At a policy forum in Miami before the Council of the Great City Schools, surrogates for Trump and Clinton clarified their views, sort of.
Carl Paladino, remembered in New York for his racist and sexist emails during his campaign against Cuomo, promised that Trump would not put an educator in charge of the Education Department. That’s no surprise. In other settings, both Trump and Paladino have promised to turn all federal funding over to charters and vouchers and to abandon public education.
Clinton’s surrogate said that she is a “big backer” of charter schools, but not for-profit schools. That is not at all reassuring, since some of the most rapacious charter schools are technically non-profit but are managed by for-profit EMOs. And some rapacious charter chains are non-profit but pay their executives obscene salaries. And some non-profits are agents of privatization, even when the profit motive is absent.
The article also said:
During her 2016 campaign, Clinton’s position on charters became a bit less clear. During her time as a U.S. senator from New York, for example, Clinton was a supporter of charters. She’s even taken some grief from the teachers’ unions for that stance. But during this White House run, she also criticized charters for not necessarily accepting all the same students that traditional public schools do. And she’s said charters should supplement what public schools do and not replace them.
She was right. Charter schools do not accept the same students that real public schools do. They can admit those they want and kick out those they don’t want. And while it is admirable to say that charters should not replace public schools, the reality is that charters drain both resources and students from public schools, causing public schools to cut their programs and staff and to have even less capacity to serve the overwhelming majority of students.
The United States simply cannot afford to have a dual school system: one that chooses the students it wants, and the other required to accept all who apply. No high-performing nation in the world operates a dual school system.
If Clinton is to have an intelligent policy about public and charter schools, she must be better informed than she is now, and she can’t rely solely on charter advocates for her information about the way charters are systematically eroding public education in America. She need only look at what is happening in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and a dozen or more other states.
She might learn that more than 90% of charters are non-union. She might bear in mind that her strongest supporters have been the NEA and the AFT, whose jobs will be lost as charters expand.
Profit is not the only issue, though it is one. The central issue is privatization and the danger to America’s historic commitment to universal public education, doors open to all, not to some.
The good news is that one of the Podesta emails leaked by Wikileaks said that a group of billionaire reformers organized by Laurene Powell Jobs wanted to meet with Hillary but she couldn’t make time for them, and Podesta responded:
Probably worth the time. Not sure we can reassure them. Want to discuss by phone?
Note bene: she didn’t make time to meet with them, and the staff was not sure it could reassure them. That’s a good sign. Take that, reformers!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Does anyone have any numbers regarding the number of Charter Schools that are truly being successful?
The more that I read, the more skeptical I become.
Define “successful”. Usually that’s defined as “high test scores” which is pretty easy to accomplish when you kick out most of the low-scoring students and focus nearly exclusively on test prep.
I guess that might be the first step, define what is successful. It should be the same as the public schools so that we are comparing apples to apples instead of apples to cats. Because when only 50% of you students score 90% or better that doesn’t say much about your success.
Most schools that cherry pick students, have high rates of attrition without back filling, refuse to accept expensive students such as classified and ELLs would be considered successful by many measurements. You can always win at a game of cards when you stack the deck. Most of us that can read, write, and function in the world owe a debt of gratitude to public education. Considering the diversity of the students with increasing poverty levels, the disparity of funding, challenging working conditions and limited resources, public schools perform miracles daily. You never hear about them because the schools are too busy focused on trying to do the best for their students they have no time for anything else. Also, they have no budget for spin doctors or PR departments to promote them. They are too busy trying to keep the lights on and pencils sharpened.
drext727 ….I tried expressing an idea and was sort of left alone with it…still, I cannot help thinking….there are two different sources of danger from charters, because there are 2 different types…the ones which try to prove you can do just as good a job with less money…comparisons remain difficult, because of a multitude of factors, but the ones of which you are right to be skeptical take resources from public schools and often achieve inferior results. The charter advocates explain that these offer the advantage of going out of business.
But there are the more glorified ones which claim to achieve better results…often easy to claim on the surface, because of being careful of who gets in, and with helpful “no nonsense” attitudes with the goal of achieving attrition of undesired students.
Generalized criticism of charters might not be enough…specific targeting might be necessary. Even between these two different types, some do better than the others…
To joe prichard:
Please stop beating around the bush.
Charter owners do not possess educational credential.
Charter owners are business-minded operating system in order to LOOT PUBLIC TAX money that intends to support PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR ALL.
Charter owners hire UNQUALIFIED teaching staff and refuse to have UNION so that they can hire and fire teachers at will.
Most of all, charter owners refuse to follow rules and regulations which all public institutes abide to do.
Additionally, charter owners give themselves outrageous amount of money as their salary and disrupt the learning to all learners by closing down schools after they ROB enough profit.
You have two eyes to read Charters’ fraudulent scheme, two ears to listen people’s complaints, two hands to pick up info to learn about charter’s fraudulence, and two feet to walk around to learn more about the disruption and the looting public tax money from charter owners in California, Nevada, Georgia, Ohio and many other States. Back2basic
Politicians are like chess pieces — more important than where they stand is how they can be moved.
