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Indiana: GOP Legislator Proposes Total Privatization of Muncie School District

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2018 //
9

 

A Republican Legislator has proposed turning over the Muncie School District to Ball State University and allowing the University to replace the elected board with an appointed one of its choosing. Muncie currently has a large deficit and an emergency manager. The state has starved the schools of adequate funding.

“During a hearing on Thursday, Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, questioned the bill’s author, Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, and the university president about a provision that would exclude a BSU-run MCS from having to follow numerous education laws.

“The bill would allow BSU to govern financially distressed MCS effective July 1 by appointing a new seven-member school board to replace the current five-member elected school board.

“There is a list four pages long, Tallian said, of “a huge part” of the Title 20 education code that the school district would not be required to follow, such as collective bargaining rights for teachers, health insurance, “the entire body of the school transportation law,” accreditation, equal education opportunity, teacher licensing, “the whole body of law about school curriculum” and data reporting.”

Ball State’s record running charter schools is unimpressive, although it’s lab school has high ratings.

“A laboratory school is a school run by a university, like Ball State’s highly rated Burris Laboratory School, which has much less poverty among students and many fewer minority students than the city school district.

“Unlike teachers in Indiana’s traditional public schools, Burris teachers lack collective bargaining rights. Charter schools are not required to participate in collective bargaining with teachers, either.

“A charter school is a public school operating under a contract, or charter, between the school’s organizers and a charter school authorizer, such as BSU, which oversees but doesn’t manage more than two dozen charter schools around the state, nearly half of which are rated D or F.”

So Ball State runs a successful elite school on campus but nearly half its charters are rated D or F.

The people of Muncie are divided about whether this is a good idea.

Ball State thinks it will burnish the university’s reputation. The heads of businesses and law firm like it. Legislators say “it’s a done deal.”

This is how democracy dies. One step at a time.

Categories Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Indiana, Privatization

Carol Burris: How Mike Pence Expanded Indiana’s Corrupt and Ineffective Voucher Program

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2018 //
10

 

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, explains here how Mike Pence expanded and deregulated Indiana’s voucher program, with substantial cash infusions from Betsy DeVos and Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.

Despite state law, failing voucher schools were renewed. Failing charter schools converted to voucher schools to evade accountability. The voucher program has subsidized churches and paid tuition for students who never attended public schools and thus were not “escaping” to better schools. Many of the religious schools teach fraudulent science and history.

School choice is a big step backward for education in Indiana

Categories Charter Schools, Fraud, Funding, Indiana, Mike Pence, School Choice, Vouchers

Two Indiana Senate Bills Propose Tightening Regulation of Charters

By dianeravitch
January 9, 2018 //
8

 

The lack of accountability and transparency, as well as the ineffectiveness, of many charter schools is awakening politicians, even in choice-obsessed Indiana. Fraud is an ongoing problem in the absence of public oversight.

 

“Two Indiana senators — a Republican and a Democrat — are calling for the state to reform how charter schools are overseen.

“Sen. Dennis Kruse, an Auburn Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, and Sen. Mark Stoops, a Bloomington Democrat also on the committee, have each proposed a bill to ensure charter school authorizers cannot open new schools or renew charters without evidence that students are learning.

“The bills come two months after a Chalkbeat investigation revealed that while the small Daleville Community School District charged with overseeing Indiana Virtual School has appeared to follow state law, it isn’t necessarily meeting the needs of the school’s thousands of students.

“The district was on track to earn at least $750,000 in fees last year overseeing Indiana Virtual, which over its six-year lifespan has earned two F-grades and, in 2016, managed to muster only single-digit graduation rates. The school continues to bring in millions of state dollars for its students, and in September, opened up a second school, also chartered by Daleville.”

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Indiana, Virtual Charter Schools

Carol Burris: The Malicious Reformer Assault on Public Schools in Indiana

By dianeravitch
December 22, 2017 //
6

Indiana was once renowned for its public schools, which were beloved community institutions. Then rightwing zrepublicans took control of the state, and the result was disruption, chaos, and community division. Instead of working together to improve their public schools, the public was enticed to pursue private choices, all under the false promise of “reform.”

Carol Burris went to Indiana, visited schools, met educators, and has written a three-part series about the corporate attack on public education in the Hoosier State. At the center of destruction are two men: Mitch Daniels, the former governor who is now president of Purdue (a soft landing he engineered), and Mike Pence, the pious evangelical who is now Vice-President.

Here is part 1 of Carol’s gripping story of the attack on public education in Indiana.

“Entire public school systems in Indiana cities, such as Muncie and Gary, had been decimated by funding losses, even as a hodgepodge of ineffective charter and voucher schools sprang up to replace them. Charter school closings and scandals were commonplace, with failing charters sometimes flipped into failing voucher schools. Many of the great public high schools of Indianapolis were closed from a constant churn of reform directed by a “mindtrust” infatuated with portfolio management of school systems.

“When I asked who was most responsible for the downward spiral of public education in the state, the answer was always the same: Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s 49th governor.”

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

Indiana: Governor Wants to “Do Something” about Horrible Online Charter School

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2017 //
2

In choice-happy Indiana, where all choices are presumed to be good choices, Governor Eric Holcomb called for the state to do something about the woeful performance of the Indiana Virtual School. Be it noted that virtual schools have low performance everywhere, rake in millions of dollars, and buy political support. Will Indiana be any different from other states that have ignored the scandal of virtual charter performance?

