In the latest round of awards from the federal slush fund for charter schools, Betsy DeVos handed out plums to the corporate chains KIPP and IDEA.
KIPP, the largest nonprofit charter network in the country, is slated to receive $86 million over five years to create 52 new schools across 20 states and D.C.
IDEA, a Texas-based charter network, won an expected $116 million over five years. The network’s application says it will use the money to add grades at 56 schools and create 38 new schools across Texas; in New Orleans and East Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and in Tampa Bay, Florida.
The grants, announced last week, underscore the substantial role the federal government plays in helping charter schools expand. But they come at a perilous time politically for the charter school movement, which has seen its growth and popularity ebb in recent years. These networks’ plans for rapid growth might both run into — and fuel — political opposition, particularly in places where that growth will strain school districts’ finances.
As Chalkbeat notes, DeVos is trying to pump new life into the flagging charter movement, as exposes of charter scandals escalate and as some states see a decline in the number of charters as more close than open.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A couple of years ago I was talking about the KIPP-like model to a European friend. He responded by shaking his head and saying, “You mean they are franchising schools like McDonald’s or Burger King do?” I responded that his was a pretty good analogy. “Well,” he replied, “it sounds to me like their products are going to be as unhealthy to children as that fast food crap.” I thought about that as I read this post. To continue the analogy, KIPP and IDEA are the educational equivalents of a bacon double cheeseburger with gobs of mayo nestled in a bun made of two deep fried chicken breasts.
LikeLike
GregB, speaking of McDonald’s, here’s a confirmation of your European friend’s analogy…
https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/atlanta-superintendent-school-choice-american-the-happy-meal/GTjjwOGBWmugKtJU2Xvn2M/
LikeLike
Great, one more thing to give me incurable indigestion!
LikeLike
Great analogy. Imagine the federal government funding Burger King with hundreds of millions of dollars.
LikeLike
Diane There is a “deep state” but it’s not what Trump followers think it is. Rather, it’s the fox-in-the-chicken house (Devos et al) underpinned by other “dark money” (aka: deep anti-state, as in anti-democracy) and wow-funded lobbying, institutionalized and raised on the steroids of social science theory, combined with technological expertise, and applied to a trusting, politically ignorant (willfully stupid) and careless electorate.
It’s like when the fishing industry got hold of new technology for “fish finding” and so raised the whole industry to a new level of encroachment. <–there, industry against the fish.
HERE, it’s oligarchs against democracy and all-things-public. CBK
LikeLike
The network’s application says it will use the money to add grades at 56 schools and create 38 new schools across Texas; in New Orleans and East Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and in Tampa Bay, Florida.
38 new school across three states. These charter chains are becoming enormous.
How are local public schools supposed to compete with huge, federally funded chains?
Can a Texas public school open a branch in Florida?
This isn’t “markets”. It’s market manipulation. They’re picking winners and losers in this competition, and public schools are the designated losers. What’s worse, public school STUDENTS are the designated losers, but no one in the federal government or ed reform considers them at all.
Can someone in ed reform point to me to ONE public school this “movement” has assisted, supported or in any way benefited?
It’s not a public education policy. It’s a charter and voucher policy. Public schools are completely excluded.
Why are we paying tens of thousands of public employees at the federal and state level to add no value at all to public schools?
LikeLike
The US Department of Ed is holding yet another event today where the only school invited was a charter school.
Can they explain why they now exclude public schools, students and parents from public education policy? How is this defensible, and why is the public paying for it?
They may not be aware of this, but the vast majority of people in this country attend the public schools they disdain and have contempt for- bottom line- if they’re not serving public schools, and they’re not, they’re not doing their jobs.
I know Betsy DeVos’s personal ideological beliefs dictate that public schools are lesser schools and public school students are the last priority, but that’s not an acceptable position in a publicly funded entity.
LikeLike
Years ago, when the country was rejecting government as the agent of good, it became popular to publish lists of silly governmental expenditures to illustrate government incompetence. One such complaint was described a s study of the sexual habits of butterflies. This was judged to be unworthy of government money. Turns out such studies have everything to do with development of species specific pesticides and traps, and those who criticized were just obdurate opponents of scientific thought.
It is time for a similar story line about charters. Governmental spending on schools that are limited to a select group usually ends up in the pockets of some unscrupulous individuals. How about a wall of shame listing people convicted of scamming federal, state, and local education bugets?
LikeLike
And, as usual out of DC, nothing for public school students other than drug abuse and school shooting prevention.
Is it the position of the US Department of Education that the sum total worth of all the public school students in this country can be reduced to drug abuse, school shootings and mandatory testing and data collection? Is that what they actually believe about our students? Because they’re wrong.
Maybe one of the could consider offering something positive and of value to the students who attend the schools they hope to replace with their preferred charters and private schools, in exchange for us continuing to employ them.
LikeLike