Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy and former deputy commissioner of education in Ohio, laments the commercializations that charter schools have introduced into K-12 schooling, while claiming to be “public schools”:
He writes:
“For sale: A school–The practice of buying and selling charter schools signals the complete disconnect between school and community
“The greatest human-inspired public institution-the common school-was created as a school for all children. The nexus between the community and the common school is powerful in the lives of school children; charter schools are not community-based entities.
“Parents in a school district would be shocked if they opened the morning paper and read the headline: School district for sale. That happens in the charter world.
“Charter school organizations are bought and sold. Ron Packard, former CEO of K12-Inc. (in Ohio, K-12 Inc. operates the Ohio Virtual Academy) left K-12, Inc. and started a company that has purchased several charter schools in Ohio. This practice of buying and selling charter schools demonstrates the complete disconnect between school and community. Charter schools are not public.
“The common school is not a for-profit business enterprise. It is a community institution of the community, by the community and for the kids of the community.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There are many excellent privately-run universities in this nation. There are many excellent privately-run vocational/technical schools in the USA.
There are many fine privately-run K-12 schools operating here as well.
This is a good thing, and beneficial to our society.
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Charles,
I’m all for private schools as long as parents pay for them. No government money!
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And I benefitted from my K-12 Catholic schooling. . .
. . . it cured me of the god syndrome!
And it was a decent education overall. But some of the shit we endured from the nuns and the priest in grade school, well let’s just say if that were to happen in a public school today the nun/priest would be walked out in handcuffs to the awaiting police car. Now that is not meant to paint all of the nuns, brothers and priests in a negative light. There were quite a few brothers in high school who were more in tune with the “liberation theology” sector of the Catholic Church and who sought to broaden our mental horizons. To them I tip my hat!
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Did you have a point? Or, as my mother would say, do you just like to hear yourself rattle?
The point of this particular post is the buying and selling of schools. Please enlighten us on why that is acceptable? Which of these “excellent” privately-run universities have been bought or sold in the past, well, four hundred years?
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There are many excellent privately operated vocational/Technical schools in this nation. I attended the Cleveland Institute of Electronics, and the National Radio Institute.
AT&T and DeVry are other examples of excellent privately-run vo-tech schools.
Privately run education has been in this nation for many years. So what?
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Good to see this posted for wider distribution. Bill Phillis brings experience and clarity to the project of exposing the marketing hype around charters, and also vouchers.
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“The hype” around contractor schools.
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Real estate is a significant part of charter schools manipulations. The leasing deals in which charters lease properties back to schools at inflated rates are one of the sneaky systems used by unscrupulous management companies. Selling off buildings that were paid for by taxpayers is another way charter schools profit. This shady practice makes taxpayers pay twice for an asset that belongs to a private entity. This is another scheme to move what should be public assets into private pockets. It is no wonder that hedge funds and vulture capitalists are lining up to take advantage of this easy money deal. When are taxpayers going to catch on to the fact they are being robbed?
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What are citizens able to do in an oligarchy?
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Not exactly on topic, but worth considering. There is a phenomenon, of children illegally attending schools that are not in the district that they reside in. Here in Metro WashDC, some parents in Prince George’s county Maryland, will get a “ghost” address in WashDC, a relative or friend.
Then they enroll their children in a WashDC school, with the false address. The parents set up an “underground railroad”, and transport their children to/from WashDC schools.
You can go to any DC school, and see the cars with Maryland license plates, bringing/collecting their children from DC schools!
The DC schools get no tax revenue, and the Maryland parents pay taxes to a school system that they are not using.
In New Jersey, sometimes, police follow children home, to make sure that the children are not illegally enrolled in a public school.
This is insane. Why not set up an educational “common market”, and permit children to enroll at the PUBLIC school of their parent’s choice. The WashDC school, could send a bill to the Maryland school system, and get renumeration for each Maryland child that is enrolled in DC. This program could work intra-state, and inter-state.
The public school administrators, and the teacher’s unions surely would not object, as long as the children were going to public schools.
How about it?
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Charles,
Your hostility to unions (which have done more to create a middle class than any other institution in our society) and to public schools is revolting. You are a true and unrepentant reactionary.
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I have nothing against unions, my ex-wife belonged to the International association of machinists and aerospace workers. I am not hostile to publicly-run schools.
A reactionary is a person opposed to change. I support change.
“We live in a world in which the only constant is change” -Heraclitus
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You, Charles, are a rightwing reactionary who wants to destroy public schools and divert funding to religious schools, even those that teach hate.
