While the charter lobbyists (who call themselves “families”) managed to knock out two bills to harness their unrestricted expansion, two others remain alive, thanks in part to the vigorous efforts of the California NAACP, whose education leader is charter expert Julian Vasquez Heilig.
The two that remain viable are AB 1505 and 1507, which establish local control and oversight of charters.
● AB 1505 – The bill gives local school districts sole authority to approve new charter schools and to consider how new schools would impact the district’s budget in the approval process. Since new charter schools typically attract students – and their per pupil funding – away from traditional public schools, many expect that this measure would make it much more difficult for new charter schools to be approved. AB 1505 passed May 22 and will now go to the state Senate.
● AB 1507 – This bill closes a loophole in state law that has let some districts boost their budgets by approving charter schools outside their boundaries. AB 1507 would require all charter schools approved by a district to be located within it. It passed on May 13 in the state Assembly and is also now headed to the Senate.
If these two bills pass, charters will be authorized only by the district in which they are located. Rural districts in need of cash will not be able to cannibalize urban districts hundreds of miles away by authorizing a charter that they can’t oversee.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I thought the big charter scandal would get more attention. It’s nearly as big as Ohio’s charter scandal, and Ohio’s scandal got more than a year of local media attention and every state politician was asked to comment on it.
Weird.
“Authorities indicted an Australian man and his Southern California business partner Wednesday in a $50 million scheme to open 19 charter schools across the Golden State and using the public-school funding they received to invest in start-up companies and real estate.
Sean McManus, 46, who remains at large in Australia and Jason Schrock, 44, and nine others face charges of defrauding California out of $50 million in education funds through their company A3 Charter Schools, according to 235-page indictment filed in San Diego County Superior Court.
Another $200 million in public funds had been allocated to the charter schools for the future, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said Wednesday, but prosecutors are working with the court to freeze the assets.”
https://www.courthousenews.com/eleven-charged-in-50-million-charter-school-fraud-scheme/
I read that the UK version of charter schools are having corruption/lack of regulation problems too, so it isn’t just the US.
Charter promoters have really immunized themselves from any criticism on their refusal to regulate, by adopting all the “start up culture” gibberish they all parrot in unison. They can (and do) say the schools are experiments so disasters are inevitable.
“Be bold!” “Move fast and break things!” “Misplace 50 million dollars!” 🙂
Any time large amounts of money are handed over to opportunistic individuals without accountability the results will be waste, fraud and embezzling. There are dishonest people all over the world.
There may be dishonest people in public schools but funds are audited and there is regular oversight.
When oversight and supervision are absent, fraud will occur.
Look for motive (greed) and opportunity (always present where oversight is absent)
Read chapter 2 of “Death and Life of the Great American School System” about San Diego, where it all started. Reformers in a hurry! Pedal to the medal! You have to leap a chasm in one jump, not two! The fake urgency of NOW!
the fake urgency of NOW. They keep pulling that one off
California was an early adopter of charter schools. It enacted laws that prevent local communities from having a say over how tax money is spent on privatization schemes. These schemes have resulted in harmful consequences to many public schools and communities that have imposed privatization on them. These bills are an opportunity to restore local control over local tax dollars and bring some balance to out of control privatization.
How can you say there is no oversight in CA Charters. They are covered by the Brown Act which mandates public board meetings, they submit their budgets and interim financials three times a year to their authorizers, their budgets and financials are approved in public meetings, they go through annual third party financial audits which are submitted to the authorizer and state. What do you mean their funds are not audited?
Yes, there are corrupt individuals and they should be held accountable and laws should be updated to close loopholes. Most reasonable people agree on this. But to cherry pick charter stories as an indictment on the all charters is wrong.
And district schools have similar issues, some over multiple years even with audits. Every time you cherry pick a charter story, feel free to couple it with one of the few district stories below. Enjoy the reading…
https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/moorpark/2019/05/17/former-moorpark-school-district-employee-accused-embezzlement/3713040002/
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/berkeley-schools-cfo-who-embezzled-million-sentenced-to-months-in/article_c6ab085e-347b-11e9-a3c4-fb69aba546dc.html
https://www.mpacorn.com/articles/cafeteria-worker-accused-of-embezzling-160000/
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/05/09/exshakopee-school-superintendent-sentenced-to-two-years-in-prison-for-theft-embezzlement
http://www.santamariasun.com/news/18680/grand-jury-report-offers-insight-into-cuyama-school-district-embezzlement/
https://fox5sandiego.com/2019/05/15/former-school-district-employee-admits-embezzling-50k/
Of the six links you provided, two refer to the same person. Only one involved more than $1 million. The charter scandals usually involved many millions. The latest from the online charter school was about 11 people who stole millions of dollars and no one was watching their books.
Do you approve of the idea that rural districts can authorize a private charter to operate in an urban district hundreds of miles away?
Who chooses the boards of charter schools in California? They are not elected.
One need not look hard to find corruption in the charter sector in California. Why does the CCSA fight so hard against any accountability measures?
I wrote a commentary on charters in about 2003 that said (paraphrasing from memory): Yes, there’s theft and embezzlement in public school districts, but charters offer a whole fertile new ground for looters and thieves. Somehow, things have only gotten worse, as the new report posted above of the $50 million online charter scam demonstrates.
My husband (who doesn’t pay the attention I do to these issues) looked at that $50 million charter scam story and said, “Isn’t there any oversight?” Me: “What have I been telling you for 20 years?”
