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Sue M. Legg: Charters Bomb in Florida

By dianeravitch
May 12, 2017 //
9

The Florida Department of Education, firmly in the hands of the Jeb Bush team, tried to spin the “success” of the charter industry, but Sue M. Legg of the League of Women Voters in Florida says, “Not so fast.”

In this post, she explains that charter schools enroll a lower percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, of English language learners, and of students with disabilities.

She asks:

Is the formula for successful charters to weed out students whom they cannot help? Should traditional public schools do the same? Where does this road lead?

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

Sue M. Legg: Florida’s Budget Bill is a Train Wreck for Public Schools, a Boon for Charter Operators

By dianeravitch
May 11, 2017 //
5

Here we go with the Great Money Heist in Florida.

HB7069 passed both houses of the legislature and will go to Governor Rick Scott for his signature.

In two posts, Sue M. Legg of the League of Women Voters analyzes the devastating impact of this budget bill for public schools. She hopes that Governor Scott will veto the bill. As she explains, money is being shifted to charter organizations and taken away from traditional public schools. Ten percent of the students in the state are enrolled in charter schools, but the needs of the ninety percent are ignored. The bill reduces base student funding, so that it is lower than it was a decade ago.

She writes:

The provisions to require local districts to share capital outlay with charter schools is untenable. It will cost districts already struggling with aging facilities, millions of dollars. The Schools of Hope proposal allocates $140 million for charter school takeovers of low performing public schools.

Creating charter systems that control groups of charters surely must stress the Florida constitutional requirement for a ‘uniform system of high quality schools’. These systems become their own local education agencies. This is a legal term that is now allocated to elected school boards. The systems would be able to receive funding directly with no oversight from districts.

The shift in the allocation of Title I funds for low income students also is adversely affected by the bill. Low performing schools would get the bulk of the money which then would go with Schools of Hope. The implications are far reaching if money is spread too thinly to support extra reading, tutoring and other services many children need.

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

Sue M. Legg Sends an Even Better Post about Erik Fresen and His Likelihood of Going to to Jail

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2017 //
4

Well, this is a new one for me. After I posted Sue Legg’s piece about Erik Fresen, Sue contacted me and told me she had mistakenly sent me her notes, not the finished post.

So, here is the finished post. I must admit. It reads better. And there is a picture of Erik Fresen.

It begins like this:

Remember Representative Fresen, whose sister Magdalena Fresen is Vice President of Academica, Florida’s largest for-profit charter management company? He term limited out of the legislature this year. His next step is to go to jail?

Ethics Florida Style: Go Directly to Jail

The buzz about Florida is that there is more self-interest than public interest than in any other state. Are such allegations warranted? Information is not difficult to find. The Center for Public Integrity ranked states on a corruption index in 2012. Florida was rated an ‘F’ on ethics enforcement agencies. It appears there are rules that are easy to bend and break.

Take the case of former Florida House Representative Erik Fresen who served in the House for eight years. It looks like he will serve in a Florida prison next year. He was Chair of the House Education sub-committee on Appropriations, and a former property consultant for Civica, a real estate company with ties to Academica. Fresen’s sister and brother-in-law operate Academica, the largest for-profit charter management firm in Florida. Their charter school real estate holdings generate over $20 million per year.

Fresen pled guilty this week for failure to file federal income taxes for eight years. During the same period, his House financial record disclosures do not match the IRS income reports. This is simply a culmination of years of questions about Fresen’s ethical behavior.

I just noticed that the words “For-Profit,” “Florida,” and “Fraud” are consecutive in my list of categories. Kind of like “Testing” and “Texas.”

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

Sue M. Legg: Will Erik Fresen Go to Jail? Is Charter Corruption in Florida Out of Control?

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2017 //
10

Sue M. Legg, education director of the Florida League of Women Voters, wrote the following post about the current situation in Florida, which is reaching a critical point. The legislature just passed a bill that showers favors and funding on the state’s charter industry, which has a poor academic and financial record. Scandal and profiteering are commonplace in the charter sector of Florida, yet there is never any accountability demanded by the legislature or the governor.

Legg writes:

Not a surprise that Erik Fresen removed the charter reform measures that Senator Gaetz included in SB 7029. Instead there is a hodge podge of new proposals attacking public schools. It all should finish today. Hopefully, the Senate will stand firm. Perhaps the best outcome is that nothing will pass.

