Archives for category: Charter Schools
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Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh School Board Rejects Charter School, But State Overrules Decision

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2019 //
7

The elected School Board of Pittsburgh unanimously rejected a charter school called Catalyst Academy because of concern about its proposed disciplinary policy and its ability to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The School Board’s decision was overturned by the state’s Charter Appeals Board, which was appointed by the former Republican Governor. The members of the CAB have ties to the charter industry.

This is NOT how democracy should work.

Why should a highly conflicted board appointed by a former Governor have the authority to override the decision of a democratically elected community school board?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Privatization

Good News! Bill to Restrict Charter Appeals Passes California Assembly

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2019 //
2

The Legislature in California is considering four bills to regulate the state’s unregulated, unaccountable charter industry.

Under current law, charters can locate wherever they want, without regard to the fiscal impact on the district they choose. They first apply to the local district; if they are turned down because the local district doesn’t want or need a charter, they can appeal to the county board of education. If they lose there, they can appeal to the state board, which Gov. Jerry Brown packed with pro-charter allies. Ten percent of students in the state attend charters, as do 20% in L.A., and even more in Oakland. Small rural districts may authorize charters that are located in districts hundreds of miles away, ensuring that the charters will never have supervision. The rural district collects a fee for every student who enroll in the far-away district.

The first law—AB 1505– passed the Assembly yesterday in a close vote. Its purpose is to give more control to districts to decide whether to allow charters to open and compete with district schools. It passed by a vote of 42-19. The bill required 41 votes to advance to the State Senate. Here is the text of the bill.

For nearly an hour, Assembly Bill 1505 stood just shy of a handful of the 41 votes required to advance to the Senate, in part because of concerns the bill went too far in limiting the ability of charter schools to appeal authorization denials from local school districts to county and state education boards.

Moderate Democrats in particular were reluctant to support the measure. When the bill finally passed 42-19, it was with an assurance from  Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, the bill’s author, that the bill would be amended to include a “fair” appeal process.

“We knew this was going to be a fight because this is a heavily political matter,” O’Donnell said following the floor vote. “Charter schools have a lot of resources that public schools don’t on the political front, and they employ them in the state Capitol, and we saw that today.”

AB 1505, 1506 and 1507 and Senate Bill 756, put forth as a charter regulation package, have pitted teachers unions and supporters of traditional public schools against advocates of charter schools, which are public but mostly non-union. The two education interests are among Sacramento’s most powerful, and until this past election, when union candidates triumphed in races for governor and statewide schools chief, they have largely fought to a draw.

If passed, the package of proposals would make the most significant changes in a generation to the state’s 27-year-old charter school laws. They would give local school boards more power over authorizations, enact a statewide cap on charters, prohibit districts from authorizing charters outside their geographic boundaries—and impose a two-year moratorium if the Legislature doesn’t make specific reforms by the end of this two-year session.

California has more charter schools than any other state—nearly 1,300. Their freedom from regulation or accountability has been zealously guarded by the powerful California Charter Schools Association, which sPends more than $20 million each year lobbying the Legislature.

Will California’s Legislature finally say “no” to Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, and other billionaire guardians of the charter industry?

Sure, the California Teachers Association lobbies for public schools but its resources don’t match those of the billionaires and its  funds come from the dues of teachers, not equities and corporate profits.

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry

Jersey Jazzman Offers Advice to the Media About Covering Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2019 //
3

 

Jersey Jazzman, aka Mark Weber, is a teacher in New Jersey who took the time to earn a Ph.D. So he could decipher the studies and research usedto make decisions about schools.

In this post, he explains to the media how to cover charter schools.

He noticed that Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal to ban for-profit charter schools unleashed a wave of commentary about charter schools. Many people have no idea what they are. They don’t know that they are privately managed but publicly funded and that most charter schools operate with little or no oversight. It’s a sweet deal to get public money with no one checking the books.

