The lack of accountability and transparency, as well as the ineffectiveness, of many charter schools is awakening politicians, even in choice-obsessed Indiana. Fraud is an ongoing problem in the absence of public oversight.
“Two Indiana senators — a Republican and a Democrat — are calling for the state to reform how charter schools are overseen.
“Sen. Dennis Kruse, an Auburn Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Sen. Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat also on the committee, have each proposed a bill to ensure charter school authorizers cannot open new schools or renew charters without evidence that students are learning.
“The bills come two months after a Chalkbeat investigation revealed that while the small Daleville Community School District charged with overseeing Indiana Virtual School has appeared to follow state law, it isn’t necessarily meeting the needs of the school’s thousands of students.
“The district was on track to earn at least $750,000 in fees last year overseeing Indiana Virtual, which over its six-year lifespan has earned two F-grades and, in 2016, managed to muster only single-digit graduation rates. The school continues to bring in millions of state dollars for its students, and in September, opened up a second school, also chartered by Daleville.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just sent this blog to my state Senator Niemeyer (R-IN) and Representative Slager (R-IN). Hope they see it and act appropriately. Thank you, Diane for the information. I also sent this post to friends of mine who live in Indiana and are progressives.
…………………..
Dear Senator Niemeyer and Representative Slager,
I do hope you are aware of this bill and put all of your political power into supporting it. The children of Indiana deserve better than what they have been getting.
“Sen. Dennis Kruse, an Auburn Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Sen. Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat also on the committee, have each proposed a bill to ensure charter school authorizers cannot open new schools or renew charters without evidence that students are learning.
Sincerely,
Carol Ring
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I’m surprised it’s Indiana because the charter problems in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania have been well-documented and covered in local media but outside of Fort Wayne Indiana (which is sort of a pro-public school outlier) there had been much less discussion in Indiana.
Indiana has the same set of problems but it has gotten much less attention. I suspect it’s because Indiana has a weaker political opposition- it’s more of a one Party state than OH, MI and PA. There’s literally less debate over privatization, less diversity of opinion.
I can say unequivocally that without local newspapers the problems would never have come to light in Ohio. Ohio has a solid local newspaper in every urban center- that has made all the difference in the world.
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For example, everyone talks about how 80% of Michigan charters are for-profits but Indiana has a robust for-profit charter chain sector and it’s rarely mentioned.
It’s funny how the QUALITY of the debate over whether we should privatize public schools varies so widely. There are ed reform dominated “deserts” where there is no real debate at all. There are places where they’ve so successfully dominated the discussion that there’s literally no dissent. Indianapolis is basically non-stop charter cheerleading at this point- they own every lobbying group and every non profit. Compare that to Toledo where ed reform never really “took hold” despite efforts to “flood” that city with charters and lobbyists in 2010-12.
You wonder what the differences are- why some places are more resilient and have a real debate and others turn into ed reform monoliths.
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“The bill would require the Indiana Department of Education to create rules by Nov. 1 to prevent charter school organizers from committing financial or enrollment “fraud, waste and abuse.” Schools would also have to submit an annual report that includes audits, the most recent enrollment count, and a list of employee salaries.”
20 years and ed reformers haven’t even done basic regulation of the new privatized systems they’re frantically creating. Twenty years.
100% taxpayer money and no one even knows what charter management CEO’s are paid.
It’s laughable in Ohio. You can’t find anyone’s NAME. No one is directly responsible for these schools. The best you can do is get the name of the authorizer- “Educational Service Center” or “Fordham”. It’s completely opaque.
If you go to my public school website right now you will find the names of the superintendent and principals, and every school board member. Any story on the school, good or bad, includes those names. If it were an Ohio charter? We’d get “a spokesperson” or the name of the entity that “sponsors” the school.
This has to be deliberate- designed to hide information. No one would seriously propose these schemes as good governance.
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The checks are not yet in the mail, but they will be coming.
The Columbus school district and several others will get much of the $60 million that Ohio’s largest online school, ECOT, was ordered to repay after overcharging the state in the 2015-16 school year, say state Department of Education officials.
“Right now, we are holding it. We have not recalculated the statewide impact to know how much of that $60 million will go back to resident districts,” said Aaron Rausch, the education department’s budget and school-funding director, during a recent hearing on the matter.
This won’t help the public school students who had their school defunded fraudulently at the time, but at least courts and judges still have some power in this state.
Ohio has a legislature, a state agency for schools, and a whole executive branch apparatus. Why weren’t any of those adults working for the children in public schools who were robbed by ECOT? Why aren’t public school children valuable to lawmakers? Who represents public school families in Columbus? No one? 90% of families have no effective advocates?
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The CHARTER INDUSTRY is like cancer.
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a deep, killing cancer smart enough to present itself as surface health
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Imagine the obscene amount of money that will be spent on lobbying to defeat that bill.
How much will Besty spend?
How much will members of ALEC spend?
How much will the Koch brothers spend outside of ALEC?
How much will the Walton family spend?
How much will Hedge Fund billionaires spend?
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