Archives for category: North Carolina
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

North Carolina: ACTION NEEDED NOW! General Assembly Will Vote on Budget at 4 pm!

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2017 //
4

An urgent appeal from parent leaders at Public Schools First North Carolina. The General Assembly is about to pass a budget that includes no funding for teachers of art, music, and physical education. The unfunded mandate for reduced class size in the early grades will cause massive layoffs and program cuts. ACT NOW!

ACTION ALERT……..ACTION ALERT ACTION ALERT……..ACTION ALERT ACTION ALERT……..ACTION ALERT

PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES MUST CONTACT LEGISLATORS NOW!

Senators are planning to vote on the HB13 Amended Bill THIS AFTERNOON, Tuesday April 25th at their 4pm session.

PLEASE STOP what you are doing right now and CALL, E-MAIL, or TWEET North Carolina Senators FIRST and then call every HOUSE Member and ask them to add an amendment to put money for SPECIALS in the new two-year budget! The current bill has NO funds to pay for specials teachers next year! PLEASE DO IT NOW!

This may be our only chance to get this bill FIXED to avoid headaches with funding for our specials teachers next year. Let’s avoid having our teachers worry for another year about having their jobs. Let’s avoid potential layoffs next year by getting the money appropriated this year. Ask Senators to AMEND HB13 on the SENATE floor today! If this is their intention, then putting it into the bill this year should be no problem, right?

Ask Senators to amend the bill to add a guarantee of funding for specials teachers for next year in the two-year budget they are working on right now. ASK THEM TO PUT A GUARANTEE OF MONEY IN THE BUDGET to give school districts the planning time they need to keep their teachers in the classroom!

If HB13 is not amended to add money, this will NOT be addressed until the NEXT legislative session, the short session that starts in May 2018 — this is later in districts’ budgeting process than right now! May 2018 will be TOO LATE for many school districts whose teachers will have moved on to find other jobs or will have been dismissed due to lack of funding.

IF THE SENATORS DO NOT ADD THE FUNDING GUARANTEE NOW before the bill returns to the HOUSE for a final vote, OUR TEACHERS AND PARENTS will be left to worry and fret for another 12 months. This is not the way to run our public schools – ACT TODAY!! ASK NOW!!! This is the critical moment in this fight for funding.

Senators have the DATA needed! All of the information needed for the reports that Senator Barefoot wants to so he and other Senators can ALLOCATE money for K-3 teachers and for SPECIALS is in PowerSchool (NCDPI database) right now. This means that all of the Senators have this data NOW and can use it to make all assumptions needed NOW to figure out exactly what appropriations are needed to FUND Specials in 2018-19.

Senators promised to add this language in the Amendment last night and at the last moment they excluded the language leaving the HB13 fix ONLY half done.

BOTTOM LINE: The data needed to make the appropriation in the NEW two-year budget is in PowerSchool database and in the hands of our legislators at this time. The request is simple: put money in the budget now by amending HB13 now to include appropriation for Specials in 2018-19 school year.

To be clear, legislators are to be praised for advocating for smaller class sizes! All public education advocates are for smaller class sizes but not supportive of unfunded mandates or unrealistic implementation plans. The unintended consequences must be dealt with if our goal is to have great public schools that offer the best learning experiences for our youngest children.

Here is a WIN-WIN proposal: Encourage legislators to provide the money for teachers and SPECIALS NOW! And give local school districts time – 3 to 5 years – to find local funds for new classroom space; time to build and create additional space! Give school districts time to find new teachers or reassign/retrain some of their current staff. The alternative is crowded schools, classes in supply closets or lunchrooms, higher local taxes, lack of teaches or teachers with little or no experiences, and extreme over crowding in the upper grades to accommodate space and teachers for K-3. Right now, class sizes in the grades 4 to 12 are too large in many school districts — we have 35 or more kids in many classes!

Categories Budget Cuts, Class size, Funding, North Carolina

Manufactured Chaos in North Carolina as Legislature Mandates Class Size Reduction with No Funding

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
9

North Carolina public schools, once considered the best in the South, are under constant attack by the rightwing legislature. The latest salvo is an unfunded mandate to reduce class sizes in the early grades. It is a wonderful idea to reduce class size, but it is costly. Imposing the mandate without funding is a recipe for disruption and chaos.