True ,Clinton will be wherever we allow her to be, on all too many issues. Trump will destroy public schools like a Tornado .
We need a new chess board with green and gold squares. They are only allowed to move to the squares worth the highest value (whichever one has more gold or cash).
Because that is usually the motivation for most decisions in Washington.
Today’s Politico Morning education has this bit on the moves behind the scenes of Clinton’s campaign:
PODESTA ON ED REFORMERS: ‘NOT SURE WE CAN REASSURE THEM’: Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in an email last year that meeting with a group of wealthy, high-profile education reformers was “probably worth the time,” but added: “Not sure we can reassure them.” The email, hacked from Podesta’s account, was part of a recent WikiLeaks release. It was sent in late May 2015 — less than two months before the American Federation of Teachers endorsed Clinton in July for the Democratic primaries.
— Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of Emerson Collective, an education reform organization, and widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs, had reached out to Clinton’s campaign for a meeting with a small group to talk about their education views. Powell Jobs wanted to invite Carrie Walton Penner, who chairs the board of directors for the Walton Family Foundation; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings; New Schools Venture Fund CEO Stacey Childress; venture capitalist Brook Byers; and philanthropists John and Ann Doerr. “The folks involved are both $$ and substance folks,” Clinton senior policy adviser Ann O’Leary emailed Podesta. O’Leary said she was having trouble scheduling the meeting due to Clinton’s busy schedule, but suggested that she and Podesta meet with them personally.
— While it’s unclear what Podesta means by not being able to “reassure” the group, reformers worry that Clinton will align more closely with teachers’ unions on policy than with President Barack Obama. For example, they’re worried she might be less friendly toward charter school expansion. It’s unclear if this specific meeting about education reform ever came together or if Clinton or her campaign staff held other meetings with these reformers. Clinton’s campaign has declined to comment on the veracity of campaign emails released by WikiLeaks. Emerson Collective declined to comment.
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education#ixzz4O7i2MQPO
All the usual suspects present and accounted for.
Clinton ought to read NSVF’s “marching orders”, published in the Kim Smith interview at Philanthropy Roundtable, “to develop diverse charter school organizations to produce different BRANDS (my caps) on a large scale.” Then, Clinton should acquaint herself with the investors in the largest seller of schools-in-a-box, which includes Gates (the man, not his foundation), Mark Z-berg, Pearson….
I’d like to know Clinton’s opinion about the deception of the American people, by the U.S. Dept. of Ed., when it labels charter schools, “public”.
It doesn’t get much clearer than this. Thank you, Diane.
The problem with charter schools goes well beyond draining funding, corruption, accountability, and selectivity. The central issues are democratic control and whether as a country we organize schools for the benefit of the few or to benefit everyone.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
Yup, we should organize schools for all the kids. Many states already recognize the value of providing public options that are responsive to other organizations besides local boards.
For example, there are programs allowing high school students to take college courses on college credits, with state funds following them, paying their tuition & in some states, books and lab fees. Those colleges and universities are not controlled by local boards.
Then there are states with statewide schools in such areas as math, sciences or the arts. Again, these schools are not controlled by local boards.
Then there are charters that are the subject of so much discussion here.
A variety of state legislatures have recognized that serving ALL students does not mean requiring all students from low/moderate income families to attend schools controlled by locally elected boards.
“Programs” that allow high school students to take college courses where the high school he attends is obligated to pay for them is very rare. Not to mention that the colleges where they attend are not dependent on those students for their existence, as charter schools are. So why would you use that to justify a private organization able to open a charter school given the franchise to have its own operating rules, which includes no oversight into why students are leaving?
Maybe you should be asking why charters have been fighting oversight so much? In Massachusetts, the politicians the pro-charter groups support quashed oversight and transparency bills.
Joseph Nathan, the bottom line is that charters are afraid of transparency and oversight and they are willing rot spend any money necessary to fight it — even more money than they spend on teaching the kids. When you ask yourself why, you might get your answer as to why those charters are organized for their boards and CEOs and certainly not for their kids. If they were, they would welcome transparency.
Clinton has become increasing wary – a year ago she criticized charter schools for “cherry picking” kids (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/hillary-clinton-charter-schools-education-215661) and she made similar comments at the Rochester NYSUT Convention in the Spring.
I already voted for Clinton because Donald Trump is unacceptable to me on every level. but why would one believe she would be any different than Bush and Obama on ed reform?
She comes right out of the same reformer-dominated closed circle and in her public statements she sounds exactly like every other DC Democrat.
I really tire of this elaborate dance Democrats do on public schools. If we’re getting another President who doesn’t support existing public schools one of them should have the decency to admit it. Did she says she’s “agnostic” yet? Because that’s next. I feel like I could write these speeches for them.
You may turn out to be right, but at this point I will give Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt. Unlike President Obama, who never saw a charter he didn’t like and believed they should be free to operate in whatever way they wanted with no federal oversight, Hillary seems to understand both the pros and cons.
