I wrote a few days ago about the case of Torchlight Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina. The state board warned that the charter school was in trouble because of its inadequate support for students with disabilities, as well as issues of management, finances, and oversight. The state board voted to revoke the charter. This is in addition to the previous closing of two previous charters under the management of the same company.
WRAL in Raleigh reported:
The North Carolina Charter School Advisory Board has recommended closing one of the state’s oldest charter schools because of financial and management concerns — including that school leadership is profiting from school contracts.
The board unanimously voted Monday to make the recommendation following nearly eight hours of presentations from both state officials and officials with Torchlight Academy. The State Board of Education plans to consider the recommendation Thursday.
Monday’s meeting featured new allegations against the school, passionate testimony from school officials and hesitancy from the school’s board of directors to act swiftly on making management or oversight changes.
The school serves roughly 600 students in Raleigh and has been operating nearly as long as the state’s 1997 law that established charter schools.
But school leadership — at the administrative and board of directors levels — lost the trust of state officials in recent years over concerns that the school was violating federal laws on special education and against financial self-dealing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oh good 😅 another furniture store is having a going out of business sale …
Good one, Jon!
Huge new charter chain:
“If Gov. Bill Lee gets his way, Tennessee will become a major player in a network of taxpayer-funded charter schools set up by a Michigan college with close ties to former President Donald Trump.
Lee calls Hillsdale College’s approach to teaching civics “informed patriotism.”
But the colleges’ own teaching materials reveal why critics say its approach is anything but informed. For example, Hillsdale falsely claims that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did not favor using the “force of law” to achieve civil rights victories.
“This curriculum has a political bent to it,” said Nashville historian David Ewing, who reviewed the materials at NewsChannel 5’s request.”
Tennessee public school students and families got nothing from their state government this term but ed reformers lobbied for and got a huge new Right wing charter chain.
They simply peform no work of any kind that benefits students who attend public schools. Session after session in ed reform dominated states, it’s all expanding charters and vouchers. Public school students really deserve at a least a few people in government who will work their behalf.
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed-charter-school-program-favored-by-tennessee-governor-rewrites-civil-rights-history
great summation: students DESERVE at least a few people in government who will work on their behalf….shocking, as always, that they apparently do not
Hillsdale is an institution that appears to align conservative Catholics, evangelicals and libertarians.
The expansion of charter schools was/is enabled by Melinda Gates. Gail King will be interviewing her tomorrow morning on CBS. I doubt a single question about her foundation’s attack on public education will be asked. Melinda prefers a different image.
Yes, indeed.
The Tennessee ‘Governor’ is proving to be an extremist nut case. My own Representative in Washington (John Rose) was one of only a dozen or so who refused to vote for a medal (wow, how trivial) for the Capital Police for trying to save his life on 1/6.
The country is in a bad way, and Tennessee is leading in that direction.
Here’s where the ed reform echo chamber discuss their vision for privatized systems of public education.
Guess what’s missing. Public schools and public school students. Just completely ommitted from ed reform plans now:
https://www.educationnext.org/rees-responds-to-hess-on-charter-strategy/
Just know that if you’re a public school and you’re hiring out of this echo chamber you aren’t going to get anything that is even relevant to public school students or families. They simply perform no productive work at all on behalf of public school students.
It’s true in Ohio. Every session is devoted to ideological debates over privatized systems conducted by ed reformers with other ed reformers. Other than tests (and tests and tests and tests) public school students haven’t benefitted at all from the thousands of fullt time career ed reformers over 20 years.
I’m thinking that the money behind Torchlight Academy will reinvent itself with a new cooperate name and apply to launch a new charter school under a new name from the same frauds. If that doesn’t work in North Carolina, they’ll try again in another state.
These vampires never give up. Greed is their god and nothing else counts no matter how many children and teachers they hurt.