Back in March 2019, Carol Burris and Jeff Bryant released a study of the federal Charter Schools Program on behalf of the Network for Public Education.. That study, “Asleep at the Wheel,” found that about a third of the charters that received federal grants in the $440 million program either never opened or closed soon after opening. The amount of money wasted was about $1 billion over several years. The Department of Education failed to monitor wherevthe Money was going and how it was spent.
Burris has been analyzing states that received federal charter money and has concluded that the initial estimates were understated. In the states she has reviewed, 40% of the charters were failures. Some had no name. Some were not even charters.
The extent of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal CSP is appalling, as is the ED department’s failure to pay attention to where the money goes.
The initial impulse for the CSP, created during the Clinton administration, was to jumpstart innovation. Now, it is a slush fund for Friends of Betsy and a ready supplier of millions to big corporate charter chains like KIPP (which recently got a federal check for $86 million) and IDEA (which has collected $225 million in two years). Neither of these corporate behemoths are start-ups. Neither is needy.
Congress should eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program. It feels no need, other than greed.
Next time you meet a candidate at a town hall, ask him or her if they will pledge to eliminate this wasteful slush fund.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s amazing how complete the capture is at the federal level. States are better, in that there are still dissenters who haven’t been shouted down with shouts of “status quo!”
I was looking at TFA social media to see if they promoted charters to the same extent all the federal ed reformers do, and they really seem to. All of their mentions of individual schools are charter schools. Apparently our schools and students are good enough to train TFA teachers, but not good enough to be promoted and marketed by TFA. We are once again the neglected “default” schools. Those icky “government” schools that the best and brightest need not mention.
How did this happen? How did it happen that the schools that 90% of children attend disappeared from high level policy? Is it sustainable to have an entire cohort of publicly paid people, none of whom work on behalf of public school students, when we’re talking about the vast majority of students?
The investigative report from Carol Burris may be one of the last of its kind.
Investigative reporting on the use of tax dollars has just been made much harder, if not impossible, by the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Freedom of Information Act.
In a six to three decision the court ruled that confidentiality could be claimed as a matter of intent, rather that a narrower standard of a claim to harm if the information was released.
This case centered on a newspaper investigation of the providers of food under the SNAP program. The US Department of Agriculture “refused to release the annual amounts taxpayers paid to more than 320,000 retailers participating in the program. Data was requested as part of the newsroom’s ongoing projects into food access deserts and fraud in the food stamp program.”
Operators of charter and online schools have long held that they are “public” when in fact they are privately managed, and seek private privileges if hauled into court. I imagine that the use of public funds by these schools will become harder to track.
The implications of the ruling are much broader than this case. I have no idea how this ruling will affect a legal system that depends on subpoenas of records or how any claims to “transparency in government” can be sustained, especially when so many functions of government are contracted out to private companies.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/24/freedom-information-act-supreme-court-rules-south-dakota-case/1475089001/
This is a dangerous, anti-democratic ruling. If people pay taxes, they should have a right to access unclassified information. A free press should have access as well.
These Court rulings get more disgusting by the hour. The Supreme Court is giving away democracy. And for what?
scary how exactly strategic the entire suit and ruling appear to be
Diane The long term effect of the Right’s sustained and concerted efforts to “pack” even the lower courts with ultra-conservative judges is going to be devastating, one case at a time.
There is a bright side to today’s news, however, where taxes are concerned: CBK
“Raise our taxes, please! Some wealthy Americans are asking to pay more.”
(Article by Lawrence Darmiento)
SNIP: “Abigail Disney, shown in 2015, the granddaughter of Walt Disney Co. co-founder Roy O. Disney, is one of 18 wealthy Americans who signed a letter calling for higher taxes on the nation’s most affluent.
“America’s mega-rich have a message for the field of 2020 presidential hopefuls: Take our money, please.