The Republicans who control the legislature are crazy for privatization, for charters and vouchers and cybercharters. Are the Republicans trying to drive children and families away from public schools by inflicting chaos and stripping away activities that students love?

Despite warnings by district superintendents about massive layoffs of teachers of arts and physical education, the state senate has refused to back down.

“North Carolina’s largest public school system may be warning of “enormous disruptions” without speedy action from state lawmakers on a looming class size funding crisis, but key education leaders in Raleigh tell Policy Watch there’s little sign Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly will act soon.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s any movement planned,” says Sen. Floyd McKissick, a Durham Democrat who sits on the state Senate’s Rules and Operations Committee, a panel that includes some of the chamber’s most powerful lawmakers and sets the agenda for future committee talks.

“McKissick said he met late last week with Sen. Bill Rabon, the eastern North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, but GOP leaders remain reticent to make any commitments regarding a legislative fix to the funding controversy, despite stiff warnings from district chiefs that thousands of teachers’ jobs are in jeopardy.”

Here is a report from Wake County, once considered one of the best school districts in the nation. Syracuse scholar Gerald Grant wrote a book called “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Public Schools in Wake County.”

That was then. This is now:

“The state legislature’s plan to cut elementary school class sizes could lead to larger class sizes in all Wake County schools, including 40 or more students in some elementary classrooms.

“State lawmakers lowered maximum class sizes in kindergarten through third grade from 24 students this school year to between 19 and 21 students starting in July. Wake County Superintendent Jim Merrill warned Tuesday that unless the state provides relief, the district will have to consider options such as increasing class sizes for older students, cutting art and music classes, laying off teachers and reassigning students on short notice.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article145287929.html

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2017/04/20/local-school-districts-prepare-enormous-disruptions-senate-refuses-ease-class-size-requirements/

Categories Class size, North Carolina

North Carolina: State Mandate to Reduce Class Size Will Cost Loss of Thousands of Teachers

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2017 //
29

The legislature in North Carolina never tires of finding new ways to mess up their state’s once-greatly admired public schools.

By mandating class size reduction across the state without providing additional funds, districts will be required to send pink slips to thousands of teachers of music, arts, physical education, and teacher assistants.

“We’re not dealing with widgets. We’re dealing with people’s lives and their livelihoods,” says Katherine Joyce, executive director of the N.C. Association of School Administrators (NCASA), an organization that reps public school district leaders at the legislature.

The uncertainty puts at least 5,500 teaching jobs statewide in jeopardy as districts scramble to reallocate resources, according to the NCASA.

That doesn’t include teacher assistant positions, particularly crucial jobs in low-performing schools and districts jettisoned by the thousands in cash-starved districts since 2008. Without major legislative concessions in the coming weeks, K-12 leaders expect many more T.A. jobs will be on the chopping block this year.

One bipartisan-supported reprieve to the looming class size order, House Bill 13, gained unanimous approval in the state House in February, but despite advocates’ calls for urgent action this spring, the legislation has lingered in the Senate Rules Committee with little indication it will be taken up soon.

Sen. Bill Rabon, the influential eastern North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, did not respond to Policy Watch interview requests, but his legislative assistant said this week that Rabon’s committee will not consider any House bills until the General Assembly’s April 27 crossover deadline….

Regardless, public school leaders say the state’s drive to reduce class sizes comes at a particularly arduous time for districts. With North Carolina teacher pay mired among the lowest in the nation, K-12 experts are reporting major teaching shortages and plummeting interest in teaching degrees in the UNC system.

The legislature, dominated by a super-majority of ultra-conservative Republicans in both houses, is doing its level best to harass teachers and drive students to charter schools and vouchers. Under the guise of “reform,” more teachers and programs will be cut.

Categories Budget Cuts, Class size, North Carolina, Teacher Shortage, Teachers

Another Staffer Joins the Department of Education: Ex-TFA

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2017 //
35

People who came into education have a strange penchant to work for ultra-conservative politicians, like John White in Louisiana, Kevin Huffman in Tennessee, and Eric Guckian, who was education advisor to the far-right North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.

Now comes this news via Politico Pro. I can’t give you a link because I don’t have a subscription (they told me it costs $3,500 and I run a very low-cost shop here):

A senior Trump administration education adviser is expected to move into a new role at the Education Department, according to multiple sources familiar with the shift who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak about personnel issues.

Jason Botel, the former executive director of the Maryland education advocacy group, MarylandCAN, joined the Trump administration in January as senior White House adviser for education.

One source said he is being considered for a deputy assistant secretary position at the agency’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which serves as a key partner to states and school districts in matters spanning pre-K through high school. The position is politically appointed but isn’t Senate-confirmable.

Neither Botel, nor an Education Department spokesman responded to requests for comment.

In recent months, Botel had helped an understaffed Education Department in various roles.

Botel shocked some of his colleagues by joining the Trump administration earlier this year. He had donated $400 to former President Barack Obama’s presidential bid in 2008. Those who know him say he’s passionate about strong accountability standards, and racial and social justice issues — priorities embraced by the Obama administration. Botel joined Teach for America out of college, teaching in Baltimore public schools, and later brought the charter school network, KIPP, to Baltimore.

You will note that Botel worked for Maryland CAN, which exists to encourage privatization via charter schools. After he left Governor McCrory’s office, he worked at TFA’s Leadership for Educational Excellence, which trains ex-TFA to run for office. Acquaintances believe that his appointment suggests a renewed emphasis on standards, testing, and accountability. Interesting that someone would feel equally comfortable working for Obama and then Trump. A flexible mind.

Categories Education Reform, North Carolina, Standardized Testing, Teach for America

North Carolina’s Largest Voucher School Embroiled in Financial Scandal, Files Incomplete Returns

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2017 //
7

Veteran journalist Lindsay Wagner writes that Fayetteville’s Trinity Christian School–the state’s largest recipient of taxpayer-funded vouchers–is involved in a major financial scandal. North Carolina places no accountability for how taxpayer money is used or whether students make academic progress. The voucher schools get taxpayer money with neither accountability nor transparency.

North Carolina’s largest recipient of private school vouchers has filed a financial review that lacked basic information consistent with “generally accepted accounting principles,” according to the agency overseeing the taxpayer-funded program.

Because Fayetteville’s Trinity Christian School—also currently embroiled in a separate embezzlement scandal—received more than $300,000 in voucher funds during the 2015-16 academic year, it is required to submit a financial review of their organization.

According to records provided by the State Education Assistance Authority (SEAA), the agency tasked with overseeing the voucher program, the financial review submitted last December lacked crucial elements typically found in such statement including a statement of cash flows and a balance sheet. What was included instead was a brief “statement of activities” that only listed top line revenues and expenses as well as a supplemental schedule of functional expenses.

***
It is remarkable to omit a more detailed balance sheet from a set of basic financial statements, said Mig Murphy Sistrom, a Durham-based accountant whose firm specializes in preparing financial reports for nonprofit organizations.

Because the accounting firm that prepared the financial review for Trinity Christian—Edwards Pechmann & Packer, Inc.—did not include a balance sheet, “it raises a concern that the organization may not have accounting records adequate to produce a balance sheet,” said Murphy Sistrum.

Since 2014, Trinity Christian has received more than $1.2 million in taxpayer funds through the Opportunity Scholarships Program, which provides low-income families money to attend private schools. For the academic year 2016-17, school voucher recipients comprised 60 percent of Trinity Christian’s enrollment, according to state records. The voucher school’s overall school enrollment grew by 25 percent between 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The state places few requirements on private voucher schools to account for how the taxpayer dollars are used to educate students, demonstrate achievement of the students who receive the aid or any transparency to assure the funds are used as intended.

What would Betsy DeVos say? Let the free market figure it out?

Categories Accountability, North Carolina, Scandal, Vouchers

Samantha Bee Offers Advice to Former NC Governor Pat McCrory about Finding a Job

By dianeravitch
March 16, 2017 //
4

Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is having trouble landing a job because he is so closely identified with HB2, the bill that said that transgender persons had to use the bathroom aligned with their birth certificate rather than their choice.

Samantha Bee said that McCrory needed to broaden his resume.

“Sorry you’re having trouble finding a new job,” the “Full Frontal” Twitter account wrote to McCrory before offering its “help.”

[How bathroom bill backlash cost North Carolina’s Republican governor his job]

In addition to trumpeting his work on the HB2 bill, “Full Frontal” suggested McCrory highlight legislation he signed “defining voting as between one ballot and one white person.”

And, the show’s Twitter account suggested, he should play up his ability to multitask by emphasizing that he “also found time to discriminate against women.”

McCrory ran as a candidate who would create jobs but his HB2 drove away national corporations, the NCAA, and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost convention revenues.

