools’ to them) a market place for investment, and one with little oversight.
My series here on Charter Schools, the fraud & the CHAOS,
http://www.opednews.com/Series/CHARTER-Schools–the-scho-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-141014-281.html
looks at just a few of the examples of what happens when there is not a shred of transparency or accountability, even thought charters use PUBLIC TAX MONEY.
Comment 2 (the links to these are embedded at oped,)
You might want to read this :John Thompson: The Simmering Battle Over Charter Schools
https://dianeravitch.net/2016/08/28/john-thompson-the-simmering-battle-over-charter-schools/ and go to watch Brian Malone’s award-winning documentary Education Inc.
http://edincmovie.com
And look at this, to grasp howthe legislatures and promote charter schools, or how advertising promotes the worst legislative agendas:
1- Georgia PTA Slams Governor for Lies on Charter Referendumhttps://dianeravitch.net/2016/08/29/georgia-pta-slams-governor-for-lies-on-charter-referendum/
and Massachusetts voters will decide whether to increase the number of privately managed charter schools in a referendum in November. Question Two will determine whether the state adds 12 new charter schools every year, using money subtracted from public schools.
2-Advocates for privatization have launched a $2.3 million advertising budget with a deceptive ad, calling on voters to vote YES for “stronger public schools.” The ad refers to privately managed, unaccountable charter schools as “public schools,” which they are not.
3-Andrea Gabor, professor of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York, writes here that Massachusetts should learn from the “calamity” caused by charter school expansion in Michigan. https://andreagabor.com/2016/07/25/will-massachusetts-learn-from-michigans-charter-calamity/
4-Tennessee Civic Group Seeks Investigation of “Stand for Children” as Conduit for Dark Money https://dianeravitch.net/2016/08/05/tennessee-parents-seek-investigation-of-stand-for-children-as-conduit-for-dark-money/
and Trump gets into this with
5-ALEC and Pence: Protect Failing Charter Schools, Silence Political Speech, Cut Environmental Regulations https://dianeravitch.net/2016/07/30/alec-and-pence-protect-failing-charter-schools-silence-political-speech-cut-environmental-regulations/
–
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I’ve seen the ad you’re referring to in #2 of your comments! In Massachusetts in November, they’re voting on whether or not to put a cap on charters and this is the exact verbiage of the anti-cap campaigners. It’s OUTRAGEOUS! And uninformed people just get sucked right in. All we can do is educate people as much as possible as fast as possible. Thank you, Susan, for all you’re doing to spread the good word.
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You are welcome. I have been doing this for 2 decades, but it is an uphill battle because they go the$$$ and own the media, and the crux of it is still hidden and that is the war on teachers that uses this plot, http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
which worked in NYC and in LAUSD the 2 biggest in almost SIXTEEN THOUSAND SEPARATE SYSTEMS in 52 states.
It is so simple to grasp…when LA’s budget was threatened by the pensions of its tenured teachers, they said, LET’S GET RID OF THEM…A THOUSANDS WERE CHARGED EACH YER AND FIRED.
Few people realize how simple it is to remove AMERICANS who happen to be teachers.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646
http://www.perdaily.com/2015/01/were-you-terminated-or-forced-to-retire-from-lausd-based-on-fabricated-charges.html
How was that possible?
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
AND KATHLEEN BIT THE DUST fired for blowing the whistle… but she sued and WON. Lenny says:? California Teacher Credentialing’s (CTC) six-year outrageous targeting, harassing, fabricating of “evidence,” and firing of their Attorney Kathleen Carroll for having been a whistleblower against CTC nepotism and endemic corruption has all the same elements of targeted LAUSD teacher Rafe Esquith et al case under similar circumstance. The only question is whether the Mark Geragos firm under lead attorney Ben Meiselas has the wherewithal to hang in their for at least the 6 years it will take to vindicate their client against an LAUSD that is willing to spend whatever amount of the taxpayers’ money necessary to assure that they will never be held accountable.”
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I’m sure there are good charter schools out there to make a video about. Charter school funders can hire excellent teachers, and even administrators, all day long, fill them up with every kind of new technology, provide beautiful grounds, etc. The point is, that’s not the point. The whole idea has “red herring” written all over it. And it is cheered along by those manipulated dupes who drank the poison of the big dark-money funders and who really think public education is the bane of our educational existence.
But that quality (or not) doesn’t address the fundamental agenda–the break with democratic principles that the movement is all about. This break has far-reaching political, and so monetary implications for those who have long-term and BTW global “interests.” The break is significant, however, not only because it strikes at the unified center of a democratic political system, but because, with that break, the gap between the political system and its educational institutions opens to invite in all of the vagaries that come with unregulated capitalism, and that flow from the very notion of self regulation. (That’s the biggest joke going.)
