Archives for category: Accountability
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Alabama: Fired Principal of Charter School Sues Board for Excluding Students with Disabilities, Plus Nepotism, and Cronyism

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2019 //
15

The board of Alabama’s first charter school, LEAD Academy, fired its principal, Nicole Ivey, and she is retaliating with a lawsuit that airs the school’s dirty laundry. 

Those named in the suit include Charlotte Meadows, the school’s founder and board president who is also running for the Alabama Legislature; Soner Tarim; owner of Unity School Services, an education service provider; Unity School Services; and each of the school’s board members: Ryan Cantrell, William Green and Lori White….

The suit claims LEAD’s objective is to “maximize school revenue and academic achievement by minimizing the presence of students with special needs.”

Prior to the enrollment application window opening, the suit claims Meadows expressed that she did not want special education children enrolled in the school. When it was explained to Meadows that the law prohibits discrimination against this group of children, the suit claims that Meadows responded that “We’re a charter school. We don’t have to follow the law,”: or words to that effect…”
Meadows, a former Montgomery County Board of Education president, is currently running for the Alabama House of Representatives District 74 seat. The lawsuit claims that Meadows actively ran her campaign out of the school’s finance office during hours of operation…
Prior to the school opening, the Montgomery Area Association of Realtors donated $200,000 to LEAD Academy. The suit claims half of that was put into a bank account that was solely managed by the school’s board president, Meadows, and one board member, White.

To Ivey’s knowledge at the time of her separation with the school, “none of the remaining $100,000 was expended to support the education programs at LEAD Academy,” the suit claims.

And then she gets to the nepotism and cronyism.

Categories Accountability, Alabama, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Special Education

The Crisis at Hampshire College and the Threat to The Future of Liberal Arts College

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2019 //
4

This fascinating article about the fiscal crisis at experimental Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, suggests that all except the best-funded colleges are in danger of collapsing. The first risk is the coming contraction of the college-age population, which will decline by 280,000 by 2026. Second, the author suggests, the business model that colleges rely on threatens their future, with full-paying students subsidizing those who can’t afford to pay tuition.

Underlying these arguments is the fact that the cost of higher education has spiraled out of control. It’s hard to remember that there was a time when most community colleges were tuition-free because states and cities wanted to invest in the education of their citizens.

There are also decisions that colleges have made that strain their budgets, such as inflated administrative salaries and pouring millions into facilities instead of faculty salaries and scholarships. And the decision to shift from tenure track faculty to adjuncts has been a false saving, in my view.

Hampshire College is different. It was created specifically to enroll a diverse student body and to have a pedagogy that scorns grades and requirements and majors. But it is in deep trouble, financially. Last September it enrolled a freshman class of only 13. One has already left.

Poll most top educators about their ideal kind of learning for the 21st century, and they’ll probably sound a lot like a Hampshire student. The virtues of open-ended thinking and project-based learning will be familiar to any Washington parent who has toured a bougie preschool. But thanks to a slow recovery from the 2008 recession, rising student debt and class anxiety, parents and students are looking at college less as an intellectual experience and more as an insurance policy — and that calls for colleges that offer proven outcomes, measurable skills or exceptional prestige.

All this means that private colleges like Hampshire are struggling to find enough students able or willing to pay their high sticker prices, and the situation is only likely to get worse. Because of low birthrates following the Great Recession, Carleton College economist Nathan Grawe predicts that the four-year-college applicant pool is likely to shrink by almost 280,000 per class, over four years, starting in 2026, a year known in higher ed as “the Apocalypse.” As youth populations decline everywhere but the southern and western United States, colleges in New England and the Midwest will find it increasingly hard to lure students, particularly those able to pay.

The problem is the business model. Colleges have long counted on wealthy students to subsidize the cost of education for those who can’t afford it. But for many institutions, that is becoming untenable. With only a $52 million endowment, Hampshire is especiall vulnerable to this reality, but enrollment experts say it will affect many schools outside the most elite. Schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and MIT will be fine, says Jon Boeckenstedt, Oregon State University’s vice provost of enrollment management. “It’s those colleges in the middle of the curve, with good, solid, well-known reputations but not spectacular financial resources or academic reputation, that are feeling the pinch,” he explains.

