In 2016, the General Accounting Office—watchdog of the federal government—published a report warning about waste, fraud, and abuse by charter school operators. Every day, there are new reports of shady real estate deals by charter schools, embezzlement, and Profiteering.
In 2016, the NAACP national convention passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charter schools until they were accountable, met the same standards as public schools, and stopped draining resources from the public schools, which enroll most students.
Yet Congress just agreed to increase annual funding for new charters to $440 Million in the coming year.
Are charter schools more effective than public schools? No.
Do they take resources and the students they want from public schools? Yes.
Do they threaten the viability of public schools? Yes.
Do they already have the overflowing support of the billionaire class? Yes.
Has the charter industry been riddled with waste, fraud and abuse of public dollars? Yes.
Why is Congress pouring more money into expanding this private sector activity which is neither accountable nor transparent?
Write your member of Congress and ask these questions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Seems like sneaky bastards throwing money into a system of corruption but congress can relate to corruption so its right up their alley.
It’s not at all surprising that this is happening.
In fact, given the amount of money to be made and lack of transparency and accountability, it would be surprising if it were NOT happening.
Politico.com published a piece about this a few hours ago.
“Here is the legislative text for the fiscal 2019 Labor-HHS-Education and Defense combined appropriations package, H.R. 6157 (115), the joint explanatory statement, and a look at the highlights:” …
“On the K-12 side, the legislation would increase funding for charter schools by $40 million, bringing the overall level to $440 million. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget had requested $500 million. The bill would boost Title I funding for school districts that serve low-income students by $125 million, bringing the total to $15.9 billion. Special education funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would also increase by $87 million to $12.4 billion. Michael Stratford details the other increases here.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2018/09/14/inside-the-spending-deal-that-will-fund-the-education-department-340453
Weird how we have tens of thousands of paid “education advocates” in ed reform lobbying groups but public schools never get anything of value out of these budget negotiations.
They’re either lousy advocates or they aren’t working on behalf of public school students.
We should hire some people who actually value public schools and the students who attend public schools. We’ll do better when politicians are divvying up funds to pass out if we have advocates for public school students at the table.
Was anyone from a public school part of these budget negotiations or were they excluded again?
I recognize very few of our lawmakers attended public schools or would be caught dead with a child or grandchild in a public school, but maybe we could pass the hat and get an actual, committed advocate at the table?
The people we’re paying to represent us are doing a lousy job. Public school kids lose and lose and lose in these budget rounds because no one is speaking for them.
We should demand to see a list of who lobbied congress and who was excluded.
My bet is public school advocates were not invited and the place was flooded with charter school cheerleaders and voucher lobbyists.
The federal government is lockstep ed reform because it’s an echo chamber. They never hear from people who support public schools.
Which is actually kind of amazing, given the fact that 85% of kids in this country attend the public schools our lawmakers can’t be bothered with.
THAT’S what capture looks like. You get situations like this- where 85% of families are ignored because their kids attend the unfashionable public school sector.
Well, look at the bright side. The federal government doesn’t offer any support to public schools, but on the flip side they also ignore our schools, which means we won’t be stuck with any of their fad-following gimmicks or quick fixes.
Public schools may actually be better off neglected by the Best and Brightest.
I wonder if anyone anywhere has solid information on the money pouring into charter schools by source–federal, billionaire and lesser non-profits, for profits. The latest round of our tax dollars flowing into these shams adds insult to injury, especially when you look at the need for teachers to hold multiple jobs and ultimately strike for a living wage or choose another line of work.
I don’t think so. The feds give the most at $400 Million plus, and there is no need because there are so many billionaires and foundations pouring money into charters. Despite the blather about “waiting lists,” the market is saturated.
Outrageous- Nikki Haley’s expenditure of $52,701 (close to the yearly U.S. family median income) for her tax-funded NYC apartment drapes.
Washington Post corrected this story. The apartment and the drapes were ordered during the Obama administration.