Is there a single time when President Obama didn’t listen to his Wall Street men to make policy? He even talked about social security reform! Whereas Hillary Clinton has made it clear that she believes in social security in a way that President Obama obviously does not.
I believe public education will be like social security. Where Obama was very open to the “reform” that his billionaire backers convinced him was the right thing to do, Hillary Clinton is a little more skeptical. And she does her homework and is too savvy to accept without question anything she is told by her staff without understanding the position of the other side.
The Obama Administration let the ed reform movement get away with a shocking level of dishonesty. They could have stopped it and we could have had a real discussion about how best to improve public schools that may not have made the teachers’ unions entirely happy, but would not have sold out the interests of the most vulnerable children because the Wall Street folks insisted that this was the best way to do reform. I suspect Hillary Clinton will want an honest discussion. Maybe that means some charters thrive, but I hope they are the ones who are in it only for the kids, instead of the students being welcome only as long as they help the privatizers mislead the public and undermine public schools.
I hope you are right about Hillary’s loyalty to Social Security, but remember that Bill Clinton was making noises about opening it up to private investment, and was only stopped because he needed the support of liberal Democrats when he was engulfed by the Lewinsky matter.
The destruction/usurpation of Social Security has been the Holy Grail of the Overclass ever since its creation. Obama was ready to open up its future for negotiation via his “Grand Bargain,” but the Republicans were too clinically insane to take him up on it.
Sometimes gridlock is the least bad option.
I thought her answer at the debate seemed quite clear. I didn’t hear any mealy mouth “we want to reform social security” and she made it clear she wanted to raise the cap at which people pay social security taxes (a great idea) and not the age at which people get benefits.
As I said above, she may disappoint me. Although it’s hard for me to imagine her disappointing me more than Obama did when it came to social security and public education.
Bill and Hillary Clinton both have a long history of progressive rhetoric, often belied by their actions.
I agree that she must initially be given the benefit of the doubt, and a chance make her way in office.
I’d like nothing more than to see her make good on her promise to raise the cap on Social Security contributions, which would put to rest the propaganda that it’s “going broke” – in fact, it’s by far the most solvent part of the federal government – for the foreseeable future.
On the other hand, given the Clinton’s long history of throwing their political base under the bus, some skepticism is justifiable.
That early endorsement by the NEA/ AFT may have come at a price.
I Hope
Here’s why:
Bush was the NCLB man, benefiting from widespread backing on ‘accountability’ for fed ed spending, despite opposite spins given by civil rights & neolib/ neoconservatives.
Obama was able to double-down: Wall-St backers smelled a boondoggle in privatization; Silicon Valley saw $ in stdzg accountability; black/ minority backers were still anticipating pubsch improvement from identifying losers plus real choice from charters; teachers’ union endorsers were blindly backing anti-pubsch-teacher policy– & pro-pubsch liberals assumed “change” from an urban black Senator meant turning around cynical fed ed policy. (They should have been thinking ‘Chicago school of economics’, not ‘urban black.’)
Clinton has to deal w/ new realities: the Opt-Out parent movement popular among her Northeastern middle- & upper-middle-class backers is the coal-mine canary for the accountability movement as implemented by NCLB/ RTTT; knowledge of widespread fraud & malfeasance coupled w/ mediocre results has engendered cynicism about charters even in red states, & now has the approbation of her civil-rights backers; the Sanders-Trump squeeze on any Hillary mandate tells her there’s nationwide suspicion that the WallSt/ philanthrobillionaire/ Cit-United tail is wagging democracy.
Also, when people complain about the access that money and influence buys that’s exactly what they’re talking about- the Apple billionaire getting a private meeting with the candidate.
None of us would ever get that meeting, and we all know it. It’s a problem, because this perception of undue influence is not a perception- it’s reality. People aren’t stupid- they’ve figured this out.
Are we going from Bill Gates running our nation’s schools to the Apple people running our nation’s schools? Because I didn’t consent to be governed by CEO’s and neither did anyone else.
Great point! We need to overturn or get an amendment to overturn Citizens United and vote out those that put the will of corporations ahead of citizens.
The Democrats say it is Citizens United, ok reverse it. Long before that decision we had the corruption of money in politics. It didn’t just appear in 2010.
The corruption of money in politics may have a long history, but that is only because it knew where the bread was buttered. Crooked pols knew enough to bring ‘pork’ [infrastructure jobs] to their constituencies; crooked union leaders knew enough to get liveable salaries to members as they rolled in payoff dough. Even Mafia dons had the sense to get meals on the tables of the peons they ‘protected.’ The current paradigm– setting up economically-struggling voting factions to squabble & finger-point over ideologies while their elected reps & their backers dine on steak & champagne– cannot hold for much longer.
bethree5
One party set out to portray government as falling to discredit government, to discredit politics. All while appealing to some of the worst instincts of the American people. The other party accommodated them by becoming a debatable lesser evil.
Geeze Marie, are there any, ANY billionaires who support the actual real public schools? All these filthy rich plutocrats have this diamond studded sterling silver with gold inlays super duper love for charter schools, morning, noon and night 365 days per annum. As for public schools, in richey rich world it’s: What be those public schools, huh?
