I confess that I once believed that Governor Jerry Brown of California would be a great friend to public education.
I was wrong.
Jerry Brown is in the pockets of the powerful charter lobby.
He previously vetoed a bill to ban for-profit charters, soon after a series of investigative articles in the San Jose Mercury News showed that the for-profit online K12 Inc. schools were educationally disastrous bit highly profitable. From Governor Browm: let the profit-making continue!
This week, he vetoed SB 739, which would have established very modest regulation for charter schools that expand into other districts. Carol Burris explained it in this post:
“When the Van Zant story broke, the California Charter School Association agreed that the case raised legitimate concerns. However, legislation to address the problem of districts authorizing charters in other districts, and even other counties, was opposed by the California Charter School Association (CCSA) and vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014. A present bill on the governor’s desk, SB 739, would put a small restriction on a district’s ability to open independent learning center charters in other districts by ensuring that the sponsoring district is fiscally solvent (does not have a negative certification), thus decreasing the profit generating motive.”
The California Charter School Association wants no restrictions, no limitations, no transparency, no accountability. They want for-profit schools, and they refuse to clean their dirty house.
And Governor a Jerry Brown dances to their tune. How sad. He doesn’t need their support. He doesn’t need their money. He won’t run for office again. Yet he has succumbed to the privatization movement, those who would destroy our communities and the public education system.
Meet the New Governator,
Same as the Old Governator
What a slimy thing that Gov. Brown did. I hope someone does some research to see which family member of his benefited or which of his aides has connections to the billionaires who want to privatize public education. People attack Hillary Clinton, but what we just saw from Gov. Brown is TRUE corruption that will greatly harm every single public school child in all of the state. And he doesn’t care.
There is no reason to fight oversight of charters. None. Most likely the billionaires with friends in high places in Gov. Brown’s administration are being handsomely rewarded for making sure that no one looks closely at what charter schools are doing in California. The question is, how do they justify such slime? We need a national dept. of education that won’t let charters to be unregulated. I happen to believe that is likely to happen under a Clinton Presidency. Certainly Gov. Brown demonstrates his disdain for poor children and his adoration for billionaires.
Can UCLA build a university in the middle of USC’s campus? Can Burger King build a restaurant in the middle of a McDonald’s? Can a taco stand open in the middle of a grocery store? No, because we regulate commerce to protect profits.
But here in California, charter schools can wreak havoc on school districts with no protections from our government.
I’m a lifelong CA resident and sorry to say, I’m not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.
Brown is clearly a neo-lib and his choice of political cloth is made of sheep skin.
But wait, what about AB709??
He vetoed it. See my post below. Most businesses have some internal controls to as to how their money is spent, but I guess according to Governor Brown, that it just too much to ask when it comes to shoveling cash out the door for charters.
It’s really, really difficult to regulate after the fact. They’ll fail at in California just like they failed at it in Ohio.
“Non profit” alone is impossible to regulate. An Ohio charter can run 97% of funding thru a for-profit management company and be a “non profit” as far as the legal entity that is “the school”. It doesn’t mean anything.
They can drive a truck thru “nonprofit” and they do.
Remember how hard it was to get a “public option” for health insurance in the US Senate? Impossible, right?
That’s what will happen with public schools. Once they get it they aren’t going to just give it back.
UCLA is public while USC is private; USPS does not set up shop inside a UPS office.
For that matter Burger King is excluded from MickeyD’s not because commerce is regulated but because private property is sacred. They both can – and do, open up shop next door to one another. As do multiple charters flooding LA’s westide with “choice” and draining local school enrollment, public and private.
Education is not a for-profit concept. Interlacing a profit motive within an intellectual framework remains like the iconic fish without a bicycle.
Mixing metaphors isn’t necessarily helpful.
Sure it is. We protect what we value and Governor Brown does not value public school districts enough to protect them from their predatory neighbors. It is terribly wrong public policy for a school district to approve a charter–and collect the annual fee from them–while the negative impacts of the charter–siphoning off district students–happens in a neighboring district. Under Brown, education has become a for-profit concept. That’s the problem.
Does not Jerry Brown’s brother own a chain of charters?. . . .Or is it someone related to him or a close friend of his? I can swear this to be the case. Or maybe I am confusing this with Joe Biden.
You are thinking of Joe Biden brother Frank Biden, who runs a for profit chain in Florida called Mavericks
Chiara, just to don Pollyann’s hat for a moment, arbitrarily, I think – again, too much analogizing can confuse sometimes. These are big, unique systems we’re talking about.
