Archives for category: Charter Schools
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North Carolina: “Innovative School Distrct” Has Zero Schools to Give to For-Profit Charters

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2017 //
14

North Carolina decided to copy Tennessee’s failed “Achievement School District” by creating a special district to take over low-scoring schools, giving them to charter operators, and claiming victory. Despite the abysmal failure in Tennessee, North Carolina created an “Innovative School District” and identified 48 Low-scoring prospects. One by one, they got off the state takeover list, after protests by parents and local boards. Finally, only one was left, and its school Board decided to close the school rather than let it go into the takeover District.

“Without a school to take over, ISD Superintendent Eric Hall says the district may have to pick up additional schools when they take up the matter next year. Leaders were expected to choose two schools this year and another two next fall, but this month’s developments are likely to shift that timetable.”

A letter to the editor following the article:

“Learn as they proceed….”??? Really?? The ISD Superintendent will make more than the governor of NC to oversee only ONE school?? A school that would actually be run by a for-profit charter company?? And he says they only chose one this year to learn as they go?? If they don’t ALREADY know what they are doing, how do they expect to turn around a “failing school”?? What a bunch of goobers… #WAKEUPNC!! #PUBLICservants??!!
“Hall described the program’s slow roll-out as an opportunity for North Carolina officials to learn as they proceed with the new district.”

Another big victory for reform.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, North Carolina, Privatization, Tennessee

Jeff Bryant: Northam Won By Repudiating Not Only DeVos But Obama’s Education Policies

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2017 //
73

Jeff Bryant sees the Virginia election, as do I, as an affirmation of a progressive approach to education.

Education is an important issue to parents everywhere and is the biggest item in state budgets. Taxpayers want to know that their money is well spent.

Northam ran against the DeVos privatization policy. But he also ran against Obama’s policies of charter schools and high-stakes Testing.

He points the way to victory for Democrats in other state races.

Support a strong and much improved public school system that seeks to meet the needs of all children.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, School Choice, Testing, Vouchers

Ohio: ECOT Enrollment Drops, Overall Charter Enrollment Falls for Fourth Year in a Row

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2017 //
8

Stephen Dyer writes that enrollments in the online for-profit Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow have dropped.

The enrollments in Ohio’s charter sector have fallen for the fourth year in a row.

Maybe the public is catching on, as a result of scandal after scandal. The major newspapers in the state have vigorously pursued the problems of the charter sector. The public is beginning to understand that squandering their tax money on private, unaccountable schools hurts their public schools.

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

Texas: Advice to Public Schools from State’s Most Powerful Elected Official: STARVE!

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2017 //
6

In Texas, the Lt. Governor is considered the state’s most powerful elected official. That man is Dan Patrick, a flamboyant former talk show host who hates public schools. Patrick recently spoke in Houston.

Please read this brilliant reaction by Cort McMurray, a Houston area businessman.

A snippet of a great piece:

“Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was in town this week, talking schools, school finance, and property tax reform. These are favorite topics for Patrick, who, before becoming arguably the most powerful man in state government, was a Houston media personality, best known for undergoing an on-air vasectomy during a live radio talk show. In his 2015 inaugural address, tucked between the Stetsoned hubris and the cowboy booted jingoism and the liberal quotation of Scripture, Patrick bemoaned the failure of “our inner city schools” and invoked Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech to articulate a dream of his own, a “dream of the day every child gets a quality education so they can break the binds of poverty and live the Texas and American dream.”

“It was a “conversation” in which a middle-aged white man was having a “conversation” in a room filled with middle-aged white men and women, talking about “people in the inner city.” Mr. Patrick likes to talk about the “inner city.” It’s a phrase he uses often. He talks about “inner city” schools, which are invariably “failing,” and inner city residents, who are “losing their homes” because they can’t afford to pay the gosh-darn property taxes: It’s not the lousy economy or the drugs and gangs or the relentless tectonic grind of decades of tone deaf public policy that’s ruining the places where the poor folk live. It’s property taxes.

“Patrick speaks about “the inner city” with the smooth confidence of a man who’s never experienced the challenge but knows the precise solution. He’s the loudmouthed guy at the end of the bar, explaining how to hit a Clayton Kershaw slider. He’s the clueless uncle, giving an expectant niece his sure-fire, drug-free tips for managing pain during childbirth. He’s the eternal talk show host, all honeyed words and callus-free hands.

“What Patrick wants has little to do with bringing hope or light to the shadowy spots in our benighted inner cities. What Patrick wants is the evisceration of the Texas public school system, replaced with a quasi-public collection of “charter schools.”

“Property taxes are the primary means of financing public education in the state. Earlier this year, Education Week, a highly respected newspaper, published Quality Counts, its 20th annual analysis of performance in U.S. schools. Texas ranked 42nd out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in student performance, 42nd in “student chances for [post-high school] success,” and 45th in quality of school funding.

