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Oklahoma: Businessman Splits Rural Town by Opening a Charter to Compete with Public School

By dianeravitch
December 19, 2018 //
7

I read this story with a growing sense of disgust. A businessman in Oklahoma opened a charter school in a small town to focus on career readiness and job training, functions already offered by the local public school.

This man, with no experience in education, lured 29 students to share his vision and abandon the community public school. He did so over the objections of the local school district.

Within the walls of the Academy of Seminole, eight rented rooms in a community college library, it can be hard to see why the little school has kicked up so much dust in this former oil boomtown, population 7,300. On a recent Friday, businessman and school founder Paul Campbell addressed the students, just 29 freshmen and sophomores, to tell them what it’s like to run a business.
What he dislikes? Making small talk at political events and “firing people.” What he enjoys? “I love doing something that no one thinks can be done. That’s why we’re sitting in this school.”

Campbell said the “thesis” of the school is that “on day one of your ninth grade, literally hour one … we start talking about what you want to do with your life.” Speakers have included a health care CEO, professional dancers and a speech pathologist. Academy students mapped out various careers they might pursue, and spent their first semester doing a research project on their chosen path. That focus on jobs is a direction in which more schools are headed, amid rising concern that young people are graduating unprepared for the workforce, especially in rural towns like this one. Last year Oklahoma joined a growing list of states requiring students to develop a career plan in order to graduate. And, in a sense, Campbell’s can-do, pro-business attitude fits in with the ethos of this working class, Trump-supporting town.

But while Campbell may dislike politicking, he’s had to do a lot of it to get his school off the ground and keep it going in the face of a chorus of concern from local residents. That’s because the Academy of Seminole is a rural charter school; its establishment is part of a small movement to bring this taxpayer-funded version of school choice to more remote corners of the country.

How much money will the local district lose to this charter?Will the public school lose a teacher or two? Will class sizes increase?

Oklahoma was singled out by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities as the state where general per-student funding had fallen more than any other state—by 28.2% from 2008-2018.

Because of low funding, many districts in Oklahoma offer only four days a week of school.

And we are supposed to be impressed that some egotistical businessman in Seminole, Oklahoma, has opened a charter school for 29 students?

Mike Petrilli, writing from the comfort of his think-tank perch in D.C., is delighted about the opening of a charter in a town of less than 8,000 people, where the school budget is tight. “More power to him,” says Mike.

But others say residents are right to worry about the sprouting of charters in their hometowns. Schools often play an integral role in the life of a small community, offering a central meeting place, social services and additional support. If a charter grew popular enough to draw hundreds of kids and capture those students’ share of funding allocated by the state, it could erode not just schools but the fabric of communities. Bryan Mann, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama’s college of education, has studied charter schools in Pennsylvania and noted that, while the research on rural charters is still new, these schools could pose a threat to public education.

“Choice is great, but if having choice is undermining the dominant choice that the majority of families rely on and have relied on for decades or longer, then what good ultimately is that doing?” he said.

The original proposal envisioned that the school would open with 60 students and grow to 500. It opened with 32 and three dropped out. The owner plans to expand to become a Pre-K-12 school. Imagine those three- and four-year-olds, planning their futures as workers!

The funding for the charter school comes from the districts that lost students.

But guess who else paid to open a rural school with 29 students? We did.

The academy has had to make a number of changes since Campbell first pitched his idea. Not only has the school’s approach to career preparation been refined, but Campbell decided to forego the services of the charter operator, whose use was core to his application, instead relying on Hawthorne, the head of school, in part to save costs. While the charter received $600,000 in federal start-up money and $325,000 from the Walton Family Foundation, the school’s viability will depend on additional fundraising.

Betsy DeVos supplied $600,000 in federal funds to create this job-training institution to suck money out of underfunded public schools.

Here’s a reform that would make charter schools viable: no charter should be authorized over the objections of the local school board.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fraud, Funding, Oklahoma, Privatization

Carol Burris: Five Reasons Why Charter Schools Can Never Be Reformed

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2018 //
12

Carol Burris explains here why charter schools can never be reformed.

Here is reason number one.

1. Freedom from regulations and oversight through public governance has resulted in persistent and undeniable patterns of waste and fraud.

