Michigan has one of the worst charter sectors in the nation, according to the Detroit Free Press, which conducted a year-long investigation of charters in the state. The people of Michigan pay $1 billion a year for a sector in which 80% of the charters operate for profit, in which there is neither accountability nor transparency, in which conflicts of interests don’t matter. Billionaire Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick and other members of the DeVos family control education issues in the Republican-dominated legislature with their generous campaign contributions. Governor Rick Snyder is DeVos’s personal puppet. And the state continues to waste public money on failing schools because they are privately run. No regulation needed!
This is Billionaire Betsy DeVos’s idea of how education should work!
The Detroit Free Press writes:
Michigan taxpayers pour nearly $1 billion a year into charter schools — but state laws regulating charters are among the nation’s weakest, and the state demands little accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent and how well children are educated.
A yearlong investigation by the Detroit Free Press reveals that Michigan’s lax oversight has enabled a range of abuses in a system now responsible for more than 140,000 Michigan children. That figure is growing as more parents try charter schools as an alternative to traditional districts.
In reviewing two decades of charter school records, the Free Press found:
Wasteful spending and double-dipping. Board members, school founders and employees steering lucrative deals to themselves or insiders. Schools allowed to operate for years despite poor academic records. No state standards for who operates charter schools or how to oversee them.
And a record number of charter schools run by for-profit companies that rake in taxpayer money and refuse to detail how they spend it, saying they’re private and not subject to disclosure laws. Michigan leads the nation in schools run by for-profits.
“People should get a fair return on their investment,” said former state schools Superintendent Tom Watkins, a longtime charter advocate who has argued for higher standards for all schools. “But it has to come after the bottom line of meeting the educational needs of the children. And in a number of cases, people are making a boatload of money, and the kids aren’t getting educated.”
According to the Free Press’ review, 38% of charter schools that received state academic rankings during the 2012-13 school year fell below the 25th percentile, meaning at least 75% of all schools in the state performed better. Only 23% of traditional public schools fell below the 25th percentile.
Advocates argue that charter schools have a much higher percentage of children in poverty compared with traditional schools. But traditional schools, on average, perform slightly better on standardized tests even when poverty levels are taken into account.
In late 2011, Michigan lawmakers removed limits on how many charters can operate here —opening the door to a slew of new management companies. In 2013-14, the state had 296 charters operating some 370 schools — in 61% of them, charter boards have enlisted a full-service, for-profit management company. Another 17% rely on for-profits for other services, mostly staffing and human resources, according to Free Press research.
Michigan far exceeds states like Florida, Ohio and Missouri, where only about one-third of charters were run by a full-service, for-profit management company in 2011-12, according to research by Western Michigan University professor Gary Miron, who has studied charters extensively.
While the Free Press found disclosure issues with both for-profit and nonprofit companies, the state’s failure to insist on more financial transparency by for-profits — teacher salaries, executive compensation, vendor payments and more — is particularly troubling to charter critics because the for-profit companies receive the bulk of the money that goes to charter schools. In some cases, even charter school board members don’t get detailed information.
Without that, experts say there is no way to determine if a school is getting the most for its money.
Authorizers in Michigan receive 3% of the state tuition money for every student who attends a charter school they authorize. That means millions of dollars flow to the authorizing groups, who have no responsibility or accountability. Anyone can open a charter school in Michigan. Charter schools can fail and be reauthorized. Charter operators can run failing schools and get to open new ones. Success is unimportant. Michigan is a free-for-all with public money.
State law sets no qualifications for charter applicants
In Michigan, anyone and everyone can apply to open a charter school. There are no state guidelines for screening applicants.
And in many cases, authorizers have given additional charters to schools managed by companies that haven’t demonstrated academic success with their existing schools.
Central Michigan University, for example, gave two additional charters to schools managed by the for-profit Hanley-Harper Group Inc. in Harper Woods, before its first school had any state ranking and despite test scores that showed it below statewide proficiency rates in reading and math. The school’s first ranking, released last year, put it in the 14th percentile, meaning that 86% of schools in Michigan did better academically.
“We have a product, yes, we are trying to sell and constantly working to make … better and better and better,” company founder Beata Chochla, who has run several small businesses, including janitorial and home health care, told the Free Press in an interview.
Ferris State University has authorized a fourth Hanley-Harper school, expected to open this fall in Oak Park.
“We were convinced they had a good plan,” Ferris State’s interim charter schools director Ronald Rizzo said, adding that critics who believe an operator should have a successful academic track record before adding schools are “welcome” to their views.
Authorizers also have been slow to close poor performers. Among the oldest and poorest performing schools in metro Detroit:
■ Hope Academy, founded in Detroit in 1998, ranked almost rock-bottom — in the first percentile — in 2012-13.
■ Commonwealth Community Development Academy, founded in Detroit in 1996, ranked in the third percentile.
