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Ohio: Charters Are a “Parasitic Industry”

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2015 //
24

William Phillis, a retired Deputy Commissioner of Ohio, leads the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition. He fears for the future of public education because of the capture of the State Legislature by the privatization movement. The greatest danger, he writes, is charters, because they are promoted as reforms when they are a threat to pubic education and an insidious tool for privatization.

 

 

He writes:

 

 
The privatization of the public common school movement can be stopped: but a different approach is necessary

Many, if not most, public common school officials and public education advocates in Ohio have humored state officials since 1999 about the supposed merits of charter schools; and at the same time have given these state officials a pass on not creating a constitutional school funding system.
So what has been the result of this passive approach?
Loss of tangible personal property tax funds/state reimbursement for the loss
*Current public school funding level at about where it was seven years ago and no progress toward a constitutional system
*$1 billion being extracted from school districts this school year for a grossly failing charter industry
*Harmful education mandates being foisted on school districts
*$200 million being extracted this year from school districts for vouchers
*Charters are the epicenter of the privatization movement.

So what is the definitive goal of the privatizers?

Replace the common school, not supplement it

 

Eliminate teachers unions, boards of education and the teaching profession as it currently exists
Charters in Ohio have performed less well for children in neighborhoods with a high concentration of poverty; nevertheless, the market-driven reformers, aided by the Wall Street billionaires, education philanthropists and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are moving forward with their agenda-replace the public common school system with a multi-faceted, privately-operated array of education competitors.

It is now time to recognize and renounce the dishonesty and greed inherent in the Ohio charter industry. The Ohio charter experiment is not fixable because it was created under false pretenses and is not answerable to the people it claims to serve.
Common school officials and public education advocates need to engage every community in a campaign to repeal the laws that created the parasitic charter industry.

 
William Phillis
Ohio E & A

 

ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Ohio

Randi: What ESSA Says About Charters

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
60

The Every Student Succeeds Act was released to the public on November 30, passed both houses of Congress with large majorities within 10 days, and was signed into law today by President Obama. That was fast. The good news is that No Child Left Behind is gone. There is so much we don’t know because there has been so little time to read it, discuss it, and hear different perspectives on how it will work.

 

 

Randi Weingarten here explains the charter portion of the law. Sure, some would prefer that the federal government stop subsidizing privatization. But this is a Republican-controlled Congress, so what did you expect? School choice is their favorite school reform.

 

Randi writes:

 

 

“This is what is in the bill on charters:

 
“The program is reauthorized through FY 2020 and replaced the current charter school grant program with a program awarding grants to states, and through them subgrants to charter school developers, to open new charters and expand and replicate high-quality charter school models. At the same time, ESSA strengthens and updates the charter school program by: · ensuring charter school quality, accountability and transparency including required fiscal audits; · incentivizes stronger charter school authorizing practices; · requires charter schools to improve community outreach and engagement · provides dedicated funding to expand and replicate the highest quality charter schools so that they can reach more students; · focuses on charter school practices recruitment, retention and discipline practices, particularly for underrepresented groups such as homeless and foster students. There is a grant priority for charter management organizations that operate racially integrated schools and prioritize serving a majority of low-income students. There is money for facilities assistance as the bill reserves 12.5 percent of the charter school program funding to be used for facilities assistance. ESSA also requires the Secretary of Education to address the recent findings of the Office of the Inspector General pertaining to operational challenges within the Charter School Program.”

Categories Charter Schools, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Jeff Bryant on the Charter Gravy Train Report from NEPC

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
4

Here is Jeff Bryant’s take on the Baker-Miron report on the Charter Gravy Train.

 

In one of the more bizarre schemes the authors examine, charter operators will use third-party corporations to purchase buildings and land from the public school district itself, so taxpayer dollars are used to purchase property from the public. Thus, the public ends up paying twice for the school, and the property becomes an asset of a private corporation.

 

In other examples, charter operators will set up leasing agreements and lucrative management fees between multiple entities that end up extracting resources, which might otherwise be dedicated to direct services for children.

 

These arrangements, and many others documented in the brief, constitute a rapidly expanding parallel school system in America, populated with enterprises and individuals who work in secret to suck money out of public education.