He writes:

I can’t say I’m surprised, but it looks like Bernie Sanders’ latest policy speech on education – where, among other things, he calls for a ban on for-profit charter schools and other charter school reforms — has generated a lot of fair to poor journalism that purports to explain what charters are and how they perform.

Predictably, the worst of the bunch is from Jon Chait, who cheerleads for charters often without adhering to basic standards of transparency. Chait’s latest piece is so overblown that even a casual reader with no background in charter schools will recognize it for the screed that it is, so I won’t waste time rebutting it.

There are, however, plenty of other pieces about Sanders’ proposals that take a much more measured tone… and yet still get some charter school basics wrong. I’m going to hold off on citing specific examples and instead hope (against hope) that maybe I can get through to some of the journalists who want to get the story of charters right.

The first warning is not to accept the claims that CREDO makes, especially not its assertion that it can measure “days of learning.” It can’t.

Second point, don’t accept the assertion that “charter schools are public schools.” They get public money but bot everything that gets public money is “public.” Like Harvard and Boeing.

Third point, do charter schools strip funding from public schools? JJ is not sure but Gordon Lafer is. See his study here on the fiscal drain that charters impose on public school. 

4) The “best” charter sectors get their gains through increased resources, peer effects, and a test prep curriculum — and not through “charteriness.”

Read the rest for yourself. JJ is always worth reading.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Data, Education Industry, Research

Jan Resseger: Teachers in West Virginia Forego a Pay Raise to Block Charters and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2019 //
5

 

Teachers in West Virginia stunned the nation in February 2018 by going out on strike and staying out while demanding a pay raise and a commitment from the Governor and Legislature not to support charter schools and privatization. Theywon a pay raise and they had a commitment from Governor Jim Justice to veto charter legislation. Justice is a billionaire, the richest man in the state.

A year later, the Legislature was ready to abandon its promise not to introduce privatization. The teachers struck again.

Jan Resseger has the story here. 

The Legislature wants to put the camel’s nose under the tent. Just the nose. Promise. Cross my heart.

Don’t believe them. They are lying. Once the privatization starts, the camel gets into the tent. The tiny voucher program becomes a massive voucher program. The experimental charter becomes a major lobbying industry.

Fight for public education.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Teachers, Vouchers, West Virginia

Journey For Justice Had a Busy Day

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2019 //
18

Don’t believe the right wingers who claim that  charter schools are supported by Black and Brown people.

Not only did the NAACP, the nation’s most venerable civil rights group, call for a moratorium on charter schools but so did Black Lives Matter.

The Journey for Justice Alliance is a true grassroots civil rights organization. It led demonstrations across the nation today. One of its demands: No more public funds for charter schools, which are a tool of gentrification. J4J knows what matters most: full funding of Title 1 and special education, not privatization and charter schools.

 

May 22 PRESS RELEASE FOR NATIONAL ACTIONS:
We Choose Equity So Fund Our Future! National Day of Action
May 22, 2019

Thousands rally nationwide for education justice on May 22, 2019!

On May 22nd coalitions from 20 cities are uniting forces to hold 11 powerful actions to demand equity and end racial injustice in schools nationwide. As we commemorate the landmark Brown V. Board Decision we will renew our call for an end to the egregious disparities in resources allocated schools serving Black and Brown youth. We will also demand for full funding of Title I and IDEA. The Journey for Justice Alliance will also hold Equity Bus Tours and Forums throughout the country. Many city and statewide coalitions are organizing large rallies with bold actions connected to their local demands for fair funding, sustainable community schools and progressive revenue. Our May 22nd Day of Action will galvanize our communities as we create the momentum to make education a pivotal issue in the 2020 Presidential elections.

