Carol Burris has been traveling the nation investigating states where choice is flourishing –and public schools are being underfunded to pay for choice.
She reports here that the public has little idea of the waste, fraud, and abuse that is embedded in the school choice movement.
Many taxpayers don’t know that every dollar that goes to a charter or a voucher is subtracted from the community public schools.
She asks the billion-dollar question:
The Washington Post published a 2013 story detailing issues at private schools that accepted public funds from the federally funded voucher program approved by Congress for the nation’s capital. It said in part:
[A] Washington Post review found that hundreds of students use their voucher dollars to attend schools that are unaccredited or are in unconventional settings, such as a family-run K-12 school operating out of a storefront, a Nation of Islam school based in a converted Deanwood residence, and a school built around the philosophy of a Bulgarian psychotherapist.
I suspect that Betsy DeVos and her followers would say that all of the above is the price we must pay to keep charters free of regulations. But if regulations are the problem, and deregulation the solution, why don’t the “choicers” push to deregulate public schools? Shouldn’t their creativity be unleashed as well?
Time to wise up.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
PLEASE:
Go to WTTW/ChicagoTonight/the holocaust on the internet. Click on “New book seeks to answer the Why, Explaining the Why behind the holocaust.”
It could well be the most important program you may ever watch. Note the comparison between Germany and what is happening in the U. S. now.
Do NOT miss this. You can view the author speaking about his book. He is not Jewish, just a superb historian. He gives background which was unknown to me heretofore.
Too: For those who have disparaged Dr. Ravitch using her blog to bring focus on Trump please note that the doomsday clock has just moved closer to midnight when the world will be incinerated primarily because of Putin and Trump. It has not been this close since the ..50s.
Further, if you can watch Deutsche Welle TV, I watch the evening program with a man announcer, in Chicago at 10:00 PM it is more than worth your while to catch it. The last several nights have focused on the news of the U. S. focusing on how Europe perceives Trump.
We have, if not lost, certainly lost the bloom of our right to lead the world in human rights because of the “words matter” of Trump.
Put together, those disparaging Dr. Ravitch on this blog for the Trump debacle should understand WHY, the tremendous importance of becoming educated yourselves on the horrendous danger we ALL face.
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….and the public will continue to have little idea about the damage school choice does.
….and politicians will continue to disregard any real examination of the damage school choice does.
What’s the plan for waking politicians up on this?
….and don’t say that the possible shoot-down of DeVos will be a first step. Reports today are showing the the wall dems are building against DeVos is about her lack of competence, not really her ideas (most dems support reform, privatization, and choice). The dems are most likely going to negotiate with republicans on who would be a “better” sec of Ed…..one with the same ideas as DeVos but with better credentials. Dems like their Ed reformers to have that all important veneer of competence….an Ivy degree and some half-baked connection to education would do.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/01/27/sen-franken-no-democrat-will-vote-for-betsy-devos-as-education-secretary-and-were-seeking-republicans-to-oppose-her/?client=safari
The Dems will not be our saviors. We have to force them to be on our side in detail or lose it all.
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….and the public will continue to have little idea about the damage school choice does.
….and politicians will continue to disregard any real examination of the damage school choice does.
What’s the plan for waking politicians up on this?
….and don’t say that the possible shoot-down of DeVos will be a first step. Reports today are showing the the wall dems are building against DeVos is about her lack of competence, not really her ideas (most dems support reform, privatization, and choice). The dems are most likely going to negotiate with republicans on who would be a “better” sec of Ed…..one with the same ideas as DeVos but with better credentials. Dems like their Ed reformers to have that all important veneer of competence….an Ivy degree and some half-baked connection to education would do.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/01/27/sen-franken-no-democrat-will-vote-for-betsy-devos-as-education-secretary-and-were-seeking-republicans-to-oppose-her/?client=safari
The Dems will not be our saviors. We have to force them to be on our side in detail or lose it all.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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See post on this at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/What-taxpayers-should-know-in-General_News-Choice_Fraud_School-Reform_Schools-170127-756.html
with my comment which has embedded links at the address above.
“KNOW THE TRUTH about the end of public education; Dr. DIANE RAVITCH, former Asst Secretary of State, and author of How Not to Fix Our Public Schools and Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools has published an article for the Chronicle of Philanthropy about how the big foundations paved the way for Betsy DeVos’ nihilistic campaign to privatize public education.
“Trump has promised to reallocate $20 billion in federal funds to promote charter schools and private-school vouchers and selected billionaire Betsy DeVos — who has long devoted her philanthropic efforts to advocating for charters and vouchers — as the next secretary of education. After the election, her American Federation for Children boasted of spending nearly $5 million on candidates that support school choice, not public schools. Read more here, https://dianeravitch.net/2016/12/14/how-the-billionaire-boys-club-paved-the-way-for-betsy-devos/ by Dr. Ravitch on how the billionaires paved the way for Devos, and how they are ending public education with their ‘philanthropy”!
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The public has been deliberately kept in the dark about the consequences of “choice.” Many people believe choice is like a buffet, but it is a zero sum buffet. If you take too many items on the table; other people go hungry. The public needs to be made aware of this. Most parents also do not understand that most “choice” options will equal turning their children over to a corporation. Corporations have tried to get the public to believe their schools are “public schools” when the only public aspect is the funding. Most of the public does not realize that vouchers are a waste, and so are various renditions of cyber instruction. All of these “choices” are not improving outcomes for students, and many of these options are reckless and short sighted.
I agree that Democrats are not going to save public schools. A coalition of parents, teachers, civil rights and justice groups stand the best chance of stopping the forced takeover of public education. It will take organization, resistance and perhaps civil disobedience and litigation to fight back. This past year has seen a shift in public opinion that has been reflected in a change of tone from the media. More stories are coming out about waste, fraud and poor results from many charters. We have to start putting more pressure on our representatives. Bloggers like Diane are starting to be read by more people, and the public is gradually becoming more informed about the great public school heist.
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@dianeravitch PLEASE come back and speak in Nebraska! Governor Ricketts is all about school choice and charter schools! Teachers and administrators work so hard in public schools to ensure ALL students are receiving an equitable, comprehensive, and rigorous education to prepare them to be future leaders. When state governors, such as Ricketts, sees opportunities to make more money off of the public school system (ultimately defunding and bankrupting the public schools) the students and our future will suffer. I believe Governor Ricketts should be listening to the teachers and the people of Nebraska when we stand up and say We Love Public Schools!
@NElovesPS
@GovRicketts
Sincerely,
Dawn Mathis
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*seize (sees…public school teachers work hard and it has been a long week…just as I tell my students to proofread I should have done the same. Dang passion for public schools sometimes gets me fired up)
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School choice math
Given: 10 students x 5K = 50K, 2 special ed x 20K = 40K
total: 12 students at 90K
Next: voucher and charter schools divide 90/12 give themselves 7,500 per student vouchers and four students take the vouchers and leave with 4 x 7.5 = 30K
Left: 2 special ed with 40K of mandates and 6 public school students with 50K – 30K = 20K
20K/6 = 3,333 per student
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You should give this math lesson to our representatives as many of them act like our public education budget is an ATM for private schools. Public school parents need to stand up for the rights of their children to attend a well resourced school, and pressure representatives to hault corporate raiders’ access to public education funds.
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Welcome back TC!
Could you do the math how corporate erase the regulation (deregulation) in order to avoid tax duty to the society?
Could you do the math how corporate earn billions of dollars within a period of 10 and 20 years? (Trash environment; causing sub-prime mortgage crisis; spill oil in ocean; encouragement of experimental drugs for mental illness and depression; pay worker below living cost; infusion of terrorized act…)
Could you do the math for damage that corporate has done to America and its people when corporate give technology away for China to manufacture for cheap labor and cheap product?
Could you do the math to calculate how corporate elaborate with Russia, China and Saudi Arabia to trade our precious water, advanced weapons, and intelligent resources (idea and creation) for oil and war at the cost of American soldier? Sigh!
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It is great to see this article by Carol Burris in WaPo’s Answer Sheet column. I have long thought that the best way to fight the splintering of our pubsch sys is to publish many many such articles informing taxpayers of the nuts & bolts: the premium cost of school choice vs its failure to improve ed outcomes.
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A great argument here: “…if regulations are the problem, and deregulation the solution, why don’t the “choicers” push to deregulate public schools? Shouldn’t their creativity be unleashed as well?”
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The only deregulation of public schools that “choice” supporters would want is busting the unions.
They attribute more power to the unions then they actually have.
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