Self-regulation? If the frauds who presently are being caught absconding with charter funds had the back-up money of the dark money funders, maybe they’d be more willing to wait for public education to starve to death and disappear, along with our democracy, before they start eating its carcass. Once public education and public-interest regulation is gone, the door is open to impressing all sorts of selective processes, ideologies and anti-democratic (and anti-scientific) views on the curriculum. For instance, instead of being open to question anything, as with the free speech and the press, students can question everything EXCEPT the ruling corporate ideology and the powers-that-be.
For a look at the comprehensiveness of such movements (including, but bigger than education, and including higher education and science) see the interviews with investigative journalist Jane Mayer on http://www.booktv.org. “Jane Mayer talked about her book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, in which she investigates the wealth and influence of billionaires…” Type in “dark money” and it will take you to those eye-opener interviews.
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Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
Interesting that the Center for Education Reform (or, as I would call it, “Deform”) is offering $100,000 to anyone making a video to refute John Olver’s excellent critique.
Wouldn’t that money, as well as all the money spent by the Billionaires to push charter schooling (at the expense of public schools, which the vast majority of children attend), not to mention the money they spend pushing all the standardized testing, even in the public schools, be better used trying to alleviate poverty in this country, and improving the public schools with crumbling school buildings, lack of resources and books and even desks, lack of school counselors, librarians, social workers, specialized teachers, etc.?
If you haven’t seen John Olver’s video, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I
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It is hard for me to imagine that this is money being spent well. In some ways, this tactic epitomizes everything that is fiscally wrong with charter schools. .
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I have worked at 4 different cyber charter schools over the years. Great place to work but each had its peculiarities. The first counted attendance as every 3 days missed is an absence. Pa Dept of Ed even called on it( no penalty). The school operated on the approach that they will confuse any over site. They actually arranged with another charter school to teach their students too! PDE reprimanded them to focus only on teaching their own students. Baffle and confuse them. We often had republican candidate speakers at faculty meetings. The board had members that had direct connections with health insurance provider. At one school a seasoned curriculum director was replaced by CEO’s daughter. She was not qualified. At one school all special Ed students passed no matter what. Students in poor areas were given lousy slow computers. We were all forced to attend Charter school conventions for which the school could transfer money to charter group. It was all about advertising, consultants and marketing to increase enrollment. It was enrollment that was tracked daily because it directly correlated to $ coming in. At one point they put quotas on students leaving. They would not letstudents leave
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It seems that charter schools in Colorado are operated differently, and we don’t experience the corruption, misappropriation, or turnover/attrition rates I see so often pilloried on this blog. I watched John Oliver’s video after Diane’s Twitter recommendation, and I am horrified at what is going on isn’t these other places, but I don’t see that happening in the charter school (The Classical Academy, Colorado Springs) that is part of the school district where I have worked for the last 15 years (Academy District 20).
Are there different laws in Colorado that prevent the outrageous problems from happening here? Is it a matter of more District/State oversight? Is this a different category of Charter?
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Maybe Colorado has more oversight of charters than Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Nevada, New York, or California.
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Today, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an opinion piece (3/4 of a page) by “Eric Boehm…a reporter for the online libertarian magazine Reason.com, where this essay was posted,” Viewpoint: “Greed is Greed, No Matter the Type of School,” which goes on to say “You’d have to consider, for example, that the decade’s worth of crimes detailed in Oliver’s piece on charter schools are roughly equal to what’s happened just this year in the Detroit Public Schools system.” He goes on to describe D.P.S. bribes & kickbacks to the tune of millions. Boehm goes on to say, “That’s part of the beauty of the charter school system: if schools are run like that, families can leave and seek a better education elsewhere…in Detroit, for example more than 55 percent of students are now attending charter schools…To paraphrase Oliver, parents in Detroit might want to start googling their local public school to make sure it wasn’t previously run by a principal who pleaded guilty to theft.”
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Sourcewattch reports the following about Reason. Reason’s VP of Public Policy is an advisor to ALEC. Reason’s founder was formerly a board member of State Policy Network, which is linked to the Koch’s. Reason receives funding from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and Schaife . Reason gave an award to Eva Moskowitz.
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Sorry–link to aforementioned article:
http://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-sun-times/20160831/281797103426835
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http://www.coloradoindependent.com/159081/how-charter-schools-dodge-colorado-laws
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http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2009/05/dirty-and-dangerous-secrets-of.html Sometimes dig deeper. But if your happy and you know it, Michael, clap your hands!
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http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/opinion-charter-school-greed-no-worse-than-regular-scho Here’s the one I found, retiredbutmissthekids.
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Huffpo published the CER/Oliver story. A commenter to the post, wrote, in reference to the extravagance of the $100,000 and its source, the richest 0.1%, “They don’t teach irony at charter schools.”
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