May 22nd Calendar

WASHINGTON DC Coalitions: Journey for Justice Alliance (New York, Baltimore, Newark, Camden, Patterson and Pittsburgh), the Alliance for Educational Justice, and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools

• Actions:

1) Rally at Supreme Court with parents and youth from 6 cities, President Randi Weingarten (AFT) and Sen Chris Van Hollen to commemorate Brown V. Board and a renewed demand for equity
2) Equity Bus Tour in DC’s Wards 7 and 8 to highlight resource disparities in local schools
3) Press Conference at Hart Middle School with US Rep. Susie Lee, Liz Davis and President of the Washington Teachers Union

BIRMINGHAM. Coalition/Organization Name: Citizens for Better Schools and Sustainable Communities
• Action: We Choose Equity Bus Tour
• Demand: Fully Fund, IDEA, Title I and call on federal legislations to implement policies that honor mandate of Brown v. Board

CINCINNATI. Coalition: Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition
• Action: Protest/Rally in front of campus of new charter school “Regeneration Schools” set to open in August, 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Demand: No more public $$ to charter schools. Demand for equity in school funding, including local campaign demands for tax abatement policy changes. ( The proposed charter school is pushed by local deep pockets organized as the Cincinnati Accelerator started as an offshoot of MindTrust in Indianapolis. These people talk about high-quality seats–a dead give away thet the are using test scores and the absurd Ohio report card as a reason to push for a charter. Key players here are a retired banker and the family that owns CINTAS.)

CHICAGO. Coalition: The Grassroots Education Movement and Chicago Teachers Union
• Action: Fair Contract Rally–Keep the Promise: Equity & Funding for our Schools, Students & Community Thompson Center (110 W. Randolph, downtown Chicago)
• Demand: Call for new mayor to agree to a fair contract that improves educator pay & benefits, reduces class sizes and increasing critical staffing needs (ELL and SPED teachers, paraprofessionals, librarians, nurses, counselors, social workers, restorative justice coordinators) Demands include expanding sustainable community schools and increasing affordable housing.

DENVER. Coalition/Organization Name: Breaking Our Chains
• Action: We Choose Equity Bus Tour
• Demand: Fully Fund, IDEA, Title I and call on federal legislations to implement policies that honor mandate of Brown v. Board

DALLAS. Coalition/Organization Name: Texas Organizing Project
• Action: We Choose Equity Bus Tour
• Demand: Fully Fund, IDEA, Title I and call on federal legislations to implement policies that honor mandate of Brown v. Board

BATON ROUGE. Coalition/Organization Name: Step Up Louisiana, LAE
• Action: Rally and Press Conference regarding harm done by charters and their lack of accountability (due to ‘autonomy’ given by state laws)
• Demands: Stop the proliferation of charters and a fair plan to address budget deficit

HOUSTON. Coalition/Organization Name: Save Our School Houston and Texas Organizing Project
• Action: Rally and Protest
• Demand: End Punitive dress code policies that police parents of color and prevent their engagement in school activities

JACKSON. Coalition/Organization Name: IDEA and One Voice
• Action: Forum on School to Prison Pipeline and Education Equity
• Demand: End Punitive tactics to police our children

PEORIA. Coalition: Peoria’s People Project
• Action: Organizing for Racial Equity in Education Training co-sponsored by the NAACP
• Demand: Full funding of Title I and IDEA

SACRAMENTO + (Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento) Coalitions: Oakland Public Education Network, Reclaim Our Schools LA, Close the Gap, Oakland Education Association, UTLA, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Families Union, Coleman Advocates, California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers
• Action: We Choose Equity Bus Tour & Coalitions will unite at a rally of 1,000 people in Sacramento (Rotunda of State Capitol)
• Demand: The statewide coalition is calling on legislators to support legislation for fair school funding and bills aimed at ending school privatization. They are also demanding full funding of Title I and IDEA and the fulfillment of the mandate to honor Brown V. Board decision.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Privatization, Resistance

Nikhil Goyal: Bernie’s Plan for Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2019 //
23

 

Nikhil Goyal, a graduate student and veteran activist for public schools, is deeply impressed by Senator Bernie Sanders’ ambitious and sweeping plan to pour billions into the schools and to protect public schools from privatization pirates. 

Writing in “The Nation,” Goyal describes Sanders’ plan as “the most progressive education platform in modern American history.”