Film-maker Ken Burns, a graduate of Hampshire, heads a group trying to raise $100 million. A new President is rallying supporters. But the future is uncertain.

If the economic troubles of elite liberal arts institutions have you mock-playing an air violin, consider the consequences. For one, there’ll be fiercer competition for spots at the most prestigious schools — a sport already so gruesome, actress Felicity Huffman is doing jail time for gaming it. For another, there will be fewer opportunities for low-income students who rely on generous financial aid packages at small liberal arts colleges as one of the few tickets into the upper class. It may also mean the retreat of the only part of higher education that is uniquely American. Residential liberal arts colleges are rare in other parts of the world. For more than 200 years, they’ve made American higher education an exceptional laboratory for fostering empathy, creativity and innovation. We’ve gotten so used to them, we may not notice what we’ve lost until it’s gone.

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Funding, Higher Education

Mercedes Schneider: The Failure of “Reform” In Louisiana

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2019 //
5

Mercedes Schneider teaches high school English in Louisiana. She has been a close observer of the corporate reforms (the Disruption movement) under State Superintendent John White. White has been in charge since 2012. He has had the authority to pursue his own agenda, with the unwavering support of a state board elected by out-of-state money.

Schneider lays out his record, based on NAEP scores and ACT scores. 

It is not a pretty picture.

Schneider is accustomed to John White’s cherry-picking of data. But she will not let him get away with it.

She writes:

On October 30, 2019, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores were made public.

After seven years of John White as Louisiana’s state superintendent, the results were so unsavory White and his Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) that his Louisiana 2019 NAEP Results Summary does not include a single actual NAEP scaled score.

Instead, the propagandistic flier advertises “change from 2017 to 2019” (differences in the actual scores that are intentionally excluded) and features “Louisiana ranks No. 1 in the nation for 2019 improvement in 8th grade math scale scores and
proficiency rates” and “Louisiana’s pace of improvement since 2009 in all subjects significantly exceeds national trends.”

So, let’s look at Louisiana’s NAEP average scaled scores across time– not just from 2017 to 2019.

She posts all the state’s NAEP scores from 2005-2019 (White has been superintendent since 2012)

But then there are the ACT scores.

She writes:

On the same day that 2019 NAEP scores were released, so were Louisiana’s Class of 2019 ACT scores.

Louisiana’s Class of 2019 composite was 18.9— the lowest since all Lousiana graduates began to be required to take the test, beginning with the Class of 2013. In that year, Louisiana’s baseline composite was 19.5 (or 19.1, depending which LDOE info one reads).

Louisiana’s ACT Composite Scores (2013 – 2019):

  • 2013: 19.5 (or 19.1)
  • 2014: 19.2
  • 2015: 19.4
  • 2016: 19.5
  • 2017: 19.6
  • 2018: 19.3
  • 2019: 18.9

Not so surprisingly, White has no press release for Louisiana’s 2019 ACT dive.

That does not mean he has not been asked.

New Orleans Public Radio education reporter, Jess Clark, asked White to comment on Louisiana’s falling ACT score and received the following vague response, including NAEP-propaganda deflection:

Asked for comment on the latest ACT results, Louisiana State Superintendent John White sent an emailed statement pointing to progress the state made in 8th grade math on another national standardized test, the “Nation’s Report Card,” or NAEP.

“While the nation’s report card shows Louisiana tops the nation in 8th grade math progress, it’s important that we look at other indicators of our challenges,” he said.

John White wants to look at other indicators of “our” challenges.

I’ll bet he does.

.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Louisiana, Privatization, Testing, Vouchers

Gary Rubinstein: The Reformers’ Desperate Effort to Find Hope in the NAEP Scores

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2019 //
11

Gary Rubinstein, math teacher at Stuyvesant High School, is a skilled myth buster. He frequently unmasks “miracle” stories.

In this post, he demolishes the claim that Louisiana has improved faster in 8th grade math than other states.

This is the last gasp of the Disruption movement, which has controlled federal and state policy for 20 years but has little to show for it.

As Rubinstein shows, Arne Duncan and John White are leading the effort to find the “bright side” of the latest NAEP results, which were stagnant In 2019 and have been stagnant for a decade.

