Denis Smith used to work in the Ohio Department of Education charter office, and he knows lots about where various skeletons are hidden.
Did you know that charter authorizers are paid 3% of the proceeds for every charter school they authorize to open? That can amount to quite a lot of money, and it also creates an incentive for the authorizer to overlook problems. Why would he want to disturb the goose that is laying golden eggs for his company?
Denis describes a recent legislative hearing where these issues were discussed. Charter allies in the legislature made it clear that they don’t want to micromanage their friends, or for that matter, give them any responsibility, like dotting i’s and crossing t’s.
Legislators want charters to collect public money without oversight. Charter authorizers don’t want oversight. Charters don’t want oversight.
You can call that close to a consensus that public money should be handed over to the charters without any further delay or questions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a general aside: NO ONE wants oversight–which includes the U.S. Government. That’s exactly why the writers of the Constitution wrote-out kingship; and it’s why the onus of responsibility rests on “the people” to oversee, and the Press to “sunshine,” the activities of all, with few exceptions. The relatively CIRCULAR pattern of oversight and regulation (e.g., as is at work in a tripartite government) is distinctly opposed to any form of TOTALITARIAN government where SOMEONE or some organization has NO oversight, or is completely SELF REGULATING (which too-easily means not regulated at all). That kind of system, as even a brief perusal of human history will show, is an invitation to hubris and its highly creative, and bloody, knows-no-bounds distortions.
That’s why the not-so-subtle de-linking of education from its democratic political system is so dangerous–it’s a break with their foundations, where its effects don’t always show up right away–until they do, and they will; and its why oligarchy, and its movements of deregulation of corporations, (where their lobbyists actually write the “regulations”) is anathema to the foundations of any democracy. Oligarchs can even be well motivated and do a lot of good; but they need to know HOW to do that good without destroying the political infrastructure (the foundations of democracy) that probably were/are conditional to their present “success.”
God bless Elizabeth Warren.
I won’t bless Warren until she speaks out against privatization of public schools in her own state. I met with her two years ago and she assured me she supports public schools: like me, she went to public schools.
To Diane: My guess is Warren hasn’t given education and its corporate influences her best thought yet. My reference in the particular was to her Congressional performance yesterday in regard to the Wells Fargo fiasco. On Rachel Maddow’s show, Warren told how she followed the pattern of earlier FBI hearings and uncovered a 5 year old investigative bi-partisan Congressional report about the who and why of the Wall Street debacle that occurred as Bush left office. I think she embodies the outrage most of us are feeling.
It’s Warren’s general attitude and methods that are key to the circularity of power, adequately applied, that in turn are key to public oversight, adequate regulation, and the assumptions of accountability that are presently being dislodged from a still-brilliant democratic system. Warren is the antithesis to Trump.
With the footprints of Wall Street all over ed rephorm, isn’t it virtually impossible for a US Senator to be unaware…unless Congressional representatives get all of their information from the Gates-funded, Aspen institute, Senior Congressional Education Staff Network?
I guess we’ll see. We DO still have oversight.
AFTERTHOUGHT: At the foundational level of a democratic system, the delinking of education from its public ground (e.g., privatization, e.g, charter schools, etc.) delinks it from the assumption of public regulation that comes with public education.
And so Dennis Smith has to raise a question about “Why Charter Authorizers Should be Held Accountable.”
Being accountable in a democracy is an old and valued ASSUMPTION. When we have to defend accountability, and raise questions about whether ANY aspect of an educational establishment needs to be accountable, we have already been thrown in the river (we have already broken with democratic principles) and are ALREADY swimming upstream.
Defend accountability all you want, Dennis–I applaud you and your efforts. But the damage at the foundational level is already done.
I laughed at this because the charter lobby’s blame-shifting to ODE was so blatantly political – so clearly a tactic:
“Before his admonition to the other counsel, Coley saw fit to transfer blame for some of the charter school administrative rule mess to the state education agency. Here is how the Akron Beacon Journal, in an editorial aptly called Scandalous at the Statehouse, described the low drama”
I would have more sympathy for the people at the ODE if they hadn’t rolled over for the charter lobby for the last 15 years.