Both schools are authorized by Eastern Michigan University, which said in a statement that it is not satisfied with either. Yet just last year, EMU renewed Hope Academy’s charter.
The article includes a list of recent charter scandals:
■ A Sault Ste. Marie charter school board gave its administrator a severance package worth $520,000 in taxpayer money.
■ A Bedford Township charter school spent more than $1 million on swampland.
■ A mostly online charter school in Charlotte spent $263,000 on a Dale Carnegie confidence-building class, $100,000 more than it spent on laptops and iPads.
■ Two board members who challenged their Romulus school’s management company over finances and transparency were ousted when the length of their terms was summarily reduced by Grand Valley State University.
■ National Heritage Academies, the state’s largest for-profit school management company, charges 14 of its Michigan schools $1 million or more in rent — which many real estate experts say is excessive.
■ A charter school in Pittsfield Township gave jobs and millions of dollars in business to multiple members of the founder’s family.
■ Charter authorizers have allowed management companies to open multiple schools without a proven track record of success.
Want to get rich quick? Move to Michigan and open a charter school.
Right along with the Flint lead in water. I was born and Raised in Michigan. HOW if has gone down hill since then.
TRAGIC!!!
Again, we HAVE to organize and fight. Your blog here keeps us informed but people must go beyond posting here. Write, call your politicians. THAT is where it counts. ONLY with a concerted LARGE push back is there any hope at all for our country. Education in all its forms needs to be fought for.
I Group up in Dade Caunty Fl and my Kids born here and I have been involved with this.
Michigan state is not the only problem.
I can help you to Complain and you can help me with this !!!
Can you go and tell others who I’m ?
I’m very well knows I love your post as well I love Diane , Lloyed , Susan Lee , Cristins langfonff and many others.
Find them and ask them .
Let’s see !!
Si quieres, puedo traducir lo que escribes a inglés. Escríbelo en español y lo traduciré.
The results of the Detroit Free Press’s investigation should go straight to ALL Senators NOW!!!. If I am not mistaken, DeVos’ confirmation hearings are next week. It does little to no good for folks on a blog to discuss the results and get all upset. The Senators should be the ones getting up set.The Detroit Free Press should be strongly encouraged to send the results and other people should just take upon themselves also send in the results. Flood the offices of the Senators with input for every walk of life. How can we get a full copy of the investigation results?
The confirmation hearings for DeVos are Wednesday next week. The time to call is now. Diane’s Network for Public Education has the names of committee members and their phone numbers.
AlterNet has a good summary of Trumpism’s education policy and DeVos that’s worth sharing with folks who don’t get it. It has some loaded sentences and paragraphs that provide openings for further discussions about the bipartisan complicity that greased the skids for this to happen: http://www.alternet.org/education/inside-donald-trumps-extremist-education-agenda-hillsdale
Hialeah Fl is the most corrupt city and the city mayor is the Chairman of Hialeah Education. Inc . The only way to stop those people is join me on this fight because I’m sure that they will never forgive me . I have them to the point where they are hurting me because I told them I asurre I will be the next *Martin L . King of the Dictatorship you have implanted.
* I fight Martin L. King way.
The heroes always died or won’t no money or bought them . I need support for this peaceful war agains Criminals.
I want to see my Dream came true because I know I can make it happen because I have Fe as most important things as well the law and people’s United are unbreakable .
Ps . One person can change the way the world but the world is not going to change it unless the world join us to fight against evils rulers who are destroying the Education and protecting kids is the most important thing .
Michigan , New York or California and Dade County Fl
I have prove to the point where I asure I have to tell the truth . Chaters are considered here Privates .
Chaters are killing the public school sistem and I Complained at the Superintendent Carlos Carbajo and he has no idea how to handle it because I was told that the’r have been treated the same way they are treated me !!!!
A post at Conservative Leaders for Education (CL4E) recommended DeVos for ed. secretary. The other candidates they endorsed, (1) Dr. Carlos Campo, former Gates Foundation education consultant and Regent University President, where the motto is Christian Leadership to Change the World. (2) Hanna Skandera (N.M.), who is a Pahara Aspen Education Fellow. (3) Lisa Graham Keegan (AZ), a recipient of an award from National Alliance for Charter Schools (the organization received $5.5 mil. in Gates’ grants). Other Alliance awardees include the Walton Family Foundation and Kim Smith (founder of NSVF -$22 mil. Gates’ grant-, Aspen Pahara, Bellwether, and TFA. All 4 received Gates funding).
Ohio Republican state senator Peggy Lehner (reportedly, her sister works for an organization, under the wing of Fordham), is a founding member of CL4E. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown asked for and received $71 mil. to expand charter schools in Ohio.
When Republicans and Democrats are complicit in plotting against public education, they are acting against students, taxpayers, communities and honest government, as both Lehner and Brown must know, given Ohio’s record.
One thing all charters have in common, whether they’re honest or corrupt: they buy their properties at public expense and own them.
