We have seen how privately managed charter schools are exempt from transparency and accountability, thanks to the big bucks that pave their way.
But Utah is considering a new low for preferential treatment of charters. Utah legislators are discussing whether charters should have the power of eminent domain, to seize private properties for their own use.
Two conservative principles are at odds on this issue. First, Republicans have a high regard for property rights. Second, Republicans have in recent years become the party of privatization. So, who wins? Property rights or charter schools?
Consider the homeowner who opens his mail to discover that a corporate charter chain is taking charge of his home and he has 30 days to vacate the premises.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charters should have the right to seize property, jail and even execute people with no cause or due process.
Isn’t that actually in the Bill of Rights, the right of the people to bear and arm charters, against bears and others?
Not in the Bill of Rights, yet, Poet. But give Betsy some time. She hasn’t even had a year, after all.
Me gusta!
Apparently, United Airlines employees assume they can threaten a parent with loss of his children for an unwillingness to give up his passenger seat.
The proposal is entirely consistent with the charter industry’s sense of entitlement to everything, whether public or private, that grows the business. I await the first takeover by eminent domain of the private homes of the state and Congressional legislators in Utah.
Maybe the charter indistry should start with the community of Highland, the wealthiest town in Utah. About 3.2% of all residents live in poverty. They cannot afford the real estate.A typical home in Highland is worth $424,400. More at http://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/05/16/the-richest-town-in-every-state-2/10/
Housing affordability is a HUGE issue in Utah at this point. There is not nearly enough affordable housing for all who need it, and prices are rising astronomically. Utah doesn’t have a ton of land area available (especially in the urban Wasatch Front corridor), and is expected to grow to 9 MILLION in population (around 3 million today) by 2050.
Interesting comments. I thought that Utah was mostly uninhabited desert, strange that there is a land shortage. Interestingly, Alaska has a land shortage! There is a shortage of land suitable for urban construction, road accessibility, etc.
I have been to Utah a couple of times. I went to Deseret Proving Ground, to view the furnace, where obsolete chemical weapons are destroyed. It was the bleakest place I have ever seen (in the USA).
Every time I think that when Brigham Young, saw the Salt Lake valley, an uninhabited desert with a poison lake, and then he said “This is the place”. I get a chuckle.
Diane One wonders where the limits are.
The Outer Limits???
Hey, it harkens back to the time when Amurika was great again.
If these two opposing views of modern conservatives are indeed contradictory, they are not the only pair that would cause cognitive dissonance in a reasonable individual. How about the acceptance of both Christianity and the acquisition of large amounts of capital. That one goes back to Andrew Carnegie at least, who declared that God gave him his money. Then there is the complete acceptance of government money to take care of your own aged parents, but opposition to programs that help someone else’s children (those people are poor because they are lazy).
“Then there is the complete acceptance of government money to take care of your own aged parents”
Ummmm, no there isn’t, not even close.
This is nice:
“In the second phase of implementation, Bear Creek Middle shifted to focusing on selecting the tools and software platform the school would use and determining what effective use of that tool would look like. The school enrolled in the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) program to prepare teachers to use the selected tools and software in their classrooms with ongoing and instructionally embedded performance-based professional learning provided throughout the school year. Mr. Clay and the instructional team used the program-created performance tasks for educators and administered quizzes in order to probe teachers for the next tool that they would learn in the next session”
Look at that! Another product plug brought to you by the US Department of Education.
The only time they turn their attention to “government schools” (the schools with the dead end students) is when they’re promoting the purchase of tech product.
They may as well just turn that place over to Gates and Zuckerberg. Cut out the middleman. Then at least it would be transparent- we could be pitched product directly.
Slap the logos up on the building. Inform the consumer.
NEVER
Eminent domain has generally been used to seize private property for projects that are considered for the “common good” such as roads, military bases, and utilities. People are paid “fair market value” for the property. Unfortunately, that power has been expanded to the point that state and local governments today regularly condemn people’s property to transfer it to private companies in the name of “creating jobs” or increasing tax revenues. The charter lobby can afford to “buy” the requisite number of so called representatives to clear a path for developers. While this was never the original intent of eminent domain, selective charters are frequently the linchpin of flipping a neighborhood. Cities often work with developers to deliver properties in order to reinvent the neighborhood while producing higher ratables for the city.