ODE’s response to the charter problems in Ohio was to hold a taxpayer-funded forum that was 100% charter cheerleading. They seem to be incapable of standing up to these people. It’s not just that they don’t regulate- they’re afraid to offer even mild criticism.
Adding- OSU’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs that hosted a 2015 leadership conference. The event’s program referred to charter schools, as “public” and, the panel, on the issue of charter schools, included only cheerleaders. Sen. Sherrod Brown is on the college’s board.
This is how “tough” Ohio lawmakers have gotten on charters:
“More than 300 charter leaders attended the Ohio Auditor of State‘s first Charter School Summit in Columbus, Ohio, last week (August 11-12). There were two days of workshops and keynote addresses from thought leaders on charter school funding, best practices, changes in the state laws, and other training topics.
Featured keynotes came from Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost, Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Mike Feinberg of the KIPP Foundation, Dr. Steve Perry of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School, and Paolo DeMaria, the new Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction. The two-day summit provided options for charter school funding and facilities financing, compliance training around Ohio’s charter school laws, record keeping and enrollment best practices, teacher development and retention, cultivating public-private partnerships, and charter school board governance.”
They held a taxpayer funded charter school marketing event.
Rah rah for charters! Boo hiss for public schools!
Compare to public schools. When Columbus Public Schools had reporting irregularities the state auditor raided them in a made-for-media perp-walking event. People went to jail. It was front page news.
Charter operators? They get a 2 day celebration of their own wonderfulness.
C-A-P-T-U-R-E-D. That’s how this is spelled.
It’s a damn shame that we appear to have thousands of public employees who are actively opposed to public schools. the 93% of public school students in this state deserve at least one state employee who is their advocate.
https://charterschoolcapital.org/charter-school-capital-speaks-at-summit-on-charter-school-funding/
Recently, the Ohio Democratic Party created a drop down tool bar, available at its website, that identifies the tax amount lost to charter schools, by county.
Example, OhioDems.org/chartertax/#Warren.County
The Central Ohio Friends of Public Education are hosting the showing of the movie, Education Inc., Thursday, Sept. 29, 6:00 p.m. at Gateway, on North High Street.
“Linda
September 22, 2016 at 12:53 pm
Adding- OSU’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs that hosted a 2015 leadership conference. The event’s program referred to charter schools, as “public” and, the panel, on the issue of charter schools, included only cheerleaders. Sen. Sherrod Brown is on the college’s board.”
I love the dual standard. Charters are lovingly nurtured while public schools are given hundreds of gimmicky mandates and less and less state funding.
There’s a Toledo newspaper columnist who refers to charters as “the darlings” of politicians. Never have truer words been written.
I’ve requested that my state senator and representative view the movie in Cols., where they can ask questions of the film’s maker.
Accountability is for peeons. You know like the ones who make up those attrition rates.
Yes, and for the teachers who will receive them in their public school classrooms.
Even in so-called “good” states the authorizers do no oversight.
Look at the SUNY Charter Institute. All they care about is the % of student in the charter who pass state tests. If it is high, no questions are asked about how you got there. Got to go lists? No problem. High attrition rates? No problem. Revelation that over 20% of the at-risk 5 and 6 year olds in the charter school were given out of school suspensions? No problem. Documented evidence of empty seats when you are claiming a demand of “thousands” on wait lists? No problem. Students with disabilities complaining they are pushed out? No problem.
What is most damaging about that kind of charter oversight is that it incentivizes all charters toward bad behavior. If you reward the charters with high test scores while asking no questions about how they got there, what happens to the charters who don’t use those reprehensible practices and therefore look mediocre?
All this and 38 new charter schools have been approved in NC…sigh.
NC charters are promoting segregation and profiteering.
Check out Helen Ladd study of charter segregation.
Check out Baker Mitchell’s charter gold mines.