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Randi on L.A. Charter Moratorium

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2019 //
13

Interesting new details here about charter schools in Los Angeles. Contrary to the claims of their boosters, the great majority of charters have vacancies (82% do, according to board member Scott Schmerelson) and 8 ofthe 10 worst performing schools in L.A. are charter schools.

 

   

AFT President Randi Weingarten on Los Angeles School Board Charter School Moratorium Vote
 

WASHINGTON—The Los Angeles school board voted 5-1 yesterday to place an eight- to 10-month local moratorium on the opening of new charter schools, which would allow for the completion of a state study on the impact charter schools have on traditional schools. The vote comes after members of the United Teachers Los Angeles settled a contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District last week; one of the major issues in negotiations was how the exponential growth of charter schools has drained resources from the city’s public schools.  UTLA is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement: 

“In the wake of tax caps, the lack of appropriate investment has been a challenge for public education in Los Angeles for decades. Add to that the unregulated growth of charter schools that siphoned off more funding, and the result was the scarcity that led to the L.A. teachers’ strike. While charters were sold as a response to the demand for better schools, they too have a mixed record. More than 80 percent of charter schools cannot meet their projected enrollment numbers, and 8 of the 10 worst-performing schools in L.A., including one that has already been closed, are charter schools.

So a moratorium is a good idea to bring equity and sustainability back to LAUSD, and with this vote, the school board made good on its promise to help do it. 

“Now, we work to rebalance the city’s school system so every student has access to a well-funded school with normal class sizes, school nurses and counselors, and the same transparency and accountability measures to make sure kids’ needs are being put before anything else.

This resolution allows everyone who cares about education in Los Angeles to take a step back and make sure those needs are being met.” 
Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Jeff Bryant: L.A. Teachers See Charters as “Existential Threat” to Public Education

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2019 //
13

 

Jeff Bryant went to Los Sngeles to interview teachers during the strike. He discovered that they see charters as privatization, and as such, an existential threat to public education. A few years ago, UTLA commissioned an independent audit of the cost of charters and learned that they drain $600 annually from the district.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/25/los-angeles-teachers-make-the-case-that-charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education_partner/

Jeff Bryant reports:

 

This article was produced by Our Schools, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
“Isn’t it reasonable to have some regulations on charters?” asked Ingrid King, a kindergarten and dual language teacher at Latona Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles. She and two of her colleagues spoke to me from the picket lines during the recently resolved teacher strike in her city. When she and over 30,000 teachers and school personnel walked off the job, it closed the nation’s second-largest school system of nearly a half-million students for six days and filled the streets with huge protests.The strike ended when the district conceded to give teachers a 6 percent pay raise, limit class sizes, reduce the number of student assessments by half, and hire full-time nurses for every school, a librarian for every middle and high school, and enough counselors to provide one for every 500 students.But the concessions teachers won that will likely have the most impact outside of LA are related to charter schools. The teachers forced the district leader to present to the school board a resolution calling on the state to cap the number of charter schools, and the teachers made the district give their union increased oversight of charter co-locations — a practice that allows charter operations to take possession of a portion of an existing public school campus.

Los Angeles Unified has 277 charter schools, the largest number of charter schools of any school district in the nation. The schools serve nearly 119,000 students, nearly one in five students. The vast majority of charters are staffed by non-union teachers. (Teachers at a chain of unionized charter schools in the city that joined district teachers on the strike are still on strike.) So the quick takefrom some is the teachers’ union made curbs on charter schools part of their demands because these schools are a threat to the union’s power.

But when you talk to teachers, that’s not what they say. They tell you they want to curb charter school growth, not because it threatens their union, but because charters threaten the very survival of public schools.

