Archives for category: Funding
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Gov. Christie Diverts Money from Public Schools to Charters

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2015 //
39

In his unrelenting determination to advance the privatization of public schools in Néw Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has shifted $37.5 million from public schools to charter schools in the state budget. Last year,he shifted $70 million from public schools to charters.

The district that is hardest hit by this ploy is Newark. Public schools there will lose $2,000 per student as a result of this budget trick. The state has controlled Newark for 25 years, and the best that Christie can do is to privatize the schools.

The goal is to fatten the charters and starve the publics. Why does the Legislature go along with it?

What a disgrace!

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, New Jersey, Newark

Martin Levine: The Charter War in Chicago

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2015 //
15

Martin Levine writes in the NonProfit Quarterly about the war between charter schools and public schools in Chicago. Two years ago, Mayor Emanuel closed almost 50 public schools, most of which will be replaced by charters.

Levine writes:

“What is happening in Chicago illustrates well the debate going on nationally between those who believe that the solution to our educational challenges lies in creating a more robust educational marketplace where every parent and child has the ability to choose the school that is best suited to their needs, interests, and talents, and those who believe that ensuring a quality education for all children requires dealing with issues of proper school funding, poverty, race and community. The struggle in Chicago seems to indicate that the advocates for a market-based strategy are winning this tug of war.

“The Chicago Tribune ended an editorial this week with this plea: “This is a war that has to end. It does not serve children.” But with limited school budgets and little data to suggest the marketplace model of education actually outperforms or even matches the public school model, it seems unlikely that their wish will come true.”

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Funding

Pennsylvania Governor Wolf Keeps His Promise

By dianeravitch
June 19, 2015 //
4

Morning Call By Marc Levy Of The Associated Press

HARRISBURG — In theory, Pennsylvania school districts whose communities are similar economically are supposed to receive about the same amount of money per student from the state. But, with politics muscling in on how public school aid was distributed in the last two decades, officials have long complained about gaping disparities in public school aid.

Some communities now get half as much per-student aid as those with similar economic circumstances. On Thursday, a panel of lawmakers and top advisers to Gov. Tom Wolf is to recommend a way to close the gap, an effort that comes as Wolf is seeking the biggest one-year boost in public school aid in the state’s history. An Associated Press review of state data shows per-student funding differences can be great. For example, take Purchase Line School District in Indiana County and Curwensville Area School District in Clearfield County. Deemed by the state to have nearly identical wealth, the relatively small districts are neighbors and are similar in enrollment. But Purchase Line is getting about $8,700 per student, based on the latest average enrollment figures available, while Curwensville gets about $6,500 per student, about one-third less. Or take Northampton Area School District in Northampton County and Wilson School District in Berks County. About 30 miles apart and nearly identical in average enrollment and wealth, Northampton Area gets about $2,300 per student, while Wilson gets barely half that.

“It makes no sense,” said Arnold Hillman, a former superintendent and a founder of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. “It hasn’t made sense in years.” The disparities, which go back 25 years, are under the microscope as the state tries to confront them.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-public-school-funding-20150617-story.html

Categories Funding, Pennsylvania

Florida: Budget Is a Bonanza for Charters and Teach for America

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2015 //
15

Florida has a constitutional obligation to make public education a “paramount duty,” but Governor Scott and the Florida Legislature have other concerns.

 

Here is a report from Fund Education Now on the budget travesty.

 

To summarize, Florida is in the nation’s lowest quintile in funding. Yet scarce funds are diverted to the state’s booming (but ineffective) charter sector. And to add insult to injury, the Legislature will award a $10,000 bonus to “the best and the brightest” teachers, those with high SAT scores. Note that the bonus is not based on performance, but on SAT scores. This has the effect of rewarding TFA teachers just for showing up, not for their performance or their willingness to remain in teaching.

 

 

The Florida House and Senate finally agreed on an Education budget early Tuesday, June 16th at 12:30 am. The budget is expected to pass this Friday, June 19th following the required 72 hour cooling off period.

 

Despite promises of an historic funding increase, lawmakers fell short of making public education their “paramount duty” as required in Article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution. Funding per student will increase by a mere 3% or $200 less than the record 2007 high point. Instead of investing in public schools, the legislature spent an additional $300 million on personal projects and another $400 million on tax exemptions.

 

It should also be noted that PECO funds were split evenly between for profit charters and public schools, with each receiving $50 million for capital outlay. For years charters have received most of the PECO dollars and districts got nothing, making it difficult to plan for growth. Sharing this year’s PECO is a ploy to justify reviving legislation in 2016 forcing districts to share voter-approved millage dollars with for-profit charter chains that can use the funds to purchase, develop and maintain properties the public may never own.

 

There are many details buried in the Final Conference Report. Among them is $44 million to provide $10,000 “Best and Brightest” scholarships to up to 4,400 “highly effective” teachers who scored at or above the 80th percentile on either the SAT or ACT. It’s expected that many of the teachers who receive these scholarships will be from Teach for America. The House wanted $45 million for the program, while the Senate wanted only $5 million. This controversial, expensive program is based on the weak assumption that teachers who did well on either the SAT or ACT will automatically be better teachers. It’s disappointing that once again, legislators have based another funding scheme on a single test when there’s no evidence that high SAT or ACT scores are related to great teaching. It’s equally concerning that Florida teachers applying for the scholarship will be sharing their SAT and ACT test scores, providing a trove of new personal data that the state can use to further disaggregate and sort the profession.