As a historian, I would drop the adjective “modern.”  No President or Presidential candidate has offered a proposal so bold and sweeping, which directly addresses the fiscal starving of American public education at the same time that the federal government  got into the business of regulating, mandating, and controlling the nation’s schools and classrooms.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Funding, Privatization

Los Angeles: Charter Chain Founder and Executive Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2019 //
6

 

Vielka McFarlane, founder of the Celerity charter chain in Los Angeles, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for misappropriation of $3.2 million from the schools’ accounts. 

In January, Vielka McFarlane pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle funds for personal use. McFarlane, 56, had for years used her charter schools’ credit card and spent taxpayer money on expensive clothing, luxury hotel stays and first-class flights. The bulk of the money spent was for the purchase and renovation of an office building in Columbus, Ohio, where McFarlane intended to open another charter school.

McFarlane was also ordered to pay restitution of $225,138.15 within 60 days.

The case dates to 2012. A routine request for Celerity’s financial records from L.A. Unified’s charter schools division revealed credit card statements of lavish purchases beginning in 2009 — five years after McFarlane had founded the first charter school. The school district’s inspector general opened an investigation and eventually, the federal government got involved.

Her conviction and sentencing raise the question of why Ben Chavis, founder and operator of the American Indian Model Charter Schools in Oakland, had all charges dismissed a few weeks ago after a state audit found that he had redirected $3.8 million of the schools’ funds to his personal accounts and that he used federal charter funds to pay the lease for the charters, which were located in buildings he owned. Are there any investigative reporters tracking this story?

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Los Angeles, Privatization

Rob Levine: How Charters Kill Public Schools, the Example of Minneapolis

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2019 //
52

Rob Levine, a critic of Ed Deform, created a website called edhivemn.com that tracks funding of education reform orgs in MN –  and it has a feature called Charter School Scandals of the Day

Levine created a graphic to demonstrate the damage that charters do to public schools. He focuses on the charter schools in Minneapolis, which are well funded and highly segregated. Defenders of charters in Minneapolis actually think that racial and ethnic segregation is a good thing. They think that as long as families choose segregation, it is okay. George Wallace would have agreed with them.

The cycle of destruction begins as the districts loses students and money to charters. The district must cut programs and increase class sizes. When they cut programs and class sizes grow, they lose more students to charters. The cycle continues until the district shrivels to insignificance or disappears.

Rob writes:

Though specifics vary, across the nation charter schools are draining the students and finances of public school districts, creating distress in many. In Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Foundation is trying this very strategy with its created entity, Minnesota Comeback, whose goal is 30,000 new charter seats in the city.

Does the Minneapolis Foundation want to destroy public schools in Minneapolis? Look at its partners: all the same “reform” groups that are working with DeVos, the Waltons, and the Koch brothers.

Rob’s graphic shows that tens of millions spent by “Reformers” to disrupt and destroy public schools in Minneapolis.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Privatization, Teach for America

Congressional Leaders Take DeVos to Task and Demand Answers

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2019 //
25

A group of leaders in Congress wrote to Betsy DeVos to complain about her Department’s failure to demand accountability from the Charter Schools that win federal funding. She has $440 million to hand out to charters, and she has chosen to shower millions on corporate charter chains like IDEA, KIPP, and Success Academy. All of these chains are super rich. They don’t need federal aid.

The charter industry is angry because the House Appropriations Committee cut Betsy DeVos’s request from $500 million to $400 million. Tough. She uses the Charter School Program as her personal slush fund.

The fact is that the charter industry wants to play a game of pretending to be progressive while sleeping with Trump and DeVos. Sorry, that doesn’t make sense. You can’t be funded by rightwing ideologues and still be “liberal.” You can’t take Walton money and pretend to be progressive. You can’t be anti-union, pro-segregation and claim to be progressive. Nope.

As the charter industry grows more defensive, watch them cry  “racism.” Please note that many of the signatories of this letter are Black and Hispanic. Note that one of them is Jahana Hayes, the Connecticut Teacher of the Year who was elected in 2018.