 

Charter Schools Aren’t Really ‘Public Schools’

 

The first secret of charter schools that keeps their financial workings hidden and their funding prone to exploitation is that they aren’t really public schools, despite what charter advocates say.

 

As Baker and Miron explain, charters generally aren’t subject to the same disclosure laws that apply to state operated entities and public officials, especially when the governance bodies for these schools outsource management services to for-profit management firms, as is increasingly the case.

 

As the brief explains, outsourcing school operations to private entities has the potential to make transparency laws – for open meetings, public access to records, and financial disclosures by public officials and state operated institutions – subject to court interpretation. Courts across states have offered mixed opinions as to whether and to what extent to apply transparency laws to charter schools, their authorizers, operators, and governing boards.

 

Further, the public-private arrangement of charter schools often place new limits on the constitutional (and some statutory) protections that are customarily guaranteed to school employees and students in state operated institutions.

 

These important differences between charter schools and traditional public schools are not generally understood or appreciated by even the most knowledgeable people, which is why charter advocates put so much energy and resources in marketing their operations as “public” schools.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Bruce Baker and Gary Miron: The Business of Charters, Or, The Charter Gravy Train

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
10

Bruce Baker and Gary Miron have written an important new study of the business of charters. It was released overnight by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado. The report proposes regulation of charter schools to remove the corruption and money-making that is currently an embarrassment to the charter sector. So far, so good. As I have told the authors, I don’t agree with their proposal that states declare charter schools to be public schools and to regulate them as public schools. Several states already have labeled them public schools and don’t regulate them. In those states where the governor and the legislature have been captured by charter industry financiers, it is not likely that there will be either regulation, transparency, or accountability because the lobbyists will never accept it. Nonetheless, this is an important report because it lays out the specific ways in which charter operators have gamed the system for the sake of lucre.

 

The Lucrative Side of Charter Schools

 

New report puts first pieces together on how charter schools are profiting through the privatization of public assets

 

Contact:

William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Bruce D. Baker, (848) 932-0698, bruce.baker@gse.rutgers.edu Gary Miron, (269) 599-7965, gary.miron@wmich.edu

 

URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/py94cuk

 

BOULDER, CO (December 10, 2015) – Charter schools are educational providers, but they are also businesses. A large portion of them are run by private corporations, and receive taxpayer dollars to provide their services. Yet there is very little public understanding of the often- convoluted ways these companies use those dollars and take advantage of laws in ways that enrich owners, officers, and investors.

 

A new research brief from Bruce Baker and Gary Miron details some of the ways that individuals, companies, and organizations secure financial gain and generate profit by running charter schools, leading them to operate in ways that are sometimes at odds with the public interest. In The Business of Charter Schooling: Understanding the Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit, they explore the differences between charters and traditional public schools, and they illustrate how charter school policies sometimes function to promote profiteering and privatization of public assets.

 

The authors explain, for example, how charter operators working through third-party corporations can use taxpayer dollars to purchase buildings and land. The seller in these purchases is sometimes the public school district itself. That is, taxpayer dollars are used to purchase property from the public, and the property ends up being owned by the private corporation that operates or is affiliated with the charter school.

 

“This particular type of transaction is usually legal and it can be very logical from the perspective of each of the parties involved,” said Baker. “But we should be troubled by the public policy that allows and even encourages this to happen.”

 

“In addition,” Miron explained, “less than arm’s-length leasing agreements and lucrative management fees are extracting resources that might otherwise be dedicated to direct services for children.”

 

The authors conclude with eight recommendations for policies to help ensure that charter schools pursue their publicly established goals and that protect the public interest.

 

 

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

The State of Charter Schools, A Report by Pro-Charter Advocacy Group

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
19

Bellwether Education Partners is a consulting firm that works with “reform” organizations, with charter chains, Teach for America, and others who promote the privatization of public education and the replacement of the teaching profession with inexperienced short-timers. It prepared this very interesting report on the state of charter schools today. It projects that by the year 2035, between 20-40 percent of all students will be in charter schools (p. 60).

 

The report contains a wealth of information about which states and cities have the most charters, about which states do not permit charters (there are five of them), about the demographics of charters, about how many charters have opened and how many have closed, etc. The language of the report is much like an annual report to the board of directors of a corporation.