In any case, education is not the only issue, there are the social issues, climate change, SCOTUS and the lower courts. I voted twice for Obama who was horrible on education and appointed the disgusting Simpson-Bowles cat food commission which mercifully flopped in disarray and so did no damage to Social Security. It not only is a miracle that we have SS in the first place but also that it has survived all the attacks against it for about 80 years. Thank you, FDR, wherever soul resides.
Yes. It is important for all of us to remember that SS and every other legislative victory for equity, justice and equality were the results of organized social movements. Politicians do not lead. They follow.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
That is why Hillary must be taught the value of the public education which she should know since she is living proof. She must be taught how harmful the Common Core has proven to be. We must make an overwhelming case for support because we know Podesta and billionaires will be trying to push her to support charters. Most of the evidence and people are on the side of public education, and most of the money is on the other side.
retired teacher,
Hillary is a big girl who is proficient in recognizing dollar signs. She is not at her first rodeo. She is fully versed in the necessity of appearing to throw a bone to the progressive wing of the party to garner votes. She supports “high quality not for profit charter schools.” All the schools in Newark would be “high performing” as well if the district were allowed to cherry pick and counsel out its students. Instead, traditional public school teachers are faced with an ever increasing percentage of challenging students who are poorer, speak less English and have “more expensive” special needs,
It is horrible and startling to acknowledge that those people who are currently with wealth and power, used to be in a dire needs of GOOD Public Education as well as the support from democratic society.
They forget that the pollution (= bottomless greed in any society) in river and ocean will kill all fishes regardless how strong or weak they are. They will forever live in fear because greed and savage will drive the killing unexpectedly from divergent people (=it can be their own children or lovers).
In the same vein, they should learn from the Holocaust where greedy fascism unsuccessfully tried to massacre innocent people = Charter schools try to eliminate the foundation of democracy or public education for all in the appropriate level to each and all learners.
People have ONE stomach, and ONE mouth, so how much they can consume just to live comfortably?
People have TWO ears, TWO eyes, TWO arms and hands, TWO legs and feet, so can they listen, observe, walk around and pick up info to learn the CAUSE and EFFECT for their thought and actions? Back2basic
The title of this is “what would a Democratic wave election mean for ed reform”
https://edexcellence.net/articles/what-a-democratic-wave-election-would-mean-for-education-reform
It’s 90% about “choice”. That’s the near-exclusive DC focus and all the proof you need is reading ed reformers.
They’re all-in on choice. Public schools are barely mentioned. Clinton’s in that same echo chamber.
I think we need a big round of applause for the NAACP, which however belatedly has seconded the motion of other civil rights’ groups that ‘school choice’ is not only not helping equal access to ed but is, in its present form, undermining the ed of the 90+% [pubsch students]. I do believe that this disrupts Hillary’s echo chamber.
Meanwhile the National Council of La Raza has strongly supported chartering and has in fact helped create chartered public schools around the country.
Joseph Nathan,
Did the National Council of La Raza come out saying “transparency is a terrible thing and we might fight it and allow charters to do whatever they want to do”?
Did the National Council of La Raza come out saying “making charters serve all the kids who win the lottery and not allowing them free reign to rid themselves of students they don’t want to teach is a terrible thing and we must fight it and allow charters to do whatever they want to do?”
Did the National Council of La Raza come out saying “we only care about the percentage of children in charter schools who pass state tests and we want to make sure all charters are free to push out low performing kids so that they can achieve “excellence” by keeping only the students who will let them achieve that “excellence” and throwing the others under the bus with our approval!”?
I missed that statement about how terrible transparency and making sure charters serve ALL students is. But no doubt there are plenty of billionaires willing to support the National Council of La Raza as soon as they come out with your “ideal” view of how charters should act.
NYC parent,
I wonder if La Raza issued a statement endorsing the common practice of excluding ELLs from charters.
Why doesn’t the government simply abolish the DOE? Do away with its redundancy and hypocrisy. The federal government should not be involved in state education. There should never have been a buy-in to the common core, which has only served to make companies richer by having to purchase the books and technological infrastructure along with the countless millions wasted on tests, and time taken from real teaching and learning. I’m no fan of TFA either. Time for TFA to go away. Why did our federal government think any of this was a great idea? How do we cut off the head of the parasitic tapeworm?
Well, the states kind of brought it on themselves by entrenching and refusing to grant equal education to minorities and kids with disabilities. It is unfortunate that it takes the might of the feds to enforce the ideals we supposedly believe as a nation. And while the current set up of the DoE infuriates me no end, I’m not willing to throw in the towel and get rid of it because I have no faith in the states to do their duty as far as educating all children. There has to be a happy medium somewhere.
I have to agree. When Ed was part of the Dept of Health, Ed, & Welfare, we saw many important initiatives over the years, most recently all of the still-important enactments of Title IV, IX, Section 504, & Title I. Since 1980 when Ed was elevated to its own Dept, what have we seen? All the fallout from 1983’s “A Nation at Risk.” My conclusion is, too much power in too few hands, & an unproductive divorce of ed from handmaidens health & welfare which invites our present focus on edumetric ‘solutions’ to problems which ed alone cannot solve.