Read on!0

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Privatization

UTLA Statement On LAUSD Votes Today

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
5

MEDIA ADVISORY
1.29.19
Media Contact:
Anna Bakalis, UTLA Communications Director
(213) 305-9654 (cell)

UTLA statement on LAUSD School Board votes, including approval of a resolution calling for a charter moratorium

Today the LAUSD School Board approved unanimously a historic UTLA contract that prioritizes what students need in their schools. This is a reaffirmation of the effectiveness of our 6-day strike and the overwhelming parent and public support for LA educators. Additionally, in a 5-1 vote, the School Board passed a resolution calling for a state study and an 8- to 10-month moratorium on new charters in the district until the study is complete.

The charter moratorium vote is a groundbreaking moment in the fight for public education in LA, one that is reflective of what UTLA members, parents and our communities have fought so hard for: A sustainable public school district that serves all students.

“LAUSD has joined the NAACP and other key organizations in calling on the state of California for a moratorium on charters,” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “This is a win for justice, transparency, and common sense. We need to invest in our existing schools, not follow a business model of unregulated growth when new schools are fundamentally not needed in LA.”

The California Charter Schools Association bused students to the meeting, leaving a day of instruction behind to attend. CCSA did so under the false pretense that the board was considering a ban of all charter schools. Teary-eyed students talked during public comment, thinking that their school would be closed if the resolution passed.

Charters have grown exponentially at LAUSD, from 10 in the 2000-01 school year to 277 this year, with the district now the largest charter school authorizer in the nation. The current oversaturation of charter schools means that more than 80 percent of charter schools cannot meet their projected enrollment numbers. This calls into question the charter industry’s assertion that their schools have waiting lists and underscores that there are already more than enough charter schools to meet demand.

Nick Melvoin, who disavows any responsibility over charter school regulation despite being on the school board of the largest charter school authorizer in the country, was the lone vote against the resolution.

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

Victory in Los Angeles!

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
4

 

 

A statement by LAANE: Los Angeles for a New Economy.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 29, 2018

Contact: Haley Potiker – 714-457-2852 – hpotiker@laane.org

Parents Are Standing Tall as LAUSD Board of Education Votes in Favor of Charter Moratorium

Los Angeles parents who were leaders in teachers’ strike support celebrate an important step towards regulating the charter industry

LOS ANGELES — Parents who spent much of the last few years organizing for better charter industry regulation declared victory this afternoon as the school board voted 5-to-1 in favor of a resolution to impose a moratorium on new charter schools in LAUSD. Board Member Nick Melvoin was the lone “no” vote.

“We came to this meeting to hold the board accountable to the agreement they made with the teachers,” said Alicia Baltazar, a parent at Fries Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington. “It is gratifying to see that all but one member of the board were able to make good on an important promise they made to the community.”

The vote comes two weeks after a tentative agreement was struck between UTLA and LAUSD, which included a commitment by the district to ask the state of California to impose a moratorium on charter growth in LAUSD.

“We want all our children to have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school. But in our neighborhoods, LAUSD can open a new charter school without considering how it affects other public schools, even other charter schools,” Baltazar said. “Today’s vote gets us one step closer to ensuring that LAUSD will better regulate the charter industry so that we can protect funding for our existing schools.”

# # #

Founded in 2016, Reclaim Our Schools LA is a broad-based coalition of parents, educators, students, and community members working to improve access and advance opportunities in public education for all students in Los Angeles. This event is a part of a series actions that will take place in the coming week in support of the demands being advanced by Los Angeles teachers, parents and community groups.  

 

—

                                                        
Haley Potiker
Communications Specialist
E hpotiker@LAANE.org
T 213.977.9400 x114
M 714.457.2852

                                                        

 

464 Lucas Ave. Suite 202

Los Angeles, CA 90017

www.laane.org 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

LAUSD Board Votes for Charter Moratorium

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
17

 

In a stunning turn of events, the Los Angeles Unified School District board passed a resolution asking for a moratorium on new charter schools.

https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-teachers-contract-vote-20190128-story.html

This was part of the new contract with the UTLA, the United Teachers of LA, but many observers predicted that the board would never pass the resolution because four of its six members were elected by the charter lobby’s money.

