Stephen Dyer writes on his blog about the utter haplessness of the charter industry in Ohio.
In 2015, Ohio won $71 Million from Arne Duncan’s Department of Education despite widespread reports of academic failure and corruption. In the past three years, only $1 Million has been allocated.
A study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education reported that the state had no plans to improve the effectiveness of charter schools, no plans to be sure that were serving the neeediest kids.
Maybe from this mess might come some insight into the uselessness of running two parallel publicly funded school systems, one with oversight, the other without.
Taxpayers in Ohio are very patient. They don’t care what happens to their money.
Steve Dyer has done a wonderful job of exposing the fiascos and outright greed in Ohio’s charter school Industry–the contract schools with dubious authorizers and aggrandizers of these scams as if wonderful.
Taxpayers are not so much patient as they are pre-occupied with their immediate needs. In the attention economy, policies have to be reduced to headlines. The narratives about education in Ohio are, in the main, pro charter and choice and “throwing more money at schools won’t make them better.”
The tax ripoffs are real, but I do not see the public and political will to do anything about them. The best hope may be the election of Richard Cordray and the people who are able to focus his attention on a few key issues in public education.
In 2015, Ohio won $71 Million from Arne Duncan’s Department of Education despite widespread reports of academic failure and corruption.
This really has never been properly investigated. Who exactly oversaw and approved this grant? Arne Duncan must have had someone in that office who aided him to give this money to a state already mired in charter corruption. Arne is on a book tour and he should be asked at every stop to explain why he demanded $71 million be sent to Ohio AFTER he knew about the scandals there that had hurt children but made some people very rich.
Who in Arne’s administration wanted all this money to go to Ohio, a Republican state run by Republicans? Who lobbied for it? Arne should not be able to promote his book without that question being asked over and over again.
Arne will NEVER be held accountable and he will NEVER have to answer those kinds of questions. He will be very selective about who gets to interview him. He will likely make the interviewer give him a list of the questions prior so that he can have his canned answers….he’ll cheat! It’s not like he’s showing up in Barnes & Noble to promote his book and give his autograph….he’d be taken out by those “white suburban moms………….”.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown wrote a public letter asking for Arne’s money. The worst Democrat is better than the best Republican. I’ll vote for Brown but, I no longer assume he’ll to do right by the people of Ohio. And, I know his opponent will be worse for the citizens.
Linda, thank you very much for providing some answers?
So Sherrod Brown is pro-charter? I confess I don’t know enough about him, but I thought he was supposed to be progressive.
Is he another pro-charter “progressive”? Why are there so many of them? Are there any progressive leaders willing to stand up for public education?
Are you willing to spend the time to discover who Sherrod Brown really is.
If so, click this Vote Smart link and start with his positions.
https://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/27018/sherrod-
brown/#.W4skZ5MnaUk
I was born in California where I live and vote. Sherrod Brown is running for the US Senate in Ohio. Ohio voters should be interested in his bio, his votes, his postions, his rating, his speeches and his funding.
Open Secrets is another good source to learn where his campaign contributions come from — Sherrod Brown
More than half of that money came from “Large Individual Contributions” (rich people – who are they?”
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00003535
We can no longer trust anything anyone says without also doing our homework to see if what we are told is a fact we can trust.
there’s the rub: for long years now the word ‘progressive’ has actually been tightly knit with both privatizing schools and enriching test companies
In his letter requesting the money, Brown used all of the correct charter accountability language. However, he is well aware of the $1 bil. charter school fleecing of Ohioans and the corruption of state government by charter school operators. His overarching goal is to stay in D.C. At least he’s not a Koch man like Kasich.
I am more angered by the PUBLIC Ohio State University’s part in privatizing. With university officials appointed by elected Republicans, and colleges eager to take money from villainthropists, it’s sadly expected.
Brown is better than his Republican opponent relative to public schools so no mileage can be gained by Republicans by talking about the subject.
We certainly are fortunate to have Dyer in Ohio. What a devastating summary.
Is Fox News the most popular network in Ohio?
When Ohio charter school corruption happens, Fordham’s Ohio outpost and the Republican Party are culprits to blame.