Information is not difficult to find. The Center for Public Integrity ranked states on a corruption index in 2012. Florida received a total grade of ‘C-‘ which was better than that of many states. Internal auditing rules received an ‘A’, but ethics enforcement agencies rated an ‘F’. It sounds like we have rules but we bend and break them.

The legislature must address the problems and dispel the perception expressed in the media that its members are “too cozy with charter schools.” We know where that concern originates:

• Senator Legg, Chair of the Education Committee operates a charter school with his wife.

• Representative Marlene O’Toole is a representative from The Villages whose charter school just dismissed 140 students. While she does not appear to be a board member, she is employed by a private educational foundation Take Stock in Children, and is cited for conflict of interest in voting for millions of dollars in funding for it.

• Rep. Erik Fresen’s sister and brother-in-law operate Academica, a for-profit charter management firm. He is Chair of the House subcommittee for Education Appropriations.

• Representative Manny Diaz and Senator Anitere Flores run Doral College, an online dual enrollment school that is operated by Academica and funded by its charter high schools student enrollments and a transfer of $400,000 from Doral Academy, a charter school.

One of the worst stories involves a $400,000 ‘loan’ from Doral Academy to Doral College, a non accredited college started on the grounds of Doral Academy charter high school. The idea is to enroll high school students in dual enrollment courses at the college, taught by the charter high school teachers. Evidently, only students from these Academica run charters can enroll. Academica is under federal investigation. The students earn credit that cannot be transferred to any accredited school. The college earns money. Who is involved?

• Manny Diaz, Chair Florida House Sub Committee on Choice and Innovation. Representative Diaz is the dean of Doral College in Miami. Bob Sykes alleges there are other conflicts of interest.

• Senator Anitere Flores, Chair Senate Fiscal Policy Committee, member Senate Appropriations Committee, CEO of Academica affiliated Doral College

• Representative Erik Fresen. Chair of the House Education sub committee on Appropriations. Employee of Civica, a real estate company associated with Academica.
Rep. Fresen was named in the federal investigation due to a potential conflict of interest. He served on the board of an Academica charter school and approved a contract to his real estate firm. He currently has added an amendment to the House version of the charter school bill that would allocate part of local taxes for public school capital outlay funds to charter school facilities. No charges have been filed on that measure.

Fresen earns $150,000 from Civica that specializes in charter school construction. Sponsored a bill to share capital outlay with charters

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article60512891.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1963142.html US DOE found that 3 Mater charter schools signed lease payments with Academica while Zulueta was on the Mater Board.

USDOE audit found at least 4 related party transactions while Fresen was employed at Civica between 2007-2012.

Ethics complaint filed against Fresen in 2011 because of a voting conflict on HB 7195 that prohibited cities and counties from imposing stricter building and zoning rules on charters than on public schools

Affect all charter schools not just him. Change in ethics laws ‘class’

2013 refused to pay a fine for failingto file financial disclosure in 2003
http://wlrn.org/post/ethics-commission-refuses-close-complaints-against-miami-lawmaker

2014 Neighborhood Strategies put out of business in 2009, but Fresen reported on his financial disclosure form that he collected $10,000 per year since 2010

In 2012, Ethics Commission found that From 2008 to 2011 Fresen failed to properly disclose his net worth assets and liabilities

2017 Plead guilty to failure to file income tax return for eight years. Was in office 2008-2016. Faces up to a year in prison. Owes $100,000 in back taxes. Financial disclosure forms and income tax owed do not match

Paid a $10,000 fine for failure to report campaign reports in 2008-9

Ethel Fresen was an ESE teacher at Somerset until 2008.

Magdalena Fresen is Academica vice president

George Levesque House General Counsel cleared Fresen of conflict of interest even though he filed the notification form nine days after he voted. HP 7195 http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/10/ethics-commission-clears-miami-rep-erik-fresen-of-alleged-voting-conflict.html

Academica lease costs were 16.9% compared to 12.2% of total expenses for other charters. Nine schools’ leases exceeded 20% of revenue of schools in 2010.

Mater Academy Inc. tutoring company received $380,000 from Miami Dade and Broward Counties. Fresen amended a bill in 2012 to protect private tutoring companies and then in 2013 was embarrassed by the fraud exposed and opposed the continuation of funding.
****
The buzz about Florida is that there is more self-interest than public interest than in any other state.

Are such allegations warranted? Information is not difficult to find. The Center for Public Integrity ranked states on a corruption index in 2012. Ethics enforcement agencies rated Florida an ‘F’. It sounds like there are rules, but we bend and break them.