Duncan says the nation should look to Louisiana for inspiration. Louisiana ranked among the bottom  states on NAEP, 44th to 49th, depending on the grade and the subject. But how creative to point to one of the lowest performing states as a national model! Do what Louisiana did and your state too can rank among the bottom five states in the nation!

Gary points out that Louisiana has indeed improved, but its 2019 scores on 8th grade math were actually a point lower than its scores were in 2007! In other words, Louisiana hasn’t gained at all for the past dozen years!.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the leaders of the Disruption movement admitted that their 20-year-long policy of test-and-punish is both stale and failed?

Wouldn’t it be great if they said, “Whoa! We’re on the wrong track. We’ve inflicted nonstop testing on the nation’s children since 2002. We have spent billions on testing and test-prep. Scores went up for a few years but leveled off in 2007. Enough! Our answers are wrong. Time for fresh thinking.”

 

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Disruption, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Louisiana, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing

Kentucky Parent: Why Voters Tomorrow Should Oust Privatizer Matt Bevin and Save Our Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2019 //
2

Gay Adelmann, the mother of a recent graduate of the Jefferson County Public Schools, writes here to explain why voters in Kentucky should get rid of Matt Bevin and elect Andy Beshear as Governor.

She writes:

“During Kentucky’s past two legislative sessions, Gov. Matt Bevin lashed out at the record numbers of teachers descending upon Frankfort. But teachers are not the only ones who have been showing up in opposition to his attacks on public education. Many of us are also parents, retired teachers, students, business and community leaders, allied laborers and taxpayers. Our teachers are also taxpayers and often parents, after all. 

“We aren’t just standing up for teachers’ pay or pensions, either. We are also pushing back on Bevin’s draconian education policies, inspired by wealthy elites like the Koch Brothers and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. His solutions involve implementing the American Legislative Exchange Council’s carefully orchestrated schemes to underfund and undermine Kentucky’s public schools, turn our “persistently low-achieving” schools over to outside operators and drastically cut teacher compensation and benefits. This will not only destroy our public schools, it will further displace students (especially our “gap” students), and disenfranchise families across this commonwealth. Unfortunately, this austerity experiment comes at the expense of our community’s most vulnerable children and on Jefferson County taxpayers’ dime…

“Shortly after the 2015 election, Bevin declared, “We’re going to bring charter schools to Kentucky, and we’re going to start in west Louisville.” As a parent of a student in a “low-performing” West End school, this statement set off alarm bells for me. You see, my son’s school has long been the target of charter school wannabes. The entire time my son was in the aviation magnet at The Academy @ Shawnee, our building leaders and teachers lived under Jefferson County Public Schools’ former superintendent’s constant threat of “state takeover.” This often resulted in one failed change-for-the-sake-of-change maneuver after another, further making Shawnee a sitting duck for charter school sharpshooters…

”As a parent and taxpayer, I’m asking Jefferson County voters to stand with other public school parents, teachers and taxpayers and say “no” to four more years of out-of-touch, destructive education policy from the Bevin administration. Vote for Andy Beshear on Nov. 5.”

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Kentucky, Koch Brothers, Privatization

Arthur Camins: Take Back Our Government. Start with Public Schools.

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2019 //
9

Arthur Camins retired after a career as a teacher, aprofessor, a scientist, and director of a lab in charge of innovation.

In this post, he lays out the great mission of our era: take back our government, restore our democracy of the people. Start with public schools.

An excerpt:

Public schools are the bedrocks of democracy and equity. They are a great place to start reclaiming government because they are under assault by market enthusiasts who promote charter schools.

At best, charter schools–publicly funded but privately governed–benefit a few at the expense of the many. The evidence is in. At worst, they drain funds from public school districts, exacerbate segregation, facilitate corruption, and promote competition rather than solidarity among diverse constituencies for education quality and equity. It is time to hammer the nails in the charter school coffin.

In a dramatic and welcome shift for presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrenhave announced their opposition to continued federal support for charter schools. However, don’t make plans for the Democratic funeral just yet. The charter school lobby has deep pockets for legislative and electoral influence.  However, we are seeing a political shift in response to changing public opinion, possibly a reaction to Betsy DeVos’s flagrant distain for public schools and recurring charter school corruption.

