Charter advocates like to caricature public schools negatively while presenting charter schools as invariably successful.
We know neither portrait is accurate.
Rhode Island’s new state commissioner has decided to close one of the state’s oldest charter schools, which has been failing for years.
The Academy for Career Exploration, which was one of Rhode Island’s first charter schools when it opened in 1997 as the Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, informed the state Department of Education last month that it would close rather than craft a reform plan that might have kept it open.
The high school serves more than 200 students, but Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green had reservations about extending its charter because of low performance, including a zero percent proficiency rate in math. Nearly 38 percent of students were considered chronically absent last school year.
Anyone who claims that private management of schools is a panacea, especially for poor children, is either misguided or misleading.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In a related story, Art Van suddenly closing all its stores —
Yet another private equity firm related death …
Charter Schools, the Furniture Warehouse Model of Education …
an activist in our city very aptly compared the endless sudden closing of schools to what was happening to Kmart
Love your last sentence,
“Anyone who claims that private management of schools is a panacea, especially for poor children, is either misguided or misleading.”
The name of this charter school is bizarre.
“Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron’s subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Helicopter, Textron Aviation, and Lycoming Engines. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company. In 2018, Textron employed over 37,000 people worldwide. Wikipedia ” What if anything did Textron do to get branding rights to this school. Same questions for “Chamber of Commerce” as part of the name. What if anything did the Chamber of Commerce offer to students? WHy did the Chamber of Commerce have that its name attached to the school and coupled with Textron. I am thinking about this, in part, because there is so much hype about the virtue of public-private partnerships. This school seems to be an exampke of that, even if only at the most supeficiacal level–branding a charter school. Neither Textron nor the Chamber of cCommerce seems to give a …..if the school fails the students.
Public-private partnerships promoted by government employees- SETDA, funded by Gates.