Hi, Hoppy,
A friend sent me the column you wrote about the stalemate in West Virginia over school choice.
I would like to help you out.
The first thing you should know is that charter schools are NOT public schools. They call themselves public schools to get public money, but that doesn’t make them public schools. Might as well call Princeton University a public college or Boeing a public utility just because they get public money. Charter schools are private contractors with private boards of trustees that do not hold public meetings. Public schools have an elected school board or a board composed of people appointed by an elected official.
As this study shows, when charter schools open, the money to pay for them is deducted from public schools. The public schools lose not only the tuition for each student, but are left with “stranded costs.” If 10% of the students leave, you can’t stop heating or cooling the building by 10%, you can’t cut back on transportation or other expenses or the principal’s salary by 10%. What the public schools must do is lay off teachers, eliminate programs, cut the arts, and increase class sizes. So the vast majority of students pay a high price so 10% can choose to attend a charter that may be a fraud or may close in a year or two.
You suggested that Ohio charter schools are an example of success.
Actually, two-thirds of the charter schools in Ohio were rated either D or F by the State Department of Education. And their enrollment is declining as parents realize that they are not better than real public schools.
2.
Number of charters closed – At this page, click on the third section under Schools heading for link –
Schools that Have Suspended Operations (no separate URL for this Excel sheet)
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Community-Schools Last line = 293. Subtract heading line = 292 schools closed.
3. Decline in Charter Enrollments – 2017-2018 Annual Report, Fig 2, p. 8. 2013-2014 Base year = 120, 893 compared to 2017-2018 – 104,380. Diff = 16,513
Ohio also had a spectacular failure of its biggest cyber charter last year. It was called ECOT, or the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow. It had the lowest graduation rate of any high school in the nation and very low test scores. Its owner collected $1 billion from the taxpayers of Ohio before he declared bankruptcy; that was after a court ordered him to return $67 million for one year of inflated enrollments.
I hope you will do some more research into charter performance and charter frauds and scandals. You might start by going to Twitter and looking at the list under the hashtag #AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal.
Or look at the report by the Network for Public Education about the federal Charter Schools Program, called “Asleep at the Wheel,” which found that between the years 2006 and 2014 (Obama administration), the federal government wasted $1 billion on charter schools that never opened or closed shortly after opening.
Here are a few more readings for you:
That’s only Ohio. If I had more time, I would give you even more hair-raising stories from Michigan and Arizona and California.
Think twice before you encourage diversion of funding your your public schools to entrepreneurs, corporate chains, and grifters.
I hope this helps.
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is nonsense, nonsense that is currently also being promoted by the US Department of Education:
“The state establishes a tax credit for individual and business contributions to private and public schools. The credit would have a cap, but it’s attractive because the contributor’s tax liability is reduced by the donated amount.
The private school then uses the money to award scholarships to students, typically from low-income families that cannot afford the tuition. Public schools can use the money for improvements or expenses not covered by state and federal allocations. Lawmakers could also include a tax credit for qualified expenses for homeschoolers.
The result is more school choice, more resources for education and a tax benefit for individuals and businesses that want to invest in their schools. The obvious downside is that the tax credit cuts into the amount of money collected by the state that could be spent on other services.”
None of these donors are going to support public schools. They never have. They often actively oppose public school funding and the entire sales pitch for vouchers revolves around bashing public schools.
I get it- ed reform has to pretend some of their work theoretically benefits children who attend public schools, but none of it actually does. We would know by now if these folks in any way intended to benefit public school students. They’ve been pushing this plan since Barry Goldwater. They have a track record. It’s not good.
I don’t mind charter and voucher advocates pushing their agenda. It’s a free country. But please either don’t cloak it in concern for “all children” or do something on behalf of children in public schools, other than selling us cheap ed tech, consultancy contracts, or standardized tests.
Florida is expanding the tax credit scholarships to families making up to $80,000 per year. Once vouchers or “scholarships” start, there is no end to their manipulations to divest from public education.
Before long, the income limit will be $100,000, then $150,000…..
I want to change the title of the “US Department of Education” to “Betsy DeVos’s Personal Publicly Funded Wrecking Ball, a Federal Department Dedicated to Destroying the Nation’s Public Schools (and enriching kleptocrats like her)”.
I know it is a long title for a federal department, but I cannot think of a shorter way to describe what Brainless Betsy is doing.
Another ed reformer who mentions public schools ONLY in the context of pushing vouchers and charters.
Public school children deserve real advocates. They’re not chips to be used in exchange for vouchers and charter funding. Just promote your preferred schools and leave public school students and families out of it. None of this is for them. They’re an afterthought at best and a bargaining chip at worst. They can do better than such lousy representation.