The DOE is part of the charter problem, by promoting charters and giving concessions to those who start charters…and hand in hand giving tax dollars to TFA, all involved in the circle that never ends and the “gift” that keeps on giving – like mold growing and festering behind the kitchen sink.
From tonight’s lead article in The Nation about Zephyr Teachout . A strong Public ED, opt out proponent and a Berniecrat This line always would be relevant here.
“These guys don’t create their money sprinkling fairy dust over unicorns,” says Michael Kink, who also works with the activist organization Hedge Clippers. “They get rich outsourcing jobs and driving down wages and raiding pension funds—everything that regular people hate about the way the economy is going is being caused by these guys that are trying to take out Zephyr. Do you want a government that is bought and paid for by the most destructive forces and the inequality-exploding billionaires?”
That Trump can run on these issues makes me want to vomit, for multiple reasons. Only some of them having to do with him.
That’s something I’ve never understood about Trump supporters. How can they think Trump is “one of them?” He was born into money and has lived a very privileged life. Most of his supporters weren’t. I don’t get the connection.
He is very effective at pointing to their problems (easy enough done).
Effective at pointing fingers of blame. (also easy) . What is lacking is any solutions. Basically he is shouting burn it down, no plan for reconstruction.
To Threatened out West:
You forgot Trump’s motto “What have we gotten to lose?”
All desperate people will blame and harm others for their own failure.
Trump is very afraid of Banking industry from Russia and China who lends him 640 millions of dollars according to NY Times’ article.
Either way, Trump is going to be in jail from unpaid loan to loan sharks. This explains his crazy attitude regarding things that are against him, his absurd accusation, and his employment of all crooked professionals like Paul Manafort as his campaign advisor.
Could you agree with my assessment? Back2basic
“They get rich outsourcing jobs and driving down wages and raiding pension funds—everything that regular people hate about the way the economy is going is being caused by these guys that are trying to take out Zephyr.”
I think that’s a little facile. All 3 items are consequent to US economic decline caused by a combination of digital automation revolution & the rise of once-third-world global competitors. “These guys” are doing what they do because it’s legal. Their actions reflect our govt’s choice to unfetter the rabid forces of free-market capitalism as a response to economic challenge, virtually guaranteeing a return to rich/ poor robber-baron days. We must pressure our govt to make legislative changes that will force sharing the shrunken pie.
It is legal because their surrogates write the laws.
Why are workers Pensions not the first priority of Bankruptcy courts?
There are no free markets. We regulate who is going to be put in competition. We (governments) pick winners and losers.
Drugs produced overseas are far cheaper and just as effective. Certainly any argument that could be made about foreign produced drugs can be made about imported foods. Yet as per NAFTA we can not even label these imports as such.
Wages :the H1b program puts our educated workers in competition with foreign labor who increasingly come here and are trained to bring the work back home.
The purchasing power of Government could insure that American manufacturing is preserved from Military procurement to School construction and to some degree it does . It is a major target of “free trade agreements”
The argument of technology also has holes in it. We think that innovation is happening in leaps and bounds It is actually far slower that in previous times. As Dean Baker points out productivity gains (output per worker) don’t show it.
http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/the-job-killing-robot-myth
“Politics Who Determines Who Gets What When and How ” Laswell
Joel, your first cite says what I was trying to say:
“If we really want to address the causes of inequality we have to get over the robots are taking our jobs story, move beyond handwringing or Luddism, and accept the harsh reality that people, or their policies, anyway, are to blame—not technology.”
My point is that hedge-funders et al big donors throwing $ at Teachout’s opponent aren’t causing ‘everything regular people hate about the way the govt is going,’ the laws [mostly DEregulation] that allow them to do it are. And those laws were passed by our govt– us– in a malaprop, anti-public-good, half-assed response to global & tech challenges to the economy.
bethree5
Then we agree to agree .
“Non-profit” is the wrong label for nearly all charter schools, no matter what they call themselves. Twenty-five years ago they may have been conceived as innovation hubs, but now they’re just conduits for taxpayer dollars. Their corporate backers want the dollars to flow their way, in the form real estate holdings, rents, and management contracts. They are most assuredly not in it “for the kids”.
In a comment about a week ago, I brought up Imagine Charter Schools as a textbook example of a for-profit scheme (see jersey-jazzman-gives-a-lesson-to-dfer, 10/18/2016). Not coincidentally, the same charter chain was highlighted in a earlier post by Diane (How Imagine Charter Schools Make $$$, 2/10/2015). That chain shows exactly what is wrong with the “non-profit” label.
Please see Page 11 of the following report. It shows a revenue split of almost 4:1 to the for-profit side of the business, and an assets split of 36:1. The latter is just appalling. It means for every $1000 invested by taxpayers (in what they think are publicly-owned school buildings, equipment, vehicles, etc.), a whopping $963 goes on the books of the for-profit corporation, and a mere $27 on the books of “Imagine Charter Non-Profit”.
