State Superintendent-elect Tony Thurmond urges a halt to new charters unless there was new funding provided for them. He recognized, as few charter advocates do, that opening charters without funding them harms existing public schools.
The charter industry, which opposes any accountability, transparency, or regulation, spent nearly $40 million trying to stop Thurmond.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charters and Vouchers are about Jim Crow. When will people realize this? It’s so obvious.
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Read my lips: no new charters
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I like straightforward talk. I assume Thurmond means what he says, unlike G.H.W. Bush. Easier to read lips than minds, of course, but it appears the election of Thurmond wa even more important than we realized. I’m relieved Governor-elect Newsom will be listening to him instead of to Tuck. So relieved! So relieved. It’s well past time to govern for all students and teachers, and all of our families too, instead of governing to please rightwing free market ideologues and charter money grubbers. So relieved.
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Wake up citizens! Charter schools take money from local public schools. Each child at a charter school takes the equivalent of one year’s tuition away from the public school. So, if the cost of a child’s yearly education is ten thousand dollars and 50 students attend the charter school, the local public school loses five hundred thousand dollars of local tax money.
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What about the national virtual charters? And the K-12, Inc. that was the company that CA School Board President Michael Kirst’s employer?
As long as Kirst remains president of the state school board, the CA Virtual Academy will be funded as usual.
I don’t think Thurmond is up to the challenge.
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That’s for Newsom to change. Thurmond should have his ear. We shall see…
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The Governor decides who serves on the state board of education, not the superintendent.
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You answered my question.
From what I understand, the state board of education has been OK’ing charter applications that were rejected at the county level. We need to change the board of education to start blocking charters.
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In California, the local district is asked to approve charter applications.
If the district says no, the charter operator can appeal to the County Board of Education.
If the County Boardsays no, the charter operator can appeal to the state board.
The state board has approved a lot of charters.
Jerry Brown is pro-Charter.
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Diane,
Can you shed any light on the lawsuit against Rhode Island, for failing to educate kids, or something? Is this a voucher Trojan horse?
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Laura,
I don’t know.
This is a good analysis.
Until now, the US Supreme Court has said that education is a state issue, not a federal issue.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/11/lawsuit-constitutional-right-education/576901/
Whether there is an ulterior motive, I don’t know.
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Team DeVos got some real pushback today in Florida from school board leaders:
https://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2018/11/28/now-a-top-federal-education-official-frank-brogan-finds-skepticism-among-florida-school-board-leaders/?template=amp&__twitter_impression=true0
Boy, you sure don’t hear that at ed reform conventions. They’re wondering why the people we’re all paying in our federal government don’t support public schools or add anything of value to public schools.
Good question! Maybe we can have an actual debate about how it happened that we ended up with a federal government that opposes public schools.
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Brogan is another DeVos-Bush clone. He expects public schools to just roll over and smile when their basic funding is being sent elsewhere. He praises ESSA’s “flexibility,” which is really code for the fact that money can be dumped into the hands of private contractors.
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Here’s Team Devos’ response to a school board member:
“Next up, Sarasota board member Shirley Brown spoke of how some counties are “bursting at the seams” with private schools that receive funding from money donated in exchange for tax credits — money that therefore does not enter the state revenue stream. Yet the schools are largely unregulated, Brown noted.
“Here’s a reality check for all of us in the room,” Brogan responded. “School choice is here to stay.”
Well, that was enlightening. Very helpful. Working hard to address concerns about privatization, I see.
Sadly, he offered nothing of value to any PUBLIC school in the state. 50 million public school children take a back seat to DeVos’ ideological opposition to the schools they attend.
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