In this post, Carol Burris lays out a devastating bill of indictment against the charter industry in Pennsylvania. Technically, it is run by “non-profit” Boards, but most of the time those words are fig leaves for for-profit corporations that are growing rich with the help of the state legislature.
Governor Wolf recently announced his determination to hold charter schools accountable, and the charter industry howled with rage. They don’t want any of their cushy deals to be jeopardized.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“CHARTERS are BAD!” There’s PROOF over and over again, and here’s another one.
Pennsylvania has a great deal of work to do to change the irresponsible charter laws that were enacted by the Corbett administration. The payment schedule of charter schools is much too high, particular for cyber charters that get poor results. The financial drain from charters has downgraded the credit rating of the commonwealth.
Governor Wolf has been trying to curb the flow of money to private charters since he took office. However, the charter lobby in the legislature makes change difficult. Wolf intends to use executive power to limit the profiteering of CMOs, and he intends to hold private charter schools more accountable. Wolf’s plan is more than reasonable, and he should get the support of the people that are tired of charter drain that has cut services in public schools.
deals
Vouchers to Catholic schools like the network of Cristo Rey schools, now in about 1/2 of the states.
Students work 5 days a month in jobs like data entry and filing for companies, while returning their pay to the schools (“Pray We Save Our Catholic Schools”, Manhattan Institute, 2014). The schools purchase Common Core- aligned curricula and incorporate blended learning.
Gates and the Cassin Education Initiative Foundation gave Cristo Rey Jesuit schools $18 mil. to expand. Cassin’s founder and chair is on the board of the Drexel Fund. Cassin- “intends that its grantees bring Catholic or other faith sponsored education…”
Charters are always followed by vouchers. Always.
I fear the real goal is to voucherize the whole system, which will be a HUGE loss of funding. When ed reformers controlled Michigan- before voters threw them out- they floated a proposal to offer a voucher worth 5k to replace public school funding. They kept it secret but someone filed a FOIA request and it came out.
It’s a massive cut in funding, disguised as “choice”.
Bill Gates is the most abhorrent, anti-democracy capitalist that America has ever known.
His plot takes from Americans, the nation’s most important, commonly held asset.
His scheming fostered denial of diplomas to students unless they work for free for businesses.
His plotting denies women economic independence by taking away a career that historically enabled their self sufficiency.
His scheming significantly erodes the middle class.
His plotting takes away from Main Street the economic multiplier effect linked to education- the community’s life blood.
His scheming robs ordinary people of the simple joys of activities like school ballgames, parades featuring school bands,…
His plotting threatens retirement for public pensioners.
His money buys minions’ betrayal of their neighbors.
He accumulates wealth at an unprecedented rate, impoverishing people and denying them pursuit of happiness.
And… his cash insulates his reputation from reflecting reality.
and all of this done under the endlessly touted title “philanthropist…”
The state auditor must be thrilled. He’s been whistleblowing for years.
Who ignores their state auditor? How does that happen? They don’t contest his reports. They just completely ignore them:
“Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a scathing report damning the state charter law Tuesday, and he blamed many of the School District of Philadelphia’s fiscal woes on state lawmakers who have not revised the nearly 20-year-old measure.
“Our charter school law is simply the worst charter school law in the United States,” said DePasquale at a news conference at Philadelphia’s district headquarters.”
From 2016. Nothing happened.
https://whyy.org/articles/pa-charter-school-law-worst-in-us-state-auditor-general-says/
This is Michael Bennett’s education plan:
https://michaelbennet.com/Education/
He really goes out of his way to avoid identifying as an ed reformer. I think this is deceptive. I think these folks have to start getting elected on their actual agenda, instead of pretending they support public schools. That’s not fair to students and families in public schools.
If ed reform is as wildly popular as they always insist it is, why don’t their politicians actually RUN on it?
You want to privatize K-12 education? Fine. RUN on that. People will figure it out anyway! We’ll all know 2 weeks into a Bennett Administration that it’s Bush-Obama-Trump again. We won’t be fooled long. Why not just tell people up front?
Michael Bennett’s brother James is the editorial page editor of the New York Times.
The NYT where the paper’s Washington bureau deputy editor was demoted for repeated offensive tweets.
The NYT where limousine liberal David Leohardt pompously echoes the corporate funded Center for American Progress.
And for ed reformers to run on supporting “labor”! Three quarters of this “movement” revolves around union busting. They’re funded almost entirely by 5 vehemently anti-union billionaires. Are they under some delusion that Bill Gates is a big LABOR supporter? The Waltons? Is this a joke?
I mean, come on. They don’t support existing labor unions, but they WILL support some theoretical labor union that doesn’t exist? It’s just nonsense.
They can’t entirely re-invent themselves every election cycle. It’s deceptive.