Until 2015,Kentucky did not have a charter school law. Then hard-right Republican Matt Bevin was elected governor, and he pushed hard to get a charter law passed by the legislature. But the legislature has not yet allocated funding for charter schools. Opposition has been strong and bipartisan. Now the governor has packed the state school board with charter advocates, fired the state superintendent and hired a state superintendent who wants charter schools.
Their target is Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, the biggest city in the state. Parents have mobilized to block a takeover. (I’m speaking at an anti-charter rally in Louisville on October 18, the night before the NPE conference in Indianapolis; the great Jitu Brown of Journey for Justice will be there, and Sue Legg of Florida’s League of Women Voters).
In this article, Jeff Bryant lays out the financial machinations behind Kentucky’s charter cheerleaders. It is NOT about the kids. Follow the money.
Read about the BB&T Bank of North Carolina, which is deeply involved in financing charters and involved in finding Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute.
“BB&T has collaborated with the Koch Brothers for years in funding academic centers and professorships at colleges and universities across the country with the stipulation gifts will support teaching about principals of free-market capitalism and use the works by libertarian icon Ayn Rand. The bank has donated millions more for capitalism programs at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
“But BB&T’s investments in spreading capitalist doctrine and education reform are not strictly ideological or altruistic. The bank finances charter schools. “BB&T Capital Markets has been ranked the No. 1 charter school underwriter in the nation for two consecutive years,” claims the bank’s website, where it also lists numerous charter school properties across the country financed by the bank.
“The connections between charter school expansion and real estate development are underreported and little-understood but worth exploring. Charter school expansions in many states, including North Carolina, Florida, and New Jersey, have been accompanied by new schemes to profit off the land and buildings related to the charter organizations.
“In Louisville, locals see this scheme playing out similarly. Rob Mattheu, a Jefferson County parent and avid blogger about local schools, explains in an email, “There are big bucks to be had” in connecting new charter schools with land deals.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wonderful, Diane.
I’m here in Louisville working with Gay Adelmann now.
CFJ
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
I wish you all the best in trying to thwart a hostile takeover of the Louisville Public Schools. I admire your commitment and dedication. There is some advantage in being late to the charter “party.” Many more people understand the issues, and many more people are ready to defend their public schools. They also understand they are in a better position to never let them get set up in the state capitol. The charter lobby is like a cancer that will eat public dollars from within.
There is clear link between charters and real estate deals. In Philly a developer owns a charter school, and he has developed all the land around it. These profiteers use public money to underwrite their real estate investment. The charter buildings become private assets paid for by public dollars, a form of legalized theft. Developers often use charter schools to gentrify a neighborhood. When they build a selective charter, it is a form of “red lining.” The charter can select mostly white students that live in the homes the developer has built, and the developer can maximize his profit. Minority students and families get tossed to the wind as they get priced out of the area.
LikeLiked by 1 person
wow, this couldn’t be stated more clearly. I am connecting it to something written about current Bezos “philanthropic” money for preschools: strategically find and select out the kids whose parents can pay for your programs/institutions/products and push out the rest.
LikeLike
Maybe there’s a bit of an upside for public school students. These lawmakers will spend their days lobbying for charters and vouchers and will be too busy to impose any of the fad-driven ed reform experiments on the vast, vast majority of students.
Maybe they’ll become completely irrelevant to public school families. They’re already halfway there.
That would leave room for people outside the echo chamber to work with public schools- new voices and ideas.
If we can just keep them from cutting funding to the public schools they disfavor their abandonment of public schools could actually benefit public school students.
There’s a need for lawmakers and policy people who have some interest in existing public schools. That need will eventually get filled and it won’t be filled by the 150 ed reform “leaders” we’ve been stuck with for 20 years.
LikeLike
I have posted a number of studies here, which indicate that when alternate schools become available, that the public schools show improvement.
LikeLike
No, Charles, competition does not make schools better. It creates a death spiral because the private charters and religious schools reject the kids with disabilities and ELLs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So Charles, what is it about a private company that comes in-between to extract profits from the state’s public money stream & the school that translates into learning improvement?
LikeLike
If you want to look at the lengths a charter chain funded by Hater of School Boards Reed Hastings will go to steal public land to build a charter school, look no further (link below). Our local news media is now all in with charter expansion. The term “charter schoolhouse” is interesting; How quaint, I thought charters were all about 21st Century learning. The school would be financed with conduit bonds; reverts back to Aspire after the payback even if its charter is revoked. Hear that giant sucking sound? The parents who wrote the Op-Ed are misinformed. The school was offered several spaces, and they were all rejected because they want to expand. The school board never approved any expansion for Aspire Eres. Aspire has no interest in paying rent to OUSD. Rent is for suckers; why do that when you can buy new real estate on the taxpayer’s dime and then add it to your own growing real estate portfolio?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Don-t-block-new-charter-schoolhouse-in-Oakland-12970282.php
LikeLiked by 1 person
Revealing yet another arm of the Public Money profiteering game: “…why do that when you can buy new real estate on the taxpayer’s dime and then add it to your own growing real estate portfolio?”
LikeLike
Thanks Diane!
LikeLike
I want to thank you, too Jeff for your due diligence exploring the connection of real-estate & charters. I think publicly funded real estate & development is an under explored dimension where public money is easily hidden & laundered. Real estate developers are legally using taxpayers money to buy public school properties, use public money to renovate the property and then collect an endless rent stream from taxpayers.
LikeLike
We are so excited and thankful to have you coming to Louisville, KY! I live in central KY, but I will be making the trip to hear you speak and then going on to the NPE conference! ~Sarah
LikeLike