 

At least $750 million dollars were set aside for just these projects and exemptions. That figure divided by 2.74 public school students would have meant an additional $274 per student, proving that Florida has the money, but political leaders refuse to invest in public education. What is behind their effort to keep Florida from climbing out of the nation’s lowest quintile in per pupil funding?

 

Open the link to see the numbers.

 

 

Categories Florida, Funding, Teach for America

Indiana: $50 Million Loan Program for Charters Needs Scrutiny

By dianeravitch
June 17, 2015 //
12

A last-minute deal to create a loan program for charters has raised questions in Indiana, since charters already have heavy debts.

“In the final days of this year’s legislative session, Republican lawmakers dropped into the massive state budget bill a provision giving charter schools access to $50 million in low-interest state loans.

“The measure was a last-minute effort to appease Gov. Mike Pence, who had sought more funding for charter schools, and it received virtually no public scrutiny.

“Now some critics — including the Senate’s chief budget writer — are sounding an alarm about the new program, given the significant debt of many charter schools.

“The main concern: Who will be on the hook if charter schools don’t repay the loans?”

The usual answer: the taxpayers of Indiana.

“In 2013, the state forgave and paid off more than $90 million in charter school loans. The move drew protests from traditional public schools whose loans were not forgiven and consequently charter schools were no longer given access to the loan money.

“Kenley said Pence and House Speaker Brian Bosma plan to do the same thing again with the new loan program — an assertion that neither denied outright.

“It’s always a possibility in the future,” Bosma said.

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, Indiana

Mississippi Blogger: A Modest Proposal for Education Reform

By dianeravitch
June 15, 2015 //
11

Mississippi teacher-blogger James Comans has indulged in Swiftian satire in this post about “reform.” He informed me that he was inspired by the post “Is It Really ‘All About the Kids.'”

Comans assumes the voice of a reformster. Why not require teachers to live in monasteries? Why pay them? If they are “called” to teach, they should volunteer. If they get minimum wage, they should be shamed into donating their meager salaries to worthy causes,like charter schools.

Will this make teachers better? Who knows? It will surely cut costs. What else matters? That’s how you put Children First and show that Students Matter.

Categories Corporate Reform, Funding, Mississippi, Teachers and Teaching

Arizona Supreme Court Rejects Charter Appeal for Equal Funding

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2015 //
16

Long ago, in the late 1980s, charter advocates said they could get better results at less cost. They said, give us autonomy and hold us accountable. Part of the apeal of the charter idea was the cost savings that would certainly occur by eliminating bureaucracy.

Now, however, charters say they need the same funding as public schools. There apparently are no cost savings.

The Arizona Supreme Court turned down a request by charter schools for equal funding.

“The Arizona Supreme Court has dismissed a request to review a lower court’s previous opinion that the state’s education funding formula is constitutional despite the fact that charter schools do not get the same amount of funding as traditional school districts…

“The court of appeals ruling in Novemeber stated that the fact that charter schools provide students with free, adequate education is enough to satisfy the law regardless of whether their funding is equal to traditional public school districts.”

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools, Funding

Laura Chapman: The Billionaires and Education “Reform”

By dianeravitch
June 12, 2015 //
22

Our frequent commentator Laura H. Chapman, whose wise analyses so frequently inform all of us, has done some research on the billionaire class. I would add that her second category of schools, public in name only (PINO), includes for-profit charters.

 

 

Many of the billionaires in Forbes 2015 list claim to be self-made and to come from a low to moderate income family. Those are self-reports with no backup data worthy of mention by Forbes.

 

 

According to the Forbes 2015 list of the wealthiest people in the world, The United States has 536 billionaires worth $2.6 trillion.

 

 

In 2014 Warren Buffet made $14.5 billion.

 

 

Among the wealthiest in the US, 23 % of the billionaires claim to have been raised in a household that was “poor,” 17% in a “working class” family. Here are some of the top billionaires and major source of wealth.

 

 

Bill Gates, Microsoft, $ 79.2 billion…
Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway, $72.7 billion…
Larry Ellis, Oracle, 54.3 billion…
Charles Koch, Diversified, $42.9 billion…G. Davis Koch, Diversified, $42.9 billion… Christy Walton, Walmart $41.7 billion…Jim Walton, Walmart $40.6 billion…Alice Walton, Walmart $39.4 billion… S. Robert Walton, Walmart $39.1 billion…
Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg, $35.5 billion…Jeff Bezos, Amazon, $34.8 billion…Mark Zuckenberg, Facebook, $33.4 million….Sheldon Adelson, Casinos, $31.4 billion…Larry Page, Google, $29.7 billion…Sergey Brin, Google, $29.2 billion…
Forrest Mars, Jr., Candy, $26.6 billion….Jacquelin Mars Candy, $26.6 billion….John Mars, Candy, $26.6 billion….
George Soros, Hedge funds, $24.2 billion…Carl Icahn, Investments, $23.5 billion…Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, $21.5 billion… Phil Knight, Nike, $21.5 billion… Len Blavatnik, Diversified, $20.2 billion…Charles Ergen, Dish Network, $20.1 billion…Lauren Powell Jobs, Apple & Disney, $19.5 billion…Michael Dell, Dell, $19.2 billion…

 

 

So far as I know, only a few analytical studies have been done on the interconnections among grants flowing into K-12 education and the major foundations, many set up by billionaires. Here are some recent findings.

 

 

In 2010, the top 15 grant makers for K-12 education (based on IRS filings) were: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Robertson Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Broad Foundation, GE Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Communities Foundation of Texas, and Ford Foundation.

 

 

In 2010, the top “convergent grantees”–beneficiaries of multiple funders were:

 
Charter School Growth Fund $46 million, 6 funders;
Teach for America, $44.5 million, 13 funders;
KIPP, $24 million, 9 funders;
D.C. Public Education Fund, $22 million, 5 funders (set up for merit pay) ;
New Schools Venture Fund, $18 million, 10 funders.

 

 

The researchers noted a dramatic increase in convergent grant making between the first year they studied, 2000, and the last, 2010. The increase was not only in dollars but also in the proportion groups that received funds from two or more foundations. As one example, funding for traditional public schools dropped from 16% of grant dollars in 2000 to 8% in 2010 while charter school funding rose from about 3% in 2000 to 16% in 2010.

 

 

Source: Reckhow, S & Snyder, J. W. (2014, May). The expanding role of philanthropy in education politics. Education researcher, 43, 4, pp.186-195. Or see Sarah Reckhow, (2013). Follow the money, How foundations dollars change public school politics. NNY: Harvard Education Press.

 

 

Plenty of money is around, and it is increasingly used to create a tripartate system of education.

 
One is truly public, tax-supported with governance by democratically elected school boards.

 
One is public in name only, tax subsidized, but with governance that is not fully public or democratically determined.

 
The third is private education, including for-profit-by-design education.

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

The REAL Civil Rights Issue of Our Time: Inequitable Funding

By dianeravitch
June 8, 2015 //
17

Emma Brown reports in the Washington Post about the outrageous inequity in funding American public schools. Corporate reformers have offered charters, vouchers, and high-stakes testing as “solutions” to poverty and inequity, but they are wrong. They are actually distracting attention from what matters most: Do schools have the resources to meet the needs of the children they enroll? The answer is no.

 

Brown writes:

 

Funding for public education in most states is inadequate and inequitable, creating a huge obstacle for the nation’s growing number of poor children as they try to overcome their circumstances, according to a set of reports released Monday by civil rights groups.

 

Students in the nation’s highest-spending state (New York) receive about $12,000 more each year than students in the lowest-spending state (Idaho), according to the reports, and in most states school districts in wealthy areas spend as much or more per pupil than districts with high concentrations of poverty.

 

In addition, many states were spending less on education in 2012 than they were in 2008, relative to their overall economic productivity, according to the reports.

 

 

A recent OECD report said that the U.S. was one of three nations that spends more on rich children than on poor children.

 

Charters, vouchers, and high-stakes testing do not reduce income inequality, nor do they reduce poverty, nor do they compensate for inequitable funding.

 

That is the civil rights issue of our time.

 

 

Categories Civil Rights, Equity, Funding, Poverty

Charter Schools: A Risky Investment

By dianeravitch
June 6, 2015 //
71

The Albany Times-Union reports that Albany’s biggest charter chain is burdened with crushing debt after the closure of two of its schools with poor academic results.

 

 

“The closure of the Brighter Choice middle schools will eventually leave the foundation on the hook for a $15.1 million construction debt it guaranteed that Wall Street doubts it can pay for more than three years. The 30-year bonds were issued in 2012 through the Industrial Development Authority of the City of Phoenix; in March, Fitch Ratings called the schools’ default “inevitable. The foundation has also guaranteed another $1.35 million in related loans for the schools. A default by the schools would force the foundation to find a way to pay the bondholders — Chicago-based Nuveen Asset Management — without the $14,072 per-student revenue that is the core of the Brighter Choice business model, or face having the building sold out from under it.”

 

 

The founder of the Brighter Choice Foundation is Tom Carroll. Carroll is a leading advocate for charter schools in New York state. He is also president of the “Coalition for Opportunity in Education” and the “Foundation for Education Opportunity,” which is advertising and promoting Governor Cuomo’s Education Tax Credit. The ETC would funnel at least $150 million to nonpublic (religious and private) schools.

 

This financial disaster is happening in Albany. Surely Governor Cuomo knows about it. Yet he continues to promote charter schools as a panacea for children in schools with low test scores. He doesn’t seem to realize that schools don’t have low test scores; children do. They need help: smaller classes, guidance counselors, social workers, a full curriculum, not charter schools of unknown quality.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, New York
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »