The Network for Public Education works with scores of state and local grassroots groups that want to protect and strengthen public schools. Almost 90% of out nation’s children attend public schools. We are fighting libertarian billionaires and religious zealots who want to dumb down and indoctrinate our children. Above all, they want to cut their taxes by undereducating our children.
We just added a new partner!
The Network for Public Education congratulates Our Schools Our Democracy (OSOD), a new partner in our work to protect, defend, and improve public schools. Its comprehensive research exposes the harm charter schools do to Texas Public Schools and serves as a blueprint for reforming charter school laws not only in Texas but in every state.
OSOD will focus on fighting school privatization in Texas, with a special emphasis on the impact of charter schools. According to their website, “Texas public schools, governed by locally elected school board members, are the cornerstone of our democracy and the heart of our neighborhoods. However, since state lawmakers first authorized open-enrollment charter schools 30 years ago, unchecked charter expansion has harmed public school districts in every corner of the state.”
Along with the organizational launch is the launch of a comprehensive report: Facing Facts: Charter Schools in Texas. The report presents startling facts on the financial drain of charter schools on public schools, the lack of charter transparency, and the irresponsible practices presently enabled by Texas law. It provides readers with the arguments they need to actively advocate for charter reform.
Please visit their exciting new website here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The amount of unaccountable public funds lining the pockets of charter schools is wasteful, particularly since public schools lose funds as private schools expand. These unaccountable schools frequently waste funds on fraud, bloated administrative costs, and schools that frequently close. Vouchers are an even bigger waste of public money since the quality of education from these schools is so poor, and there is no real academic or social benefit to subsidizing tuition of the affluent. The best value for public dollars are public schools that serve all students and promote tolerance and respect for others.
My grandson is a high school freshman in Texas. I hope he can graduate before Abbott destroys the public schools with his reckless belief that privatization is better. It’s not. Best of luck to OSOD in making the public aware of wasteful privatization that harms public schools. Many parents still erroneously think that charter and voucher schools are just “free money.”
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By the way my son-in-law, a trucker and Mexican with a green card, was delivering in Chicago today when he was stopped by Homan’s goons that saw the Texas plates and decided that he might be carrying drugs. They wasted his time searching him and the truck for 55 minutes which resulted in him missing his unloading appointment. This means he is stuck in Chicago until Monday when he will have to pay a late load penalty, make his delivery and miss out on a good Monday morning load. The profit margin for independent truckers in razor thin because the big companies lobby politicians to to make it difficult for them. What is happening is plain old “profiling.”
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Unsurprising. Anyone who is not white should carry their papers or passport at all times when leaving home.
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He carries his green card with him at al times.
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What a horrible story. As a US citizen & taxpayer, I find it enraging.
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Well, not that they should care, but I bid them Godspeed.
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Welcome, OSOD! The “Facing Facts” report is masterful. Thoroughly-researched, and addressing every single issue with charter schools I’ve been mentally ticking off over the 15 yrs I’ve been following this issue.
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No one with a brain would ever imagine that running two tiers of public schools fully supported by taxpayers would ever make sense economically. Much less when the 2nd tier gets waivers from many state ed laws in the name of “innovation” that include such things as proper fiscal oversight—which invites (and incurs) fraud. Let alone [per TX stats rounded up by OSOD] have FAR-lower rated “grade” than peer trad’l pubschools, 20% lower grad rates, 4% ave lower state-stdzd test scores (some far lower), enroll far fewer students that peer local trad’l public schools—incl in ‘specialty’ subjects [STEM] for which they were approved]—etc!
What could be worse? Adding a 3rd tier– voucher pgm, where public pays half or more tuition for completely unvetted, unmonitored private schools. Yet that’s what Abbott has been promoting for yrs, & claims he has primaried out enough rural foes to make it happen in 2025.
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