Since Albert Shankar abandoned his flirtation with charter schools as an end run around stultifying bureaucracy, advocacy for so-called school choice has been primarily about undermining unions, avoiding systemic solutions to poverty, and promoting unregulated markets in opposition to government responsibility. Public acceptance of charter schools reflects a desperate response to years of abandonment and bipartisan support for and bashing of public schools. I don’t blame parents for choosing charter schools or the teacher who work in them. The responsibility falls on the politicians who allowed schools to deteriorate and poverty to continue, and with the profiteers who seek to make a buck at children’s expense. We will need to find a responsible way to reintegrate current charter school students into the public school system.

The market notion is that when schools compete for students and parent compete for their children’s entry into charter school equity and quality will improve. That is a zombie idea.  The absence of evidence notwithstanding, it just will not die. With billionaire funding it just keeps coming back to life.

Just for fun, I did a search on the term, “How to kill a zombie.”  It appears that the only way to kill off zombies is to attack their brains. We need to attack the brainchild of markets-fix-everything limited government enthusiasts  The American majority needs to take back the role of government as an essential support of a decent life for everyone. We need to take back the idea of social responsibility. The education of our children– all of them –could be the vanguard of that struggle.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

G.F. Brandenburg Rebukes Betsy DeVos on NAEP

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2019 //
30

Former D.C. math teacher Guy Brandenburg attended the NAEP press conference in D.C. where Betsy DeVos explained what lessons the nation can lean from the NAEP results. 

DeVos thinks the rest of the nation should learn from D.C., which has the largest racial gaps of any urban district tested by NAEP; Or Florida, where test scores went down; or Mississippi, where scores rose even though it is at the very bottom of all stages tested by NAEP. When you are at the very bottom, it’s easier to “improve” your scores.

When Betsy DeVos is long forgotten, please do not forget that she held up Mississippi as a model for the nation!

Brandenburg wants the world to know that D.C. made its greatest gains before mayoral control.

I found that it is true that DC’s recent increases in scores on the NAEP for all students, and for black and Hispanic students, are higher than in other jurisdictions.

However, I also found that those increases were happening at a HIGHER rate BEFORE DC’s mayor was given total control of DC’s public schools; BEFORE the appointment of Michelle Rhee; and BEFORE the massive DC expansion of charter schools.

He has the data and graphs to prove it.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, District of Columbia, Education Reform, Lies, Michelle Rhee, NAEP

Mike Deshotels on John White’s Record as Louisiana’s State Superintendent and Education Reformer

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2019 //
23

Mike Deshotels is a retired educator in Louisiana who blogs as “Louisiana Educator.”

In this post, he appraises State Superintendent John White’s record as state superintendent. 

He characterizes that record as “pitiful.”

John White, you may recall, is a “reformer,” that is, a specialist in Disruption. He is formerly TFA, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy, and before coming to Louisiana, worked for Joel Klein in New York City, preparing public schools for takeover by charter schools. He supports charters, vouchers, and high-stakes testing.

Deshotels writes:

After over 7 years of John White as Louisiana’s education reformer, Louisiana ranks 47th on national reading and math tests, and 49th on the ACT.

John White’s propaganda mill had the unmitigated gall to put out this press release Tuesday claiming that Louisiana was “number one in the country in 8th grade math improvement” as measured by The Nations Report Card. This tiny bit of data selection is insignificant compared to overall achievement of our students in reading, math and college readiness. The press release neglected to mention that despite all this “improvement” Louisiana still ranks third to last compared to the 50 states in 8th grade math. There is also no mention that Louisiana ranks 47th out of the 50 states in overall performance on all the latest NAEP tests. No mention was made that the latest ACT tests now rank Louisiana second to last in the country in college readiness! Our ACT test score averages have been declining significantly for the last 3 years. White’s press release trying to portray total stagnation in student performance as “nation leading outcomes” is pathetic.