Yes, this “common good” was the case until the Supreme Court ruling in Kelo vs. City of New London.
“Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005)[1] was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible “public use” under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
Recent Supreme Court decisions that have overturned precedent are the source of the vast expansion of power of corporations in recent times.
John Roberts basically perjured himself when he assured Senators under oath in his confirmation hearing that he would respect precedent.
Although Kelo v New London was actually before Roberts, Roberts was instrumental in The Citizens United decision.
All Americans should read Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution: How corporations are remaking America One state at a Time”.
Kelo v. New London is one of the “dirty dozen” worst Supreme Court decisions of the previous 100 years.
I expect that this is due to a situation with a charter in southern Salt Lake County that wanted to take a piece of land adjacent to the school from a nearby business. The reason the school wanted it was that the school is planning on rapidly expanding, much to the dismay of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is especially upset because the traffic during drop-off and pick-up times is horrible. The school hoped to essentially widen the road there to make it easier (who was going to pay for the road expansion? Unknown but probably they would have demanded the city pay for it). The school was turned down, because they are not a government entity that can exercise eminent domain.
The charter is partially owned by a state legislator. Many state legislators in Utah have large stakes in charter schools in one way or another, so they get all kinds of preferential treatment.
Remember that Utah spends FAR less ($6500) per pupil per year than any other state.
I have said for years that Utah is the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to destructive education policy. Here is another example. Watch Utah, folks, because if it happens here, it will happen elsewhere within a few years.
Threatened Out West Of course WE know charter schools are not public schools, and cannot be, on principle, and so regardless of what they call themselves. However, I can see the CONCEPTUAL movement and its logic taking hold (aka double-speak): (1) Charter schools get away with calling themselves “public” and get a pass at the legislature-level because of their love of conflict of interest; (2) “Public” schools are “government” entities by virtue of their being public; therefore, (3) charter schools can make use of eminent domain laws. They’re HEEEERRrreee.
Maybe we should start calling them “public-supported schools” so J Q Public doesn’t forget who’s paying the bills.
bethree5 Charters as “public-supported schools.” We’d have to make a very clear distinction, then, between real public schools (RPS) and charters (P-SS) (pun intended). OR we could just call them “fake public schools.”
“and charters (P-SS) (pun intended).”
Now you’re getting it Catherine!!
“The charter is partially owned by a state legislator.”
I think this statement explains why eminent domain is being considered in Utah. I cannot understand how this is not an ethical conflict. If any legislator or a close family member has an interest in a charter, they should not be allowed to propose pro-charter legislation, and they should have to recuse themselves from the vote. There is far too much nest feathering going on in state houses, and it needs to stop.
There is no ethics law for state legislators in Utah. I’m NOT making this up! It’s been brought up several times, but never passed. It’s sick.
One of the major state legislators, who has worked for 20 years to destroy education, is Howard Stephenson. He has stake in several charter schools, and has done everything he can to destroy funding for public schools and increase funding for charters. All you have to do with a group of teachers in Utah is to mention his name. Even those who are not political will groan. But his district keeps re-electing him.
The man who wrote the charter law is a former senator now, but he worked for and continues to work for Academica West. If you’ve heard of Academica, well, they’re the CMO that is under federal investigation in Florida. They “manage” a ton of charter schools in Utah. Another senator’s son also work for Academica.
Utah state government ethical?
Ha ha ha.
When I lived there, there was an “alternative” school in the news (basically a teacher monitored home study program) getting public funds that was headed by a sitting state senator who was paying himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary. One year I think he paid himself over half a million, justifying it with the claim that he had not paid himself a salary for the last few years.
Here is an article discussing the specific situation and what legislators are talking about doing: http://www.sltrib.com/news/5381935-155/who-if-anyone-wields-power-to
Now this is TOTALLY SICK. Charter schools SCAM.