Take the case of former Florida House Representative Erik Fresen who served in the House for eight years. It looks like he will serve in a Florida prison next year. He was Chair of the House Education sub committee on Appropriations, and a property consultant for Civica, a real estate company with ties to Academica. Fresen’s sister and brother-in-law operate Academica, the largest for-profit charter management firm in Florida. Their charter school real estate holdings generate over $20 million per year.
Fresen pled guilty this week for failure to file federal income taxes for eight years. During the same period his financial record disclosures required by the House do not match the IRS income reports.

This is simply a culmination of years of questions about Fresen’s ethical behavior.

For example:

• In 2003, he failed to file a financial disclosure form and was cited in 2013 for non payment of the fee.

• In 2009, he paid a $10,000 fine for failure to report campaign reports.

• In 2011, an ethics complaint was filed in 2011 because of a voting conflict on a bill benefitting charter school building and zoning requirements. The complaint was dismissed by the House attorney, George Levesque. He is married to Patricia Levesque who is the C.E.O. of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education that promotes school choice nationwide.

• In 2012, the Ethics Commission found that from 2008 to 2011 Fresen failed to properly disclose his net worth assets and liabilities.

• In 2012, Fresen was criticized for a last minute amendment to protect private tutoring companies that included one owned by Academica, and then in 2013 was embarrassed by the fraud exposed and told by House leadership to oppose the continuation of funding.

• In 2014, Fresen reported large income amounts annually from Neighborhood Strategies, Fresen’s business. The State had closed the company in 2009.

• In 2014, he was named as part of a federal investigation of Academica. A USDOE audit found at least 4 related party transactions while Fresen was employed at Civica between 2007-2012. Academica made a $400,000 ‘loan’ from Doral Academy to Doral College, a non accredited college started on the grounds of Doral Academy charter high school. High school students were dual enrolled in the college and taught by their charter high school teachers.

This year, House Speaker Corcoran made a promise to improve ethics. Curbing profiteering in charters is not among his priorities. Bills from the Senate do not make it out of House committees.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization

Florida: The Great Hijacking of Taxpayer Money Escalates!

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2017 //
4

From Sandy Stenoff of Opt Out Florida:


We are “all hands on deck” in Florida and would greatly appreciate all the help we can get. Please feel free to share this e-mail.

Dear Public Education allies,

Florida’s 2.8 million public school children need your help now.

Both the Budget and HB 7069, the Conforming bill, which contains an inappropriate number of policies and barely vetted concepts, will face an up/down vote in both the House and the Senate Monday afternoon.

We are fighting a monumental disaster of a bill in Florida. Please help in any way that you can. It is a dire situation. We are not exaggerating. There have been any number of bills in Florida this session purporting to mandate “fewer better tests.” A lot of dirty strategic and technical maneuverings on the part of the reformers has finally resulted in HB7069 a massive charter bill, the worst we have ever seen.

From two Florida superintendents on the direction of these mandates:

http://livesite-prd-2.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/pasco-school-superintendent-the-legislatures-spending-plan-will/2322920

Sup. Vitti to Senate: Reject HB 5105 “Schools of Hope”

URGENT ACTION

Kathleen Oropeza of Fund Education Now has prepared these action alerts for easy sharing – explaining the meat of the bills. These links are critical to share as they will take folks to the action to reach the legislators.
http://bit.ly/2pSGNEZ

Tell the Senate to Vote NO on HB 7069 – The Worst List of Education Policies Ever

If you are writing your own message about HB 7069, here’s a link directly to the Take Action portion so they can send personalized letters http://bit.ly/2qDZIo0: Senators; Vote NO on the Conforming Bill/HB 7069

We will be tweeting with hashtags

#StopHB7069
#Vote4PublicEd
#forthechildren

Legislator contacts:
http://m.flsenate.gov/about/contact
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/myrepresentative.aspx

Public schools won’t win this fight without you.

Thank you for your help and support.

Sincerely,

Sandy Stenoff
The Opt Out Florida Network
#OptOut for a PublicEdRevolution

“…standardized tests are not like the weather, something to which we must resign ourselves. . . .
They are not a force of nature, but a force of politics- and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed.