Yes, CCSA is not going to want to relinquish a mm of ground they’ve won. But there is a new crop of kids needing education every year, with a new set of younger parents, influenced by different variables. While the Eduteers may be reluctant to yield ground, their “customer base” will renew itself constantly and the principles of public education will always remain ideologically the same.
There is hope that no matter what nonsense is gained by privatizers today, tomorrow can bring a new perspective.
Maybe.
You know the local scene much better than I do so I’ll take your word for it 🙂
They don’t want charters regulated, not at the state level and not at the federal level.
We all saw how heavy-handed the Obama Administration was regarding public schools. It was all stern scolding and threats and requirements for discretionary funds. States had to agree to the whole ed reform wish list to get Race to the Top money.
They could do that with charter schools. They don’t. Instead they’re pouring federal money into expanding charters in some of the least-regulated states.
This isn’t an accident. It’s a strategy. It’s a deliberate policy preference for the expansion of charter schools NO MATTER how the schools perform and no matter the effect on existing public schools. If this were about “quality” they would have halted charter expansion in MI, OH, FL, PA and CA and regulated the schools. They didn’t.
It’s Job One. They say it themselves- 1. choice, 2. accountability. That’s the ed reform priority.
There is more. Another piece of legislation he has not yet signed, is AB 709. This is another attempt, which he has vetoed in past years, to have the charters follow the same open meeting laws, and require the same conflict of interest forms, as do the elected members and administrators in the regular public schools. This legislation is simple & moral – California AB 709:
Click to access ab_709_bill_20150601_amended_asm_v98.pdf
I strongly suspect Gov. Brown continues his payback scheme to wealthy backers, not only of his campaigns and charter schools, but for their acquiescence to a continued tax on the rich, which supports several state needs, the “public” schools, included.
This tax connection is on the Nov. ballet, Proposition 55, which will extend a state tax on individuals making $250,000 or more, yearly.
According to the League of Women Voters, “roughly half of the raised money will go toward schools and community colleges. Medi-Cal could receive up to $2 billion dollars extra annually, depending on the taxes collected and other factors.”
Charters school investments benefit again. They are part of “The Schools” that receive our taxes. In addition, the governor guarantees, by his vetoes, no legislative interference.
Cozy, no?
Vetoing AB 709 would be a clear signal to the Charter sector that the state coffers are open and they can just pull up the wheelbarrow and haul out as much as they can carry, compliments of the Governor.
Well he vetoed AB 709 too. I am so disgusted I can barely keep from throwing up. The Bill would have required open meetings, open financial statements and the same conflicts of interest rules that apply to actual school district employees. So Brown is saying – “Hey we have all this cash laying around for education. If you are a charter, here, take it, and we don’t care what you do with it.” I mean they guy is not even up for any elective office ever again so i just don’t get it.
Bonnie…thanks for clarifying Prop. 55 which Brown pushed for in the last election, and which supporters said was a one time “tax (soak) the rich” proposition. And now it is touted again (at least every five minutes on all California radio and TV stations) as a proposition (one of the 17 on our ballot). “that will cost no one anything and is supported by everyone”. What a lie.
Remember Brown did the same thing with Prop. 30 and threatened that if it did not pass he would see to it there would be no more state funding for school buses. He scared us enough that he won on that one too.
When you do the IRS math, people who EARN $250 K pay at least 38% in Federal taxes and a similar amount in California state taxes. So their actual net from WORK income, is about $125K. Not an exorbitant amount.
But those who have INVESTMENT income, pay only 15%.
This Prop.55 is unfair and should have been directed at ALL income, earned and invested, for those who en toto, NET over $1 Million a year, and not starting by punishing those who earn $250K. This would hit the richest among us, the many California millionaires and billionaires, who finagle and often pay NO taxes…yes, just like Donald Trump.
Also, if Brown had seen to it that Exxon Mobil paid drilling taxes in California and assigned those taxes as a budget line item to be directed to public schools, (Ca.is the only state in the union that does not charge for oil drilling) this all would have been moot. So we see where Brown and where our state legislators loyalty really lie..almost all these elected Dems and their leadership have come out in support of charter schools. .
Will Hillary change any of this? What other state funds schools by using a pittance for allowing gambling in Indian Casinos and with a state lottery? If Hillary fights for children, this would be a good starting point for her to get California public schools students reliable school funding.