“Patrick’s solution to a stretched, struggling, woefully underfunded system? Cut the funding. Starve the schools. Starve them to death.“

The writer doesn’t mention Patrick’s passion for vouchers, which he has promoted for years. The rural districts have allied with urban districts to block them.

You can quote research or you can look at Michigan, where charter schools have proliferated for many years. On national tests, Michigan used to be in the middle of the pack. Now it has fallen to the bottom. Or D.C., one of the lowest performing districts in the nation, which has had charters and vouchers since 2004.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization

Northam Wins!!! Democrats Sweeping Virginia! Trumpism Repudiated!,

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
84

Fantastic news!

Lt. Governor Ralph Northam won the governorship in Virginia, beating Ed Gillespie, who ran a dirty Trump-like campaign, accusing Northam of allying with criminal immigrant gang MS-13, wanting to remove Confederate statues, and supporting unpatriotic athletes.

The major networks just called the race for Northam. They say it is 51-48, but the margin seems likely to grow as the votes roll in from the DC suburbs. Now it is up to 52-47. It will grow. It is currently a 54-45 blowout. Nine points.

Democrats are also picking up seats in the House of Delegates. The GOP author of the phony transgender bathroom bill was defeated. An openly transgender candidate beat him.

The House Majority Whip was defeated. Our friend and reader “Virginia Parent” says that the “charters and choice” issue is dead in Virginia.

It is a wonderful win for a good man who refused to pander.

Dr. Northam went to public schools, supports public schools, does not support charters or vouchers.

Teachers and public school parents turned out in full force for Dr. Northam.

Message to the Democratic Party: Support public schools, and you can win again!

Categories Charter Schools, School Choice, Supporting public schools, Virginia, Vouchers

Mercedes Schneider: The Life and Death of the Black Alliance for Educational Options

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
0

Mercedes Schneider employs her well-honed skills as a forensic analyst of reform organizations to dissect the history and recent demise of Black Alliance for Educational Options.

You will not be surprised to know that Betsy DeVos appears in the story that Schneider wrote.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Howard Fuller Reflects on the Years He Spent Working for Conservatives Billionaires to Promote Privatization

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
20

Howard Fuller recently decided to close down the organization Black Alliance for Educational Options, which received funding from billionaires to promote charters and vouchers to African Americans. BAEO was funded initially by the rar-right Bradley Foundation, then added millions from the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and others, all to sell privatization to people who need good public schools, good healthcare, and good jobs, not free markets.

Now, Fuller tells ace education journalist Alan Borsuk that a $15-an-hour minimum wage would mean more to kids in central cities than better curriculum (or, may we assume, School Choice).

The billionaires got good return on investment. BAEO lined up support among key blacks to pass charter legislation in Alabama, Mississippi, and D.C.

But Fuller has second thoughts. The damage is done. Will he now repudiate the conservatives who pumped millions into BAEO to perpetuate the hoax that privatization is “the civil rights issue of our time”?

“One force behind his changing views: A deeper understanding of the life circumstances of young people and the difficulties a school has in changing the trajectory of their lives.”

Nice.

Will he reach out to the Walton Family, whose Walmart stores employ more than one million people, and persuade them about the importance of paying $15 an hour and giving them enough hours of employment to support their families?

Will he tell the powerful Bradley Foundation? The Gates Foundation, whose idea of fighting poverty is to promote the Common Core Standards?

Fuller was a bitter critic of trachers’ unions. Has he figured out that union jobs are a godsend for Black and Hispanic workers, providing better pay than non-union jobs and a measure of job security. Fuller appeared in “Waiting for Superman” harshly criticizing public schools, teachers, and unions.

Has he figured out that he helped to shred the route to the middle-class for many of the families and children he claims to care about? Has he noticed how many of the thriving charter chains are run by wealthy white men?

Was he cynically used? Was he duped? Was he a willing collaborator? On reflection, does he think that children and parents of color benefitted or were harmed when their local schools were taken over by corporate charter chains?

Howard Fuller is a smart man. I hope he speaks out and explains more about his decision to close BAEO. I welcome a submission to this blog.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Law Professor: Is There a Limit to How Much States May Prefer Choice Programs Over Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
23

Readers of this blog have noticed that many states spend far more time legislating about school Choice than about the public schools that enroll most students. Once charters and vouchers are introduced, public schools seem to become an afterthought, despite the fact that most students attend them.

Derek Black, a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, asks whether there are limits to the preference that states show to school choice programs over public schools.

Here is an abstract of his paper:

“Rapidly expanding charter and voucher programs are establishing a new education paradigm in which access to traditional public schools is no longer guaranteed. In some areas, charter and voucher programs are on a trajectory to phase out traditional public schools altogether. This Article argues that this trend and its effects violate the constitutional right to public education embedded in all fifty state constitutions.

