In response to the report from “In the Public Interest” about waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars in California facilities funding, Laura Chapman responded that the state doesn’t care if it wastes money:
This shows why the state will do nothing about fraud, waste, abuse. This is current information about charter school financing in California.
Begin Quote:
Through the passage of Propositions 47, 55, and 1D, and most recently, Proposition 51, $1.4 billion has been made available to charter schools for construction of new facilities or rehabilitation of existing school district facilities.
The state-funded Charter School Facilities Program (CSFP) is jointly administered by the California School Finance Authority (CSFA) and the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC). CSFA directs the financial soundness review process for the CSFP and provides certification of financial soundness for purposes of Preliminary, Advance, and Final Apportionments.
The Charter School Facilities Program (CSFP) provides fixed rate, long-term debt to schools at underwriting terms that are set by the state – not the capital markets.
A $1.4 billion program, CSFP provides low-cost financing for charter school facilities; 50% grant, 50% loan. This money is used to finance the construction of new, permanent school facilities or rehabilitation of existing school district facilities for charter schools throughout the state.
End Quote.
Nobody cares about fraud waste and abuse.
A quick check at the Gates Foundation website shows $31 million invested in amping up charter school facilities in Los Angeles, 24 million in the state of Washington, and some recent funding to promote facilities financing in Boston–not much about $20,000–sent to Bellwether Education Partners , the go-to consultancy for all things for all charter schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is the latest ed reform idea:
http://www.publiccharters.org/publications/charter-accountability-district-run-schools-essa-create-contract-based-accountability-urban-public-education/
Turn all public schools into charter schools, but call them something slightly different.
They literally have ONE idea. Just one. Every single thing they write or say is basically the same- private contractors running public schools. They will not be happy until the last publicly-owned and operated school is shuttered.
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Save us!
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Chiara,
Feel some sympathy. The “reformers” have made grandiose promises for 25 years and none of them has panned out.
That’s embarrassing. Wendy Kopp said 25 years ago that TFA would lead the way so that “one day” all children will have an excellent education.
It’s time to start asking “when?”
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What happens if we rid the United States of the scourge of public schools and the contract schools and the voucher schools are not “better”?
What do we do then? How do we get public schools back? There’s no turning back from this. If it’s a mistake that we regret we’ll be stuck with it for the next 200 years because all of these elite politicians and experts would rather die than admit they made a mistake.
We’ll say we used to have a public education system but then we privatized it and that will be that- we won’t be able to undo it.
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Oh, there will be a way to undo. It will be like Ohio, where the public will be forced to pay to buy back assets acquired by these operators with public dollars. No problem enough $ can’t solve. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/09/15/charter-school-equipment-ruling.html
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DeVos is meeting with Moskowitz and Rahm Emanuel this week.
Does anyone at the US Department of Ed ever meet with anyone who supports public schools?
You would think they could spare 5 minutes for the schools 90% of kids attend.
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Chiara,
I enjoy reading your comments. Just want to say, “Thank you.”
Your comments regarding public education is spot on. We have had “questionable people” whose motives I highly question as Secretary of Education.
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They are all evil.
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Ellen Lubic was kicked out by WordPress and thus far has been unable to rejoin the conversation. This happens too often. People write and ask me why they are blocked, why they no longer receive posts, and I don’t know. I’m trying to get Ellen reconnected but in the meantime, here is her comment.
From Ellen Lubic:
Good exposition, Laura…however, you say “no one cares about waste and fraud” but I disagree with this statement. You might review Diane’s archives before the last California election wherein I wrote consistently about the FRAUD of Prop. 55 which had so much big cash from unknown donors to use to publicize what was called a ‘no brainer’ to raise vast amounts of taxpayer money for schools.
A close reading of Prop. 55 showed that much was to be used for CHARTER SCHOOLS…and also other things than public schools. It was sold as another ‘soak the rich’ edict and once again it worked.
Brown had forced, yes, forced on California, with threats of losing school buses plus cafeteria meals including free breakfasts and lunches for the largest population of students living in poverty than any other schools in the nation, his Prop. 30 for which he promised, as he lied, that the funding gouging taxation was only for one election cycle.
Then, in the last election he once again saw to it that the gouging continued with Prop. 55, now for 12 years, to finance his projects…including charter schools. No wonder business is fleeing from California to tax free states like Nevada. Even the deep pockets of those earning over $250K are not bottomless. All this time, California had/has a surplus in his ‘rainy day fund.’