Didn’t NY have this going on in some respect when public schools were forced to co-locate with charters?
It’s not just NY that has co-located charters. So does LA.
But this is even worse, as it would allow any charter to take property from PRIVATE owners, not just destroy public ownership, but now private, too.
When Mayor DiBlasio went to Governor Cuomo, asking for private charter schools to stop taking over space in existing public schools, he received the following marching orders:
You will not only continue to give over space in existing public schools, but also will provide and pay for any space in the neighborhood in which any charter wishes to set their beloved tent.
cross posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Utah-Should-Charters-Be-A-in-General_News-Accountability_Charter-Schools_Corporate_Diane-Ravitch-170723-5.html#comment667298
SEE MY COMMENTS there with embedded links to posts from this blog that show the charter FRAUD!
Carol Burris: The Broken Promises and Scams of the Charter Industry: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/06/22/problems-with-charter-schools-that-you-wont-hear-betsy-devos-talk-about/?utm_term=.60ec26865f96
Carol Burris notes inthis article that the NAACP passed a resolution last year demanding a moratorium on new charters until charters cleaned up their actions and policies.
Instead of doing some self-examination and trying to right what was wrong, the charter apologists attacked the NAACP.
Burris reviews some of the notable charter scams and corruption in the past year or so.
Back in the 1990s, when I was a Charter fan, I believed that charters would cost less money (no bureaucracy), but now they demand the same funding as public schools. The slogan of the day was that charters would get autonomy in exchange for accountability.
Now we know, 25 years later, that charters want autonomy with no accountability.
That’s a bad deal for students, teachers, and taxpayers. It does not produce better education. It robs public schools of resources. We are re-creating a dual school system. This is not Reform. It is a massive scam.
Here are just a few links to charter school scams and fraud across the nation that was posted here.
*SHOCKER! Massive Charter Scandal Stretches from Ohio to FloridaThe Akron Beacon-Joirnal reports on a multi-state charter scandal. http://www.ohio.com/news/local/multi-state-investigation-alleges-akron-area-charter-school-founder-bilked-millions-from-parents-students-taxpayers-1.776444 http://www.ohio.com/news/local/multi-state-investigation-alleges-akron-area-charter-school-founder-bilked-millions-from-parents-students-taxpayers-1.776444
A Nashville School Board Member Warns Kentucky and Mississippi about the Charter Scams: “This is unbelievable but true. A convicted felon who had served four years in prison for grand theft and arson was chosen as president of the board of a small Florida charter school, where she was convicted of stealing from the school. She is heading back to prison.You can’t make this stuff up.” https://www.facebook.com/AmyFroggeTN/posts/1650175358340055?notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic¬if_id=1499688411795230
KIPP-Houston Rips Off Poor Parents: Charter schools lain they are public schools. They are not. What public school is part of a corporate chain? What public school operates for profit? What public schools charges fees for service? http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/KIPP-schools-collected-millions-in-unallowable-11257006.php
The KIPP schools in Houston have been charging fees to poor parents. Now that the scam has been exposed, KIPP refuses to refund the money to parents who need the money far more than the multi-million dollar KIPP organizatio
*North Carolina: Employee of State’s Largest Voucher School Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $400,000Isn’t it great to be free of people watching over your shoulder when you are in charge of the money?That’s what the employee of North Carolina’s largest voucher school thought. He just pleaded guilty to embezzling $400,000 over an eight-year period from the school. http://ajf.org/employee-north-carolinas-largest-voucher-school-pleads-guilty-embezzling-nearly-400000-state-funds-eight-years/
“Consider the homeowner who opens his mail to discover that a corporate charter chain is taking charge of his home and he has 30 days to vacate the premises.”
And the new owner then proceeds to “rent out” the place to himself at an inflated rate and use it as a nice tidy tax write off.
This is sick. We have criminals in positions of immense power, both in our state and federal government. And if they’re not “criminals” per se, they’re the lackeys of those who are.
“So, who wins? Property rights or charter schools?”
That’s easy! The property right of private charter schools wins if the law is passed and signed.