Deshotels reviews the state’ low NAEP scores, then turns to the steadily falling ACT scores:

For ACT scores, there is no press release at all from the LDOE, probably because they have not yet found a way to spin three years in a row of declining ACT scores as some type of success. Average ACT scores in Louisiana was 19.6 in 2017, 19.2 in 2018, and 18.8 in 2019. This is a very significant drop in three years. Don’t just take my word for it that Louisiana is performing poorly in college readiness, just take a look at this article by Will Sentell in The Baton Rouge Advocate casually mentioning that Louisiana has now fallen to 49th in the nation on the ACT.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Corporate Reformers, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Louisiana, Privatization, Testing

Morgan Ames: Why Techies Are Not Experts About Everything

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2019 //
44

Morgan Ames is a techie. She majored in computer science at Berkeley and now works at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society. She wants to convince you that techies know computer science, but we should not look to them for advice about child-rearing, education, or other social issues. Their range of expertise is narrow. It may make them very rich. But it does not make them wise in every field of endeavor.

in particular, she is critical of the media narrative that techies shield their children from early use of technology.

She writes:

“These articles assume that techies have access to secret wisdom about the harmful effects of technology on children. Based on two decades of living among, working with, and researching Silicon Valley technology employees, I can confidently assert that this secret knowledge does not exist.

”To be sure, techies may know more than most people do about the technical details of the systems they build, but that’s a far cry from having expertise in child development or the broader social implications of technologies. Indeed, most are beholden to the same myths and media narratives about the supposed evils of screen time as the rest of us, just as they can be susceptible to the same myths about, say, vaccines or fad diets. Nothing in their training, in other words, makes them uniquely able to understand arenas of knowledge or practice far from their own.”

Whoa. I disagree with Ames. Monitoring children’s screen time and allowing them time to read and play is one of the most important jobs of parents today.

I think Ames would have been on safer grounds had she criticized techies’ entrance into politics or other realms about which they are clueless, where they think their financial success makes them superior to everyone else and encourages them to scoff at democracy. Or where they think that their financial success gives them the right to “reinvent” education and scoff at democracy. Think Zuckerberg, Gates, and Mrs. Jobs.

Categories Accountability, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Democracy, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Parents, Technology

Carol Burris: Wealthy Charter Organizations Lash Out at Elizabeth Warren for Proposing to Cut Off Their Federal Funding

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2019 //
15

Carol Burris, a veteran educator and now executive director of the Network for Public Education, has conducted extensive research into the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP), which resulted in a report called Asleep at the Wheel. That report documented the waste of about $1 billion in federal funds spent on charters that either never opened or that opened and then closed in short order. At the time the CSP was created by the Clinton administration, there were fewer than 100 charters; the new program was supposed to help start-up charters. However, since Betsy DeVos became Secretary of Education, she has used the CSP as her personal slush fund, lavishing million on established corporate charter chains–especially IDEA and KIPP.

In this post, which appeared on Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet blog at the Washington Post, Burris describes the outraged reaction of the charter advocacy groups to Elizabeth Warren’s plan to end the federal CSP. She details that each of the major charter groups has received many millions of dollars from the federal government, in addition to the support they have received from billionaires, foundations, and Wall Street. They are angry that their federal money might be cut off.

Strauss invited charter advocates to respond, and she includes their responses in the post. They want the money, they all said, because it is all about the kids.

Strauss writes:

Last week, Warren spelled out a detailed plan that would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to improve public schools from prekindergarten through 12th grade, saying she would pay for it by taxing America’s wealthiest people.

She calls for, among other things, quadrupling federal Title I funding for schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, which would add $450 billion over the next 10 years — and change the way that funding is implemented so that the neediest students benefit. The plan would also fund the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act at the level the federal government originally promised — 40 percent of the total cost of educating students with disabilities.

But this is what set off supporters of charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated: She said she would end federal investment in charter school expansion, ban for-profit charter schools and ensure existing charter schools are subject to the same transparency and accountability requirements as that of traditional public school districts. Warren also said she wants to ensure that only school districts can authorize the opening of charter schools.

She wasn’t the only Democratic presidential candidate to call for an end to federal funding for new charter schools; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) did the same thing. But Warren has risen to the top of a number of polls, and she is now a prime target for critics of her proposals.

A day after Warren’s announcement, the pro-charter Center for Education Reform issued a release attacking her, saying in part: “This week is seeing Elizabeth Warren’s education stances go from disastrous to downright awful. Yesterday she released a plan filled with failed policies of the past that puts narrow special interests over parents’ rights and student’s opportunities to succeed.”