For the past year, the Network for Public Education, the nonprofit advocacy group of which I am executive director, has been tracking charter school scandals, posting news accounts here. Frankly, we have been shocked by the frequency and seriousness of scandals that are the result of greed, lack of oversight or incompetence. The independent California-based watchdog group, In the Public Interest, estimated alleged and confirmed fraud in California’s charter sector has topped $149 million, a figure it describes as “only the tip of the iceberg.”

Not even Massachusetts, which allegedly has the toughest supervision of the sector in the nation, is free of scandals. When public dollars freely flow without independent oversight, it is all too easy for dollars to find their way into employee pockets and bank accounts, for friends and relatives to get “sweetheart deals” and for school leaders to receive astronomical salaries that would be unheard of in public schools.

Although new regulations may decrease some abuse, private boards are insufficient to provide governance of the billions of taxpayer dollars that flow through the charter sector. Every serious legislative attempt to rein in abuse meets opposition from the charter lobby, which makes strategic donations to legislators to avoid accountability.

Read the article to learn the other four reasons.

I would add here that if freedom from regulation and oversight is the key to better schools, we should do it for ALL schools. But on its face, that’s a dumb idea, because the state needs to know how its money was spent. Except for charter qschools.

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

Fred Smith: The Testing Expert Who Fights the Testing Combine

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2018 //
7

Fred Smith is a genuine Testing Expert. He has the technical expertise to dig deep into the numbers and understand what they mean and what they don’t mean. He spent most of his career at the New York City Board of Education. Now he is a valued consultant to the Opt Out Movement in New York. He knows fraud in testing and he’s not afraid to call it out.

Fred Smith is a hero of American education, and he here joins the honor roll.

Read this article about him, which contains links to his latest work.

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Honor Roll, New York, Opt Out, Parent Groups, Standardized Testing, Testing

Florida: The DeSantis Team to Crush Public Schools Includes Religious Zealots and Profiteers

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2018 //
11

I have posted several times about the disaster that is happening in Florida, which elected a governor who is a mini-me of Betsy DeVos and Jeb Bush. His name is Ron DeSantis. He did not talk much about education during the campaign, but now that he is governor-elect, he has chosen the F-team to carry out the wishes of ALEC, the Waltons, the Koch brothers, DeVos and every other malefactor of public education.

Peter Greene describes the members of the DeSantis team, every one of them seeking to divert public money to charter schools, religious schools, or for-profit scams. If you are the kind of person who likes to see train wrecks up close, please read this post.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, Religion, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

In the Public Interest: Betsy DeVos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates Want Your Child’s School to Close

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2018 //
29

Jeremy Mohler, of the nonpartisan “In the Public Interest” wrote this post:


The phone rings and a cold, automated voice says your kid’s school is closed tomorrow. A sign hangs on the school’s door saying there are “repair issues.”

That’s all parents of students at Florida’s Unity Charter School received. No word of the K-8 school closing for good. No mention that its building was just foreclosed on and will be auctioned off by the end of the year.

Luckily, the local public school district is ready to help. “If Unity Charter School is foreclosed, we’re happy to welcome students into our classrooms,” says its superintendent.

Turns out, it’s a common story. Students at charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, are two and a half times more likely to have their school close than those at traditional, neighborhood schools.

Between 2001 and 2013, nearly 2,500 charter schools closed nationwide, many because of low academic performance or because the private group in charge committed fraud or wasted public money.

Like Unity Charter School, they often have closed abruptly. A charter school in Sacramento, California, handed out letters at the end of the school day informing students that their school was shuttering that night. A Delaware charter school folded with a notice posted on its website, leaving parents and students confused. “Right now, I have no idea where my future is and that’s really heartbreaking to say for myself,” a student said in the aftermath.

Oh, and you guessed it, schools — neighborhood and charter — serving a larger share of students of color and students from low-income families are more likely to be shut down than schools with fewer students of color and similar education achievement.

But charter school closures aren’t just shockingly routine. They’re also a selling point for the deep-pocketed voices aiming to privatize public education.

Like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who once compared choosing a school to choosing which food truck you want to go to for lunch. “We must open up the education industry — and let’s not kid ourselves that it isn’t an industry,” she said.

And Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, whose infamous $100 million donation to Newark, New Jersey, in 2010 went to $1,000-a-day consultants who did little to improve education for the city’s students but closed neighborhood schools, replacing many with charter schools, some of which are now closing themselves.

And Bill Gates, who has spent millions pushing charter schools. The founder of Microsoft once said, “The freedom to perform in new ways means that if [charter schools] don’t perform, things are shut down after you are given a chance.”

It goes without saying that closing a school is disruptive to students. When charter schools close, many students return to their neighborhood schools and struggle to catch up. Dislocated students are less likely to graduate. A 2013 study found that school closures have contributed to Chicago’s high rate of youth incarceration.

But disruption is exactly what the likes of DeVos, Zuckerberg, and Gates want. They want public education to be like a marketplace, where private boards can decide whether they listen to parents or not, large corporate-like chains like KIPP and Rocketship dominate, and schools open and close overnight in a constant churn of “innovation.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization

Editorial: R.I.P., Public Education in Florida

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2018 //
7

The St.Augustine Record knows that the choice of privatizer Richard Corcoran as Commissioner of Education is disastrous for public schools.

He is totally unqualified and he hates public schools.

To be blunt, as the editorial is, he is a hack.

Let’s not beat around the political bush: Putting former House Speaker Richard Corcoran in charge of Florida education is like hiring Genghis Kahn to head the state Department of Corrections.

The charter school fox is heading for the Department of Education hen house and, for public schooling, that’s finger-lickin’ bad.

Corcoran is a coercer, a brawler and politician who rewards fealty while marking opponents for payback. Those who know him would say he’d be flattered by the description.

He came into politics through the back door. He ran for the House in 1998 in a district outside his own. He was dubbed a “carpetbagger” by the hometown newspaper. He lost.

But he became a rising star in the party machinery, and eventually became what many describe as a political “hitman” for Marco Rubio’s bid to gain House leadership in 2006. He was rewarded by being hired as Rubio’s chief of staff at $175,000 yearly salary — considerably more than his boss, who made $29,697 a year. The governor that year was paid around $130,000.

If this gives you pause in terms of state political priorities, go to the head of the class.

In 2007, Corcoran again ran for special election, this time in the Senate. He was again portrayed as a carpetbagger — and lost.

The third time was a charm, when Corcoran won a House seat in 2010.

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis has made his pick known. But, on paper, the decision is up to the board of education — all GOP appointees, who probably like their current status.

DeSantis has made no bones about wanting to see public education dismantled, though you heard little of that during the governor campaign.

For his part, Corcoran spearheaded the state’s ongoing effort at funding charter schools with taxpayer money. And, where that was not possible, bankrolling public schools with various funding schemes, including paying for any child who deems himself “bullied” in public school to attend a private school tuition-free — and where, we must assume, bullies do not exist.

Corcoran was also the weight behind efforts this year to dismantle elected school boards and put the oversight of schools under direct legislative control.

In a twist of irony, Corcoran included this line is his speech after being named Speaker: “The enemy is us. … Left to our own devices, all too often, we’ll choose self-interest.”

His wife ran a charter school at the time and has since sought to expand to other areas. But his dark political history aside, might we not expect to have a person with some history in education — whether public or charter school — to lead an agency tasked with educating 3 million kids?

DeSantis has given Education Commissioner Pam Stewart her walking papers, though she has a year left on her contract. She takes with her 40-plus years of experience in education, including guidance counselor, teacher and principal at both elementary and high school levels. She was Deputy Chancellor for Educator Quality at the Department of Education and Deputy Superintendent for Academic Services here in St. Johns County, just prior to taking over as Education Commissioner — following a series of embarrassments by political appointees to that post.

She has been controversial. But juggling the hot potato tossed to her called Common Core was an unenviable trick to pull off.

Now a hack takes her place. And with one swift move, the Legislature accomplishes Job No. 1. That’s putting Florida’s $20.4 billion education budget out to bid in the private sector. That’s a frightening amount of political capital to be spread around to those who decide who gets charter school contracts and where those schools will be.

There ought to be a law…

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Bill Phillis: What Do Privatizers Do When They Fail?

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2018 //
20

That’s a trick question. Privatizers fail again and again, and when they fail, they double down on their failure.

