When the Orlando Sentinel published an in-depth expose of Florida’s unregulated, unaccountable, wasteful voucher programs, defenders of vouchers rushed to attack the series.
Remember, Betsy DeVos considers Florida the model that she wants for America.
Scott Maxwell of the Sentinel responds to the critics here.
The nation needs more journalistic scrutiny of the unscrupulous, fraudulent, and incompetent hucksters who are siphoning billions of dollars away from public schools with certified teachers. In Florida, it is $1 Billion a year, and that is only for vouchers, not charters, which has its own share of scams and frauds. In Michigan, the charter industry drains $1 Billion a year away from public schools, and the charters don’t get better outcomes than the public schools; many are far worse, and 80% are for-profit.
Congratulations to the Orlando Sentinel for scrutinizing Florida’s voucher schools.
For the first time ever, I add a newspaper to the honor roll of this Blog.
Here is an excerpt.
“The “Schools without Rules” series exposed scores of problems at these publicly funded schools — everything from forged safety reports to a school run by a pastor accused of lewd or lascivious molestation.
“Just as importantly, it exposed a wicked hypocrisy among politicians who scream for “accountability” for public schools but let anything go when your tax dollars are whisked away to private ones.
“This little-regulated system needs an overhaul. And the world needs more real journalists.
“Among the findings from reporters Beth Kassab, Leslie Postal and Annie Martin:
“Teachers without certification or even college degrees.
“Forged documents: Schools faked up clean bills of health from fire departments, which had found safety problems. Even after the schools were caught, state officials let them remain open.
“Shady hirings: Two teachers worked at voucher schools (the state calls them “scholarship” schools) after being fired from public schools for having porn on their school computers.
“Alleged crime: At one school for special-needs kids, suspicions of impropriety — among parents and even a teacher — continued until authorities arrested the school owner, accusing her of stealing more than $4 million in Medicaid funds.
“Troubling finances and learning environments: Two school were evicted from their locations for nonpayment of rent while the school year was still going on. Another shared office-suite space with a bail bondsman.”
If there were newspapers in every state willing to investigate the privatization of their public schools, the public would understand the scandal that is going on in the dark. In Ohio, local newspapers started paying attention to charter scandals, and it affected public opinion. In the past two years, charter enrollments have fallen in Ohio as the public understands the risks they are taking by enrolling their children in schools without roots and the damage they are doing to their public schools.
More coverage, please!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is the world that Steve Bannon and everyone that belongs to and supports ALEC wants for the rest of us, and they don’t care what the rest of us think.
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Ed reformers are going to find out that schools were regulated LOCALLY for a reason, and they better hope it doesn’t take a tragedy to re-learn the lesson.
They can’t regulate a state-wide network of publicly-funded private schools from a state education department. It’s a ridiculous idea. They’d have to hire an army of regulators.
I bet every single one of the parents who took one of these vouchers believes these schools are regulated and somehow meeting state standards because the voucher comes with the implicit stamp of approval of state government. They are going to get a nasty surprise when they find out NO ONE is overseeing them.
Illinois just signed up for this same thing. What is wrong with these people? Why do they repeat the same mistakes in state after state?
They allowed a community college student to run a “school” funded with public money in Florida? Are they nuts?
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What is wrong with these people – the privateers of public education?
From their perspective, nothing is wrong because what they are doing is exactly what ALEC wants, a for-profit capitalist society with no rules and everyone is on their own. If you can’t support yourself from cradle to grave individually or through your family, don’t expect any help from the state, because a socialist safety net takes money away from people who worship money as their god and can’t stand to see any of that wealth leave their vaults.
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It really is good. If I were in the Florida legislature I would immediately call a session to enforce fire safety in private schools. It is shocking they are falsifying safety certificates. I don’t know why the fire inspector didn’t shut that school down as soon as he discovered the school had submitted phony docs to state regulators- local fire inspectors have that power in Ohio- perhaps not in Florida.
It’s jarring to read local coverage of ed reform as compared to national coverage. I notice the same thing in Ohio- I’ll hear some national ed reformer going on and on about charters and vouchers and I’ll get a completely different picture from the local coverage. One would think the two tracks would converge and collide at some point, but they never seem to.
Maybe Illinois should go back and look at that huge voucher program they just jammed thru the legislature. Might want to re- think the huge voucher programs ed reformers are putting in all over now that someone is actually investigating them.
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The Florida legislature is so corrupt with so many members with conflicts of interests, the only hope is to clean house and get rid of the complicit crooks. Florida is not willing to regulate and the “laissez-faire” approach is putting children in danger.
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The part that amazes me about ed reform states is one can create a publicly-funded JOB for oneself. All you have to do is rent a storefront in a strip mall and- presto! You’re publicly-funded.
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I hope it makes a dent but ed reform is like a brick wall. It’s yet another year in Ohio where charter schools don’t “outperform” public schools but the charter lobbyists are hard at work on expansion:
“By expanding access to options including charters, choice advocates hope that more students will reap the benefits of attending high-performing schools. But do all families have charter options in their area? In this study, researchers chart the Ohio landscape and seek to answer two questions: First, where are charter schools located with respect to the poverty and racial demographics of their community? Second, do low-income families have equal access to charter schools?”
They want to plunk down some more schools because charter enrollment has been stagnant for the last 3 years. Time to expand!
https://edexcellence.net/articles/equal-access-analyzing-charter-location-relative-to-demographics-in-ohio
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Jessica Poiner should be ashamed of this shoddy research.
If she REALLY was a legitimate researcher, she would note that it is her own Thomas Fordham Institute who has been promoting comparisons of charters who don’t serve high needs children with public schools who do.
Somehow she doesn’t care one bit when charters exaggerate their results 1,000x more — and with more PR — than public schools do using even shoddier comparison methods.
Someday I hope these shoddy researchers have to answer for their complicity in the pro-Betsy DeVos movement to undermine public schools. Every one of them at those DeVos-approved think tanks getting paid a generous salary to throw away vulnerable children.
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^^^I’m sorry, I was reacting to another study. In this one, Jessica Poiner doesn’t ask WHY there are so many charters already that are not located in the most needy areas. She just says we need more despite every evidence demonstrating that they will not locate in needy areas!
“What might be surprising, though, is that charters are less likely to locate in the very highest-poverty areas of these districts.”
What is surprising, Ms. Poiner, is that you can include that fact and then say “more charters without regulation!” instead of saying “something is terribly wrong with the movement because they are not serving the students they were supposed to serve.”
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Thank you for the story many of us parents had tried to get help when we seen what was happening even went to Representative Jennifer Sullivan for help and showed facts and nothing was done in stead she voted even more for private schools with no accountability as a parent I see this as a big money racater and have proof to back my words
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