Florida has more than 600 charter schools. They open and close like day-lilies. Many operate for profit. The charter industry cannot rest so long as a public school remains undisturbed by the forces of disruption and greed.
A new law has been proposed law to open more opportunities for the industry. It is cynically named “Schools of Hope.” But hope is for the entrepreneurs, not the children.
The Florida House of Representatives passed the law two days ago on a party-line vote. One Democrat called the legislation “Most Children Left Behind”
Behind the new law stands Betsy DeVos’s mentor, Jeb Bush. Jeb will push privatization so long as there remains a public school in Florida, regardless of results.
This letter came from Fund Education Now, a parent group.
Status: HB 5105 “Charter School Turnaround Heist/Schools of Hope” passed in the House along strict party lines. No companion in Senate except Sen. Bean’s SB776, which is scheduled to be heard for the first time in committee on Monday, 4/17/17. Please take the time to read and understand the dangerous lie behind HB 5105 and why the Senate must stop it.
Take action now: Urge the Senate to reject Charter ”Schools of Hope” Turnaround language – No on SB776, block inclusion in Budget & “Train Bill”
Politics behind HB 5105:
Thirteen people filled out testimony cards in the House to speak on “Schools of Hope”/HB 5105; the sole proponent was a lobbyist from Jeb’s Foundation for Florida’s Future
Florida legislators chronically move cut scores while ignoring the more important measure of actual learning gains, a practice that deliberately throws schools in and out of A, B, C, D, or F status every year.
Case in point: the controversial “proficiency” language found in HB 773 which, if passed, alters the FSA cut scores again causing the pass rate to fall from 54% to somewhere between 27% and 39%, rapidly increasing the number of “D” and “F” schools, clearly benefiting “Schools of Hope.”
By allowing a “Schools of Hope” to open anywhere in a 5 mile radius from a “D” or “F” public school, legislators are ensuring that entire districts, even affluent areas, will qualify, triggering rapid charter growth.
Codifies a longstanding resentment that for-profit charter developers feel toward public school districts that charters aren’t being allowed to replicate fast enough.
Laws are passed every session to increase unmitigated charter growth.
Right now districts have multiple statutory options to aid in transforming a D or F school, only one of which is the transfer to a for-profit charter operator. Charter lobbyists and folks such as HB 5105 sponsor Manny Diaz, complain that districts don’t pick this option enough.
HB 5105 sweetens the charter pot by forcing districts to select the “transfer to for-profit charter operator” option and eliminating the district managed option entirely.
Send your letters now: Tell the Senate to reject the “Schools of Hope”/Charter Schools Turnaround Heist!
“Schools of Hope” do not ensure success for struggling students:
Students exiting their so-called “D/F” school become part of a large diaspora will be impossible to track to review outcomes, making it unlikely that the success or failure of “Schools of Hope” will ever be known.
The 77,000 students who currently attend D/F-graded public schools (2% of Florida’s 2.75 million public school students) are under zero obligation to attend the “School of Hope” situated within 5 miles of their current school.
“Schools of Hope” are under no obligation to provide transportation
Students who attend their so-called D/F school will be dispersed into the community, free to use the Opportunity Scholarships, Corporate Tax Credit/Private School Vouchers or the state’s liberal open enrollment policy that crosses all districts as well as the “School of Hope.”
Once the for profit charter “School of Hope” accepts the student(s) from the so-called D/F school, which could be as few as 1, they are free to host a lottery for the rest of the community
All the rhetoric about saving kids from so-called “failure factories” is a ruse. Under the “Schools of Hope,” nothing is guaranteed except the exponential growth of charter schools and the deliberate defunding of public district schools.
Triggers multiple ways for districts to lose schools and students, giving voters and parents no voice:
Gives for-profit charter developers access to a $200 million capital slush fund if they are willing to open a so-called “school of hope” within a five mile radius of any “D” or “F” public school, which opens entire districts to charter development.
Immediate transfer of D and F public schools into private, for-profit hands. Districts already have multiple statutory options to aid in transforming a D or F school, only one of which is the transfer to a for-profit charter operator.
