Denis Smith worked for many years for the Ohio Department of Education. When he retired, he was employed in the office that oversees charter schools. He has written many articles about the scams and frauds that charter operators get away with in Ohio, as well as some that they don’t get away with.
He wrote me recently to say that the five most common words in charterdom are:
“The defendant will please rise.”
Isn’t it interesting that the pro-charter candidates, no matter which school district or city or state they live in, do not admit they are pro-charter.
Apparently the public is catching on, and it is not a good thing to admit that you want more charters.
Suddenly, everyone—even the execrable governor’s Scott Walker and Doug Ducey of AZ—call them selves “the Education Governor” and boast about (lie about) have they have helped public schools. Don’t believe them.
Any candidate funded by the Koch brothers, The Walton Family, Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, or Michael Bloomberg is a Pro-Charter Candidate. They are coming to privatize your public school and replace it with a national corporate chain school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charterdom = Jim Crow.
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And $$$ for the already rich and privileged.
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It’s like the politicians are rusty in Ohio- out of practice. They’re so used to lock step public school bashing as a campaign tactic that they’re having trouble even pretending to support public schools.
Mike DeWine doesn’t know what to say. He’s torn between his donors, his ideological opposition to public schools and his urgent need to get elected. You can see the struggle on his face as he casts about for something, anything to say to the 85% of families in this state who attend public schools. They haven’t spoken to us in years, other than to suggest we all enroll in the charters and private schools they prefer.
I watch the debates and I expect one of them to revert to the last 15 years of training and start yelling “government schools!”, involuntarily. Public school bashing was such a surefire political winner for so many years they all look like they’re lost without it.
No longer can Ohio politicians dump every problem they haven’t addressed on public schools and dodge accountability. The 15 year free ride is over.
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It is common knowledge that many politicians change their tone and rhetoric during a campaign cycle. The Democrats got away with being vague and omitting references to privatization of education for years. Now that a large percentage of the public is opposed to privatization, the Republicans are trying the same disingenuous strategy.
Politicians speak with forked tongue depending on their audience. The best example of this political doublespeak is New Jersey’s Corey Booker. Chalkbeat captured Booker praising DeVos for her foundation’s work in one speech and then rejecting her for the DOE nomination based on “civil rights.” This is one reason why people should be afraid to support a chameleon like Booker. Whereas, someone like Bernie is fighting for the same issues he supported in the ’60s. https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/02/07/cory-booker-vs-cory-booker-two-videos-to-understand-how-the-politics-of-education-are-being-reshaped-in-the-trump-era/
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Here here!
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Agreed. Booker still has not rejected his support for charters. I listened to his eloquent speech on the lawn of the Capital building this summer as he spoke about his love for teachers & the critical role they play in our lives. He had the crowd of SPED educators eating out of his hands. People should be afraid of Booker- just like many insider Dems,he gives with one hand & takes with another.
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SADLY this is happening with so many theoretically “progressive” candidates across the nation: they look fantastic up against the Trump agenda, but their stance on education is still TEST/BLAME/DIVIDE/BRING IN MORE TECH.
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I finally figured out how you agreed with my comments on the Ravitch blog! Thanks & solidarity forever.
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🙂
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I was so furious w/Booker’s ed policies as Newark mayor I sat out the special election to replace Sen Lautenberg, where Booker was running against a rwnutjob. He was clearly a “3rd Way” Dem. Next week I will be voting against my centrist reasonable Rep congressman, for a sleazy corporate-backed Dem who unlike Booker hasn’t a Progressive bone in his body [at least Booker has a few]. Because, even tho my Rep congressman can be counted on to listen to constituents & stand up to conservatives on bread&butter local issues, he goes Trump’s way on everything else. And because we need every single Dem congressional vote we can get.
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The Great Lakes states got absolutely hammered by ed reformers. We were the first experimental population and hopefully we’ll be the first to reject them, too.
Ohio public schools have been neglected for the last 15 years while everyone and their brother chased the magic of “choice”. There were years in the statehouse where every single session consisted of working on a wish list from the national ed reform lobby and they got EVERYTHING they demanded, while every public school in the state was either ignored or denigrated.