As with all charters, there’s no accountability whatsoever. There’s no way for the public to examine the books of Imagine Charter Schools, either the non-profit or for-profit side of the business. So it’s impossible to know what kind of self-dealing is going on and how the money inflates administrator and executive salaries. Moreover, what is demonstrated by Imagine’s corporate report—yes, it is intended for investors—is that the taxpaying public is on the hook FOREVER. We won’t own any real property, and there’s no concept of paying off a debt on the construction of school buildings. If Imagine runs the schools, we will be paying for those buildings over-and-over-and over again. What an unbelievable scam!
How can Imagine Charter Schools possibly not be in violation of the RICO statutes?
I’m just a layman taxpayer, but I suggest it has something to do w/501-c(3) & c(4) & New Markets Tax Credit legislation– combined w/ state charter laws.
The mention of unions is the right wing’s distraction so that Americans won’t see the theft of the United States’ most important common good, public education, secondly, to mask the nation’s oligarch takeover and, thirdly, to rob people of democratic control of their taxes and their children’s schools.
The depravity of the financial sector, dragging down GDP, while shackling labor with that burden and demanding ever greater production, despite sharing no reward for productivity gains, is America’s abhorrent plutocratic legacy.
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have pledged to hold Ms. Clinton’s feet to the fire regarding the promises she has made to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. The NEA and AFT need to do the same. Their endorsements definitely helped Ms. Clinton in the primary and she should be in their debt.
Ideally, I think Ms. Clinton SHOULD have met with Ms. Jobs and outlined the conditions her administration would want the USDOE to set for (presumably) well-intentioned “reformers”. A meeting like that where Ms. Clinton spelled out her parameters for “reform” would go a long way to assuage those of us who are skeptical of her true thinking on charters.
wgerson,
Are you under the illusion that AFT and NEA endorsed Clinton in exchange for her support of public education? The teacher union leadership wished to advance its personal agenda at the expense of the rank and file membership.
What was the leadership’s personal agenda?
I sincerely doubt. The personal agenda of most Union leadership involves the preservation of power for them personally and their organizations. To do that they must serve the membership or perish.
Union power is and has always been about political influence (broad sense) . Both in the public sector and the private sector. To have that political influence one has to have an active membership. That is the largest obstacle.
Joel, I usually agree with you, but must break ranks here.
Randi Weingarten has “advanced her personal agenda” – meaning proximity to power – at the expense of teachers. Despite statements intended to misdirect the membership, she has either supported or passively allowed charter schools (the UFT opened two of its own, taking space from neighborhood public schools in Brooklyn), school closings (she boasted of her “collaboration” with Michael Bloomberg/Joel Klein), Common Core, one harebrained teacher evaluation scheme after another, the agendas of malanthropists like Gates (whom she has the nerve to invite as the featured speaker at an AFT convention, and who attacked teacher pensions one week later) and Broad. Unity Caucus, which has controlled the UFT for over half a century, maintains that power by doing everything it can to reduce member participation, to the extent that the overwhelming majority of teachers in NYC see the union as little more than a hybrid insurance agency and co-manager of the school system.
Randi doesn’t care how many teachers or students get served on the menu, as long as she has her “place at the table.”
Wgersen,
Now we have to inform Bernie that charters and vouchers are cut from the same cloth: privatization
Why do I get the feeling you would have had an easier time convincing Bernie and his close aide Jayne,then Hillary and her close aide Bill.
Joel,
If Bernie were the candidate, I would be fighting for him now.
Now we need to reach Bernie and explain that charters have become a means of privatizing our public schools.
I will gladly write him a letter after the election. I suspect again he would be very receptive to your progressive views on education and a fact based analysis. He has been a pain in the establishments butt on so many issues . At some point you become irrelevant when you are the outside critic. (I can’t believe this post is still up.).
Principled Democratic politicians, act in the best interest of the nation, which is in this context, means shutting down the oligarch’s education agenda. Worker collectives may side with principled Democrats, because they want the best for the communities where they live, pay taxes, and vote. Republicans, like Trump and Kasich, push policies that serve the interests of those who give money to them and their party. Based on evidence, the best interests of the nation are irrelevant to the vast majority of Republican politicians and, the people who vote for them make voting decisions based on emotion rather than rationality.
agreed
YES. I think the scariest suggestion is that Ms. Clinton needs to be better informed by non-charter proponents…even WHILE she has the vocal support of both the AFT and the NEA. What does that say about our national teachers’ union leaders?
IT’S UP TO EACH OF US NOW AS INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS TO SPREAD THE WORD to our state and local lawmakers and social media friends everywhere because they need to know right now that the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a warning that charter schools posed a risk to the Department of Education’s own goals. The report says: “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals.”
The report documents multiple cases of financial risk, waste, fraud, abuse, lack of accountability of federal funds, and lack of proof that the schools were implementing federal programs in accordance with federal requirements.