Teachers, parents, and students can turn their frustration into action and successfully turn back the testing juggernaut in order to create classrooms that focus on learning.”
Alfie Kohn – The Case Against Standardized Testing, 2000

On Apr 24, 2017, at 1:34 PM, Monty Neill wrote:

Hi everyone.
Testing season is well under way or ended in many places. So, how goes opting out? Are there other local efforts that you are involved in that you can share with us?
Thanks,
Monty
—
Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate to FairTest: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/fairtest

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

Florida: Get Ready for Another Jeb Bush Charter Hoax

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2017 //
8

In the 2012 and 2013 legislative sessions, Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee and allies in the privatization movement tried to get a parent trigger law through the Florida legislature but met a solid wall of parent resistance. Now the same forces are gathering for another run at privatizing the Sunshine State’s public schools. The method is to declare not just F schools eligible for charter takeover, but D and F schools; to get more such “failing” schools by raising the bar on the testing. Voila! A bigger market for the charter industry!

Does it sound familiar: legislating the privatization of “failing” public schools? This time, it seems like they have merely removed the parents from the “parent trigger.” And, by removing the option of a district managed turnaround option, this bill will force persistently low performing schools to close or become privatized. Like the previous “parent trigger”, this bill is about pushing a political agenda and little else. And the House has set aside $200 million education tax dollars to further this agenda.

Should it matter that when the House Education Committeeworkshopped strategies to “Close the Opportunity Gap”, the only invited speakers were from charter networks (KIPP, Uncommon and GreatHearts)? Should it matter that the House PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee only scheduled charter chains to speak during its workshop addressing “innovative” ways to close the achievement gap (Basis, Achievement First,IDEA, SEED)? Why not hear about successful district managed turnaround plans?

Should it matter that House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who has made this bill a House priority, is married to a lawyer who founded a successful Pasco County’ Classical Preparatory (charter) School which is planning an expansion?

Should it matter that Rep. Manny Diaz Jr, who has been an outspoken proponent of this legislation (claiming “it is our moral responsibility to make this move and provide this option for our kids”), is employed by Florida’s largest charter chain, Academica?

Should it matter that the Florida Department of Education has repeated raised the bar and changed the School Grades calculations, which has potentially masked improvements and/or achievement of students in these so-called “failing” schools? In 2015, Commissioner Pam Stewart celebrated Florida ranking 7th in the nation in student achievement and reported that students in Florida who receive free and reduced lunches outperform those who receive free and reduced lunches in all other states. Is it possible these schools may have made significant gains that are unappreciated by the current accountability system?

Should it matter that school grades can be shown to be a reflection of the socioeconomic status of the student body? Researchers have been able to predict school grades based on US census data alone…

Should it matter that the FSA was never evaluated for fairness, reliability or validity for at risk sub populations of students, including low socioeconomic level, minorities and English Language Learners, the very kinds of students overrepresented in these chronically underperforming schools?

And finally, should it matter that charter schools do not get better academic results than public schools and often perform worse? Sometime, charters appear to do better because they can control the types of students they choose to serve. And THIS may explain why, even when Speaker Corcoran is dangling $200 million under their noses, successful charter networks appear to be uninterested in becoming Florida’s “Schools of Hope”.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Parent trigger, Privatization, Resistance

William J. Mathis: Fake News from Florida About Charter “Success”

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2017 //
5

William J. Mathis is the the Vice-Chair of the State Board of Education in Vermont, currently managing director of the National Education Policy Center

Fake News and Politicized Prevarications: The Florida State Department of Education and the Center for Education Reform Reports on Charter School Performance

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
— Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789.

In a rational world, we accept that knowledge, honestly applied, will set things right. But the nation’s political world is not so rational. In our current controversies, “fake news” and “alternative facts” are used to establish an ideology or to dismiss inconvenient truths. This is not a recent phenomenon. Throughout history fake news has been used to justify wars, unify people, and assault opponents. Its purpose is to invent or establish some scientific appearing veneer to justify activities which otherwise would be on shaky grounds. Unfortunately, education does not escape such politicized prevarications.

As a case in point, Donald Trump and his education secretary Betsy DeVos tout charter schools and privatization reforms.

Supplying the veneer, the Center on Education Reform (CER) headlined a recent press release, “Florida Charters Outperform Traditional Public Schools.” Citing the Florida Department of Education’s “Annual statewide analysis of student achievement” they claim that charter schools show higher achievement than traditional public schools (TPS) in 65 of 77 comparisons – or 84% of the cases.

This would be an impressive statistic if it were a true reflection of charter school performance!

But it’s not.

