Legislators in South Carolina must have been following an ALEC script when they authorized Virtual charter schools to enroll students and take money away from their underfunded public schoools. Or maybe they were paid off by lobbyists. There is certainly massive evidence, even from charter advocates, that virtual charters get terrible results. Yet no matter how much they fail, they are never closed or held accountable.
Consider this report in the “Post & Courier” in South Carolina:
“Online charter schools have grown exponentially across South Carolina and the nation — and questions about their effectiveness are growing, too.
“Today, the state has five virtual charter schools that together enroll roughly 10,000 students, up dramatically from about 2,100 students nine years ago when the state’s first cyber schools opened. A 2007 bipartisan bill fueled their growth by authorizing the state’s virtual schools program, and since then, taxpayers have footed the bill to the tune of more than $350 million.
“Despite this hefty investment, online charter schools have produced dismal results on almost all academic metrics, according to state and district data. On average, less than half of their students graduate on time. At one cyber school, nearly a third of students dropped out last school year. Data from the S.C Public Charter School District, which oversees these schools, shows just one in two virtual students enroll for a full year.
“Supporters of online education, including U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, praise virtual schools for their flexibility, innovation and reach. For struggling, home-bound or bullied students, advocates argue, these schools are lifelines.
“But critics contend state taxpayers have spent tens of millions of dollars lining the pockets of the for-profit companies that manage these schools at the expense of their flailing students.
“It concerns me,” said Don McLaurin, chairman of the S.C. Public Charter School District Board of Trustees. “Right now, for a variety of reasons, the virtuals are having performance problems, at least some of them. … We may have more than we need.”
The online charters have a graduation rate of 42%, compared to the state rate of 82.6% for public schools.
But, says DeVos, we need more failing virtual charters because parents choose them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But don’t forget, Diane. They only favor “good” charter schools.
There’s an article in today’s Boston Globe about Mystic Valley Regional Charter School’s “vaunted” test scores. I’ve used my free articles for the month, but the sub-headline suggests there are questions about the legitimacy of what’s going on there: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/06/18/behind-mystic-valley-vaunted-test-scores-question-equity/WBGuiWfC61slPjiyr1wwsJ/story.html
cross posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/South-Carolina-Taxpayers-in-General_News-Charter-School-Failure_Charter-Schools_Corporate-Fraud_Diane-Ravitch-170619-472.html#comment663541
with this comment which has embedded links:
If you are in the dark about the end of public education in America, as education is sold to our people like health care, then read The Demolition of American Education | by Diane Ravitch | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/06/05/trump-devos-demolition-of-american-education/
and learn about charter school fraud by clicking here Charter school fraud | Search Results |
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school++fraud
at the site where Dr. Ravitch offers daily posts about the education in America,
Thank you, Susan, for your diligence and dedication.
They learned absolutely nothing from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
They have to know this. They used two whole states as labs for this experiment. They’re deliberately ignoring information that doesn’t fit the narrative because they have plenty of information and yet all these expansions go on anyway.
The public was told the point of all the standardized tests was the tests would inform decisions made by ed reform politicians, except they don’t “inform” decisions because they make the same decisions in state after state, no matter what the “data” says.
Instead we get goalpost-moving. Now “results” don’t matter. Now the goal is “choice”
Okay. If results don’t matter they can stop all the testing, right? If it’s “choice” (now) then they can scrap the tests.
Ed reform doesn’t hang together. It’s incoherent. The only real goal that consistently shows up is the goal of privatizing public schools. Everything else is endlessly elastic.
I have really low expectations for ed reform politicians. I no longer expect “support” for kids in public schools. All I ask now is they not actively harm existing public schools. That kids in public schools be CONSIDERED when these plans are hatched.
If I look thru the South Carolina legislative record will I find ONE day of work these folks put in in on behalf of kids in existing public schools? Why not? How do public employees justify not doing a lick of work for 90% of kids? Do they think they’re doing their jobs?
Cyber schools aren’t the real threat. The real threat is the full court press being conducted right now by ed reform to sell this garbage to every public school in the country.
If public schools resist or ask questions they’re smeared by DeVos and Co as “flat earthers” and “status quo” supporters.
Ignore her. Ask questions. Let her smear you. The public will thank you if you don’t sink a pile of their money into garbage and you’re not answerable to DeVos who will be safely back on her fleet of yachts when this ends badly. You’ll be left holding the bag.
Corporate Charter Schools cherry-pick the students they keep, the children that are obedient and do will on tests, and the rejects return to the public schools or … the virtual charter schools recruit the students that the corporate charter schools reject and recruit children that the public schools struggle to teach because for a variety of reasons, mostly poverty, these children are a challenge to work with.
The virtual charter schools don’t care if the children they recruit learn or not. It doesn’t matter to them as long as the money follows these children.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one day we read that the corporate charter schools sold lists of the most challenging children to teach, the ones they rejected or forced out, to the virtual charter schools.
How many corporate charter schools own virtual charter schools where they will send the children they label difficult to teach, and how many dysfunctional parents tired of their children causing trouble at school – all those phone calls from teachers and administrators – will turn to virtual charters to get rid of the problem?
Thanks, Lloyd! AGREE with YOU.
$350 mil. in S.C. – small potatoes. Ohio’s cost is in the billions. And, Ohio taxpayers recently chipped in $500,000 for legal fees involving the debacle.
The state Republican party is flush with cash from charter operators so, there’s that.