It’ll be a long road back but the first step will need to be hiring some public employees who support public schools. Crazy, I know, that we have to specifically demand that public employees put some effort towards the public schools that the vast majority of people attend, but that is where we are. That’s what capture looks like.
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LOL.
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Quote: Jim Crow laws were laws in southern America that espoused segregation of the races. In the world of education, this was particularly problematic, as black schools received far less state funding and inferior schools and materials to their white counterparts.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-impact-of-jim-crow-laws-on-education.html
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Yvonne,
School choice was birthed in the segregated South. It was the demand by Southern governors. They wanted choice to preserve segregated schools.
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Love it!
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5 words . . .?
“Private Schools Using Public Money”
“Standardized Test Score Are Us”
“Cherry Picking Scholars Really Works”
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Posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-defendant-will-please-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Education-Costs_Education-Funding_Educational-Crisis_Privatize-Education-181031-374.html
If you go there, you will find the embedded links from this blog, for the commentary I posted, which I copy here. You can ALSO find all this from Diane’s search Field.
charter school fraud | Search Results | Diane Ravitch’s blog https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school+fraud
charter school | Search Results | Diane Ravitch’s blog https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school
Comment 1″Submitted Susan Lee Schwartzon Wednesday,
As we know, the charter school movement –the darling of ALEC, the Koch brothers, and every rightwing governor and think tank — began as a way to help public schools by encouraging innovation. However, in the past 25 years, it has evolved into an industry that is bent on privatization and that shamelessly diverts money and real estate from public schools. In this article, Paul Buchheit describes the dark role that charter schools now play on behalf of corporate elites and their determination to privatize public education for fun and profit.
Here is “A new report from the Center for Popular Democracy, Integrity in Education, and Action United i which s blowing the lid off the lack of public oversight at Pennsylvania’s 186 charter schools.
Steven Singer writes Why the Best Charter School Is Not As Good As The Worst Public School
“The charter school “debate” is no longer about charter schools vs. public schools (charters are not public schools — that myth has been exploded), or even about “for profit” vs. “not for profit” charters (the evidence HERE suggests this is really a difference without a distinction).”
“No, the real issue here is about the true purpose of education, and whether continuing to support two separate but unequal, and inequitable, school systems is doing anything to improve education for all children. By any objective measure, the answer is a resounding “NO!”
“The charter lobby has attempted, through spending millions of dollars on PR and marketing, to redefine the purpose of education from one about producing well-rounded citizens who are capable of making valuable contributions to our society and leading fulfilling lives, to a business-driven agenda of producing workers for corporate America. The latter “purpose” now drives much of our state and federal education legislation, which is rife with references to “21st Century Skills,” and insuring that high school graduates are stamped as being “college and career-ready”
.What the charter chains overlook is that the purpose of education is to prepare young people for lives of caring, compassion, and responsibility.”This is a radical repurposing of a public goal to meet the needs of private corporations, and is echoed in the mission and “vision” statements of the leading charter school management companies
COMMENT 2 HAS LINKS TO ARTICLES:
Click here https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school
for a comprehensive list of links to the Charter School debacle.
for Example:
Ohio & Florida: Charter Scam Rips Off Taxpayers in Both States
Here are just a few of the conclusions of this important report about the toxic growth of charters in Florida.
In this post,journalist Stephen Rosenfeld explains how charter operates make a profit.
Laura Chapman: The Deluge of Cash Flowing Into the Charter School Industry
This article by Tom Ultican tells the sordid storyof rich elites who have cynically decided to destroy public education in San Antonio.
Gary Rubinstein reports that the latest Tennessee school rankings were just released. Now we know. The Tennessee Achievement School District was as complete and total failure. $100 million down the drain,
California: Charter School in Contra Costa County Mired in Financial Mess
Arizona: The State Where Conflicts of Interest Are Celebrated in the Charter Industry
Andrea Gabor: When School Choice Means No Choice
Chaos in Detroit Charter School: Leader Fired, Refuses to Go, Board Suspended
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