The Pastors for Texas Children sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education seeking relief from the deluge of federal funding for charters that is inundating Texas and undermining its underfunded public schools. PTC asks for regulations to prevent harm to the public schools that enroll the vast majority of children.
Read its letter in the PDF attached here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is an reasonable, well executed request by the Pastors for Texas Children. We need to push the pause button on new charters. It is time for a review of charter school performance, the process for opening more schools and their impact on neighborhood public schools.
Charter companies are now targeting entire states like Texas for massive takeover under the “portfolio model.” The original mission of charters schools was to respond to a community need, not a hostile attack of communities. When charters can open anywhere through a simple administrative act, local communities have zero input in the process and how their public tax dollars will be spent. All the current research points to the fact that most charter schools are not worth the disruption they cause, and they needlessly impose inefficiency and costs on local communities. They under serve the neediest students and leave the most challenging and expensive to serve in public schools that are hobbled by ever increasing charter drain. Local communities should not be forced to pay for schools that will compete with their public schools without any input from the local citizenry. This is not how a democracy is supposed to function.https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/10/texas-education-portfolio-charter-teacher-strikes/
“Texas calls its portfolio approach the “System of Great Schools,” […].”
Similarly, Atlanta Board of Education calls their portfolio approach “A System of Excellent Schools.”
The City Fund’s general construct applied elsewhere is “A System of Schools.”
Problem is, a portfolio is not a system of anything, at all. A portfolio is, by definition, a collection. Saying it’s a system does not make it so. Yet, too many folks buy the hype that is just plain, pure folly.
When Joel Klein became Michael Bloomberg’s choice as chancellor of the NYC public schools in 2002, he said in his first speech that he didn’t want a “great school system,” he wanted “a system of great schools.” He then opened scores of charters, closed hundreds of schools,broke up large high schools into 5-6 small schools,and created a system of chaos.
it is nothing more than a system of selection and rejection
The “portfolio model” of charter schools has mostly crashed and burned as in Tennessee, but that does not stop other states from replicating failure and wasting money.
The chances of little greggy (gov), little dan (lt. gov), little kenny (ag) and little mikey (commissioner of ed) doing what is best for children is slim. They are still following their cult leader’s lead and pushing for 100% face to face instruction and all tests full steam ahead.
They are leading this state down a rabbit hole that will take for every to get out of.
This is a good letter. Thanks. Nothing much is being said about what the Biden administration is going to do regarding charters, because the media thinks it is a boring subject. Keep trying to wake them up…..it should not be boring….it has the possibility of being one of the most destructive parts of public education for Biden…..just as it was for Obama before he started waking up.
Obama started waking up? When?
Media exposed a Publix heir’s financial support for Trump and the Jan. 6 rally that led to sedition. If journalists pivoted a little, they would find the Barnett branch of the Publix fortune who funded a winning Polk County school board member- sends his kids to charter schools and cites his Christian university degree.