The letter can be found here.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Hoax, Privatization, Trump, U.S. Department of Education

Bad News for the Sackler Family

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2019 //
26

The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures and markets (ed) OxyContin, a highly addictive opioid. More than 200,000 people have died of opioid addiction.

The Sackler family is listed by Forbes as one of the richest families in America with a net worth of $14 billion.

The Sackler name is engraved on museums, libraries, and universities. Some of those institutions have removed the Sackler name or said they do not welcome future donations.

The Sacklers are major supporters of charter schools. Jonathan Sackler funded ConnCAN  and 50CAN. His daughter Madeline made a movie glorifying Eva Moskowitz’s charter chain, called “The Lottery.”

 

WASHINGTON, May 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a bicameral group of lawmakers in introducing the Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act, as Vermont Attorney General T. J. Donovan announced a lawsuit today against former Purdue Pharma CEO Richard Sackler and seven family members who served on Purdue’s Board of Directors for deliberately misrepresenting the risks of the drug OxyContin.

The Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act, introduced with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Representatives Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), prohibits illegal marketing and distribution of opioids; creates criminal liability for top company executives; penalizes drug manufacturers who illegally advertise, market or distribute an opioid product; and requires drug makers to reimburse the country for the negative economic impact of their products.

The opioid epidemic is estimated to cost the United States over $78 billion per year. In 2016 alone, over 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses. From 1999 to 2016, the number of opioid overdose deaths more than tripled, and U.S. life expectancy as a whole fell for the third year in a row in 2017, due in part to the increase in opioid-related deaths.

“We know that pharmaceutical companies lied about the addictive impacts of opioids they manufactured. They knew how dangerous these products were, but refused to tell doctors and patients. While some of these companies have made billions each year in profits, not one of them has been held fully accountable for its role in an epidemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year,” Sanders said. “At a time when local, state and federal governments are spending many billions of dollars a year dealing with the impact of the opioid epidemic, we must hold the pharmaceutical companies and executives that created the crisis accountable.”

“Communities across the country are being ripped apart by the opioid epidemic. Multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and their executives reaped large profits for years while their questionable marketing and distribution practices precipitated a devastating public health crisis,” Bennet said. “It is far past time for Congress to ensure opioid manufacturers, distributors, and executives fund our response to the crisis they created. Our bill will support programs that combat the opioid crisis and ensure we hold companies and their executives accountable for any future misconduct.”

“When I visit the communities that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic, I see the victims of unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies that have put profits over the patients they were intended to serve,” said Khanna. “This bill holds opioid manufacturers and their executives accountable for decades of dishonest sales practices and malicious drug distribution. Over the past 20 years, more than 400,000 people have died of opioid overdoses, and millions more have been stricken by addiction. Their loved ones deserve justice.”

“Opioid companies have lied, cheated, and profited from the addiction and death left in the wake of the crisis they helped create. The criminal nature of these companies’ actions have destroyed families as well as strained the criminal justice and public health systems,” said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. “This bill would create tools to hold companies and executives accountable for preying on patients using deceptive marketing tactics, as they proliferated these highly-addictive and destructive drugs on our streets.”

Any company found in violation of the Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act would be fined 25 percent of the profits from their opioid products. Drug manufacturers who illegally advertise, market or distribute an opioid product would also be stripped of any remaining period of market exclusivity for that opioid product, and would lose half of the remaining exclusivity period on other opioid products they have on the market. The legislation would also fine any company found liable for contributing to the opioid epidemic $7.8 billion—10 percent of the annual cost of the opioid crisis.

Organizations endorsing the legislation include Public Citizen, CREDO, American Medical Student Association (AMSA), National Collaborative for Health Equity and Prescription Justice.

Sanders contact: Keane_Bhatt@sanders.senate.gov
Bennet contact: Courtney_Gidner@bennet.senate.gov
Khanna contact: Heather.Purcell@mail.house.gov
Gabbard contact: Haig.Hovsepian@mail.house.gov 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, ConnCAN, Education Industry, Privatization
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