Throughout our nation, private charter schools backed by billionaire hedge funds are being allowed to divert hundreds of millions of public school tax dollars away from educating America’s children and into private corporate pockets. Any thoughtful person should pause a moment and ask: “Why are hedge funds the biggest promoters of charter schools?” Hedge funds aren’t altruistic — there’s got to be big profit in “non-profit” charter schools in order for hedge fund managers to be involved in backing them.
And even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its “reporting” on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax money that is supposed to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets.
One typical practice of charter schools is to pay exorbitant rates to rent buildings that are owned by the charter school board members or by their proxy companies which then pocket the public’s tax money as profit. Another profitable practice is that although charter schools use public tax money to purchase millions of dollars of such things as computers, the things they buy with public tax money become their private property and can be sold by them for profit…and then use public tax money to buy more, and sell again, and again, and again, pocketing profit after profit.
The Washington State and New York State supreme courts and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions.
Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money. Moreover, as the NAACP and ACLU have reported, charter schools are often engaged in racial and economic-class discrimination.
Charter schools should (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that they are accountable to the public; (2) a charter school entity must legally be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) charter schools should be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property.
NO FEDERAL MONEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT FAIL TO MEET THESE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC. Hillary Clinton could, if elected President, on day one in office issue an Executive Order to the Department of Education to do just that. Tell her today to do that! Send her the above information to make certain she knows about the Inspector General’s findings and about the abuses being committed by charter schools.
The arts in politics are to keep the greed to hanging on with hope and expectation.
The best and the truth of being sentient beings with conscientious SPIRIT of to serve in PUBLIC SERVICES is being DIVERGENT and HUMANITARIAN.
This is the reason that GOP tries very hard to smear the future American LADY PRESIDENT with all dirty political TRICKS from WiKi Leaks, accusations…
I surely know the reaction from some readers who hate Secretary Clinton from all fabricated news in all major media that is owned and operated by greedy and crooked businessmen.
Please articulate the best politician who can go against Wall St. and all corporate who own foods, drugs, weapons…As long as people (=lawyers, politicians and educators) are NOT caring for the welfare and well-being of THE AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION
=THE YOUNGER AMERICAN GENERATION who suffer lots of unnecessary stresses from
1) Their parents’ jobs is being outsourced
2) The abused DE-regulation in all dangerous drugs like sleeping pills, anti-depressant and marijuana in form of candies and cookies.
3) The WORST chartered school system, and last but not least
4) The deadliest INVALID, INAPPROPRIATE WORDING IN ALL LEVELS in Common Core State Standards =NO HOPE IN THE FUTURE FOR LEARNERS
YES, I AM SHOUTING NOW.
Hello all deplorable and greedy authorities in all fields that affect American younger generations’ lives.
Can you understand the universal law of KARMA, and the ultimate rule of forgiveness?
You must suffer the pain in your previous incarnated lives, and now is your chance to revenge or to forgive. Your actions will cause your sufferance in next lives OR to be enlightened within this present lives. You must observe the contrast between the true happiness of being wise and the pain in misery of being ignorant. Back2basic
Reporter, Bracko Marcetic, wrote at, In These Times, ” 3 Reasons to be Worried about the Blackstone Group and Their Friend, Hillary Clinton”. The article covers more of the leaked e-mails. Podesto (Hillary’s campaign manager and participant with Jeb Bush, in getting donors to support privatizing candidates) engages in a discussion with the Center for American Progress President (Clinton advisor-in-waiting). Guess who funds CAP at the million dollar level?…. the Gates Foundation. Other funders include Microsoft and the usual privatizing foundations- Eli and Edythe Broad, William and Flora Hewlett and, for good measure, Walmart.
Yes, Trump is worse.
Linda, all those bad connections are there. We must hope that if Clinton is elected, she will have no debts to those ill-advised billionaires and will use her power for good. If she had them but not the AFT and NEA, she could not win. She knows that.
Michael Moore filmed his new pro-Hillary movie in Wilmington, Ohio.
(He spoke of the same hope that you do.) He told the audience that the movie, most people want him to make next, is about the war against our schools.
I was given some stern advice yesterday, by m4potw to not beat around the bush…His post was among those I posted in my thread at the Post Dispatch “Are there enough white people on the state Charter assn? A lot of blame is given to me, but I do live in Missouri.
bob-n-weave wrote: kjoe is a bit “off” mentally. His rambling missives regarding SLPS are legendary.
but bob is hard on everybody except Donald Trump.
Hillary’s track record of killing the unborn, starting unjust wars, and murdering adversaries is far more reprehensible than Donald Trump’s WORDS.
willto wrote: 1. I’ve read several of your education posts.They tend to be incoherent and bad cut/paste jobs. So I now avoid them.
“good thinking”. I replied, helplessly.
dagny wrote: So Kjoe,, take our advice on education if you really want to start a discussion about it.
It is about your communication and writing styles, jo. If few read your posts and fewer respond to them, then you won’t lose a thing by trying a different and better approach. If you want to discus education bring it to your audience.
I thought to myself “to dumb down, or not dumb down. A difficult decision”.