“Lawmakers will soon be back in Charleston to take another crack at comprehensive education reform. It won’t be easy, but there is a way forward, even on the most controversial issues.”
Apparently is is impossible to request that “lawmakers” actually perform some productive work that benefits any public school student anywhere, unless ed reform gets their ransom demands first. They will grudgingly allow public schools to continue to exist as long as they get funding for their preferred schools.
Public school families can do better than that. They shouldn’t have to beg that the people who are supposed to be supporting their schools reluctantly agree not to harm them, by throwing them some false promise that they will somehow, maybe, eventually benefit from subsidies to private schools, you know, theoretically according to Ed Reform Theory, which isn’t a theory at all but is an ideological belief.
Not that it matters in ed reform, but Hoppy is wrong about Ohio charters. They aren’t “overseen by local boards”. They were specifically designed NOT to be “overseen by local boards”. They’re (supposedly) regulated out of Columbus, which means they aren’t regulated because the state either cannot or will not actually regulate the charter school system they set up. They also promised to fund charter schools, which they don’t do either. Instead they transfer state funding from each and every public school student and send it to charters, to make up for the state funding shortfall.
Dr. Ravitch, you really need to get over this obsession with facts and truth. When you finally accept that 2 + 2 = 5, you feel this warm glow. So comforting, knowing that all that power of the Ed Deform billions is behind you.
Give that man a cee-gahr!
That “warm glow” that you describe feels like a fiery furnace fed by promises and lies.
Again, Gates took Ravitch Racing to the Top of a very high mountain and showed her all the kingdoms of K12 education and all their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship data-based privatization and depersonalized learning and standardized testing—lucrative contracts, positions of vast power and authority (Secretary of Education!), command and control of teachers and administrators, a seat at the table where sup the leaders of the new Feudal Order.” And Ravitch said to him, “Away from me, bilious one! For it is written in the heart, “Care for the children, and serve them only.”
OK. I recognize that that parody is a heavy-handed, but there is much truth in it. Anyone who is willing to serve Ed Deform, these days, will be richly rewarded, and that’s why so many EduPundits have become Vichy collaborators with it.
My instincts tell me that Bill Gates is not someone who gets up every morning and says to himself, “Let’s see what I can do to ruin US education to enrich myself.” He’s a computer guy, and he thinks in terms of computerized solutions to everything, and he has been autocratic throughout his career and has been extraordinarily successful–successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams–and so he places a lot of stock in his modus operandi and on the ideas that come naturally to him–standardization and computerization–the very things that made him the wealthiest man in the world. I really do think that he thinks that his Ed Deform initiatives are a win-win. The computer industry will continue to grow, and education will improve. Confirmation bias is powerful, and the very wealthy are always surrounded by sycophants and yes men and women. He doesn’t see the actual consequences of his deforms on the ground, in classrooms, in the design of that new ELA literature textbook. ELA in the US has been ruined. Teacher morale is at an all-time low. Students’ intrinsic motivation to learn is being smothered in its cradle. No improvements have occurred in test scores or in achievement gaps. The new educational software kills intrinsic motivation. The standards and testing narrow and distort curricula and pedagogy. The LMS systems being produced will enable an Orwellean centralization of power on the Chinese social credit system model. He doesn’t see any of this.
If he did, and the funding stopped flowing, Ed Deform would die because it is a completely unnatural phenomenon, driven only by that mone,. And if he turned off that spigot, it would be like what happens in the Harry Potter books when the Dementors are lifted off a dwelling. On that mixed metaphor, I’ll stop.
cx: The Learning Management Systems
The Kentucky teacher of the year (Minnesota’s too) protested the attempt to kill public education by skipping the Trump/DeVos honors ceremony at the WH. W. Va.taxpayers would be lucky to have someone like Ky.s Jessica Duenas to bring attention to the predictable bilking that comes with privatization. Ohio’s fleecing is at $1 bil and counting.
I think Hoppy is in the Republicans pocket and is gonna agree with the 18 that’s causing all the problems with education!! Carmichael is bound and determined to stay his childish ways to get what he wants, mostly for spite and nothing else. He doesn’t care about our teachers or students!!! West Virginians need to stay strong and fight for our children and Teachers and vote these morons out as soon as possible.
Being a Vichy collaborator with Education Deform is very, very lucrative
pas d’argent, pas de Suisse
Hi! I was wondering if you knew that Randi Weingarten, AFT President, runs a charter school in New York State?
Yes, she started a charter school years ago to try to prove that a charter school did not have to be non-union. I don’t think the Waltons were impressed. About 90% of charters are non-union. They have high turnover.