I admit I voted for this proposition last time but I am voting AGAINST this unfair tax this time. Brown DID balance our budget (giving him credit for that) and has left us a surplus, so this tax is a sham as written. Bonnie’s link is only to the Brown Act law, so it does not show the language of this taxation.
I am also voting against the school bond issue for construction…we have many empty schools in LA that charters want turned over to them…why should we run up more debt and build even more? Deasy used construction bond money to buy $1.3 Billion of obsolete iPads. Did we learn anything from the Deasy fiascos?
Everyone here who has read my comments and my articles over the past four years knows what I think, and I took much heat for pointing out Brown’s flaws (e.g. appointing the huge charter king, Refugio Rodriguez who was elected to the LAUSD BoE using Voteria and having his 16 PUC charters failing two audits for financial shenanigans, to the most prestigious State Commission on education). I also have written endlessly, ad nauseum, about Brown’s sister Kathleen, who is a partner with the firm of Manatt etc., which represents many of the privatizer billionaires. So this is no new news.
But some here were surprised to learn just yesterday that California sets the standard for the nation’s successful move to charterize our public schools and has an endless supply of crooks who work to that end.
My California colleagues, Lloyd, Karen, Bonnie, redqueen, Educator, Left Coast teacher, Susan, Paula, Mike Dominguez, Cynthia Liu of K12NewsNetwork, Robert Skeels who ran for school board, and Carl Petersen who is now a candidate for school board, and so many others who write here often, should be heeded and believed.
California is the lead state fostering privatization and free market absorbtion of public education…and it does not matter if it is a Dem or Rep in our State House. Money is the name of the game.
Californians, vote for John Chiang for our next Governor…and NOT for Anthony Villaraigosa who is Broad’s puppet.
We’re often a new wave ~ for good or for bad! As a school counselor pushed out (after 24 yrs LCSW) I have been alarmed at what has been done to public edu in CA. We’re at approx 1200:1 ratio w/ students to counselors, spec edu laws have been dismantled, common core threatens to turn our kids into drones, this list goes on. Yet I too thought Jerry cared but follow the $$$!!!
The kids are being held hostage on this one. With the higher pension contribution rates our illustrious legislators have decided should be assessed at the District level, the failure to continue Prop 30 through Prop 55 would have results that would not be good. The School Constriction Bond thing, however seems to be a scam to bail out developers from bearing the full impact of the changes they make to communities, as far as I can see.
This is what Governor Moonbeam will be remembered for. Great legacy: Abetting the financial fraud that robs children in genuine public schools of their education. Brown is a Catholic — a former seminarian even — so he should pay attention to the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:6. Brown is going to be wearing a mighty big millstone as he plunges into the deepest depths of hell for eternity.
“Schools are now a two sector system”
This is from ed reformers themselves.
They neglect to mention that lawmakers and other public employees have abandoned the disfavored and unfashionable public sector schools.
http://www.startribune.com/how-to-improve-public-eduction-all-of-the-above/392944801/
Amplifying the idiocy of this veto- in Cal. property taxes, one source of revenue for education, are allocated based on the attendance in schools in the district where the taxpayers are located. So this means the people actually paying the property taxes to support the schools have absolutely no say in whether their tax dollars should go to schools authorized by a district other than the district where the property taxpayers are located. In order to prevent the dilution of their tax dollars, I suppose the taxpayers where these schools are located are supposed to go to the district located in Backwater, CA which authorizes the opening of schools in their district and complain, before the fact? Are they supposed to get agendas for every school board located in every backwater town in CA to be sure no schools are being authorized to open in another district? Even if they learn of a proposed authorization, I’m sure the Backwater, CA school board will listen to them given they represent 0 votes for school board and 0 taxpayers.
Agree…this is clearly taxation without representation.
I feel so let down. First I supported Obama and then I supported Brown. “At least he’s not Bush,” and “At least he’s not Schwarzenegger” are not consoling. And as salt for my wounds, Brown supports online charter scams, the worst of the worst.
LCT:
Me too!
And to think he was tight with Linda Ronstadt at one time long ago. Linda would never approve of this. The beautiful songbird once dated who is now a current vulture.
No, please no.
Keep calm and carry on with the profits
I actually read this report and it is very informative.
An amusing YouTube playlist that takes a closer look at a California school district that has taken up charter authorizing as a means of fueling a fiscal recovery: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhVtYL3ZpHPgVibKxYEY3Gx7Adwp0reKG