At least in California, charter schools have so much political power and media support that it’s absolutely impossible to hold them accountable for anything. And their authorizers/overseers are often (if not usually/always) unqualified to and uninterested in challenging them, especially given the firepower the billionaire-funded California Charter Schools Association is ready and able to unleash upon anyone who challenges a charter school, no matter what the basis for the challenge. I’ve watched this for many years.
Brown Act? Charter schools sneer at it. Rules and regulations? That’s what they’re blissfully free of. Elected boards and bylaws? Pah! Charters do what they wish. Maybe when it gets to the $50 million theft level, there’s finally some move to rein them in — though we all saw real estate huckster/self-dealer Ben Chavis of the once-worshiped American Indian Public Charter School chain hit with a whopping $100 fine — wow, that must have hurt.
Oversight? Please.
West Contra Costa County schools (that’s Richmond, CA) are surely challenged, though I need to see backup for any numbers coming from a charter defender, but charters have made the public schools far worse. And even the “reformsters” these days acknowledge that the challenges are poverty and unstable lives and communities, though for years they blamed “bad teachers.”
And yes, charter defenders now profess to want more guardrails, but it’s all for show — somehow when there’s a proposal to actually provide some guardrails, it manages to fall by the wayside.
Gee I’m sorry, here is one where where the district admins took over 500k and 3 million in bribes and are still being eligible for a pension. How’s that? Is that big enough for you?
https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/Even-After-Stealing-From-the-Public-Ex-School-Officials-Keep-Their-Pensions-510695691.html
Diane, we can Google cases all day long. Focus on the facts of what is going on. In Richmond CA there is a high school where 0% of AA students are at grade level in math and only 30% graduate completing A-G requirements, which in CA is necessary to even apply to a 4 year. These are 2018 results even this school has had funding increased by almost 80% over the last 7 years. What are parents who can’t move to the suburbs or afford private supposed to do? Wait for the school to improve when it has had these results since the mid 1990s? (way before charters where even in the picture)
And No, of course I don’t approve of the being approved in a rural district and operating in an urban location. Like I said, laws need to be updated. Charter boards in CA are not elected but are overseen by elected boards and have bylaws. Charters must be renewed every 5 years and can be closed for poor academic or financial performance.
What would happen if district schools were held to the same standard? Should they be?
There are guard rails that can and should be put into place. Bad schools and actors should be held to account. I think we’d agree on a lot.
If there is a public school serving students living in poverty, what good would it do to take away their school? How does the churn and burn of (opening and) closing schools all the time help people in the neighborhood? It doesn’t. It hurts them. And if a charter school opens across town and drains students and funds, how does that help people who stay in the neighborhood? It doesn’t. And will the charter provide a better education? Odds are it won’t.
There are ways to address poverty and alleviate the myriad of problems associated with it; free market capitalism is not one of the ways. As a matter of fact, free market capitalism, union and wage suppression, gig economy, duplicative/overpriced executives, and privatization of social services — all the hallmarks of charter schools — are causes of poverty and therefore the exact opposites of solutions. “Gee, I’m sorry,” but you’re wrong, “Francisco”. …And by the way, googling is not really thorough researching, just so ya know.
If a school continually does not serve kids, for decades, what do we do? Besides blaming others?
What do you say to families stuck in these schools?
“Wait for us to solve it…don’t worry we’ll get there”.
Would you keep your kid in that school?
And yes, googling is not research which was my point in how easy it is to find examples to back extreme views. Extreme views like your “hallmark of charters” list.
Gee, sorry, you really need to do some research or and get perspectives of others. I doubt you will, but its worth a shot.
We know enough about the ongoing failure and closure of charters to know they are not the answer to your question. Why should corporate chains and entrepreneurs be given public money to take over public schools?
I’m going to go out on a limb, but the charter defender sounds like Dirk Tillotson of CCSA fame and Education for Change CMO here in Oakland. Since Oakland is now saturated with charters, time to head to Richmond. In Oakland, there are only two charter high schools that serve a significant number of AAs: Envision and Baytech. American Indian has some but total number is relatively small. The rest are virtually all Hispanic. In the past, all have had some of the highest rates of attrition in the district; Envision’s suspension rates were in the double digits. Guess that’s their secret. AIMs had the highest rate in the district under Ben Chavis. Baytech is a Gulen school; principal stole money and fled the country. Before their 5 year renewal, Baytech cheated on their SBAC scores by giving all their SPED a different, easier test, the CAA, so then their SPED scores wouldn’t count as part of their renewal. Attrition and suspension is the typical strategy for how these schools jack their grad rates. Accountability? What a joke. These schools are not accountable to me and you, the taxpayers. I have no idea what they spend their money on. Certainly not on experienced qualified teachers. The only reason these charters get caught is because a crack team of local investigative reporters do all the hard work that our charter office refuses to do. If you really are concerned about outcomes for AAs (as we all should be) you need to confront these schools and ask them why it’s okay to shed and suspend so many of them. And stop pretending that it isn’t happening.
I know…”… great public schools….” who are they trying to fool? They are just using their own astroturf org name to advance their name recognition and referring to charters as public schools is just a Gian middle finger at those of us that pops them vehemently….and yet it’s a clever ruse that relies on the inattention and the misinformation of the electorate.
Oops needed to spell check first: “..to those of us that oppose them [charters]….