I believe that charters should be created by districts to meet needs that the district itself can’t fill. Charters should not drain funding from public schools. They should not compete with public schools. Charters should be led by educators, not by corporate chains, entrepreneurs, celebrities, sports stars, or high-school dropouts.
Here is a charter that meets my criteria, described in a comment on the blog today:
I work at a nonprofit charter school for kids with autism. we only accept children who are diagnosed with autism first on their IEP. We range from preschool until high school and are in the process of building a second location to cater to students aging out of public school. We accommodate children on the spectrum whose needs may not be met at public schools. We stay open by raising money, having donors, and getting a small percentage of funding from the school district. We are not a for-profit charter which seems to be the problem with charter schools. When you have schools that are being regulated and the call is to profit instead of help the children you have a serious problem. I found this blog when I was looking for articles about for-profit charters and if they do meet the needs of children with special needs. From what I am able to find the only thing that for-profit charter schools do is take away federal funding from public schools and make money off of the education system. I happen to be in the car using talk to text so I don’t know if all my sentences are making sense but I hope my comment was helpful. We need to stop women like Betsy Devos before she privatizes education and stops thinking about children and only thinks about profit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ve been saying this for years. There is definitely a place for charter schools that have an actual charter to do something outside of the typical public school. This is a prime example of that. If it serves a population who is not served at the public school, it is a worthwhile endeavor. Sadly most of them charter schools are for-profit which makes them completely illegitimate. Education is NOT a money making scheme or at least it shouldn’t be.
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I am in the process of writing a letter to the editor and I am going to plagiarize your fourth sentence.
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Feel free!
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NCMom and Greg B:
Thank you for your comments.
😎
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As an employee of a charter school network, I greatly appreciate the post you shared on your blog. It is incredibly difficult to reach a level of funding similar to that of public schools. The network I am in has a mission to ensure that 100% of graduating students are accepted into college, a niche that the local ISD has failed to recognize, making the existence of charter schools a needed priority. I am unsure what the future holds for these types of schools, especially as the for-profit charters that I am familiar with have been complete failures.
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Thanks, JCB
Some charters reach this goal by pushing kids out who are not likely to graduate
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Some states give preference to charter schools with money. My state now allows charter schools access to property tax funds. Plus, charters get preference in donations from the wealthy. Charters get a lot more money than they claim to in many cases.
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So mainstreaming is out the window? Isn’t that stepping back in time??
I always thought it strange when I saw a beautiful little girl (about sixth grade) who had no brain stem in a school, with two full time aides. No learning took place – but parents insisted their daughter was owed free education, just like other kids her age.
It added cost to the district – same with kids who need a full time nurse with them in school.
Lots of money, again adding to the budget. Not only a school nurse, but a personal nurse as well.
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Rudy, teachers and parents exercise judgment
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And you have a problem with that child being in school, Rudy?
Really?
Every year that I taught in my rural district we had the situation of having at least one of not two wheel chair bound severely disabled students who had full time nurse/aides. And you know what, I don’t know how much each child learned but I bet is was more than if they had been denied the opportunity to attend.
Not only that but you know who benefited the most from those students, Rudy?
It was the other students, the staff and the community who rallied around those students, who took pride in helping and being with someone less fortunate than them. You see those children are also a part of our community and our community is that much better for them being around and part of it instead of those students being shunted aside to live a life of obscure/silenced misery because someone like you, Rudy, might determine them to be too costly to assimilate and intermix with the community.
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My state has similar charters (a chain of them) that focus on kids on the autism spectrum. But these charters kick kids out when they feel like it, and mercilessly bully the teachers who work there.
So even these kinds of charters can be suspect.
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First of all, Rudy, a child without a brainstem could not survive. The brainstem controls things like heartbeat and breathing. You are probably thinking of the cerebrum that is responsible for sensory and motor function as well as higher thinking. Children with anencephaly generally are either stillborn or die shortly after birth. Some children survive a number of years but it is rare. The condition is not uniform, so damaged and/or missing structures are not the same in every case. Perhaps schools are not always the appropriate placement for children with such devastating disabilitties, but I hope we are past ignoring their needs as a society.
