William Gumbert prepared a graphic portrayal of the dramatic growth of privately managed charter schools in Texas.
Two facts stand out from his presentation:
1) Charter schools are diverting billions of dollars from the state’s underfunded public schools.
2) Public schools perform better than charter schools.
Public officials are turning public money over to entrepreneurs at a furious pace without regard to the results.
Charter schools this year will take more than $3 Billion away from the state’s public schools, despite the poor performance of the charter schools. Since their inception, charters have diverted more than $23 Billion from the state’s public schools.
Public schools in Texas are underfunded and have been underfunded since 2011, when the state legislature recklessly cut $5.4 Billion from the schools’ budget. That cut was never fully restored.
Diverting money to charter schools adds more damage to the public schools that continue to enroll the vast majority of students in the state.
Texas has about 5.4 million students. More than half of all its students are Hispanic. About 12-13% are African American. About 28% are white. The majority (58.7%) are identified by the state as “economically disadvantaged.”
The legislature does not look like the people of Texas, most of whom are people of color. Almost two-thirds of the state legislature are white. More than three-quarters are men. Why does the legislature substitute charter schools for adequate funding?
Read the whole report here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If ed reform succeeds in eradicating public schools and the systems that result aren’t any better than the public systems they replace 1. none of the people who promoted this will ever be held accountable and 2. we’ll never get public systems back.
This experiment isn’t reversible. It’s a huge risky decision Americans are making and 90% of what they’re fed on it is spin or marketing from people who have a fundamental ideological opposition to “public” ANYTHING.
I just think we’ll end up deeply regretting throwing away these public systems and replacing them with a deregulated collection of fragmented contractors. The fact is none of these people have any idea if their ideological objective will result in better systems. They believe in privatization because that’s their ideology.
I would encourage the public to read ed reformers- you really cannot miss that 90% of this stuff is based on ideological beliefs about the inherent superiority of private markets. It permeates the work of all of them. It is what all this is grounded in.
I hope we at least consult some people outside of the ed reform echo chamber before pitching every public school in the country in the trash. We will regret that.
The worst example of trying to expand charters is in Houston where the governor is trying to seize the Houston public schools on the basis of one low performing school. It also does not help that DeVos keeps throwing millions of dollars to incentivize the establishment of more charter schools in the state. Some Texas cities are targeted for the “portfolio model” of charter expansion that inviting in wealthy interlopers to expand charter schools. The leadership in Texas is working against the public to privatize the schools. Vote blue, Texas!
My grandson has been working on-line at home. He has been busy with his electronic worksheets as well as his own independent reading and writing. Teachers establish “face time” with students once a week. Instead of teaching, some are merely introducing on-line segments. If teachers want to act as flight attendants rather than pilots, the state and conservative legislature are more than willing to allow on-line learning to replace them.https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/update-on-the-charter-school-movement-in-texas-april-9-2020.pdf
They also have no earthly idea if the privatized systems they are putting in place will be “more equitable”. They assert this like it’s fact but there’s absolutely no reason to believe it, other than echo chamber members parroting it.
Is our higher education system “equitable”? No. It’s mostly privatized now- has doing that increased “equity”? Has it increased quality? Why would privatizing K-12 work any better?
Because the ed reform echo chamber have an ideological predisposition to the superiority of privatized, “market based” contract systems does not mean those systems will be better than the public systems they replace.
Now at least we can say that these private charters in Texas are getting worse results. That is real evidence of failure. Why throw more public money into failed disruption?
key words: “They assert this like it’s fact…”
Your talk of ideology makes you more charitable than I am. I see only money here. Ideology is talk– salesmanship cloaking deals greasing hands.
And what happens to public school systems while the ed reform echo chamber lobby and promote and fund the charter and voucher systems they prefer?
I think we’ve seen what happens to them- they’re neglected. They don’t value our schools so they don’t invest in or support our schools and that harms our students.
We could have three generations of public school students harmed while ed reformers chase their ideological vision. Public school students have already been designated the collateral damage as ed reform transitions to privatization. They don’t offer anything for your students and schools because their goal is to replace them.
If you were, say, a white Republican politician in a state with a rising blue demographic, you might be looking for ways to suppress opposing voters and maintain minority rule. One very effective method would be to cripple public schools. Uninformed voters are more likely to be red voters (and Fox news viewers).