Texas has gone overboard for charter schools, even though they consistently post worse results than public schools. In the state’s new plans, charter schools will not be held accountable for the performance of English-language learners or students with disabilities. That is grossly unfair to public schools but it should raise the ratings of charter schools.
A trusted friend who works for the Texas Education Agency sent this information:
The proposed Texas Charter School Performance Framework for 2020 has been posted for public comment. On page 19, in the Operations standards, “Program requirements: Special populations” and “Program requirements: Bilingual education/English as a second language populations” are marked as “N/A for 2020” instead of each counting for one point. These indicators, 3b and 3c, are struck out on page 20. There does not appear to be an explanation for these changes.
Appropriate handling of assessments is another deletion from the Operations standards on pages 23-24.
Due to the lack of academic accountability, the manual will reflect fiscal and operational indicators only, not academic indicators.
https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/fidsreg/202103289-1.pdf
There are no academic indicators, which makes sense because there were no tests in 2020. But the state officials removed the program indicators for bilingual and special education populations from the Operations standards on which charter schools will still be rated. These indicators measure if charters meet program requirements such as employing certified teachers in these areas.
This is not the only exception made for charter schools. Those that get a D or F rating three years in a row are supposed to be closed by the state, but that accountability is seldom enforced. Indeed, the state allows failing charters to expand.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m continually amazed at how little work ed reformers perform on behalf of PUBLIC schools.
Understand that if you hire out of this echo chamber they are not lifting a finger for public schools in your state. They do no productive or positive work of any kind that is even relevant to public school students. They’re either promoting and marketing charters and vouchers or writing and re-writing regulations for charters and vouchers.
This “movement” really, really needs to work on truth in advertising. The public is paying thousands of ed reformers who return absolutely no value to any public school or public school student. We’ve poured billions of PUBLIC funds into hiring and paying them, and that doesn’t even include their billionaire backers.
Just be charter/voucher promoters and stop pretending to serve public school students. It isn’t fair to the students.
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yes, may the next years be ones where the “pretending” is so far outed that it can no longer hold everyone in thrall
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SICK!
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What ever happened with this?
“IDEA Public Schools Parts Ways With CEO, COO After Review Of Charter’s Finances
In a letter to the school community, Board President Al Lopez announced the departure of CEO JoAnn Gama and COO Irma Muñoz after an in-depth legal and forensic review into the network’s finances.”
All of the ed reform echo chamber still pretending it didn’t happen? Are they contractually forbidden to criticize charter schools?
Try to imagine the outrage from the ed reform echo chamber if this had been a public school district but because it’s a charter it’s crickets.
We’re never going to hear another word about it, just like we never heard another word about the scandal at the politically connected charter chain in Chicago, UNO. Hire more cheerleaders! Ramp up the marketing!
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I don’t understand the reluctance in the ed reform echo chamber to admit they want to abolish public schools.
Doesn’t the public deserve to be told that privatization is the only productive work these people do?
They don’t “serve” public school students at all and we’re employing thousands of them in government. It’s a rip off.
Just be the charter/voucher “movement”. Then at least people can make an informed decision.
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Public school students get the absolute worst of ed reform. They get gimmicky, politically motiovated mandates from ed reformers, like the mask bans and the CRT censorship, but they get no positive support at all.
It’s a raw deal for public school students. There’s no upside at all.
At least when they manage charters they also support and lobby for charters. Our kids get political opponents OF their schools who also run their schools. Why are public school students being punished? Because their schools are public so therefore ideologically incorrect in the “movement”? Why are we paying for this? Couldn’t we instead hire people who value our schools and intend to contribute to them?
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This is most certainly an attempt to inflate the scores of charter schools whose performance has been no better and is often worse than public schools. Maybe charter schools want to expand into the special education and ELL market. Instead of serving these students well, they intend to hire some warm bodies to deal with these students, but they do not want to be held accountable for their lower scores. This, I think, is another manipulation from the charter lobby.
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Texas is stepping back into the very, very dark days of education. Back to the days when special needs students were not considered to learn.
To me, this is a gross form of discrimination. If the TexAss (correct spelling) does require the charter school to be accountable for the performance of special needs students and ELLs then they will not bother to teach them. This is not different than the discrimination that children of color faced going to public schools in the early days of this country.
This is a way of forcing these students out of the charter school system in TexASS. Why should parents of special needs students and ELLs even consider taking their children to a charter school in TexAss? Charter schools will figure out of only take the cream of students who are very bright and will be very successful academically.
This also tells me that TexAss leadership does not believe that charter schools are actually teaching students what they need to be successful. Not holding the charters accountable for the performance of special needs students and ELLs does change how well the charters are teaching students.
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“Texas is stepping back into the very, very dark days…” pretty much covers all the bases.
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Yes. It’s the “they don’t deserve assistance” mantra conservatives use time and again to excuse inequalities. It reveals a lack of understanding of the purpose of public education.
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We’ve lost two decades following ed reform guidance on “improving” public schools. We’ve paid a huge opportunity cost.
Ed reform is an echo chamber. Let’s hire some new people who actually value and support public schools. We shouldn’t waste the next ten years like we did the last twenty. What do public schools and public school students have to lose? A bunch of gimmicky, cheap mandates. There’s no risk at all. Cut em loose as far as PUBLIC schools. It’s either neutral or a gain.
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Privatization is the name of the game, not improved education. Texas proves that the main objective is moving public money into private pockets, when it ignores its own law to shutter charters after three years of low scores. The “game” is rigged against public education.
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Fordham Institute
The impact of vouchers on participating students and kids in nearby public schools. That’s the topic of this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, the 5th edition of our Research Deep Dive series, featuring
P_Diddy_WolfMichaelPetrilli & David Griffith.
This is the entire echo chamber mindset. It’s all they do. Public school students only exist as a comparison population to be used in the furtherance of charters and vouchers.
The public shouldn’t accept this. We can do much better for public school students. We can hire people who support and value our students and schools. That’s allowed.
Private schools aren’t people who oppose the existance of private schools to run private schools. Why are we hiring out of the ed reform echo chamber? They’re anti-public school. They’ll never “improve” your schools because they never supported your schools to begin with.
They can carry on in their charter/voucher promotion and marketing and public schools can work on public schools. No one has to apologize for being a public school. It’s not the preferred ed reform system. Who cares?
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“Texas has gone overboard for charter schools, even though they consistently post worse results than public schools.”
I could name that Texas tune with just the first four notes
Texas is Overboard!
Texas is overboard!
Tell me some news
Don’t let him back onboard!
Simply refuse!
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Me thinks there is going to be a viral rash of court cases challenging most if not all of Texas’s new GOP laws designed to support Traitor Trump in 2024.
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I certainly hope you are right.
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