“A group of 18 wealthy Americans — led by billionaire financier George Soros and including a Disney family member and the daughter of Warren Buffett’s longtime partner — sent an open letter to that effect Monday.” (more at)
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wealth-tax-letter-soros-disney-20190624-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Frankly, I’m not going to believe any of these billionaires until they begin to actually put their money where their mouth is and PAY THE TAXES.
U.S. Department of Education
#EducationFreedom Scholarships would put the power to make educational decisions in the hands of students, families and communities – no one else.
➡️No family is forced to accept a scholarship.
➡️No taxpayer is forced to contribute.
➡️No state is forced to participate.
This is how they spend whole work weeks and months- promoting and marketing private schools. We’re all paying thousands of public employees for this.
Not one bit of effort expended on the vast majority of children who attend public schools.
Our schools and students simply don’t exist, except as the “failing” students and schools they use to sell the schools they prefer. They should be kept out of public schools. This narrative is both false and BAD for public school students. Parents are working hard to tell them school is worthwhile and important and thousands of federal employees undercut that every single day in pursuit of their personal ideological agenda. And we pay them for it! Lunacy.
DeVos tells them they shouldn’t bother to show up. That they would “learn more” if they don’t go, like her granddaughter. Thanks, Betsy! Good job. Happy to spend millions of dollars on your massive security team for that excellent work.
Posted at OpEd news https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/1-billion-in-wasted-feder-in-General_News-Charter-School-Failure_Fraud_Funding_Money-190625-935.html#comment737351
with two comment with LINKs to important info from this blog.
Comment one
It’s YOUR taxpayer money. being spent in the slush fund, even as public schools are being demolished.Read about The Demolition of American Public Education
.And This article https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2018/11/state-takeover-of-east-cleveland-schools-will-do-nothing-to-alleviate-the-poverty-and-neighborhood-decay-at-the-root-of-problems-robert-brownlee-opinion.html. \omabout an impoverished Ohio district waswritten by Robert Brownlee, who grew up in East Cleveland, attended its public schools, and spent his career in its public schools. He hits the nail on the head: The state takeover will do nothing to address the root causes of low academic achievement.
Income inequality and poverty is a direct result of a poor education.
Read the report, titled “Asleep at the Wheel ” and issued by the nonprofit advocacy group Network for Public Education.
Don’t let this happen… tell everyone you know about the Demolition of Public schools.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/06/05/trump-devos-demolition-of-american-education/
This year, Congress handed out $440 million to charter schools, many of which will never open or quickly close. Trump and DeVos want to increase the annual sum to $500 million.
and go to: The Ravitch blog which is a treasure if you want up-to the-minute news on the war on public education.. Everyone should read at least follow her posts.
The posts are to articles by educators across America. It is where I get the latest on the war on Public Education, that began with an assault on teachers, that took out tens of thousands of our most experienced, dedicated professional practitioners..i.e teachers.
Comment 2
BTW: In her latest book, Slaying Goliath https://www.amazon.com/Slaying-Goliath-Impassioned-Privatization-Movement/dp/0525655379/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=slaying+goliath&qid=1558983869&s=gateway&sr=8-4
Diane Ravitch writes of those who have privatized the schools — the Disrupters — who believe America’s schools should be run like businesses, with teachers incentivized with threats and bonuses, and schools that need to enter into the age of the gig economy in which children are treated like customers or products.
She writes of the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, the Waltons (Walmart), Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and many more, on the right and the left, as well as corporations, foundations, etc., intent on promoting the privatization of one of our most valued public institutions.
Ravitch lays out, in extensive detail, the facts showing that the ideas put forth by school privateers have failed; that their promises of higher test scores have not come to pass; that the “great hope” of Common Core has been a dud.
Nobody ever voted on incentivizing charter expansion while undermining public education. Public money should not be used for schools that can reject students at will while making a profit for investors. No public money should go to schools that increase segregation. It is pathetic and undemocratic that our current education policy only represents the will of the 1% and not the people. Private charters and vouchers are anti-democratic in nature, and they are not accountable to the public.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
Charters are Jim Crow and yes … a HUGE SLUSH Fund. Charters are BAD and so are voucher.