As a researcher and former superintendent, my first red flag is that such spectacular results are incompatible with the body of research on charter schools in general and with Florida-based research in particular. For example, researcher Matthew DiCarlo in his study, “The Evidence on the “Florida Formula” for Education Reform” noted that Florida charter schools had no impact on math scores and a negative effect on reading scores in 2013. In 2015, the prestigious CREDO study was expanded to examine seven Florida urban regions which showed “decidedly mixed” results — some scored higher and some lower. Whether high or low, the magnitude of differences was small or moderate.

These are dramatic discrepancies – from no meaningful differences in previous studies to 84% positive. A closer look indicates three glaring problems: selection effects, demographic differences, and faulty analysis.

Selection Effects – It is commonly known that parents who choose to send their children to a charter school place greater value on education and provide greater support than those who don’t participate. The accepted research adjusts for this fact. In short, selection effects could account for all the reported differences in performance. Yet, the Florida Department of Education produced a report that apparently ignores this basic truth. In their press release, the Center for Educational Reform also ignored selection effects.

Demographic Effects – Both the Florida Department of Education and CER tout the advantages of charter schools for minority children. This is misleading. As is well known, affluent children and white children score higher and do so in Florida, as well. The department’s report prominently places a demographic chart but then does not discuss the importance or relevance of these facts.

Let me explain:

• Poverty – Traditional Public Schools (TPSs) enroll a greater proportion of economically needy children. For TPSs, 61.5% of the children are on free and reduced lunch (FRL) while charter school students are more affluent (49.1% FRL).

• Students with special needs represent 14% of TPS students but only 9.4% of charter school students.

In other words, traditional public schools in Florida are serving more students with greater educational needs. Research tells us that socio-economic circumstances are the strongest predictor of test score performance. Thus the report may be measuring student demographics more than comparative school effectiveness. Like selection effects, demographics may account for all the differences.

Using the wrong numbers – Proficiency levels – Typically, the scores of students in one group would be averaged and compared to another group’s average score. But in the Florida and CER reports, they compare the percentage of children who passed a cut-off score. This hides valuable information. For instance, if a group made a great deal of progress and the average student score went up but still did not cross the cut-off threshold, this is scored as not proficient. This method has been critiqued for some time because it introduces perverse incentives like schools concentrating on students just under the cut-off. Thus, when the wrong numbers are used, great gains can be hidden and very small gains can be manipulated to look like very large gains.

So did charter schools outperform traditional public schools in Florida as the state department of education’s report says? Did charter schools achieve “remarkable results?” From the data they presented, we really don’t know. Yet, based on a strong body of knowledge, we can be certain that the comparisons touted by CER and the state are exaggerated. The weight of the evidence favors the CREDO studies — Florida’s charter schools do about the same as public schools.

This raises an ethical and government problem. The three major problems addressed here are commonly known to researchers and people who work with charter schools. Yet, the state report fails to adjust, compensate or even mention these concerns. They clearly had the data to do a proper analysis. So the real question is, are the people in the Florida Education Agency’s, Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice, partisans or just simply unaware of the research in their field?

It is hard to imagine that The Center for Educational Reform, a pro-charter advocacy group, does not know and understand these issues. Yet, they do not raise these questions in their press release. They simply repeat the state’s results.

While both the department and the Center can narrowly but correctly say their tabulations are accurate, it is a politicized prevarication of the facts. It is fake news. For citizens, the result is the presentation of a false scientism designed to promote and endorse charter schools rather than provide a new light on the best ways to improve education for all children.

Bakeman, J. (April 17, 2017). According to a New Department of Education Study, Charter Schools Outperform Traditional Public Shows. Retrieved April 23, 2017 from https://www.edreform.com/2017/04/according-to-a-new-department-of-education-study-charter-schools-outperform-traditional-public-shows/

Florida Department of Education (2017).”Student Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools: A Comparison of the Performance of Charter School Students with Traditional Public School Students. Retrieved April 23, 2017 from http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7778/urlt/Charter_Student_Achievement_Report_1516.pdf

DiCarlo, M. (June 2015). “The Evidence on the “Florida Formula” for Education Reform.” Retrieved April 23, 2017 from http://www.shankerinstitute.org/resource/evidence-florida-formula-education-reform

William J. Mathis, Ph.D., is the Managing Director of the National Education Policy Center. The views expressed here are his own.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fake News, Florida, Privatization

Florida’s Retention Policy: Is It Working?

By dianeravitch
April 29, 2017 //
14

Sue Legg of the Florida League of Voters wonders whether Florida’s policy of holding back third grade students who don’t pass the reading test is working.

It certainly boosts fourth grade reading scores.

But she notes a strange anomaly: Why does the number of high-scoring students decline from fourth grade to eighth grade?

She also notes that the biggest improvement in fourth grade reading scores occurred before the “reforms” were implemented.

She welcomes your thoughts in explaining why the number of high scoring students drops from fourth to eighth grades.

She writes:

“Do Florida students’ reading skills get worse over time? This seems unlikely. There was a relatively large increase in reading scores for eighth grade in 2009, and scores have only fluctuated slightly since then.

“Other possible explanations. Perhaps eighth grade student characteristics are now different than in fourth grade? How could this be? There are several ways to explore this possibility:

“Florida’s retention policy is more extreme than most other states’ policies.

“Thus, Florida has more students who have been in school longer by fourth grade than do other states. One would expect their reading and math levels to be higher. This advantage may be lost by eighth grade when these skills are more complex.

“Does Florida’s school choice policy pull out more low scoring students in elementary grades, thereby elevating its fourth grade scores compared to other states?

“Do many of these students return to public schools in middle school and lower the state achievement scores?

“We know from Florida DOE data that the Florida tax credit program enrollment drops more than one half between kindergarten and eighth grade.

“Which students leave the private schools and which remain? If the struggling students leave, as the DOE evaluations suggest, eighth grade scores in public schools would decline.

“A similar examination of the achievement levels of students who return to public schools from charter schools between fourth and eighth grade may also shed some light on the changing student achievement

“I welcome an evaluation of Florida’s school accountability approach to improving student learning.”

Categories Accountability, Florida, Testing

Florida: Stop the Charter Theft of Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2017 //
8

Kathleen Oporeza, executive director of Fund Education Now in Florida, urges all Florida citizens to contact their legislators–by email, by telephone, in person–and urge them to vote against any legislation that refers to “Schools of Hope,” which is a blatant effort to hand public schools over to charter entrepreneurs.

Urge the House & Senate to oppose any bill containing “Schools of Hope/HIgh Impact Charters” language

This dangerous concept has worked its way into at least a dozen bills, making it intentionally harder to track. All of this activity feeds the goal of making it easier to slip this bad public policy into one of several massive “train” bills far removed from public view.

Take action now. Tell our Senators and Representatives to oppose all bills, including HB 5105, SB 796, and SB 1552, that contain “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charter Networks” language.

“Schools of Hope”/“High Impact Charter Networks” create two separate, unequal publicly funded school systems – one under the control of duly elected school boards and the other controlled by outside private corporations under the direction of the appointed State Board of Education.

The deck is stacked. The BOE picks and chooses which district turnaround plans are accepted or rejected while at the same time exercising oversight authority over competing High Impact Charter Networks.

Because the BOE determines cut scores on state assessments and the calculation of school grades which can be manipulated to increase the number of D and F district schools this language will clearly drive the expansion of “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charter Networks.”

Use your voice now! One click easy. Please do not let “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charter Networks” trigger the immediate transfer of 115 “D & F” public schools and their 77K students into private, for-profit hands.

This isn’t about helping our most vulnerable students; it’s about promoting unmitigated charter school growth in an effort to erode district schools.

The Charter “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charter Networks” exponentially expand the effort to allow for-profit charters to keep grabbing tax dollars and tapping new markets to beef up the annual reports of corporate charter chains. None of this has been proven to help students or improve education.

Please tell the Florida Legislature to vote no on the “Schools of Hope/High Impact Charter Networks” language, SB 796, SB 1552 and HB 5105 with its $200M slush fund and block its inclusion in the Senate Budget and prevent it from being slipped by either chamber into a “train” bill.

Your voice has power. Our children are depending on us

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Hoax, Privatization

Florida: Conspiracy Spotted! Privateers Hope to Get $200 Million to Open More Charters

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
10

Regular readers of this blog might find this article amusing. Public school activists in Florida are angry! The charter fans in the legislature want to allocate $200 million to encourage charters to locate in close proximity to schools with low grades. The extra $200 million will allow the charters to offer extra services that the public schools can’t afford. Meanwhile, the state plans to raise the passing scores on state tests, meaning that tens of thousands of students will be labeled “failing,” setting up more schools for takeover by charters.

The article calls this analysis–that the purpose of the $200 million “Schools of Hope” package is a giveaway to the privatization industry–a “conspiracy theory.”

Like if you see a bandit holding up a bank and call the police, you are really just indulging in a conspiracy theory.

Who are you going to believe: the people writing this dreadful legislation or your own eyes?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Hoax
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