Jan Resseger will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow for the Public Education Forum where Democratic candidates will be questioned about their stands on important issues in public education.
One of those issues is where the candidates stand vis-a-vis charter schools.
Resseger points out that the NPE report, Still Asleep at the Wheel, provides fodder for asking candidates about the federal Charter Schools Program, which currently receives $440 million a year to increase the number of charter schools. Betsy DeVos uses this money to underwrite charters in states where they are not wanted (New Hampshire) or needed (Alabama), and to underwrite organizations that launch charter schools.
The importance of this report is that it addresses an issue that the President can control. If he or she calls for the elimination of the CSP, that slush fund will be cut off. States can still open charter schools, but the federal government will not be paying for them to do so. The Waltons and the DeVos family and Charles Koch and Philip Anschutz and Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg can pay for them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
After reading through the NPE report, I have to wonder why the federal government continues to incentivize privatization when there is no research that shows that students get a superior education in a private charter. We also have mounting evidence showing that privatization harms public schools and communities, results in copious amounts of waste, fraud and self-dealing and increases segregation. If billionaires believe in private schools for poor students, they should spend their own money on this grand experiment, and leave public schools out of it.
NPE’s latest report illustrates the scope of loss so concretely through a click on map that lists the names of the schools that wasted funding or defrauded the government. Even DeVos cannot claim that the report is politically biased as it is based on data, ie facts, not politics. NPE’s research is detailed and specific, and all potential candidates should read through the report.
what is transparently shown by this work is that the kids were never the focus, the teachers were never the focus, the schools were never the focus: the MONEY, however, was (IS) right there at center stage
Great report. The candidates would be wise to read it carefully and thoroughly.