Archives for category: Charter Schools
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Los Angeles: Charter Teachers’ Strike Continues, Board of Charter Threatens to Close Schools

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2019 //
13

The strike by UTLA garnered national attention, and it is now over.

Less attention went to the strike by the teachers at the Accelerated Schools, a small charter chain whose teachers are unionized. The board has refused to meet the teachers’ demands for job rights and has threatened to close down the charters rather than give in to their teachers.

This is a short video about the charter teachers’ strike.

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Ed Gutierrez, 213-595-7949

Accelerated Schools Strike Enters Second Week

Employer Says They’d Sooner Close the Schools Than Settle on Teachers’ Demands

Tuesday marked the beginning of the second week at The Accelerated Schools’ teacher strike, where about 80 educators represented by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) are engaged in California’s first charter school strike. The Accelerated Schools are not affiliated with Los Angeles Unified School District and are not part of UTLA’s recent settMEDIAlement. Negotiations are at a standstill and teachers remain out of the classroom and on the picket line.

Accelerated teachers are seeking basic due process and job security rights already covering more than 90% of educators in Los Angeles county public schools. Their demands follow the recommendations of a state-appointed fact finder. Negotiations broke down again Tuesday when Accelerated Trustee Leonard Rabinowitz declared that the board would sooner close the schools than meet workers’ demands. Teachers say that decision-makers’ indifference has deepened a divide that is harming students and the surrounding community. The employer’s latest refusal follows the employer calling the police on parents and students who sought to enter the school premises to discuss teachers’ issues with CEO Johnathan Williams.

UTLA will hold a press conference tomorrow morning to update the community on The Accelerated Schools strike and to demand the Accelerated CEO and the Board of Trustees meet teachers’ demands.

What: Accelerated teachers, parents, and UTLA President Alex Caputo Pearl will hold a press conference to provide an update on the Accelerated teachers strike
When: 8:30 am, January 24
Where: The Accelerated School, 4000 S. Main St. Los Angeles 90037
Who: UTLA President Alex Caputo Pearl, parents, students and striking Accelerated teachers

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Utah: Charter Schools Waste Millions on Advertising

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2019 //
15

A report from Utah documents wasteful spending by charters schools on advertising and marketing.

Whatever happened to those famousbut phony wait lists?

Of course, this is the tip of the iceberg, as charter schoolsacross the nation do the same to recruit students, doing what public schools typically are not allowed to do.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Connecticut: Will Legislators Follow the Money or the Voters?

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2019 //
6

Wendy Lecker, veteran civil rights lawyer, reviews the recent report by Common Cause-Connecticut about the intrusion of Charter money and lobbyists into the state.

Former Governor Dannel Malloy depended on charter money and gave them a state commissioner and seats on the state school board,as well as generous funding.

After repeated losses in other states, like Massachusetts, the charter lobby now is doubling down in Connecticut.

After their spectacular public losses, the charter lobby is getting craftier. A recent report by Common Cause and the Connecticut Citizens Action Group reveal some of their newer tactics, but with many of the same backers.

The report, “Who is Buying Our Education System? Charter School Super PACs in Connecticut” continues the work previously done by blogger Jonathan Pelto tracking the influence of charter money. It details the donations and spending of charter Super PACs in Connecticut’s recent elections.
Super PACs enable individuals and organizations to spend unlimited amounts of money in elections, as long as they do not coordinate this spending with candidates.

The report found that since 2016, six Super PACS spent more than half a million dollars in Connecticut elections. These Super PACS are founded and/or dominated by charter lobbyists and employees of charter organizations, such as the Northeast Charter Schools Network, the now-defunct Families for Excellent Schools, ConnCAN, Achievement First charter chain and DFER. Soon-to-be former Gov. Dan Malloy recently joined DFER’s board.

The majority of the money donated came from outside Connecticut and from a limited number of large donors, the largest being Walmart’s Alice Walton.

Perhaps because of their very public defeats by grassroots organizing in other states, the charter lobby became more stealth-like. The report notes that these Super PACS conceal their aims by adopting innocuous sounding names, such as Build CT, Leaders for a Stronger CT, and Change Course CT. They spent money primarily on advertising and canvassing.

One PAC, Build CT, focused on candidates in safe or unopposed races, including: Stamford’s Pat “Billie” Miller and Caroline Simmons, and Senate Majority leader, Norwalk’s Bob Duff. The authors suggest this strategy is designed to curry favor with those who will definitely be in power. Last session, Duff unsuccessfully pushed a charter-friendly school funding scheme where local districts would have to pay for charter schools over which they have no say.

The charter lobby always uses deceptive, “caring” names to hide its true purposes:

1. Privatize public schools
2. Destroy the teaching profession
3. Eliminate unions.

Connecticut Voters: Beware!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Education Reform, Hoax

Michigan: Online Charter Founder Charged with Embezzling More Than $100,000

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2019 //
5

Online charter schools have a problem. Most get full tuition for each student, but they have few expenses. No campus, large classes, no services other than a computer and online instruction. So much money rolling. Problem: What to do with it?

A few online operators have been convicted of stealing millions, like Nick Trombetta in Pennsylvania. The founder of ECOT in Ohio diet get charged or convicted of anything, but he collected $1 billion over 19 years while having the lowest graduation rate in the nation.

And now comes a case in Michigan where an Online charter operator was charged with stealing over $100,000.

Why so little?

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

Network for Public Education: Tell Congress to Choose Public Schools, Not Privatization!

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
9

This week is National School Choice Week.

The Network for Public Education urges you to contact your member of Congress and let them know that you choose public schools, not charters or vouchers.

Since 1994, Congress has allocated billions of dollars to expand and launch charter schools.