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Rudy,
I suggest you read “Out of My Mind” by Sharon Draper. My kid brought it home from school (public school, btw) and I picked it up and couldn’t put it down.
Maybe you will gain some perspective about humanity. Otherwise, we might as well give in to the dark side and Trump where the only worthwhile people are those who allow others to profit from them.
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I have a feeling I know quite enough on the topic of humanity.
What amazes me is how this culture is ready to kill the unborn at a whim, but finds it objectionable when I wonder why children who really do not function in public schools are really there.
The dichotomy is unbelievable.
So excuse me when I find it somewhat hypocritical to expect a school district to spend about 75-100k a year in a full time nurse for one single student – would see nothing wrong killing a child with similar circumstances – but is yet to be born.
Help me understand where the “humanity” is in this.
This weekend I was “intruduced” to my yet to be born grandchild. 20 weeks old. I see a tiny human being with a heartbeat and movement. I see facial structure in the 3D image.
And democrats (many) find nothing wrong with ripping that human being out of a woman’s body because it’s “inconvenient?” according to both CDC and Gutmacher institute that is the case ion almost 97% of abortions.
Again, tell me how you can justify such actions and at the same time think it’s mandatory for the continued expenditure for 12 years of one-one nurse.
I will accept your pleading for such when you can help me understand where humanity puts their conscience on that unborn child.
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Rudy,
Please read “Out of My Mind”. You will like it, I promise you.
It is you who are a hypocrite, not the law. You should turn your hypocrisy around and ask why people who demand that every pregnancy go full term have no interest in caring for those children and don’t want to spend any money to help them.
If you read the book you might learn that YOUR definition of “function” ignores children whose pain and intellect you cannot imagine.
And an early term abortion is nothing like Hitler’s idea of “euthanizing” disabled children. Although given how much Trump’s supporters do seem to love themselves their Nazis, no doubt that will be one of those ideas that we could never have imagined in this country being offered by Trump.
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Once again, I would appreciate to read what was written, rather than things that are not there. My issue is with abortions for “convenience’ sake.” Freedom of choice does not start at abortion, but when the choice is made to “sleep” with someone, and lack of protection.
The numbers are not from anti abortion groups, but from the CDC (Neutral) and Gutmacher (Very much pro abortion). I grew up with the idea that you bear the consequences of your actions…
Thousands of families want children, but cannot have them. Adoptive parents are everywhere in the nation.
By changing our language, we have become desensitized to the idea of what is actually happening. A whole generation was more concerned about killing baby seals than baby humans… How absurd!
As far as funding is concerned, there are plenty of organizations who put their money where their mouth is. I am a donor to one of the local groups – which is an approved “Write-in” group to support through the annual united way campaign…
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Rudy, thank you for the belly laugh. The inconsistently of your belief system is hilarious.
You are railing against a family who did exactly what you believe is the right thing to do: carried a fetus to term and delivered a child. Now you are pissed off because that child is “inconveniently” too “expensive.”
What were they supposed to do? If they had ended the pregnancy, you would have been just as enraged as you are now!
Full disclosure: I also have one of those too “expensive” kids.
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You may want to check your facts, kiddo. The student was in a motorcycle accident, and was paralyzed from the neck down as a result. Is able to control both computer and wheelchair by puff/suck. Sharp as a tack, this student is.
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I believe that the Federal/State government should bear the cost in these situations through whatever medical programs available. By increasing the local District budget, other things are squeezed out.
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Congress promised to pay 40% of cost of special ed mandates. It typically over the years pays 12-15%.
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Yep. Our State mandated a 3rd grade reader remedial summer school, starting this year. But no extra money to pay for it…
But no summer school no reading improvement – no 4th grade. I am very much in favor of that…
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Rudy, requiring summer school without funding it is nonsense.
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Now I am confused. First the “inconveniently” expensive student was a sixth grade girl, alledgely missing her brain stem and in Rudy’s estimation, unable to learn, and now we are talking about a student who was in paralyzed in motorcycle accident but “sharp as a tack.”
Look Rudy, if you want to argue abortion, may I suggest you go somewhere else? The focus of this blog is education. We believe in public education and the right of every child to a public education.
You want to discuss what is the best educational setting for a child with disability, fine. That is a good and important question. But once you were off into anger at people you think shouldn’t be having sex, you are completely off topic.
I’m done and out of here for the rest of the morning.
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Once again, you are not reading. With the 6th grader, there was no education taking place. It was not until 2 years later that a court case was filed against an Iowa District, requiring to have a fully qualified nurse for a single student
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You want education. You want funding for education. You want money for field trips. Money for field trips is eaten by budget items that are not educational (i.e. full time medical care).
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You are talking about funding issues now. The fight should probably be not to lump all costs under education. We call everything special education and tack the costs on to the education budget. Special ed services have never been fully funded, which should tell us something.
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You are doing heroic work, in addition to communicating this post by talk-to-text. That is a well trained program you have
A former student of mine was once the principal for the only specialized school for students diagnosed with autism. That was before much was known. She and her students taught me a lot.
Here are some current facts about this school:
Student Enrollment: 200
Grades: 1-8
Students Per Room: 10-13
Staff/Student Ratio: 1:6
School Hours: 8:10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Average Length of Enrollment: 3-4 years
2016-17 Tuition: $23,280 for grades 1-5 and $24,070 for grades 6-8 (91 percent of Springer’s Ohio students receive the $10,000 Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship for Ohio families, which is applied toward tuition).
Financial Aid: Need-based financial aid is available. Springer currently provides assistance to one in every three children who attend.
Springer has been around for decades. It is now offering professional development services, one of the few local institutions that has deep experience and is otherwise trustworthy.
As you can see, this is about as good as it gets in staffing. The curriculum is rich. The programs and the facilities have amenities you might expect at a private school, including field trips to the zoo, theater, symphony, sports events, and so on.
In spite of the hype from Trump about vouchers for private schools, here is little likelihood that the amounts drained from the discretionary dollars at USDE would allow for the formation of many schools like this one.
Indeed, someone has noted that states will have to come up with a large share of money if the aim of a $12 000 voucher could be met, for qualifying low-income students.
Note that, on average, students are in this school environment for a regular school day and only for three or four years. The program is designed for transition into a regular school, public or private, where there is some support, but not as intense. Of course, wealthy parents arrange for further education in private schools.
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Suing a district for the cost of a full time professional nurse is called judgment? I believe our district now has three of those That is about 200k per year – money spent on three students… And then no money for school trips. Is there not an obvious connection here between choices and available budget?
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Is there not an obvious connection here between skin flint politicians who refuse to properly fund public education and the available budget?
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I don’t know where you live, but where I live education gets 55% of the state budget. Not sure how much more that can get without cutting other things.
Apart from that, I’m not sure why/when personal nursing care becomes a property tax burden.
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What state do you live in Rudy?
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Why? Want to check my numbers??
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Just curious. In the Show Me State Education accounted for 27.6 percent of state expenditures in fiscal year 2015 with 22.8% going to K-12 and 4.8% going to post secondary education. So I wondered what state allotted 55% of it’s expenditures on education.
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Iowa.
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Yes, it’s just too much to expect that as a society we would take care of the most needy in a fashion that doesn’t condemn them to a miserable existence. Ef that thought. The bastards at the top have us effin arguing over giving care to the least of our brethren because it’s so effin unjust that they might pay a little of the hard stolen wealth. Gimme an effin break!
Yep, that’s how I feel about this discussion.
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And what do you suggest as an alternative? I’m not sure that districts should be solely responsible for nursing care, but I would be interested to hear your solutions.
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Tis simple 2o2t, single payer health insurance to pay for the health care (or barring that, the health insurance company should be paying) for the individual and the school then pays for the “education”.
If the parents don’t have health insurance, then screw it, eh!
Obviously, not! Our effin country has more than enough wealth to pay for any and all of these cases. It’s pure bs to suggest otherwise.
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This is the kind of school Philadelphia has had for decades, operated fully within the SDP, union contract and all. They are called Demonstration Schools, no need for a “charter.”
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Thanks, that’s the point I was going to make. Why even call them charter schools?
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I love to hear about schools like this, but I sincerely doubt that it meets your criteria. Primarily, I doubt it has the school district’s OK, as it is extremely rare for a district to acknowledge anything that it isn’t capable of doing itself. Also, by your definition, this is “drain[ing] money from public schools”, since the school’s primary revenue is from tuition reimbursement and I’m guessing this non-profit has a private Board of Directors. Also, I doubt they have an equal number of English Language Learners as the neighborhood school average.
Perhaps the original author can enlighten us on these subjects, but I’ve found your charter criteria excludes all charters, including this one.
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Wrong, John. A school that serves autistic children is needed by the district if the district can’t meet their needs.
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I just doubt that a district approved a charter school. Possible, but doubtful.
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“as it is extremely rare for a district to acknowledge anything that it isn’t capable of doing itself”. This seems gratuitous & I’m not sure if you really meant it. If you see this around you, I suspect it has to do with whether the state actually abides by 504 law or instead re-defines its mission– literally or in actual practice– as educating ‘all’ [only] those whose ed can be accommodated by what the state has decided to spend, & no more. In my NJ district, we started a class for K autistic over a decade ago, which is gradually increasing enrollment & adding grades. The motivation is the savings to the district; the alternative is very costly out-of-district placement.
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The same types of services have existed in public schools districts that pool resources in order to better provide for the needs of students that cannot participate in the regular educational program. This method has been efficient and effective. The teachers in these schools have specialized training and hold state certification in their area of expertise which is a type of quality control that may not be present in private schools. The accountability hammer that exists in public education today discourages innovation and cooperative problem solving that can better serve non-traditional students. Today accountability encourages one size fits all thinking, and limited opportunity to think outside the box.
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I don’t think Betsy DeVos is only thinking about money. I think she also wants to suppress science and teach, brainwash, children to be totally obedient, without question, and that the world was created by God in a few days 6,000 years ago, and her primary goal is to subvert the U.S. Constitution and convert the U.S. into a Theocracy ruled by hardcore, strict, extremist, fundamentalist Christians that are not much different in tyranny from the extreme fundamentalist Islam of ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban.
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Right on, Lloyd. As a triple minority, she scares me.
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I cannot see how any school district could possibly use charter schools without augmenting funding or cutting other programs. Augmentation might be in the form of grants, gifts, or a raise in the tax revenue designated for the school. Any other approach to the creation of other programs, whether administered by a school system or a subcontractor, would have to cost more. From all I can tell, we are spending less, not more.
What if two schools existed side by side, one private and one public. The public school tried to serve all types of students. The private school was expressly for students who wanted to be ready for a very good program in college. Unable to serve the very highly motivated students, the public school subcontracted their education to the private school. This saved them from having to create programs for highly motivated students. Now reason with me. Would that not be more expensive?
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Maybe Betsy DeVos tries to end Christian religion. From the extreme conflict between her belief in Christian religion and the completely fraud and unfaithful (personal) lifestyle of President elect, Betsy DeVos will ruin the image of original Christian.
Again, these greedy corporate always use religion to loot money from Public Pension Plan and Public tax fund that intends for the common goods.
It is privilege to be old and wise. Old, conscientious and wise people do not have a physical strength, but we are very sharp in logical mindset.
A circle of life has spun around millions of years from being savage to being civilized and then keeping spin around this typical circle of life with full of conflict interest.
In order to be rich, “The” rich keeps manipulating religion’s belief, fabricating confused messages, suppressing public literacy, polluting water, air and soil, and destroying civility. In the end, “the” rich will reincarnate to suffer what they had done.
It is admirable to have people like Dr. Ravitch and all conscientious veteran educators work together to alleviate the sufferance in the unfortunate.
In short, there is NO perfect solution, but ONLY the best solution is to be less cruelty on behalf whatever ideology, and to be MORE CIVILITY and HUMANITY to all sentient beings. Yes, we will be patient and forgiving to both the unfortunate and the corrupted souls. Back2basic
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