After they takeover public schools, their replacement fails (unless it kicks out the students it doesn’t want and keeps only the ones that get high test scores).

After the charter school fails, it either remains open or is replaced by another charter school.

Charter lobbyists fight accountability in the state legislature. Accountability applies only to public schools.

When a charter fails and closes, it is never restored to the public, which paid for the school.

Bill Phillis of Ohio writes:

The anti-public common school horde is conjuring up more tricks to undermine the public common school system

The school privatization movement is being driven by a gaggle of somewhat diverse troops but all, intentionally or unintentionally, are working for the demise of traditional public education. Billions and billions from philanthropic organizations, foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals are being invested in the advancement of privately-operated alternatives to the public common school.

Strategies and motivations of privatizers differ but the goal is to transfer the governance of public schools from school communities to private groups and individuals.

The original charter concept of a teacher/parent schooling collaborative, in a contract with the board of education of a school district, has evolved into an out-of-control lucrative business enterprise.

After a couple decades of chartering, it is clear this industry does not and cannot outperform the public common school. Public support for chartering is waning. But charter industry leaders are ramping up efforts to take over entire districts for the purpose of advancing chartering. They campaign for charter-promoter board members, often with dark outside money. The district board of education, when dominated by charter advocates, then turns the district over to private-interests.

Another strategy is the establishment of the portfolio model within a school district. In this case, the control of the district is transferred to local units (charters and district schools) that are essentially controlled by private interests.

HB 70 (state takeover bill of the 131st General Assembly) has features of the portfolio model. HB 70 transfers powers of the board of education to a CEO. If school improvement does not happen under the CEO (which it won’t) the district can become a bevy of privately-operated charters.

Ohioans need to wake up to the portfolio movement of privatization, as well as other such schemes.

William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Fraud, Privatization

Beware! Privatization Vandals Target 7 Cities for Destruction and Takeover

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2018 //
23

The privatization movement used to operate in stealth. It used to pretend to have grassroots support. Those days are over. As the public catches on to the empty promises of the charter industry and its intention to undermine democratic institutions, the charter funders have created a SWAT team to infiltrate targeted cities across the nation, promote charter schools, and buy their school boards.

These guys are not the Red Cross or the Salvation Army. They are paid vandals, on a mission to destroy public schools. They are out to destroy not just public schools, but local democracy. They should be ashamed. Usually, it is illegal to buy elections. This so-called City Fund brashly announces that it has raised nearly $200 million—with more on the way—to disrupt public schools and buy elections. How is this legal?

Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum reports that vandals from the billionaire-funded “City Fund” have targeted seven cities, where they will use their millions to try to destroy public schools and to finance a takeover of the local school board.

“The City Fund has already given grants to organizations and schools in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Newark, Denver, San Antonio, St. Louis, and Nashville, according to one of the group’s founders, Neerav Kingsland. Those grants amount to $15 million of the $189 million the group has raised, he told Chalkbeat.

“City Fund staffers have also founded a 501(c)(4) organization called Public School Allies, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat, which Kingsland confirmed. That setup will allow the group’s members to have more involvement in politics and lobbying, activities limited for traditional nonprofits…

“In their ideal scenario, parents would be able to choose among schools that have autonomy to operate as they see fit, including charter schools. In turn, schools are judged by outcomes (which usually means test scores). The ones deemed successful are allowed to grow, and the less-successful ones are closed or dramatically restructured.”

This is known as the “portfolio model,” which encourages the local board to close low-scoring public schools with charter schools. When the charter schools fail, they are replaced by other charter schools.

“A version of that strategy is already in place in Denver and Indianapolis. Those cities have large charter sectors and enrollment systems that include both district and charter schools In others, like San Antonio, Atlanta, and Camden, struggling district schools have been turned over to charter operators.

“The City Fund’s Newark grant is more of a surprise. Although the district has implemented many aspects of the portfolio model, and seen charter schools rapidly grow since a $100 million donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Newark hasn’t been a magnet of national philanthropy recently. That may be because the changes there sparked vehement community protest, and the district recently switched to an elected school board.

“Charter advocates in Nashville, meanwhile, have faced setbacks in recent years, losing several bitter school board races a few years ago. A pro-charter group appears to have folded there.

“Kingsland said The City Fund has given to The Mind Trust in Indianapolis; RootED in Denver; City Education Partners in San Antonio; the Newark Charter School Fund and the New Jersey Children’s Foundation; The Opportunity Trust in St. Louis; and RedefinED Atlanta. In Nashville, The City Fund gave directly to certain charter schools.

“The seven cities The City Fund has given to are unlikely to represent the full scope of the organization’s initial targets. Oakland, for instance, is not included, but The City Fund has received a $10 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for work there. The presentation The City Fund made for potential funders earlier this year says the organization expects to reach 30 to 40 cities in a decade or less.

“We will make additional grants,” Kingsland said in an email. “But we don’t expect to make grants in that many more cities. Right now we are focused on supporting a smaller group of local leaders to see if we can learn more about what works and what doesn’t at the city level.”

“Chalkbeat previously reported that the Hastings Fund, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Dell Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were funding the effort. The Walton Family Foundation and the Ballmer Group are also funders, Kingsland said. (The Gates Foundation and Walton Family Foundation are also funders of Chalkbeat.)…

“It’s gained particular traction in a number of cities, like Newark, Camden, and New Orleans, while they were under state control. In Denver and Indianapolis, cities where the approach has maintained support with elected school boards, supporters faced setbacks in recent elections. Public School Allies may work to address and avoid such political hurdles.”

Note that the Vandals’ model of “success” is New Orleans, where the schools are almost completely privatized and highly stratified. Forty percent of the charter schools in New Orleans are “failing schools,” by the state’s rating system, and almost all their students are black. Louisiana is at the very bottom of NAEP, ranked above only Mississippi and the District of Columbia (another portfolio failure), and the charter school district of New Orleans is significantly lower-performing on state tests than the state as a whole.

This is not success. There is no model of privatization success. This is vandalism.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fraud, Privatization

Trump’s Ignominious Choice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

By dianeravitch
December 9, 2018 //
22

Donald Trump continues his now-established tradition of selecting completely unqualified people for important institutions, this displaying his contempt for those institutions. He did so by signaling that his choice for Ambassador to the U.N. is best known as a Fox News personality.

Over the past seven decades, some of the biggest names in American history have represented the United States at the United Nations, the most influential global institution. The congressman George H. W. Bush, who became U.N. Ambassador in 1971, went on to be President. Adlai Stevenson had already been the governor of Illinois and a Presidential candidate before he went to the U.N. Arthur Goldberg had been a member of John Kennedy’s cabinet and a Supreme Court Justice. William Scranton had been the governor of Pennsylvania and a member of Congress. Tom Pickering had a storied diplomatic career as Ambassador to Israel, Jordan, El Salvador, and Nigeria before he went to the U.N., and, afterward, was Ambassador to Russia and India. Daniel Patrick Moynihan had held senior positions in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Administrations. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., had been the Ambassador to Germany and South Vietnam before the U.N.; he went on to be Richard Nixon’s Vice-Presidential running mate. Before Samantha Power became U.N. Ambassador, she was the founding director of Harvard’s Carr Center on Human Rights, and won the Pulitzer Prize for her book documenting U.S. foreign-policy responses to genocide. The legendary diplomat Richard Holbrooke had brokered a peace treaty to end the Bosnian war.

Now the United States is slated to be represented by Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor whose experience in American diplomacy is limited to nineteen months as the spokeswoman for the State Department. It was her first job in government. President Trump made the announcement as he prepared to board Marine One for a trip to Missouri on Friday morning. “She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all,” he told reporters.

It’s hard to think of any American nominated for the lofty post who has had less experience in navigating existential issues of war and peace. Critics had cited the outgoing U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, for her limited foreign-policy experience. But as a former governor of South Carolina who served three terms in the state legislature, she was nationally recognized as a major political player, even as a future Presidential contender. Nauert is an unknown beyond the wonky halls of the State Department. “However trusted and competent the candidate, the job is not one to throw in an inexperienced-in-foreign-policy nominee,” the former U.N. Ambassador Tom Pickering told me.