Loss of public assets nearly $1 billion per year
Bill takes away district right to manage its own school
Establishes system of “Success” Charter schools that could be designated an independent district with its own taxing authority
Eliminates District managed option
Compresses the time-frame for schools that receive a D or F grade to be handed over to for-profit charter operator
Removes options from school boards for turn-around solutions
Picture of loss:
115 public district schools could be handed over immediately to corporate charter developers
450 additional public schools vulnerable to this charter school heist
77,000 students in those 115 public district schools under immediate takeover threat means the transfer of $555 million dollars to for profit charters per year based on UFTE of $7,420.58.
$200 million capital slush fund per year offered to for-profit charter chains willing to open a so-called “school of hope” within a five mile radius of any D or F public school.
For-profit Charter Chains not interested in struggling students:
Florida charters have demonstrated a chronic disinterest in this population.
Legislators are consumed with labeling children and schools with D or F, but unwilling to walk through the doors to see the remarkable work being done despite chronic underfunding
Charter Chains and legislators disregard the fact that struggling D or F schools face the deep effects of generational poverty that requires greater investment and support not “failure” labels and ridicule.
Charter chains know that struggling students cost more and are “not attractive” to a ‘for-profit” model
Legislators ignore District Success:
A prime example of this is Orange County’s successful Evans High Community School, which is a collaborative effort between the district, UCF and other agencies.
This level of student investment – at least $1M more per year per school – is something no for-profit corporation is willing to justify to its board
Florida has a history of constantly moving cut scores while ignoring the more important measure of actual learning gains, a practice that deliberately throws schools in and out of A, B, C, D, or F status every year.
“Schools of Hope” is based on a lie:
Florida’s A-F Accountability/school grades are based on a false premise since school grades almost always reflect zip code status
Florida’s constantly moving cut scores vs. the more important measure of actual learning gains throws schools in and out of A, B, C, D, or F status every year rendering the grades meaningless
Alters statute to include both D and F schools, exponentially driving up the numbers of schools available for take over
Florida Charter Schools have not lived up to their promises
State has spent $760 million on the building and operation of charter schools since 2000.
Majority of state funding for the construction and renovation of schools goes to charter schools.
U.S. Department of Education found no evidence to support the claims that charter schools ‘save children from “failing schools.”
Research shows that restarting a former public school as a charter school had no significant impact on math or reading test scores, high graduation or college enrollment
In 2016, Florida charter schools closures were the highest in the nation
HB 5105 “Schools of Hope” enticements offered to for-profit charter chains:
Gives for profit operators a $200 million slush fund,
Provides for-profit charter developers with a state tax-payer sponsored revolving loan program
Transfers federal funds meant for district schools to private entities
Forces districts to turn over public school buildings AND requires the school district to maintain them.
Exempts for-profit charter developers from school building codes, taxes, fees and assessments and state procurement laws.
Exempts for-profit charter developers from the current charter law and requirements that they close if they fail.
Exempts for-profit charter developers from the class size limits in our constitution.
Exempts for-profit charter developers from teacher certification requirements
Rescinds district-managed option for turning around struggling schools
Stretching the truth – calling Charter Chains “public”
Parents at Charter Schools have little recourse and must address complaints to a corporate school board whose members may not even live in the state.
For-profit Charter schools are run by corporate operators, are allowed to profit from publicly bonded real estate deals and are governed by separate school boards – all enriched by public dollars.
The 501c3 front door provides cover for a private, exceptionally lucrative for-profit back door charter operators that are exempt from transparency because they are private corporations
Legislators benefit from charter school growth. HB 5105 sponsor, Rep. Diaz, earns his living working for the unaccredited Doral College, which is owned by mega charter school developer Academica, the group that just won the state’s first district charter school takeover located in Jefferson County, The ink isn’t dry on the deal to serve 600 students and already Academica is petitioning the Florida Legislature for an additional $5 Million.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane: This weekend BookTV.org did a session on Charlottesville VA and the Jefferson legacy. One of the speakers there reminded viewers about why Jefferson thought public education was so important.
He said Jefferson saw public education as a stay against revolution–because the kind of education that went before (the wealthy and well-suited educate their children well) was tantamount to a prescription for revolution among those who saw and revolted against hoarding and injustice, especially where “we” had dispensed with any sense of the “right of kings” or the “natural” hierarchy of “blue-bloods.” Having wealth is a slim-to-none replacement for what was once a sometimes-authentic claim to quality.
