Larry Lee, native Alabaman, follows the charter confusion in his home state, where the law describes precisely how charter schools should be authorized.
But, as Lee notes, the actual process of creating new charters has proceeded with complete disregard for the law, and no one seems to care.
Public schools in Montgomery will be replaced by charter schools, but the local board did not agree (the law said it should).
The charter mess has created disruption and chaos in Montgomery.
Count on it: charters will open and close. Public schools will founder as students “choose” to go to a flailing charter.
Staff will turnover. Principals will come and go.
Disruption.
That is the point, isn’t it?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Colossal charter mess” is redumbdant
What state with charters does NOT have a colossal charter mess?
“Mess ed in their Badness”
There’s method in their madness.
And madness in their method
A mess ed kind of badness
The baddest kind of mess ed
“The Gambler’s Ruin”
The charter’s a casino
With odds that favor house
In Vegas and in Rheno
And Mountain of the Taos
The offer is a jack-pot
But ruin’s what we get
And only crazy crack-pot
Would take the lousy bet
“The Charter Rush”
The charter is a gold mine
A hedge-fund schemer’s trick
Like golden rush of forty-nine
It’s offer: “Get rich quick!”
But Gold of fools is our return
For buying into plot
And picks and spades and “lessons learned”
Are all we ever got
gold of fools is our return: perfect understanding
Alabama’s Bradley Byrne and Texas’ Ted Cruz are Trump’s politicians in D.C. steering school privatization. Mercedes Schneider, on Jan. 11, 2020 and Aug. 23, 2019, investigated for readers the confusion of the Texas Schools Venture Fund and Catholic School Renaissance Institute. Jeanne Allen’s name pops up in the January article.
Also worth a read- “CatholicPac: Why the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Should (probably) Lose Its 501 (c) (3) Tax Exempt Status”, by Jesse Ryan Loffer.
Linda,
Agree. “CatholicPac” should definitely lose its 501© status.
Wonder how many NOT-FOR-Profit orgs. are really FOR PROFIT? How much do the CEOs make? And what are their PERKS?
An accounting from the state Catholic Conferences would be welcome.
Andy Smarick co-wrote a piece for Philanthropy Roundtable titled, Catholic Schools Renaissance.
AEI’s Frederick Hess and, a manager of a Gates funded ed organization wrote an article for the same magazine advising reformers to use money to get the desired ed agenda in university departments of ed.
I just don’t understand how the government itself can blatantly ignore the law. Since bringing a case to trial is very expensive, it is hard to challenge this abuse, and who is charged with enforcing the law? The very people who are breaking it! It always comes down to money. We do have one very effective way of fighting: civil disobedience. Get out in the streets and protest. That is the only advantage I see when a violation of the law affects so many.