A group of charter schools in New York State applied to the SUNY board for early renewal, but the New York Board of Regents slowed down the process, reports Lisa Egbert Litvin. They were right, she says, to insist on a careful review, not a rush to judgment.
Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post jeered at the Regents for insisting on due diligence, but what’s the rush?
Litvin writes:
“In a pointed response to NY’s Board of Regents, the NY Post recently wrote that “you’d have to be nuts” not to fast-track renewals of a number of charter schools. Actually, the opposite is true.
“As background, NY’s byzantine charter school rules authorize the SUNY Charter Schools Committee, a group of four men (3 lawyers and a businessman), to decide whether to renew many of NY’s charter schools. NY’s highest education body, the Board of Regents (a 17-member diverse group, including many life-long educators), is relegated to merely reviewing the SUNY Committee’s recommendations and giving feedback. Ultimately the SUNY Committee has final say.
“Over the past months, the SUNY Committee recommended that a total of 19 schools be pushed ahead for early renewal. The Board of Regents responded that these requests were premature, and that to ensure full accountability, a school’s renewal should be assessed in the year when its current term would expire, so that the most up-to-date data can be used.
“The Board of Regents was right to advise against the rush. In fact, the data submitted by the SUNY Committee shows problems so deep running through these schools that the discussion should turn to whether the model used by these charter networks is even sustainable.
“While the 19 schools are attaining high scores on the state’s standardized English and math tests, far too many of these schools are experiencing financial losses, negative assets, high suspension rates, and under enrollment.
“Specifically, over 40% of the fast-tracked schools are unable to cover their expenses, and are operating at a loss. In addition, over a quarter of the schools have been managed in a such a way that they report having negative net assets. Rather than pushing fast-track renewals of these financially stumbling schools, the SUNY Committee should be assessing whether these schools are financially viable and are worthy of taxpayer funding.
“Further, despite the claim of extensive wait lists, every one of the 19 recommended schools has failed to meet its target enrollments for struggling children, i.e. children with disabilities, English Language Learners, and economically disadvantaged children. This dereliction should be challenged, not rewarded with early renewal.
“Making matters even more profound, the suspension numbers are strikingly high, and against the trend in education to reduce suspensions and end the “suspension-to-prison” pipeline. The average suspension rate of these schools — none of which includes high school students — is a stunning 10%, with some schools as high as 20%, and even k-3 schools with rates of 12% and 14%….”
Almost all of the charters are Success Academy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Suspension to prison pipeline – Really?
There are prison pipelines but there is not a suspension to prison pipeline or a school to prison pipeline unless maybe the school is a corporate charter school working with the for profit, private-sector, prison industry.
I think it is safe to say that most of the children that are suspended live in poverty so poverty is the culprit, not suspensions. Lowering suspension rates will not solve poverty.
The results of poverty lead to suspensions and then to prisons.
Instead of suspending these children, there should be a cooperative effort from the bottom up with all interested and motivated stakeholders to find methods that overcome the damage that poverty causes to children that live in it. It isn’t their fault they were born into or fell into poverty.
Don’t expect anything to be done while Fake-President Donald Trump is in office. Don’t expect anything to change while the GOP holds the majority in both Houses of Congress and has a majority of justices in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republican Party is the party that supports racism and extreme punishment for even stealing a twinkie at a convenience store because of poverty wages, unemployment, and hunger.
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The NY Board of Regents are asking legitimate questions, and the SUNY Board, clearly in the pocket of Cuomo and the hedge funds, wants to push ahead. The Success chain knows how to cherry pick the most capable and compliant, and they have mastered how to eliminate anyone that does not fit their mold. Yet, over 40% of the schools are not solvent due to the high rate of expulsions and refusal to backfill openings. Moskowitz knows how to manipulate the system to play the “success” game. Moskowitz, herself, appears to be swimming in cash. We have no way of knowing how well these high performing students would do in a well funded, well resourced public school, but we do know it would be less costly and a more efficient way to serve these young people. Maybe the NAACP should weigh in on a recommendation to urge waiting since the Success model has been punitive and harsh toward minority children.
Cuomo and the hedge funds may want to clear a path for the connected Success chain before there is increased resistance to privatization from the public. Cuomo and Wall St are on a campaign to open up the state constitution, for which they will need a public vote. Maybe they are looking out for their prized privatized school before they launch their brutal attacks against teachers in the fall. Perhaps they are wary of public backlash. The NAACP’s support may be able to stop this political maneuvering by urging that no charter renewals should occur before schedule.
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That’s the key:
The Charter that cannot fail.
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I’m glad this is finally being looked at. There needs to be a real investigation into the many times that SUNY Charter Institute has bent its own rules to enable Success Academy to do something it wants to do — as well as the complete lack of any oversight except “the % of students passing state tests is the highest in NYC so it doesn’t matter if they suspend huge numbers, have high attrition rates, got to go lists, or lots of parents whose kids were drummed out are complaining”.
Yes, SUNY, it DOES matter and that is supposed to be what you are closely examining over a period of years. They have ignored them instead.
SUNY’s oversight consists of “Eva Moskowitz told us it (empty seats, got to go lists, model teachers caught on video, etc.) was just an anomaly so we want her to open lots more schools. And if she wants them in rich neighborhoods, we will happily comply.”
It is obvious that SUNY’s insistence that they should be the ones to approve non-certified teachers is because Eva Moskowitz wants more non-certified teachers so she can expand more easily.
Just like SUNY’s insistence that they should be able to approve charter pre-ks is because Eva Moskowitz decided she wanted to expand to pre-ks despite having bashed them as unnecessary.
It’s embarrassing what yes men they are. And it is becoming more than embarrassing now — it is becoming something that looks very much like something inappropriate is going on and pleasing Cuomo’s billionaire funders who are also Success Academy’s board members is the bottom line. Not oversight.
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