 

A skeptic would question the data on “wait lists,” as investigations in New York City and Boston  have found that the claims about long wait lists are padded, often by parents applying to several different charter schools or other means.

 

A skeptic would also question the data on special education enrollments, citing the GAO report, which compared charter enrollments in big-city districts with national data, instead of comparing it to the special education data for big-city districts.

 

Of course, there is no consideration of the downside of creating an unregulated sector that receives public money and seeks to avoid audits and public accountability. And there is no consideration of education as a whole, whether it makes sense to have one sector that chooses its students and another sector that takes everyone who enrolls.

 

Nonetheless, the report is worthy of your attention.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools

What the BATs Think About ESSA

By dianeravitch
December 9, 2015 //
3

I was not sure if anyone had actually sat down and read every word of the 1,061 pages of the Every Child Succeeds Act of 2015. It was passed today and is on its way to the President’s desk for his signature.

 

The Badass Teachers Association created a committee of five classroom teachers who did read every word of what will soon be the new law governing public (and charter) education in the United States.

 

Their analysis highlights both the good and the bad in the bill. None of their concerns were addressed. The bill dismantles NCLB but allows more charters, more room for TFA, “Pay for Success” for investors, and a bunch of other things that teachers worry about. And of course the teachers object to annual testing, which wastes instructional time and narrows curriculum.

 

It is a fine statement and I recommend that  you read it, because it was written by classroom teachers who know how the law is going to affect them and their students.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Privatization, Testing

Turkey Hires U.S. Law Firm to Investigate Gulen Movement and Its Charter Chain

By dianeravitch
December 9, 2015 //
23

There will be a press conference today at the National Press Club to announce that the Republic of Turkey has hired an American law firm “to conduct a global investigation” of the organization led by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in seclusion in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. The Gulen organization has a charter network of nearly 150 schools in the United States. The F.B.I. is investigating some of them now, but no reports have been released.

 

 

Investigation into Gülen Movement
December 9, 2015 10:00 AM
Location: National Press Club Zenger Room

 
Press Conference to Announce New Legal Action, Widening Investigation into Gülen Movement and Its Nationwide Charter School Network

 

 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Republic of Turkey has retained international law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP to conduct a global investigation into the activities of the organization led by the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

 

“We have been retained by the Republic to expose allegedly unlawful conduct by the Gulen network worldwide,” said Robert Amsterdam, founding partner of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, during a press conference held today at the National Press Club in Washington DC. “The activities of the Gulen network, including its penetration of the Turkish judiciary and police, as well as its political lobbying abroad, should concern everyone who cares about the future of democracy in Turkey.”
The Gulen network, which operates more than 100 charter schools in the U.S., has become the subject of federal and local law enforcement and regulatory investigation in the United States, said Amsterdam. According to separate cases filed against Gulen affiliated schools, the group has allegedly engaged in systemic abuse of the American visa system, Amsterdam says.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, International

ESSA Contains Good News for the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2015 //
8

Reader Chiara points out that the Every Student Succeeds Act contains a big fat plum for the charter industry, which will expand privatization of public education. No wonder Arne Duncan is happy. He gets his top two priorities: annual testing (a George W. Bush innovation) and charters (a win for Gates, Broad, Walton, and ALEC):

 

Chiara writes:

 

 

I’m surprised you guys missed this in the ed bill:

 

 

“The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that passed the House of Representatives last week by a vote of 359-64 and will be passed with an overwhelming margin today by the U.S. Senate, will put into statute, for the first time, President Obama’s program to replicate and expand high-performing public charter schools.

 

Over just the past five years, this program has made it possible for tens of thousands of parents to enroll their children in great schools, most of which have long waiting lists. The infographic below summarizes the enormous payoff this program has had, and will continue to have over the years to come based on grant awards made up through this year.”

 

DC Democrats got their two top priorities into that bill- charters and testing.

 

Shortly before Mary Landrieu lost her Senate seat, she said she wanted to federally fund 500 new charter schools a year, presumably until public schools are replaced completely. She’s a lobbyist for the Walton heirs now, in addition to some other revolving door profiteering. I bet she lobbied her former colleagues on this bill, in fact.