Carol Burris writes:

The unveiling of Elizabeth Warren’s education plan resulted in a flurry of emails, tweets and blogs all focused on one small part of the plan — shutting down the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program. Most of the biggest objectors were those charter organizations that enjoy a stream of federal funding, with some having received hundreds of millions from a program whose original mission has gone astray.

It is not surprising that the alarm bells went off in the charter school establishment. Warren is now the second of the three leading contenders for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president who have promised to shut down the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) called for a moratorium on the same program in his education platform, eliciting the same outrage from many of the same players.

Below is a sample of some of the recent emails, followed by a discussion of the benefit that each organization received.

First, a fundraising email for the Charter PAC went out from Nina Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools:

From: Nina Rees
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 7:18 PM
Subject: Warren Proposes to Stop Federal Funding for Charter Schools
Dear Friends —
Today Presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren called to end federal funding for the expansion of
charter schools.
But we know that 5 million more families would choose a charter school if one could open near them.
Senator Warren’s plan to starve charter schools of funding would destroy the dreams of a quality education
for the families who need it most. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools responded sharply.
However, to protect as well as grow the Charter Schools Program, we must deploy all the tools available to us.
Please contribute to the Charter Schools Action PAC today. A strong Charter Schools PAC helps reinforce our
mission to candidates that need to know the impact of Senator Warren’s plan.
I’m writing today to ask for your help. Give today and share with 5 of your friends who support charter schools.
Thank you
Nina

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which had an income of nearly $13 million in 2017, has a vested interest in the continuance of the Charter Schools Program.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Education, under Secretary Betsy DeVos, awarded it a $2,385,960 grant. That is because a new funding stream was established that year, the National Dissemination Grants Program. The new grant program does not fund charter schools, but rather organizations such as the national alliance. Given the size of its budget, that award provides a substantial inflow of cash.

Since 2010, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has spent $2,621,999 lobbying Congress and the White House for funding for charter schools, with much of that lobbying being directed at the expansion of the federal Charter Schools Program, legislative records show.

[Asked to comment, Rees said in an email: “Charter Schools Action PAC, a voluntary organization of charter school supporters, responded to the Warren campaign’s direct assault on charter schools and the contribution they are making to high quality education for all kids. When our schools, students, and families are attacked our supporters have no choice but to respond on behalf of all families who want high quality educational options for their kids.”]

Rees’s email was then shortly followed by another from the CEO of IDEA Charter Schools, Tom Torkelson, who forwarded Rees’s email to the same listserv with this note:

Friends,
I hope you saw Nina’s note below. Senator Warren has proposed to cut the entire charter schools federal program. We need your help today [gmail.us4.list-manage.com]; don’t wait to support our efforts.
Tom
Tom Torkelson
Former Classroom Teacher and Charter School Founder

Torkelson, the CEO of the IDEA charter chain has an even greater vested interest in the preservation of the Federal Charter Schools Program. IDEA Charter Schools has received $225,000,000 from the Charter Schools Program since 2010. In 2018, IDEA had nearly $900 million in assets. That year, Torkelson earned over $550,000 from the charter chain and its related organization, public tax records show.

[A spokesman for IDEA said in an email: “As the Founder of IDEA Public Schools, Tom Torkelson has dedicated the last two decades to developing high-quality public schools that serve students from low-income backgrounds. Thanks, in part, to the federal Charter Schools Program, IDEA Public Schools has been able to expand in communities where the need is greatest, in partnership with teachers, students, and families…. We’re glad to see our founder stand up to defend schools that give students from all backgrounds the chance to go to a school that works for them.]

Just to make sure everyone on the listserv got the message and gave to the political action committee, Richard Barth of the KIPP charter chain forwarded the same email again.

Barth wrote:

Friends, We can’t let Senator Warren’s plan of cutting charter school funding become reality. Join us today and help all kids achieve their dreams. Richard.
Richard Barth
CEO
KIPP Foundation

The KIPP charter chain received $218,457,063 in grants from the Charter Schools program since 2010.

[A KIPP spokesman said in an email: Richard Barth is on the board of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools PAC. He sent the email on behalf of that organization, not on behalf of the KIPP Foundation. It is not uncommon for organizations like the PAC to ask for support when they are faced with important threats to their mission. The Charter School Program has been a critical and effective tool in creating opportunities for educationally underserved children. We are proud of our CEO for continuing to fight for black and brown families to have access to a quality education.]