When I tell that to charter-supporting friends (yes, it’s still possible to be friends with misinformed people ;-), they are aghast that the buildings, desks, supplies, etc., aren’t owned by the public. Two problems are immediately apparent:
If a charter school goes out of a business, the operators get to hold on to the property, no matter if it’s partially or fully paid off. It’s not just the students who are harmed. There’s no state takeover, and the public loses whatever investment it made.
The public pays rent—forever! Even if a charter school stays in business, and its building is paid off, the inflow of funds doesn’t get spread around or put to a better use, as in a normal school district. It simply becomes profit, and the public debt is never retired.
There’s no longer any question that the charter school movement, and the backing it gets from hedge funds and real estate investment trusts, is rent-seeking behavior. The operators are not in for the kids. They’re buying assets and commercial properties courtesy of the American taxpayer.
While corruption is a real problem—there’s no way to sweep it under the rug, even with more regulation—it needs to be made much clearer that charter schools are fundamentally anti-taxpayer. They not only give kids a worse education, they cost more than an investment in real public schools. We’re being ripped off by the “failing schools” narrative.
D L Paulson: well stated in clear and understandable terms.
Thank you.
😎
Your analysis demonstrates that the term “down the drain” is incorrect, it should be “into charlatans’ pockets.” The money is not gone, it’s just somewhere else rather than in the public interest.
Just the excerpts from the linked piece are damning evidence of how those (literally, not symbolically) leading and enforcing corporate education reform can entertain any number of ideas and claims—no matter how much their assertions and sales points clash with each other.
So Tom Watkins can claim that investors in the ed biz should “get a fair return on their investment” but supposedly not at the expense of “meeting the educational needs of the children.” So tying the profit motive to educational excellence is not working out as well as expected? And just how badly is it working out in reality, not rheeality, according to the self-same expert insider? So badly that “in a number of cases, people are making a boatload of money, and the kids aren’t getting educated.” Do rheephormsters, except when they are dealt out of the $tudent $ucce$$ loop, ever listen to their own prattle and engage in even the semblance of a process that involves looking at one’s own words and deeds and, when finding oneself wanting, then engaging in serious and genuine self-correction?
For just one example: just peruse the posting and linked piece and contrast the “boatloads of money” sans education remark with rheephorm’s preferred bludgeon against public schools, standardized test scores.
How terrible is this? Right about now I would pull out a quote from Dorothy Parker: “This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.” But I’ve already used that recently. No, I think we need to talk about the terrible #1 priority of corporate education reform as it actually exists and operates. And a few words attributed to Dorothy Parker will do just fine there too: “The two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘cheque enclosed’.”
😎
“Hope Academy, founded in Detroit in 1998, ranked almost rock-bottom — in the first percentile — in 2012-13.”
All of you negative nellies dissing charters. Look at the bright side!
There’s plenty of room for “growth”. . .
. . . in bank accounts that is.
Are all comments “in moderation” again?
What did Littlefingers Donald Trump really mean when he said he would drain the swamp?
The answer is obvious when we look at most of his selections for his cabinet and top posts in the federal government.
Draining the swamp means getting rid of the power of the federal government to hold the private sector libel for crimes, fraud, etc., by eliminating the federal public sector so it doesn’t exist.
For instance, I heard recently from a reliable source that a transition team from Donald Trump had already visited the leadership of the Veterans Administration, and the message was clear. They were there to start the privatization of the VA.
The VA’s leadership told them that was not going to be an easy auto process because much of the VA is protected by mandatory spending with specific language in that past legislation.
Mandatory spending is linked to legislation from previous administrations going back decades that spells out how that money is to be spent. That means the GOP in both Houses of Congress must repeal and pass new legislation to get rid of the old that stands in their way to privatize all of the federal public sector including public schools even though public schools in the U.S. are not managed or controlled by the federal govenrment. The states have that power. As long as a state is not dominated by the Koch/ALEC dominated GOP, the public schools in that state have a better chance to survive.
The VA has about $104 billion in mandatory spending and almost $80 billion in discretionary spending. Trump’s wrecking crew will find more success damaging the FA through the discretionary spending.
Likewise, the federal Department of education has mandatory and discretionary spending. Any defense to slow up the privatization of the federal public sector will be over any Koch/ALEC tea party/libertarian attempt to change mandatory spending.
As we go forward, watch for the Trump administration to illegally bypass prior legislation and move forward in defiance of court cases and any rolling that go against them. Littlefingers Donald Trump has had decades to learn how to manipulate court cases and we can be sure he will do the same thing here that he has done repeatedly to anyone who took him to court. Court cases will bog down and drag for years while Littlefingers moves ahead with dismantling the federal government’s public sector to strip it of any power it currently has. By the time these court cases have verdicts, many of them probably decades in the future after Littlefingers has been long buried six-feet under, it will be too late and if Littlefingers packs the U.S. Supreme Court with his own judges, the final verdicts, after years of appeals, will favor the damage he did.