Valerie Strauss reviews “Still Asleep at the Wheel” here.
She begins:
“More than 35 percent of charter schools funded by the federal Charter School Program (CSP) between 2006 and 2014 either never opened or were shut down, costing taxpayers more than half a billion dollars, according to a new report from an advocacy group that reviewed records of nearly 5,000 schools.
“The state with the most charter schools that never opened was Michigan, home to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
“The report, titled “Still Asleep at the Wheel,” said that 537 “ghost schools” never opened but received a total of more than $45.5 million in federal start-up funding. That was more than 11 percent of all the schools that received funding from CSP, which began giving grants in 1995.
”In Michigan, where the billionaire DeVos has been instrumental over several decades in creating a charter school sector, 72 charters that received CSP money never opened, at a total cost of some $7.7 million from 2006 to 2014. California was second, with 61 schools that failed to open but collectively received $8.36 million. The Education Department did not respond to a query about the findings. DeVos has made expanding alternatives to school districts — including charters and programs that use public money for private and religious schools — her top priority as education secretary, and has said her metric for a state’s education success is how much they expand school “choice.”
”Casandra Ulbrich, president of the Michigan State Board of Education, said in an interview that she found the new report “extremely troubling.” “It raises some very legitimate questions about a federal grant program that seems to have been operating for years and years with little oversight and very little accountability,” she said.”
so it’s working …
The money going to charters could be redirected for any Public School willing to innovate. It is time to redesign schools as they were never designed to serve all children
Take the handcuffs off teachers and set them free to do their job.
No one may even question the value of the federal charter schools grant program, and it must be at least doubled every four years, in perpetuity.
They’ll debate endlessly whether to give $1.50 to a public school and insist any funding at all is “throwing money at the problem” (the ‘problem’, it appears, are public school students), but anything at all for charters or vouchers gets a uniform, lockstep rubber stamp.
It’s true in ed reform dominated state legislatures and it’s true at the federal level, and it’s been true now thru three successive Presidents- Bush, Obama, Trump.
Trump held yet another charter/voucher cheerleading event in DC yesterday. These hundreds of public employees hold campaign events bashing public schools and promoting charters and vouchers nearly weekly.
None of them can point to a single thing they’ve accomplished for any child in any public school, but they apparently have hundreds of work hours to devote to promoting the schools they prefer.
“President Donald Trump used a Monday White House event held to promote school choice and urge Congress to consider a proposal that would use federal tax credits to help pay for a variety of educational services, including private school tuition.”
Another DC event that offers absolutely nothing to the 90% of children in the country who attend public schools.
They say they are working for the “forgotten child”. There’s 50 million “forgotten children” in the ed reform echo chamber- the children who attend the public schools they all either actively lobby against or pretend don’t exist.
There isn’t a public school student or family in this country who would notice if they all stopped coming to work. They’re either irrelevant to 90% of students and schools or actively harming them.
When do public school students get an advocate in the federal government? It’s been 20 years. I know none of these people attended a public school but I assure them, they exist.
Go NPE! And THANK YOU, NPE.
I wanted to warn public schools about these “apprenticeship” programs ed reformers are all promoting now.
https://www.apprenticeship.gov/
These are mostly junk. Look at them carefully. They have stretched the meaning of “apprenticeship” to include all low wage jobs and all training- a lot of which is garbage and the students have to pay for it.
Don’t send young people there for information on job training. They would really be better off finding an adult who has gotten trades training and has some actual experience and asking their advice, or asking an adult in the vocational section at their school. They’re vulnerable, and a lot of these programs they’re promoting are rip-offs.
It would be a real shame if a high school sophomore skipped two years of high school to get “training” for a low wage job and took cheap “credit recovery” online courses on the side. That’s a bad deal for the student. It’s bad advice and none of them regulate anything because the ideology forbids it, so the young people won’t find out until they’ve invested years in this.
Let the buyer beware. Just because it comes with the ed reform seal of approval doesn’t mean anyone actually determined that it has any value.
It isn’t a good deal to pay 19k a year for “welding training”. They can get that free from an employer and get paid while they’re doing it. And they should graduate high school first. When DeVos and the rest say welders make “60k a year” that’s a made up number. They don’t know any welders.
Here’s another scandal in the making. It examines how corporate tax incentives undermine funding for education. The number one city for incentives is NYC, but the accounting methods used cannot isolate the amount. It is a good thing NYC is not giving Amazon tax incentives as they undermine public schools.https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/12/public-school-funding-lost-to-corporate-tax-incentives/577405/
“has said her metric for a state’s education success is how much they expand school “choice.”
That’s not just DeVos’ metric. It’s all of ed reform’s metric. When they put out those “reports” they rank states by how much pro-charter and pro-voucher legislation has passed.
Reading this stuff as a public school supporter you just marvel. This entire “movement” that has utterly captured the federal government and half of states simply has no interest whatsoever in public school students.
It has to be the best example of “capture” ever seen. They are SO captured they work on “public education” yet exclude 90% of….students and NONE of them question it.
I am to the point where I look for the throwaway line in the last paragraph- “students who remain in district schools”. That’s all you get. They will grudingly admit our students MIGHT exist.
And we pay thousands of them in government! No returned value whatsoever.
yes; it IS ed reform’s metric, more and more strategic, not waiting for any invitations but moving in according to a recognized plan
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
I have an idea. Force Betsy DeVos to refund from her own bank accounts all the taxpayers’ money that vanished into Charter Schools that closed or never opened.
“72 charters that received CSP money never opened, at a total cost of some $7.7 million from 2006 to 2014.”
How is this possible? Where did the money go?
Where Did The Money Go?
Follow the money
And you can bet
It flows in circles
Pocket to pocket
And down the toilet.
BURMA SHAVE