 

I guess she’ll get her wish.

 

https://edreformnow.org/infographic-the-impact-of-president-obamas-program-to-replicate-and-expand-high-performing-charter-schools/

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

When Patrick Hayes Met Dr. Steve Perry in South Carolina, Bashing Teachers and Selling Charters and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2015 //
47

Over a number of decades, some fabulously wealthy right-wingers and the think tanks they support have determined to convince African-American families that privately managed charters and vouchers would “save” their children from “failing” public schools. If you are very rich and you don’t want your taxes to become outrageous, then it makes sense to persuade people who have little that poverty is just an excuse for bad teachers. Forget about poverty. Why should our society invest hundreds of billions of dollars in restoring our infrastructure and creating good jobs for everyone willing to work, when it is so much less costly to get people angry at teachers and public schools? Who cares if we spent two trillion (with a T) on war in the past dozen years? Why waste time imagining what half of that would have done to reduce income inequality in this country? So the right-wing think tanks adopted the views of their founders and their funders, which was that the 1% are job-producers, and they must not have higher taxes. Nope.

 

This is the background to the nasty confrontation between teacher Patrick Hayes and Dr. Steve Perry of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Perry brought his message about how poverty doesn’t matter, how kids are hurt by their teachers, and how they should be in charter schools and they should get vouchers to get away from teachers’ unions. South Carolina doesn’t have teachers’ unions, but that is beside the point. And of course, he talked about the miracles at his school in Hartford.

 

It is somewhat startling to think that African American families in South Carolina might take up the cause that once belonged to White Citizens Councils in the South, supporting vouchers to avoid desegregation.

 

Here is an audio file of the event.

 

Patrick Hayes had the effrontery to challenge Dr. Perry. Dr. Perry referred to Hayes as a Satan and a blogger (yes, a blogger!).

 

Well, read it for yourself. And ask yourself what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., might say today about those who say that poverty doesn’t matter, that vouchers are necessary to escape public education, and that unions are the enemies of oppressed minorities.

 

Someone has been hoodwinked. But let’s not talk about hoods in South Carolina.

Categories Charter Schools, Poverty, Race, South Carolina, Unions, Vouchers

Daily Life in a No-Excuses Charter School: Is This Good Education?

By dianeravitch
December 7, 2015 //
52

Peter Greene posted a commentary by Emily Kaplan, a teacher who worked in a no-excuses charter school in Boston, considered one of the best in the city because of its high test scores. Disturbed by the pressure that teachers must exert to get those high scores, Emily left the charter school and now teaches in a public school. She describes the shame and other tactics used to motivate students to try harder to ace the tests.

 

Yes, the students get high scores on the state tests, which is very satisfying to the charter advocates and helps them in their appeal to get more charters and  more funding from private and public sources.

 

But here is the problem:

 

The problem is that standardized test scores mean very little. On the only tests that do mean a tremendous amount for these students— the SSATs— students at the school I taught at perform abysmally. Subsequently, these same middle schoolers who often dramatically outperform their wealthy white peers on these tests are not accepted in large numbers to the most selective high schools (and most of those who do struggle socially and emotionally when thrust into student bodies that aren’t upwards of 98% students of color); struggle to succeed academically in high school (81% earn high school grade-point averages below 3.0 in the first semester); and certainly do not thrive after high school, graduating from college at very low rates and, among those who don’t go to college, failing in large numbers to secure full-time employment.

 
Correlation is not causation, after all; the fact that those wealthy white students who do well on state standardized tests go on to enjoy tremendous opportunities, in education and in life, does not mean that these scores cause these outcomes. This fallacy, however, constitutes the fuel of the no-excuses runaway train, and leads to the dehumanization of children of color at schools like the one at which I taught. At this school, children are deprived of a comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, and humane education; instead, they are subjected to militaristic discipline, excessive amounts of testing (well beyond that which is already mandated by the state), a criminally deficient amount of playtime (in a nine-hour school day, kindergartners have twenty minutes of recess), and lack of access to social-emotional curricula— all so that the people who run their schools can make a political point.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, Testing
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