This year, Congress will award nearly $500 million to charter schools that are already supported by billionaires.

Stop the School Choice Scam! Congress should allocate money to underfunded public schools, instead of wasting money on charters and vouchers chosen by fewer than 10% of students across the nation.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, School Choice, Supporting public schools, Vouchers

Tom Ultican: The Denver Portfolio Model Is a Failure

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
8

Reformers are desperate for good news. Everything they have tried hasflopped. Their exemplary district, New Orleans, is highly stratified. Forty percent of its charter schools are rated Dor Fby the state, and they are overwhelmingly segregated black. The New Orleans scores on state test are below the state average. This, in a state whose NAEP scores are rock-bottom. On NAEP, the only jurisdiction that Louisiana is better than is Puerto Rico.

But Reformer Propaganda neverrests. Their latest miracle district is Denver. Retired physics/AP Math Teacher Tom Ultican took a look at Denver’s celebrated portfolio model, and concludes that it is a hoax, a failure.

He begins:

Here is a predictable outcome from the portfolio district. On Jan. 18, 2019, a press release from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) says,

“After ten hours of negotiations today, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools were unable to reach an agreement on a fair compensation system for 5,700 teachers and special service providers. DCTA members will vote Saturday and Tuesday on whether or not to strike.”

The portfolio model which promotes disruption as a virtue is anti-union. It is not conducive to stable harmonious relations with either labor or communities and it is anti-democratic. Denver is held up as an exemplar of school reform; however the outcomes look more like a warning. Increasing achievement gaps; a bloating administration; significantly increasing segregation; ending stable community schools; and stripping citizens of their democratic rights are among the many jarring results.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Denver, Disruption, Education Industry, Failure, Portfolio District, Privatization

Republicans Kick Off “School Choice Week,” But Not a Single Democrat Joins Them!

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
38

This week is School Choice Week, which ironically was inaugurated in 2011 by President Obama.

School Choice, we now know, has been a bust. It defunds public schools and allows charters and vouchers to cherrypick the students they want.

Not a single Democrat showed up to celebrate National School Choice Week. Thank the striking teachers for that!

Nothing like a strike to concentrate the mind!

This week, Republican lawmakers held a press conference on Capitol Hill to kick off National School Choice Week, an annual event that began in 2011 under President Obama who proclaimed it as a time to “recognize the role public charter schools play in providing America’s daughters and sons with a chance to reach their fullest potential.” This year, Democratic lawmakers took a pass on the celebration. You can thank striking teachers for that.

In the latest teacher strike in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school system, some 30,000 teachers walked off the job saying unchecked growth of charter schools and charters’ lack of transparency and accountability have become an unsustainable drain on the public system’s financials. The teachers have included in their demands a cap on charter school growth, along with other demands, such as increased teacher pay, reduced class sizes, less testing, and more counselors, nurses, librarians, and psychologists.

#RealDemocratsSupportRealPublicSchools!

#RealRepublicansSupportTheirCommunityPublicSchools!

#GoodCitizensSupportMainStreetNotWallStreet!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization, Republicans

Federal Government Dishes Out Hundreds of Millions to Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
13

Just in case you thought that charter schools were very well funded by the Walton Family (the richest family in the world, at nearly $200 billion), the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, John Arnold, Philip Anschutz, and a slew of other billionaires, think again.

The U.S. Department of Education will award nearly $500 million to expand charter chains this year.

Here are the list of grantees, all of them already overflowing with private and state funding.

Why, you might ask, is the Department of Education (and Congress) funding already well-funded privately managed charter schools?

Why give this kind of money to schools that don’t need it, when there are so many underfunded public schools?

Ask the Republican party. Ask Betsy DeVos. Ask Arne Duncan. Ask Corey Booker. Ask Hakeem Jeffries.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, U.S. Department of Education

New Mexico: Democratic Governor and Legislature Plan to Cap Charter School Growth

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2019 //
6

Under Republican Governor Martinez, New Mexico was generous to charter schools. The state commissioner for most of her two terms was Hannah Skandera, previously worked for Jeb Bush. Charters got more funding than public schools.

Since the election of Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, the glory days ofprivatization are numbered.

The Democrats who control the legislature plan to cap charter growth and eliminate the funding that favors charters.

This is good news for the underfunded Public Schools, where the rate of poverty is nearly the lowest in the nation, close behind Mississippi.

Real Democrats support real public schools. Real Democrats don’t support privatization or any part of the DeVos agenda.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Education Industry, New Mexico, Privatization

Cory Booker Opens His Presidential Campaign in New Orleans

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2019 //
55

Cory Booker sent a complicated message at his campaign kickoff in New Orleans at Xavier University, where he was sponsored by charter chain and spoke to students.

He told the audience that the power of the people outweighs the power of money.

This is inspirational indeed. It says that those of us fighting the power of the Walton family, the Sackler family, the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the DeVos family, Paul Singer, and the many other billionaires attacking our public schools will WIN and the billionaires WILL LOSE.

We–the people–will defeat the powerful.

We will not let them close our public schools with their lies and propaganda. We will not let them turn other American cities into New Orleans.

We want every aspirant for the presidency in 2020–any party–to say where they stand on the issue of the future of public schools, the future of the teaching profession, and the future of collective bargaining.

Thanks, Cory, for reminding us that the power of the people can beat the billionaires and Wall Street, especially those privatizers and hedge funders now supporting your campaign. Itworked for Obama, but it won’t work for you. We know now about the privatization movement.

Tell us where you stand on privatization, the teaching profession, and unions. Or let us guess.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, New Orleans, Privatization, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teacher Tenure, Teachers, Unions
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