I beat around the Bush again…..this was my 7th unanswered comment about the 7 members of the state charter commission, 6 of them white, and the 11 members of the state charter association, 9 of them white. (charter school populations are between 70 and 80 percent black in Missouri).
Michael jones, or the state board of education is the smartest guy I know of…so is vic Lenz…so I was just kidding in what I said about them.
comment number seven in my beat around the bush style of writing….
So….we now have 3 appointed members of a school board for slps, (not yet ten years, but getting close)…..which includes a district of 10,534 charter students, and another 23 or 24 thousand non charter students which include the majority of the students with special needs…no real numbers are available….one would think the charters would have a huge advantage with all their individual boards, and ability to get rid of pesky restrictions…as well as a state commission and a state association adding up to three times as many people as the state board of education which serves everyone from Rolla to SLPS to Joplin and points in between….
but…
and some would say I am just being silly in warning about this….when you have two boards full of white people, many of whom are from the financial sector, jealous of each other’s power and status….is there any possibility that they might have moments when they are distracted from deciding what is best for the children?
I don’t know who could ask them any questions Certainly not education reporters, who would be too intimidated….maybe St. Louis members of the state board, Michael Jones and Vic Lenz….but there seems to be an unspoken consensus that they are just ordinary government appointees, not really qualified to say much to members of the charter association or the charter commission.
Joe P,
m4potw is a female. She occasionally signs as May King.
I like her more than she likes me. I think she helped…Miossouri is so completely lacking in information about charter schools that a straight dose of her assessment is something they need.
Joe P,
You need Mercedes Schneider to take a look at Missouri. You deserve information.
Dear Joe P.
I do not have any preference in any ideology, except the humanity.
I am sorry for your misunderstanding of my words.
I am an immigrant and my English cannot be at the flair level of BS to be GAGA = go along to get along.
I say as it is how I understand. I am sick and old but NOT IGNORANT about GREED from heartless and soul-less BOTTOMLESS GREEDY business people.
I was just like you or maybe much less educated than you. However, I am cultivated by this forum where many writers are veteran Educators, Lawyers, Poets, Writers, Philosophers, bilingual Teachers (French, or Spanish, or Korean, or Japanese, Vietnamese, Arabics, Chinese, Greek, Polish, Finnish, Sweedish… + English) and of course, by our beloved historian specialized in Education, Dr. Ravitch.
I hope that you are truly conscientious parents, tax payers who will mightily cultivate your friends and neighbors to completely support ONE PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM for all learners regardless their being misfortune or being born with silver spoon.
I was educated from public education. I support schools where my child attended from elementary to high education through my donation to library, field trips, and all extra-curriculum in sports. I instill that free spirit to all other parents to love all children as their own. My true happiness is to see children enjoy learning and participating in reading and doing all sports in PUBLIC schools.
I am sure that the majority of all readers in this forum are having the same high spirit that set out by Dr. Ravitch’s example.
Please think positively that readers in this forum welcome all ideas from others who have their sincere and logical mindset and love to support PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Please note that PRIVATE INSTITUTES have existed for many centuries, BUT they DO NOT LOOT our tax payers fund like today’s Charter Schools. Back2basic
I love you, May King.
I love her, too. I share the rage….but I have found it so difficult to do anything with in the St. Louis area….because there is simply no reaction or counter reaction about anything. Education is, by definition not a subject worthy of discussion.. I just keep firing away, day after day….the Massachusetts story about children with disabilities caused me to post: “Massachusetts’ stats about the levels of neglect regarding students with disabilities are shameful. In Missouri, with two state boards totaling 18 people we ought to be able to point to a superior job being done in this area, concerning the children with difficulties.” I already know that no response can be given, because they do not even have stats about things like this…so it would be mockery, except it cannot even rise to that level. But May King has helped me stretch out the number of posts and views.
Thank you Dr. Ravitch for your love.
I NOT ONLY love you BUT ALSO really adore you and profoundly appreciate your patience, energy and dedication to explain, cultivate, and care for the welfare of American young learners in today’s American Public Education (which was the best and free for all in the Golden Area of 1955- 75.)
As long as I live, I will always support you and your organization NPE (National Public Education). May God bless you with health and lots of support from all visible Angels like many veteran educators in your forum. Most of all, may God bless you with your goal come true very soon so that you will be truly enlightened.
Very respectfully yours,
May King
Thank you Joe P, for your sincerity.
I hope that you will follow Dr. Ravitch’s blog more often and to pick up more important information from many other veteran educators.
There are many true stories about the bottomless greedy and deplorable authorities who co-operate with bottomless greedy and shady businessmen that you can read and spread your words to your own circle of friends and neighbors.
My writing is to repeat a bit of many conclusions from all other veteran educators Plus my understanding from Dr. Ravitch’s explanation to other writers in this forum.
Please remember that we always think positively and constructively so that we can sustain and maintain our unity in supporting our humanitarian goal = Democracy = Excellent American Public Education in a whole child concept FOR ALL CHILDREN.
Sincerely yours,
Back2basic