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Q You, Charles, are a rightwing reactionary who wants to destroy public schools and divert funding to religious schools, even those that teach hate. END Q
That is not true. There are many fine public school systems in the USA, and many fine public schools. Some of the finest are right here in Fairfax County, Virginia.
I am in favor of giving parents more control and options, in determining the educational path of their children.
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Assuming things are as you present, why don’t we look at what’s going wrong in Prince George’s County, Maryland and fix that? Why should parents have to transport their kid miles/hours just to get a school that’s well funded/resourced, integrated and safe?
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In a perfect world, the publicly-operated schools in PG county, would be at least equivalent to the schools in WashDC. Sadly, that is not the case. Many parents in PG County fraudulently enroll their kids in DC schools.
see
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/10/dc-government-chooses-maryland-kids-over-tax-paying-residents-for-school-slots/
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/07/maryland-parent-uses-dc-apartment-to-prove-residency-so-kids-attend-district-schools/
Two individuals, Washington DC police officers, illegally enrolled their children in WashDC schools for over ten years, and were fined a half a million dollars. see
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/md-family-that-sent-kids-to-dc-public-schools-must-pay-more-than-500000-fine/2016/07/28/b7f3656c-54eb-11e6-b7de-dfe509430c39_story.html?utm_term=.798bc66060cd
There needs to be something done to the PG county schools, to bring them up to standard. There could also be an educational “common market”, The adjoining school districts, could set up an arrangement, to enable parents to enroll their children in the public school of their choice, and then arrange to have tuition paid from their jurisdiction of residence.
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Yes, that is an abhorrent practice. But the blame falls not on the district but on the parents.
Having been through a divorce and having the ex move out of the district but insist that my daughter go to the district’s high school for her senior year was wrong. I kept the house I was trying to sell for an extra year so that, at least she could come and live with me (I had custody every other weekend). And in doing so I got burnt by the housing collapse of 08-09. I didn’t agree with what the ex did at all, but hey she’s the lawyer not me.
As far as your suggestion. At first glance it doesn’t seem too bad, but as always the devil is in the details. The first detail is that each state is constitutionally mandated to provide a free education for all its children. The second detail is that in many states each district is legally responsible for the children in the district. They are not responsible for children in other districts.
The assumption that you make in your suggestion is that all public schools can be lumped into one “system”. That assumption is false in its basic premise as there are over 13,500 different different public school districts. I know I’ve pointed this falsehood our to you before.
Why do you insist on basing arguments on that falsehood (and I could easily call it a lie), Chas?
I don’t believe that you think using a falsehood as you are is a good thing. Am I correct?
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I do not find the practice of parents selecting the best possible education for their children to be “abhorrent”, as long as it is done, within the law. It is sad, that so many parents in Prince George’s County, Maryland, have to enroll their children illegally in WashDC public schools.
True, WashDC is not “required” to provide a publicly-financed education to children who are not DC residents. Nevertheless, they have a mechanism in place, to accept non-DC children, who can pay tuition.
All that needs to be worked out, is to set up a pathway, to enable the Maryland school system to transfer the funds to the DC school system. It should not be too hard to do this.
I never thought that all public schools are “one system”. That is absurd. There are a multiplicity of school systems, all over this land. Only in the state of Hawaii, is there one state-wide school system.
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“I never thought that all public schools are “one system”.”
Then why do you keep on referring to the “public school system”?
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Q Then why do you keep on referring to the “public school system”? END Q
I did not notice. The correct phraseology should be “public school systems”.
To be fair, the USA has a multiplicity of public school systems.
point taken
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Corporate Charter schools are ushering in an age where local communities and parents have little say over the education of their children because those children are now a commodity and not a person.
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Are we returning to the era where children were commodities when the number of children attending a corporate charter school is counted as part of the value of that school? For sure, a charter school with thousands of children is worth much more than one with a hundred.
“The federal child labor provisions, authorized by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, also known as the child labor laws, were enacted to ensure that when young people work, the work is safe and does not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities.”
Before 1938, children in states without similar laws were a commodity and the property of their parents/guardians and those children could be sold into servitude that might mean working in a factory 14 hours a day 6.5 days a week, a coal mine, or even a house or prostitution at a pre-teen age.
Watch for it – when the corporate charter school industry pushes for laws that allow them to indenture children (parents/guardians must sign a contract that says so for the child to be allowed into that school) as students so the children they want to keep can’t leave.
That will legally end the risk that children might leave a corporate charter school, for any reason, causing that for-profit school to lose value or even go bankrupt.
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