By the way, Hate Bill 2 is still on the books. North Carolina’s Tea Party legislators can’t let it go. I thought they might create new jobs for people who inspect genitals in every public bathroom to make sure the law is obeyed.

Categories Bias, North Carolina

North Carolina: Voucher Program After Three Years: An Expensive Failure

By dianeravitch
March 9, 2017 //
15

Duke University reports on North Carolina’s voucher program after three years.

The report adds to the growing evidence that “escaping” a public school to a religious or other private school does not “save” children.

Findings.

Vouchers may be as much as $4,200, far below the tuition of elite private schools ( which don’t have empty seats and are unlikely to accept students with low test scores anyway).

” The number of children receiving vouchers has increased from approximately 1,200 in the first year to 5,500 in 2016-17. The General Assembly has authorized an additional 2,000 vouchers for each year over the next decade, bringing the total to 25,000 by 2027.”

The current annual expenditure is $60 million. By 2027, the program will have cost $900 million.

 Based on limited and early data, more than half the students using vouchers are performing below average on nationally-standardized reading, language, and math tests. In contrast, similar public school students in NC are scoring above the national average.”

93% of the vouchers are used at religious schools.

There is virtually no accountability for voucher schools. “Accountability measures for North Carolina private schools receiving vouchers are among the weakest in the country. The schools need not be accredited, adhere to state curricular or graduation standards, employ licensed teachers, or administer state End-of-Grade tests.”

Vouchers are evidence-free. Rifhtwing ideologues believe that choice is the goal of choice. They promise dramatic gains that never materialize. One can only conclude that they they don’t care about the children because choice is an end in itself.

Categories Betsy DeVos, North Carolina, Religion, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, School Choice, Vouchers

ALERT from North Carolina!

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2017 //
3

A notice in my email:

Progress NC Action

Diane – We’re days away from losing 6 years of NCAA tournaments and the $250 million in economic activity they’ll bring to our cities, counties and state. It’s as if the state legislature, led by House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger could not care less.

And now conservative politicians in Raleigh have rolled out a so-called “compromise” bill that would repeal HB2, and replace it with HB 2.0.

Click here to add your name and tell politicians in Raleigh to fully repeal HB2 and ensure protections for the LGBT community in NC.

http://act.progressnc.org/sign/repeal-hb2/?t=1&akid=2716.43714._kq2EW

Here’s what HB 2.0 does:

Prohibits cities from protecting transgender people in public facilities.

Local governments that enact nondiscrimination ordinances could have those policies overturned by a referendum.

State law would explicitly exclude LGBT people from nondiscrimination protections in housing and employment.

Sound familiar? HB 2.0 keeps the most discriminatory parts of HB2 in place and calls it a fix. Who do politicians in Raleigh think they are fooling? Governor Cooper, EqualityNC and progressives across the state have condemned the proposal, with EqualityNC calling it an unprecedented failure of leadership.

The NC Chamber of Commerce has come out in favor of it, but then again the Chamber was a big backer of the original HB2! So no surprise that they support HB 2.0.

Click here if you’re tired of the political games and want politicians in Raleigh to finally repeal HB2 in its entirety and guarantee protections to the LGBT community.

Time is running out and the ball is in Berger’s court. Will we get leadership, or more discrimination?

Sincerely,

Evan Degnan
Digital Director, Progress NC Action

Categories Bias, North Carolina, Resistance

BREAKING NEWS: NAACP Calls for International Boycott of North Carolina

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2017 //
10

NAACP NATIONAL PRESIDENT CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS AND NC STATE PRESIDENT AND NATIONAL BOARD MEMBER REV. DR. WILLIAM BARBER TO ANNOUNCE BOYCOTT AT FRIDAY PRESS CONFERENCE AT NC STATEHOUSE

The NAACP Board of Directors announced a resolution calling for an international economic boycott of the state of North Carolina in response to actions of an all-white legislative caucus, which unconstitutionally designed racially-discriminatory gerrymandered districts, enacted a monster voter suppression law, passed Senate Bill 4 stripping the incoming Governor of power and passed House Bill 2. HB 2 is anti-transgender, anti-worker and anti-access to the state court for employment discrimination.

NAACP National President/CEO Cornell William Brooks and North Carolina State President and National Board Member Rev. Dr. William Barber II are holding a press conference today (Friday, Feb. 24th @ 11:00 am) at the NC General Assembly to discuss the economic boycott and rally supporters for direct actions against the legislators.