That’s even more the case where communications are what they are today, and where the Press and transparency are still hallmarks of our political culture (though on attack as we speak). And this is hardly a new idea (the Roosevelts were well aware of it). But its danger seems totally FORGOTTEN by many who crave power today.
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“Having wealth is a slim-to-none replacement for what was once a sometimes-authentic claim to quality.”
I’m confused by this statement, Catherine. Are you saying that the “divine right of kings” is not an “authentic claim to quality”? If not what would be considered an “authentic claim to quality”?
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Hi Duane: The divine right of kings is a right to power (legitimate or not), not a guarantee of quality. Or more succinctly, might doesn’t make right.
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“They open and close like day-lilies.”: Be sure to file that sentence for inclusion in your next book.
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The crooked legislature in Florida are jumping on the DeVos bandwagon because they are emboldened to put another nail in public education’s coffin. I have already called my state senator, and I reposted your article on a community site. We have to do what we can to fight back.
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Sadly telling that so many who voted for Trump naively did so because they believed he would adamantly push Jeb Bush and the Common Core debacle out the door. How long before backlash against pro-JebBush/pro-CC action allows those constituents who choose to pull their heads out of the sand to see reality?
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Such vast amounts of public tax money is being skimmed away by charter schools and sent into corporate and private pockets that the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a report that, because of their lack of accountability to the public, charter schools pose a risk to the Department of Education’s goals. The report finds that “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals” because of financial fraud and the artful skimming of tax money into private pockets.
Even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its favorable reporting on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax dollars that are intended to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets and to the bottom lines of hedge funds.
The Washington State Supreme Court, the New York State Supreme Court, and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools at all because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions. That’s common sense to any taxpayer: Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money but have virtually no public record accountability of what they do with the tax money they divert from genuine public schools.
There are many tactics used by many charter school operators to reap profit from their schools, even the so-called “non-profits”, such as private charter school boards paying exorbitant sums to lease building space for their school in buildings that are owned by corporations that are in turn owned or controlled by the charter school board members or are REIT investments that are part of a hedge fund’s portfolio. There are many other avenues of making a hidden profit from operating private charter schools.
In addition to the siphoning away of money from needy schools, reports from the NAACP and ACLU have revealed facts about just how charter schools are resegregating our nation’s schools, as well as discriminating racially and socioeconomically against American children of color; and, very detailed nationwide research by The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA shows in clear terms that private charter schools suspend extraordinary numbers of black students. Based on these and other findings of racial discrimination in charter schools, the NAACP Board of Directors has passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion and for the strengthening of oversight in governance and practice.
Therefore, in order to assure that tax dollars are being spent wisely and that there is no racism in charter schools, charter schools should minimally (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that the charter schools are accountable to the public; (2) be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) be required to operate so that anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property.
Those aren’t unreasonable requirements. In fact, they are common sense to taxpayers and to anyone who seeks to assure that America’s children — especially her neediest children — are optimally benefiting from public tax dollars intended for their education. But, after the internal scams of charter schools become exposed to taxpayers through routine public reporting, the charter school industry will dry up and disappear, and the money that the charter school industry has been draining away from America’s neediest children will again flow to those in need.
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Read this to see how scary politics can be. Florida changes ranking/rating scale again. Purposefully making it look like more Schools are failing every year. This is just What Deal did when we had the increase In failing schools announcement right Before the session started in January l.
Sent from my iPhone
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First came tyranny by queens and kings (birth). Then came tyranny by dictators (some countries still do this). Now we have tyranny by corporations who own politicians.
RESIST! And tell your professional orgs to stop kissing politicians rear-end and stand up for public schools.
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What is “cut” rate? I am not familiar with the term and don’t want to interpret. I’d rather have an accurate understanding. Thanks … ecorso@earthlink.net
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The “Cut score” is the passing mark, or the mark between an A and a B, a B and a C, a C and a D, a D and an F.
Cut scores are subjectively determined. They can be moved up to create more failures, or lowered to create more success.
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