LAUSD has a declining student population based not only on charter expansion, but on business climate and lower birth rates. Less money, but properly collected and fairly allocated, must be budgeted with transparency so the public (which foots these golden expenses) knows how OUR money is actually being spent.
Funding our public schools has been SHAM economics for many decades. Bingo parlors, Indian gambling casinos, and the lottery are ridiculous partners to choose to fund public education…and property tax under the even more ridiculous Prop. 13 of 1978 Howard Jarvis fame, is equally to blame for our problems. Not only homeowners are covered by this onerous law, but it covers commercial real estate as well…so that in boom times of flipping, a fortune is being made by those who pay hardly any tax, with the bulk of taxation being shouldered by new buyers.
Brown’s family is highly invested in charter schools (his sister Kathleen is a real estate partner at Manatt/Phelps, and she pushes charters to be funded by our taxes, as does he)…and he is a supporter of LAUSD BoE member and charter school owner Refugio Rodriguez whom Brown honored by placing him on a prestigious state commission on education.
This entire construct is all a house of cards…and NO ONE should have endorsed Prop. 55 especially those in other states who have no insight into long term California political maneuvering (and unless New Yorkers want to pay into this distorted California tax base).
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Spot on.
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And the kicker is…when the schools shut down, the owners get to keep the buildings, and get to sell off the supplies, furniture, etc. Win-win, Kaching. Who cares? Not the politicians. Not the grifters.
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Ellen, You are correct. I should not have said no one. I know that you, in particular, have been working for a long time to oppose the fraud, waste abuse, and terrible legislation in California. I am aware of others in California who are not passive, but angry as hell.
It is good to see that Diane found a way to get your comment in here in spite of the Word Press blockage.
I am not a resident of California but we have plenty of corruption here in Ohio, and part of it is a byproduct of national networks intent on demolishing public education. For example, several months ago I received an invitation to a regional meeting to discuss the state ESSA plan. I did some snooping, and found that the meetings were sponsored by an Ohio group and a free-lance consultant who identified herself as “the Ohio representative for the Gates Foundation.” I unearthed the history of that relationship, but the Gates-funded organization she worked preemptively stage-managed all of the regional “stakeholder meetings and citizen surveys” that the state was supposed to document as part of its ESSA plan. These meetings and surveys were rigged to keep anyone from bringing up the corruption in the charter and testing industries among other topics, like opting out, inadequate state funding, you name it. I did my best to get the word out but the press was indifferent to the rigged meetings.
Now of course, DeVos will not be having peer reviews of these state plans, except for three sections (out of seven). That has horrified the proponents of all the tests in ESSA so they have geared up to do “an independent review.” “They” are Bellwether Education Partners, operating with contracts galore from the charter industry, and the billionaire foundations determined to get rid of public schools. Bellwether has invented criteria for ESSA plans and have already started the publicity campaign for their reviews–due to be published in June, with a big budget for publicity.
It is late, and I am rambling…In spite of the WordPress blackout, you have not been silenced here.
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Bellwether’s founder, Andy Rotherham, is on the board of Campbell Brown’s “The 74,” or one of her groups.
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Dearest Ellen:
It is heartbreaking to read your comment. Thank you Dr. Ravitch for retrieving and to re-posting this..
There is no shortcut to cultivate and to educate the public. Greed leads to a systemic catch 22 predicament – one that lures the powerless, the ignorant, and the needy into a vicious cycle of suffering.
In short, the role of educators must one of spelling out the importance of supporting public education. The value proposition must be articulated and marketed well.
The pros and cons of public education definitely affect all classes of society – rich and poor alike – for both the short term and long term horizon.
For example,
A) Short Term:
1) In depriving the public of knowledge, the wealthiest of the current cohort will plunge the future of their entire nation into poverty. When one ceases to invest in the talent development funnel in one’s own nation, when skills are lacking to make a certain product mix, the lack of domestic skill profiles will lead to outsourcing production. It is in this outsourcing that the power of their nation will be outsourced as well. The fate of one’s nation will then be in foreign hands.
2) As the wealthiest grow old, they will suffer at the hands of foreign health care professionals when public education cannot product American talent.
B) Long Term:
A democracy can only survive when each citizen is truly empowered to think for himself or herself. An education is the necessary prerequisite towards becoming a meaningful contributor to democratic society. When we deprive our nations of public education, we have removed a fundamental pillar that supports the thriving of a democracy. Rather than an informed society choosing someone as their mouthpiece, it will increasingly become a desperate society seeking a king and shepherd.
More importantly, public education is about instilling a sense of meaning and worth in the citizenry. We understand that it’s hard to think about issues like global warming when one’s social reality is one of poverty – when the systemic forces of a community drowning in poverty affects every member into a downward spiral (like in Appalachia). It is for this very reason that public education is so crucial to survival of all.
At junctures like these, it is easy to use economic-speak to justify siphoning funds away from public education; however, it is a short sighted approach. When we invest in our young, in our future talent, the gains are immeasurable.
In the end, we all lose when common goods like Public Education, Public Pension, and Public Healthcare have been stolen from tax payers’ funds by corrupt Bankers / Brokers / Hedge Fund managers. Love you. May.
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Sorry for typo in “product”, it should read as:
“cannot produce American talent”
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A little off topic, but on the subject of waste is the following:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/politics/donald-trump-obama-travel-costs/index.html
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http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2017/04/10/a-quiet-change-in-indiana-law-could-mean-a-bigger-voucher-program-and-a-wild-ride-for-families/
Indiana passed another law expanding private schools.
Look at the work of your state legislature and see how much time and effort they expend on public schools. I think you’ll be surprised at what a low priority public schools have become.
There are whole sessions in Ohio devoted exclusively to charters and vouchers. 90% of kids in this state attend public schools. You would never know it to listen to our state legislators.
This is the effect of the ed reform “movement” in the real world. Public schools are an afterthought.
Public school parents have to demand more from ed reform. They have to insist that public schools not be treated as the disfavored, unfashionable “default” in the mad rush to privatize. Your kids are in these schools and these are your communities. Insist that the politicians you are paying provide some benefit to existing public schools.
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I think it’s tempting to believe that the anti-public school climate in DC and many state legislatures is corruption or driven by donors, but I think it’s actually worse, and bigger than that.
It is PERVASIVE in ed reform. It comes thru in every article and speech. It’s so baked-in I don’t even think they’re aware of it.
This is Richard Whitmire. His JOB is to promote charter schools. He sees nothing wrong with promoting charter schools.
But this is how he sees public school advocates:
“And yet, there’s hope for at least small amounts of collaboration, even in cities that have seen recent charter/district conflicts. That description fits Boston, where a fierce campaign by teachers unions and superintendents recently blocked a move to expand the number of charters in Massachusetts.”
Ed reformers cannot imagine that anyone would support any public school. They immediately characterize all public school advocacy as the work of “unions and superintendents”
Charter school advocacy is selfless but public school advocacy is icky and selfish.
That’s the kind of environment they’ve created.
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Chiara,
Richard Whitmire wrote a fawning biography of Michelle Rhee; he wrote a book celebrating the computer-reliant Rocketship Charter chain.
Do not be surprised when he promotes charters.
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He’s like a caricature of fawning ed reformer.
I get a kick out of what a snob he is- all his hagiographies of ed reform heroes begin with dropping the name of the Ivy League college they attended
They’re snobs. They think people who went to Ivy League colleges are better than other people.
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I had a parent who sends one child to a Catholic school and one child to the public school tell me she “chooses” the public school for one child because we have more courses.
We have more courses because we have 2000 students. If we had 1500 students we will have fewer courses.
This is the lie DeVos is promoting- that public schools will stay the same no matter how many students take vouchers.
This simply isn’t true. She’s selling a fairy tale.
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“Waste” is the wrong description. Men and women like Gates, Walton heirs, and Eli Broad and, their mouthpieces, like Gov. Walker, Mayor 1% and Duncan, are guilty of depravity. The word “waste”, minimizes effect and suggests only, a one-time loss. The horrible consequences of the oligarchs’ grifters, in government departments, in fake philanthropies and, in corrupt congresses, statehouses and the nation’s capitol will not be erased in this generation. This oligarchical theft, of the money that decent people committed to build their communities and nation, to ameliorate suffering, and to aid their fellow citizens will have profound, long term results. The consequences of 1 in 5 children living in poverty and, a crap shoot at safety, for the 99%, will rest on the heads of the economic elite’s children. Dismantling a system, created and built, to give the poor and middle class, equal opportunity for success, leaves colonialism as its legacy. The richest 0.1%, their families and, those who serve them, can never assume their safety, after they create a colony of oppression.
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Linda,
I love your last line. Yup. It’s why I always say that Versailles is now a museum. At some point, the oppressed will overthrow their oppressors
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Arizona just screwed every kid in the state who attends a public school and ed reformers are cheering:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizonas-grand-school-choice-1491865839
“Yippee! More budget cuts for public schools!”
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