“True democracy remains a distant ideal that the racist actions of members of the NC state legislature continue to disgracefully push further and further out of the reach of the African-American community,” said NAACP President Cornell William Brooks.

“The NAACP refuses to accept this attack on democracy or the commoditization of bias against people due to racial or gender identity here in North Carolina or anywhere else around the nation. This we will fight against with all of our resources until we win.”

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, stated, “The actions of the all white caucus of extremists in our legislature and the former Governor are out of control. They have consistently passed legislation that is a violation of our deepest moral values, voting rights, civil rights and the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law.”

“The federal court ruled against their voter suppression and racially gerrymandered districts. We believe their attacks on the transgender community and attempt to strip the Governor of power will also be found unconstitutional. Their decision to block local municipalities ability to raise wages and their limitation of access to state courts are wrong and we must stand strong against any and all attempts to deprive citizens their rights ordained by God and guaranteed by the constitution,” said Rev. Dr. Barber, NAACP North Carolina State President. “What has happened in North Carolina makes this state a battleground over the soul of America and whether our nation is sincere about making democracy real for all people, not just those with the right bank account, right sexuality or right skin.”

According to the NAACP Board of Director’s Resolution:

“The National Board of the NAACP will explore such a North Carolina Boycott along with the NC State Conference until the NC legislature passes bills that accomplish the following (or until such results are achieved through the courts):

a) Undo racially gerrymandered districts and create fair election districts;

b) repeal the entire HB-2 law;

c) repeal SB-4 law passed in a special session called for another reason that stripped trained civil servants in County and State Election Boards from supervising elections;

d) repeal the requirement that litigants to appeal to the en banc Court of Appeals before they can file an appeal to the NC Supreme Court;

e) repeal legislation that stripped the current Governor of powers his predecessor enjoyed.

Be It Further Resolved that the National NAACP and the North Carolina NAACP will engage in a joint media and public education campaign regarding this decision.

And be it finally resolved that in light of the adoption by other states of similar laws that reflect racial gerrymandering, discriminatory voter identification laws and similar types of laws to redistribute political power to the detriment of racial and ethnic minorities or change the nature of the electorate, the National NAACP will engage in applying various forms of economic sanctions or other appropriate economic or direct action to address these types of discriminatory legislative or executive actions around the nation.”

Two weeks ago in their 11th Annual Moral March on Raleigh and HKonJ People’s Assembly the NC NAACP and their 200 coalition partners, drew close to 100,000 individuals to the state capital to protest against extremism in the NC General Assembly and Trumpism in Washington DC. It was then that Rev. Barber informed the gathering that the NC State Conference Executive Committee had voted unanimously to ask the National Board of the NAACP to grant permission for economic boycott, which the NAACP National Board of Directors recently approved in a resolution last weekend during their annual board meeting in New York.

Along with the NAACP, at least 200 additional organizations are planning to join them in the economic boycott of the state. The press conference will kick off the economic boycott, which will include several stages and escalation of protest. The NAACP will refuse to hold its convention in North Carolina and will reach out to other organizations to take similar stances.

Additionally, the NAACP will create an internal task force to examine the ways in which the economic boycott can be expanded throughout the state as well as replicated in other states that have enacted similar racist voter suppression laws and laws like HB-2 which discriminates against the LGBT community, transgender people, workers, municipalities wanting to increase their minimum wage, and those in need of state access to courts for employment discrimination.

To see the complete resolution visit the NAACP here: (http://live-naacp-site.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Resolution-of-National-Board-as-Proposed-by-NC-State-Conference.pdf )

Categories Bias, North Carolina, Racism, Resistance

Lindsay Wagner: North Carolina Is Already a DeVos World in Education

By dianeravitch
February 23, 2017 //
11

Veteran education journalist Lindsay Wagner writes that anyone who wants to know what Betsy DeVos will do to schools need look no further than North Carolina. It has already happened there.

North Carolina was taken over by the Tea Party in 2010 and has gone on a rampage to privatize education and defund public schools. The legislature wiped out its very successful investment in teacher preparation–the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program–and replaced it with Teach for America. The Teaching Fellows made a five-year commitment and most became career teachers. TFA come and go within 2-3 years. Same cost, different results. One produces well-prepared career teachers, the other produces education tourists.