In October, Chalkbeat reported that Indiana Virtual School, one of the state’s largest online charter schools, had received more than $20 million from the state while graduating about 61 students. And between at least 2011 and 2015, a for-profit company headed by Indiana Virtual’s founder, Thomas Stoughton, charged the school millions of dollars in management services and rent.

Wow! More than $20 million to graduate 61 students. A good haul for the school, not the taxpayers.

Indiana Virtual and its sister school that opened this year, Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, together enroll 6,332 students. Across the state, more than 12,000 students are enrolled in online charters, most of which earned F grades this year. Two other major online charters, Hoosier Academies and Indiana Connections Academy, also opened new schools in the past year or so.

What will the state do? Certainly the state won’t close down this fraud.

At this point, Holcomb said he doesn’t see a need just yet for legislation addressing online schools, although he wouldn’t rule it out. He said his team has communicated with the state board that this area needs “immediate attention and action.” It’s not yet clear what measures they want to introduce, or how much authority the state board has to change charter school rules, but he indicated authorizing could be on the list.

David Harris, of the faux-liberal Mind Trust in Indianapolis, took time from privatizing public schools in Indianapolis, to suggest the need to change authorizers.

Ah, yes, change authorizers. That won’t help.

These scams should be closed. For-profit schools should be banned.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Fraud, Indiana, Virtual Charter Schools

Save the Date: #NPE18Indy on October 20-21, 2018!

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2017 //
10

Exciting news!

The Network for Public Education will hold our 5th Annual National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 20-21, 2018.

You are invited!

We are jumping right into the heart of Mike Pence country, abetted by our great grassroots Hoosier allies.

We will once again line up great speakers, organize wonderful panels, and we promise you a weekend of inspiration, support, encouragement, and good fellowship.

Mark the date and plan to join us.

See you in Indy!

Categories Indiana, Network for Public Education

Phyllis Bush: This Post Is Not About Me or Cancer

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2017 //
3

Phyllis Bush writes a blog about her battle with cancer. So far, she is winning, which is not surprising because Phyllis is a fighter. She also has an irrepressible sense of humor and insists on calling the disease “cancer-schmanzer.” Many years ago, people called it simply “the C word,” fearful of saying the word. Phyllis refuses to be cowed.

This post is not about cancer.

It is about a cause dear to Phyllis’s heart.

Phyllis lives in Indiana. She is a retired teacher. She has seen the Pence-DeVos privatization movement up close. It is divisive, unproductive, anti-democratic.

I hope you will honor her fight by joining her in the battle to save public education.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Indiana, Network for Public Education, Pence, School Choice, Vouchers

Correction: Indiana Virtual School Is the Worst School in the Nation, NOT Indiana Virtual Academy

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2017 //
2

I wrote a post yesterday about the “worst school in the nation.”

The school described in the post is INDIANA VIRTUAL SCHOOL, not Indiana Virtual Academy.

Indiana Virtual School is a Charter School that operates for profit. It graduates fewer than 10% of its students. Its teachers are assigned virtual classes of more than 200 students.

Indiana Virtual Academy is run by public school superintendents. It is not for-profit. It is not a charter school. It is a supplemental program, not a school. It partners with schools to provide virtual courses taught by certified teachers to schools that have difficulty finding teachers and to individual students who have scheduling conflicts.

Indiana Virtual Academy works for public schools to meet the needs of schools and students.

Indiana Virtual School is a for-profit charter. It may well be the Worst School in the Nation.

I mixed up their names because they look so similar.

I apologize for the error.

Categories Indiana, Technology, Virtual Charter Schools

Indiana: The Worst School In America?

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2017 //
31

I think so.

It is located in Mike Pence’s Indiana.

It operates for profit.

It has a high school graduation rate of less than 10%.

It recruits and markets heavily to lure students.

It has 5,000 students.

There is one teacher for every 222 students.

The owner pockets millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

It is an online charter, a cybercharter, a virtual charter.

It is called the Indiana Virtual School.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wants many more schools like this.

“Thomas Stoughton founded the school in 2011, taking advantage of a new law allowing Indiana charter schools to serve students exclusively over the internet, rather than in brick-and-mortar buildings.

“In recent years, students have signed up in droves, responding to social media advertising campaigns. The school they end up attending differs widely from other online charter schools emerging across the country, with far fewer teachers per student — 1 for every 222 students last school year, according to state data — and fewer students taking and passing state exams.

“As enrollment at Indiana Virtual School ballooned, so did the school’s state funding, which is distributed on a per-student basis. Some of that money has gone to AlphaCom Inc., a for-profit company also founded and led until 2016 by Stoughton. Since 2011, AlphaCom has held multiple contracts with Indiana Virtual School totaling about $6 million to provide management services and office space. A company run by Stoughton’s son also held a contract with the school.”

The school apparently has no oversight, no supervision.

Kudos to Shaina Cavazos of Chalkbeat for this terrific investigative reporting!

Free public money! Come and get it! Get rich quick on the taxpayer’s dimes and dollars!

NOTE: The Name of the institution is the Indiana Virtual School, a Charter School, NOT THE INDIANA VIRTUAL ACADEMY, which is run by public school superintendents as a nonprofit.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Indiana, Virtual Charter Schools

Indiana: Vouchers Support F-Rated Religious School

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2017 //
22

Remember when voucher advocates claimed they would enable “poor kids to escape failing schools?”

What happens when the voucher School is a failing school?

It gets more public money!

http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/20171002/principal-welcomes-state-grade

Categories Indiana
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