Nauert is better known for her sharp elbows, tart tongue, and flippant responses during briefings at the State Department. One correspondent described her as smart—with the aid of a binder loaded with talking points—but “snippy.” She took grief from the media for her comment in June that seemed to confuse the state of U.S.-German relations during the Second World War. “When you talk about Germany, we have a very strong relationship with the government of Germany,” she said at a briefing. “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government.”

The appointment underscores Trump’s disdain for the world body. The position—which has had cabinet status—is also reportedly being downgraded. Nauert must be confirmed by the Senate, a process that is likely to be contentious given the widespread skepticism about her qualifications. Her past experience includes reading for a major role in a Robert De Niro movie. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, she gained fame as one of the conservative “pundettes” who pontificated about President Clinton on television. She once told the Washington Post that, at the age of sixteen, she had known that she wanted to be on television. In a profile, from 2000, the Post questioned whether she deserved even that. “Who the heck is Heather Nauert? Why, other than looking like the younger sister of another Heather (Locklear), is she on TV at all?” the critic Paul Farhi wrote. “From what well of life-shaping experiences do our anointed dispensers of video wisdom draw their opinions?”

Categories Fraud, Ignorance

Chicago: Charter Strikers and Parents Rally on Sunday at 1

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2018 //
1


NEWS ADVISORY:

For Immediate Release| ctulocal1.org
CONTACT: Chris Geovanis, 312-329-6250, 312-446-4939 (m), ChrisGeovanis@ctulocal1.org
1 PM, Sunday, Dec. 9: Rally with Acero strikers, parents, allies. CTU HQ, 1901 W. Carroll, Chicago
CTU charter strikers to rally with parents, allies as strike could move to week 2

No deal yet as clouted charter CEO continues to dodge negotiations, while management balks at smaller class sizes/better treatment for low-wage paraprofessionals and parents join strike pickets.

CHICAGO—Since Tuesday, CTU educators at UNO/Acero schools have held the picket lines with parents and protested for more classroom resources, smaller class sizes, sanctuary protections for their immigrant students and fair wages—particularly for low-wage paraprofessionals.

Strikers will rally with parents, neighborhood residents and labor allies on Sunday at 1PM at their CTU union hall at 1901 W. Carroll Ave.—steeling their forces for either a celebration that an agreement has been reached or a fifth school day on the picket lines Monday.

The strike is the first of a charter operator in the nation. It began almost five years to the day after the charter operator’s previous CEO was forced to resign for doling out insider contracts and living large on public dollars that should have bankrolled schoolbooks and student supports. Those distorted priorities persist under Rangel’s replacement, clouted CEO Richard Rodriguez, say strikers, some of whose paraprofessionals earn barely a tenth of Rodriguez’ $260,000 per year salary.

Friday, UNO/Acero management filed unfair labor practice charges—a ULP—against the CTU, based on bogus allegations that even the charter operator’s lawyers described as ‘hearsay’ and the union described as a desperate press stunt. On Saturday, Latinx elected officials publicly blasted Rodriguez, telling him to either reach a fair agreement with strikers or resign.

Rodriguez has yet to attend a bargaining session, despite seven months of contract negotiations and almost around-the-clock bargaining since the strike began on December 4. For a time on Friday according to a local alderman, his voicemail said he was ‘out of the country’.

Educators’ demands are simple and reasonable: lower class sizes for students, sanctuary for students and other members of our school community, and fair compensation for educators, especially teacher assistants and other low-wage support staff.

Management admitted in their ULP that the strike pushed them to agree to CTU demands for sanctuary schools, culturally relevant curriculum, and restorative justice practices—all issues that management called non-starters before CTU members hit the picket lines.

Rodriguez has run the charter network since 2015, as it has rebranded to distance itself from a 2013 scandal that forced out its founder, political powerhouse Juan Rangel. As a Rangel protege, Rodriguez has held some of the city’s most coveted patronage positions over the last twenty years—including as head of the Chicago Transit Authority. He has no education background.

Rodriguez is paid more to run 15 Acero schools than CPS CEO Janice Jackson earns to run more than 500 public schools. Wages for UNO/Acero paraprofessionals can be as low as barely ten percent of Rodriguez $260,000 annual salary.

# # #

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Chicago, Class size, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fraud, Funding, Parents, Privatization, Teachers, Unions
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