Charters, vouchers, cybercharters. North Carolina has it all.

Devos’ philanthropic efforts and her work running the American Federation for Children (AFC) have helped pave the way for North Carolina’s own school voucher program, which allows low-income families to use taxpayer-funded $4,200 vouchers each year for tuition at private, mostly religious schools that are not held to robust transparency and accountability standards and can discriminate against those who don’t pass a religious litmus test or identify as LGBTQ by barring them from enrolling.

In 2012, Democratic and Republican North Carolina lawmakers who were on board with the idea of school vouchers received more than $90,000 in campaign donations from AFC. The next year lawmakers enacted the school voucher program, which started out with an annual state commitment of just $10 million.

Then after winning a court case challenging the constitutionality of the program, lawmakers voted to significantly expand the school voucher program even though they had no data before them to indicate one way or another whether students leaving public schools using vouchers were actually doing better at private schools. The school voucher program is now scheduled to grow to $145 million annually by 2027. Between now and then, North Carolina will have spent nearly $1 billion on an unaccountable taxpayer-funded program.

The state’s top recipient of school vouchers, Trinity Christian School in Fayetteville, has received nearly $1 million in taxpayer funds since 2014. Last week it was reported that the state Department of Revenue arrested Trinity Christian’s athletic director following an investigation that turned up enough evidence to charge him with embezzling hundreds of thousands of employee tax withholdings over a seven year period.

It’s an unsurprising turn of events given that the state hasn’t enacted strong oversight measures for the school voucher program. Virtually anyone running a private school can receive publicly-funded school vouchers—most schools don’t have to routinely provide a look at how they balance their books or provide any robust evidence that their students are learning.

Now that DeVos is no longer just a private fundraiser pushing school vouchers at the state level but is now the federal education secretary, can she “voucherize” the entire public education system in the United States? No, not alone — besides, most of public education is financed at the state and local level. President Trump’s proposal to pour $20 billion into vouchers is contingent on state and local actors matching dollars and then some. As Vox’s Libby Nelson explains, DeVos could find some other creative ways to get federal dollars into voucher-like programs, but really the onus is on state legislatures to move the voucher agenda.

But if North Carolina’s steady march toward a school voucher program that continues to expand with very few accountability and transparency measures in place is any indication, DeVos has levers outside of her role as federal education secretary to try to keep the momentum going for state-born school voucher programs. And that is worth watching.

Charter schools

DeVos favors charter schools as well, although we’ve heard less about those from her as of late. Nonetheless, charter schools have been part of her philanthropic efforts over time and charter school advocates in North Carolina are enthusiastic about her confirmation as education secretary.

From 1997 until 2011, North Carolina experimented with charter schools, keeping a cap on how many can operate here at 100 schools. Charters are public schools too, but they are given more latitude in hiring and management practices and can do innovative things with their academic offerings—all in the name of improving education writ large.

But in 2011 something changed. Lawmakers did away with the cap on how many charter schools can operate here and since then, the charter school sector has grown at a fairly rapid rate—now at 167 schools. One effect of this expansion has been an an ever-increasing squeeze on public school budgets, which has in turn touched off a years-long fight at the legislature on how public dollars should flow to charter schools.
Meanwhile, resources and increased oversight have not grown concurrently with the charter school sector’s expansion, however; still a tiny group of people in Raleigh is charged with overseeing what is now approaching double the number of charters. And, according to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), recent legislation weakens charter school accountability and oversight and allows bad schools to stay open longer than they should be allowed.

A number of charter schools have suddenly closed in recent times, sometimes leaving students without an academic home in the middle of the school year. Poor governance and financial problems most commonly plague charters, and robust accountability and transparency measures still seem to be lacking as the industry experiences rapid growth. For-profit charter chain operators can run these schools and shield how they spend tax dollars behind a curtain—and lawmakers haven’t done much to force them to be more transparent.

The Tea Party leaders in North Carolina are thrilled with her selection as Secretary of Education. They have invited her to come and see how they have implemented all of her failed ideas. She has given generously to the political campaign’s of the state’s very rightwing senators.

As a result of DeVos efforts—along with those of other school privatization advocates—hundreds of millions of public dollars now flow to school vouchers, charter schools and virtual charter schools.

So when she does come to visit, it will be more like a welcome home party for DeVos. North Carolina has been her playground for years.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, North Carolina, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »