Bill Phillis, retired for many years as deputy state superintendent of education in Ohio and now the state’s most outspoken critic of charter fraud, writes on his blog about the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s lame defense of for-profit charters:
“The myth of Ohio’s ‘for-profit’ charter school system”: A Fordham Institute’s damage control effort
An August 20 Fordham article suggests the charter industry is getting a bad rap because of the cronyism of a few charter operators. The article also attempts to justify the use of for-profit management companies by charter schools.
The notion proffered is that ECOT and the White Hat Management Company are the only bad actors in the charter industry. What about the 250 or so charter schools that took state and federal money and closed or never opened leaving kids in an education lurch? What about the other charter operations that have been reported as fostering gross irregularities, such as the Gulen charters, but not appropriately investigated by state officials? What about the Imagine Schools Inc. charter school chain that requires the charter schools to pay absurdly high rent to a real estate company allied with Imagine?
Corruption in the charter industry in Ohio and elsewhere is not confined to just a few bad actors. The industry is rife with low performance, cronyism and corruption.
In the article, the author equates a charter board hiring a management company to operate its school to a school district purchasing buses, books, etc. from the private sector. An absurd stretch!
A management company that operates charter schools performs a governmental fiduciary function and thus should be subjected to the same accountability and transparency measures as school district officials. Bus and book companies don’t operate the schools to which they sell products.
The Ohio charter industry seems beyond repair but Fordham keeps defending it.
Be it noted that the NAACP report on charter schools not only called for a moratorium on them, but called for the elimination of all for-profit charters and the for-profit management organizations that manage charters.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane Here is another example of problems that occur in so-called “public-private partnerships.” This from the LA Times this morning: See link below, but here is the headline. CBK
“Can You Hear Them Now?
“When firefighters from Silicon Valley headed north to help battle the largest wildfire in modern California history, their mobile internet service slowed to a crawl. The reason: The Santa Clara County Fire Department had exceeded its data plan limit, so Verizon Wireless had throttled down its connection. The only way to get them quickly back up to speed, a Verizon representative said, was for fire officials to buy a more expensive plan. They did — and then told their story as part of a lawsuit looking to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules.
(picture insert)
“California firefighter: Verizon slowed critical internet service during a recent wildfire battle, according to the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Here, a firefighter battles the Mendocino Complex fire in July. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-verizon-firefighters-slowdown-data-20180823-story.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=95e3dba7d8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-95e3dba7d8-79916137
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One of my sons is a contract forest fire fighter. You can believe I am sending this article to him. Fires like the Mendocino Complex fire are ones where lots of outside resources get pulled in. Can you imagine what might happen if contractors felt compelled to hold back their resources because of poor communication with those who are supposed to be in charge? It’s more likely that firefighters would die because of poor support. Like most people in public service as first responders, you try to do the job in spite of less than ideal support.
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Bill Phillis is the reliable go-to source for solid information. He is correct about the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s defense of the indefenceable charter industry in Ohio.. Unfortunately, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s corrupting influence is also national in scope. It has long enjoyed operating support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among others intent on desroying public schools.
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The U.S. publicly funded, private sector charter industry is rife with low performance, cronyism, and corruption. It is a national epidemic of fraud and theft.
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As an Ohioan (and spouse of a retired teacher), I know that the corruption of which you speak has been in the news multiple times. Unfortunately, the State government is controlled completely by Republicans, almost all of whom favor the for-profit charters despite “low performance, cronyism and corruption.” Gerrymandering has assured that Republicans keep control, but that has been successfully challenged, and districts will be more fairly re-drawn — hopefully portending future change for the better.
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