“Importantly, this Article departs from past constitutional arguments against charter and voucher programs. Past arguments have attempted to prohibit such programs entirely and have assumed, with little evidentiary support, that they endanger statewide education systems. Unsurprisingly, litigation and scholarship based on a flawed premise have thus far failed to slow the growth of charter and voucher programs. Without a reframed theory, several recently filed lawsuits are likely to suffer the same fate.

“This Article does not challenge the general constitutionality of choice programs. Instead, the Article identifies two limitations that state constitutional rights to education place on choice policy. The first limitation is that states cannot preference private choice programs over public education. This conclusion flows from the fact that most state constitutions mandate public education as a first-order right for their citizens. Thus, while states may establish choice programs, they cannot systematically advantage choice programs over public education. This Article demonstrates that some states have crossed this line.

“The second limitation that state constitutions place on choice programs is that their practical effect cannot impede educational opportunities in public schools. Education clauses in state constitutions obligate the state to provide adequate and equitable public schools. Any state policy that deprives students of access to those opportunities is therefore unconstitutional. Often-overlooked district level data reveals that choice programs are reducing public education funding, stratifying opportunity, and intensifying segregation in large urban centers. Each of these effects represents a distinct constitutional violation.”

The full article is here.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

North Carolina: New For-Profit Charter School for 2,000 Plus Students Will Open

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2017 //
11

The North Carolina State Board of Education unanimously approved the opening of a for-profit charter school that will enroll more than 2,000 students in Cary. The school will be operated by Charter Schools, USA, a Florida corporation owned by Jonathan Hage, a friend of Jeb Bush. Not an educator, Hage has built a very large business by owning for-profit charters.

The State Board of Education unanimously approved Cardinal Charter Academy West Campus, which plans to educate up to 2,180 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The new school, modeled after the existing Cardinal Charter Academy in Cary, represents the latest effort by charter school operators to target the fast-growing western Wake County area…

Critics say charter schools are targeting the more-affluent families who live in western Wake, where test scores are higher and the percentage of low-income students is lower than the Wake County school district average. Charters are taxpayer-funded public schools that are exempt from some of the regulations that traditional public schools must follow.

But supporters say they’re meeting the need for school choice, citing the long waiting lists for Cardinal Charter and packed parent information sessions.

Cardinal Charter West would be managed by Charter Schools USA, a Florida-based for-profit company that could receive more than $2 million a year from the new school.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article182268141.html#storylink=cpy

At the same meeting of the state board, a charter school in rural Bertie County was closed because of its low enrollment and poor academic standing.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization

Peter Greene Lambastes the New York Times’ Dumb Editorial on Charter Teachers

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2017 //
29

Peter Greene says the New York Times’ Editorial praising the removal of any standards for charter teachers was written while the fact checkers were out to lunch.

“The editorial notes that charter schools “made good on their promise to outperform conventional public schools,” which is a fact-check fail two-fer. First, it slides in the assertion that charters are public schools, even though NYC’s own Ms. Moskowitz went to court to protect her charter’s right to function as a private business, freed from state oversight. If NYC charters are public schools, then McDonald’s is a public cafeteria. Second, it accepts uncritically the notion that charters have “outperformed” anybody, without asking if such superior performance is real, or simply an illusion created by creaming and skimming students so that charters only keep those students who make them look good.

“The Times thinks the warm body rule is “a reasonable attempt to let these schools avoid the weak state teacher education system that has long been criticized for churning out graduates who are unprepared to manage the classroom.” Their support for this is a decade-old “report” by Arthur Levine, and even if that report were the gospel truth, that does not shore up the logic of saying, “I’m pretty sure the surgeons at this hospital aren’t very good, so the obvious solution is for me to grab some guy off the street to take out my spleen instead.”

“The Times also commiserates with charter hiring problems.

“New York’s high-performing charter schools have long complained that rules requiring them to hire state-certified teachers make it difficult to find high-quality applicants in high-demand specialties like math, science and special education. They tell of sorting through hundreds of candidates to fill a few positions, only to find that the strongest candidates have no interest in working in the low-income communities where charters are typically located.

“Oops. There’s a typo in that last part– let me fix it for you: “only to find the strongest candidates have no interest in working for bottom-dollar wages under amateur-hour conditions that demand their obedience and donation of tens of hours of their own time each week.” There.

“But if you want absolute proof that the Times had no access to fact-checking for this piece, here comes multiple citations of the National Council on Teacher Quality.

“If there is a less serious, less believable, less intellectually rigorous in all of the education world that the NCTQ, I do not know who it is. Kate Walsh may be a lovely human being who is nice to her mother and sings in her church choir, but her organization is– well, I few things astonish me as much as the fact that NCTQ is still taken seriously by anybody at all, ever”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Teachers and Teaching
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