Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio points to the central hypocrisy of charters seeking Coronavirus Relief funds.
Public schools are not eligible to request these funds.
Thus, charter schools acknowledge that they are NOT public schools. They seek money reserved for small businesses.
The squalid aspect of this maneuver is that any money they get is taken away from a business that was forced to close, to lay off employees, and to operate without revenues. Charters suffered not at all. They never lost funding. They want to take money out of the mouths of those small business owners who suffered real harm.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Grifters gonna do what grifters do.
To my knowledge it has never bothered charter operators that they undermine the instruction in public schools. They haven’t cared when students in public schools attend much larger classes. They have not mourned the loss of music and art or the public schools’ inability to fix their deteriorating facilities. They are not concerned when public schools cannot have a school nurse or guidance counselors due to charter drain. Like a good parasite, they just keep on taking and absorbing the resources of public schools all the while hoping the schools collapse under the burden. Charter schools pay their administrators six figure salaries. They waste and squander, and our government continues to feed the privatization monster without regard to what happens to the schools that serve the most students and helped build our nation.
This is the justification:
“Idaho’s state government enacted an immediate 1 percent cut to school funding in late March, and more draconian cuts are expected in coming months. Across the country, schools are starting to lay off employees, and the paycheck program is a way to keep them employed.”
So, according to ed reform, only charter schools should be protected from education funding cuts-not public schools.
The level of disregard for students in public schools in the ed reform “movement” is just amazing.
Rather than advocate towards funding all schools, they work exclusively to fund charter schools.
The Trump Administration will agree with this- none of them work for public school students either.
It is bad enough that charters suck funds out of public school budgets, often without public schools having any say about how much. Through lobbying and paying politicians, the feds and states create legislation that gives private charter schools preferential treatment and access to additional funds. Some charters also get funds from wealthy people that want to avoid paying taxes. All these manipulations are aimed make public schools the schools of last resort.
“divided we fail…”
For “agnostics” these folks sure spend a lot of time working for preferential treatment for the charter and private schools they prefer.
We’ll have to advocate on behalf of public school students when the budget cuts come- it’s clear ed reformers won’t be lifting a finger. No help there, just like in 2009.
Remember in 2010 when ed reformers swept to electoral victory and every public school in the country took a massive hit in funding under their leadership?
Remember Walker in Wisonsin and Snyder in Michigan and Kasich in Ohio? All ed reformers, all cut public school budgets when they came into power.
That will happen again if we don’t advocate on behalf of public school students. They’ll throw our kids under the budget cut bus again.
If you don’t want budget cuts to public schools, don’t elect ed reformers.
“It would be outrageous if charters would be able to access SBA loans and additional stimulus for all schools. No other public school could do this.”
I think we can guarantee the Trump Administration will show preferential funding treatment to charters. They don’t do a lick of work on behalf of public schools so I wouldn’t expect any of them to start now.
DeVos is ideologically opposed to the existence of public schools. I don’t even trust her to distribute the funds in a lawful manner, let alone “fairly”.
Private schools are getting the funds too:
“Federal relief funds are starting to trickle in toward private schools, offering at least some short-term relief to a sector that is likely to be hard hit by the coming economic slump.
The aid is through the Paycheck Protection Program, a $349 billion slice of the $2 trillion relief package that’s aimed at helping American workers and businesses stay afloat in the wake of the pandemic.
The PPP offers forgivable loans to small businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 500 employees, including private schools and charter schools. The loan amount is up to 250 percent of an employer’s average monthly payroll, with a $10 million cap. If the employer maintains that payroll for eight weeks, the loan is forgiven. The loans can also be used for interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.”
https://www.redefinedonline.org/2020/04/private-schools-starting-to-see-some-federal-relief/
The ed reform response to the coronavirus crisis so far has been:
step up their criticism of public schools
make sure the charter and private schools they prefer are taken care of
Public schools? Who cares.
Do Catholic schools that get tax dollars through vouchers have their hands out, like the charter schools do?
What, if anything, does Bill Gates have to say. Either nothing at all, or charters should have access to both.
What if anything does Joe Biden and his educator wife Dr. JIll Biden have to say about this? Shouldn’t this and related posts and Diane’s book be forwarded to their home NOW, while they are confined to their home? If you have an address, post it, and write a brief memo.
Now, is this a short con or a long con? I never really understood the difference.