That is nearly a half-billion dollars going to two of the most well-endowed charter chains in the nation — and that does not include the millions more that their individual schools received prior to the establishment of the Charter Management Organization grant program.

No one should be surprised that progressive candidates are taking on the Charter Schools Program. Sanders and Warren have been outspoken critics of billionaires and Wall Street driving public policy, and both of those groups have driven charter policies for years.

The federal Charter Schools Program, which began modestly in 1995, has turned into a massive giveaway with multiple examples of waste and the enabling of fraud. More than $4.1 billion in public funding has gone to start, replicate and expand charter schools with millions more now going to other ancillary programs for dissemination and facilities funding.

In Warren’s home state of Massachusetts, 74 charter schools were awarded CSP grants between 2006-2014. Fifteen never even opened and eight shut down or were shut down — hardly a resounding success. That represents over $4.6 million in federal funds going to charter “experiments” that failed.

Last March, the Network for Public Education issued our report, “Asleep at the Wheel,” that exposed the enormous waste the program has generated by freely given tax dollars to charter school operators who never actually open a proposed school, and to operators whose charter schools open and close.

Next year we will issue a follow-up report that will provide detailed documentation of where wasted funding went, including how funds make their way to charters run by for-profit organizations as well as to operators who would use that money to start charters while engaging in mismanagement and unlawful profiteering.

Under DeVos, the Charter Schools Program is moving in a direction that accelerates school privatization and the flow of public funds into private hands. Since DeVos has been in charge, six of the 20 grants from the State Entities program — totaling $116,571,458 — have gone not to state government agencies, but to private agencies to distribute school start-up grants. In exchange, these agencies get to keep 10 percent of the grants to administer the grants and supply services.

As these private agencies receive grants that have a funding stream for their organization attached, it is likely that the waste associated with the previous grants to state education agencies will get worse.

As mentioned earlier, the new National Dissemination Grants Program, has also been a financial windfall for charter advocacy groups. The National Alliance of Public Charter Schools was not alone in receiving a grant. Grants to private organizations totaled $16 million in 2018, federal records show. Joining the National Alliance were the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the California Charter Schools Association, which has also received big funding from billionaires of that state.

The CSP program is now moving in a direction aligned with the philosophy of DeVos — the private sector is preferred over the public sector when it comes to the schooling, and the management of schooling, of America’s children.

Some of the teacher strikes around the country that started in early 2018 — including those in West Virginia and California — focused on more than teacher salaries and benefits. West Virginia teachers walked out to stop the encroachment of privatization in the form of vouchers and charters in their state. In both the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland, calls to stop the spread of charters were heard from the picket lines and became part of negotiations.

The “competition” between the charter and public school sector was supposed to be the tide that would lift all boats. Instead, some public school systems are unable to stay afloat as that tide pulls public resources from their schools.

In 1995, New Hampshire enacted legislation permitting charter schools. It received two modest CSP grants in 2003 and 2010, together totaling about $18 million. In the 25 years since charters have been allowed, 33 charters opened, five of which have closed due to lack of enrollment and financial insolvency. The state does not allow for-profit organizations to run schools, and as of now, there are no charter chains in the state.

Although 28 charter schools is a small number, those charters are embedded in a public school system of only 448 public schools. Nevertheless, in 2019, DeVos gave the state a whopping $46 million as a CSP federal grant. In addition to providing support for existing schools, the intent of the grant is to both expand existing schools and create 27 charter schools in the five years of the grant — doubling the number of charters in that tiny state.

Frank Edelblut, the governor-appointed commissioner of education in New Hampshire who applauded receipt of the grant, home-schooled his seven children. He is a strong supporter of charter schools and vouchers (which use public founds for private and religious school education) — and like DeVos, has no experience in public education.

“Asleep at the Wheel” detailed up to $1 billion in federal funds that were wasted on charter schools that never opened, or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons, and that may be an underestimate. Sanders and Warren have now stood up to the charter industry, questioning a program that they say been used as a lever to sponsor unfettered charter school growth and private profits while undermining democratically governed public schools.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »