The lower house of the Kentucky legislature passed a bill authorizing charters. The bill has moved to the Senate. It is moving quickly. Kentucky is one of the few states that does not yet have privately managed charter schools.
Parents of children in public schools have started a group called “SaveOurSchoolsKy.” To support their cause, I wrote this opinion piece, which was published in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The federal government continues their publicly-funded “public schools suck!” campaign:
“President Donald Trump is expected to focus his Nashville speech Wednesday on repealing Obamacare and on school choice, multiple sources confirmed to The Tennessean.”
Listening to them one would think “failing” was part of the phrase ‘public schools”
Not that any of them attended a public school. Hell, they won’t even hire public school graduates to run public schools. Private school graduates only need apply because everyone knows private schools are better than the public schools the vast majority of the public attended.
How much is this event promoting private schools going to cost? Half a million dollars at least, including the elaborate security measures they use to insulate them from any actual contact with the public.
What a shame. A whole administration and 500+ members of Congress who have decided public schools should be eradicated- the same schools 90% of kids attend.
Is there one adult on the public payroll in DC who works on behalf of the unfashionable “public sector schools”? Can we get ONE to work for 90% of kids?
“President Donald Trump is expected to focus his Nashville speech Wednesday on repealing Obamacare and on school choice, multiple sources confirmed to The Tennessean.”
Can this be confirmed? Teachers plan to be there from all over TN.
“Half a million dollars at least,”
?? Just renting the auditorium and local security will cost that much.
Access The article requires accepting a ton of ads or subscribing. I am sure you presented a great case against charters, especially unlimited expansion.
If you’re a public school parent in Kentucky ask your legislators what they have accomplished to benefit the public schools in the state this session.
Demand specifics. It’s March and the session probably started in January and my guess is “nothing” because all they have worked on is this charter school bill.
Ohio lawmakers once spent a whole year on charters and vouchers. It was literally all they did. They worked on the 50th variation of a “choice” bill for 9 solid months.
Sadly, none of the 90% in a public school noticed because at this point they’re all but irrelevant to public school parents and students in the state, but still. They should do more than 10% of their job.
Parents in the state should organize an offense against the assault. I hope they fight. All they have to do is look at other states that have drunk the privatization “Kool-Aid.” It’s full of poison that will suck the life out of your communities.
Parents are fighting back in a group called Save Our Schools KY
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ma-charter
If you want some detail on how the charter industry thrives, read this article (free download) by four scholars titled: “Are Charter Schools the Second Coming of Enron?: An Examination of the Gatekeepers That Protect against Dangerous Related-Party Transactions in the Charter School Sector.”
This was just published in the Indiana Law Journal. Here is the abstract.
In 2001, Enron rocked the financial world by declaring bankruptcy due to the effects of an accounting scandal. Special purpose entities (SPEs) were instrumental to Enron’s demise. Enron parked assets in the SPEs to improve its credit rating.
Enron violated accounting principles by not revealing that its SPE partnerships were related-party transactions. Andrew Fastow, who was Enron’s CFO, made millions of dollars by managing the SPEs. He also used these illegal proceeds to invest in other ventures. Enron’s gatekeepers failed to protect against this accounting fraud.
Related-party transactions are now posing a threat to the charter school sector. Similar to Fastow, individuals are using their control over charter schools and their affiliates to obtain unreasonable management fees and funnel public funds into other business ventures.
In this article, we discuss how some charter school officials have engaged in Enron-like related-party transactions. We also identify several measures that can be taken to strengthen the ability of charter school gatekeepers to protect against this danger.
This article is divided into four parts. Part I describes how Fastow used his management of Enron and the SPEs to obtain illegal profits. Part II discusses why financial sector gatekeepers failed to stop these related-party transactions. Part III shows how charter school officials are benefitting from their control over charter schools and their affiliates in a manner similar to Fastow. Part IV analyzes pertinent statutory and regulatory provisions to identify steps that can be taken to increase the gatekeepers’ ability to protect against harmful related-party transactions.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2924886
Laura,
Spoiler alert: I am already planning to post that article!