Apparently the only no vote was cast by Nick Melvoin, whose campaign received more than $5 million from the charter advocates.

More than 1,000 charter students and parents massed outside the building to oppose the moratorium, although none of their schools would be affected by it. They were brought out by charter operators hoping to open more charters, even though 82% of current charters have vacancies, according to board member Scott Schmerelson.

The decision about a moratorium will be made by the legislature.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

New York Times: L.A. Teachers’ Strike Was a Setback for Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
17

 

In a somewhat ambivalent article in the New York Times, Jennifer Medina and Dana Goldstein write that the L.A. teachers’ strike was a setback for charter schools. They say that in the age of Trump, charters are no longer popular with the Democratic Party, which is moving left. They point out that the teachers held a massive rally in front of Eli Broad’s museum to express their displeasure with his support for charters.

The ambivalence in the article comes in two parts. First, they treat somewhat skeptically the union’s accurate portrayal of the link between charters and billionaires. Second, they stress that charters are popular and have long waiting lists. They are wrong on both counts. The charter “movement” is a billionaire obsession. Think Waltons, Gates, Broad, DeVos, Koch brothers, Hastings, Bloomberg, Anschutz, etc. Read the NPE report, which the reporters obviously have not read, called “Hijacked by Billionaires.” Without the billionaires, there is no charter “movement.”

Second, they are peddling charter lobby propaganda when they write about the public demand for charters.

Why would unions support charters? Nationally, 90% are non-union. In L.A., 80% are non-union. Moreover, they drain $600 million a year from the L.A. public schools, which are underfunded already.

Contrary to the report in the Times, LAUSD board member Scott Schmerelson wrote on his Facebook page this week that 82% of the charters in L.A. have vacancies.

But the main point of the article is heartening: Charter Schools have become toxic for most Democrats. They even list Senator Booker as a supporter of the striking teachers, which is odd, as he announced his run for the Democratic nomination in 2020 at a charter rally in New Orleans. Maybe he whispered his support. The Democrats will have to choose: unions or charters.

 

The article begins:

 

LOS ANGELES — Carrying protest signs, thousands of teachers and their allies converged last month on the shimmering contemporary art museum in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Clad in red, they denounced “billionaire privatizers” and the museum’s patron, Eli Broad. The march was a preview of the attacks the union would unleash during the teachers’ strike, which ended last week.

As one of the biggest backers of charter schools, Mr. Broad helped make them a fashionable and potent cause in Los Angeles, drawing support from business leaders like Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix; Hollywood executives; and lawmakers to create a wide network of more than 220 schools.

Mr. Broad was so bullish about the future of charter schools just a few years ago that he even floated a plan to move roughly half of Los Angeles schoolchildren — more than 250,000 students — into such schools. In 2017, he funneled millions of dollars to successfully elect candidates for the Board of Education who would back charters, an alternative to traditional public schools that are publicly funded but privately run.

His prominence has also turned him into a villain in the eyes of the teachers’ union. Now Mr. Broad and supporters like him are back on their heels in Los Angeles and across the country. The strike is the latest setback for the charter school movement, which once drew the endorsement of prominent Democrats and Republicans alike. But partly in reaction to the Trump administration, vocal Democratic support for charters has waned as the party has shifted further to the left and is more likely to deplore such schools as a drain on traditional public schools.

When the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced a deal between the teachers’ union and the school district after the weeklong strike, it became immediately clear that the fate of charter schools was part of the bargain: The union extracted a promise that the pro-charter school Board of Education would vote on a call for the state to cap the number of charters.

It was the latest in a string of defeats for a movement that for over a decade has pointed to Los Angeles and California as showcases for the large-scale growth of the charter school sector.

Backers of charter schools argue that they provide a much-needed choice for parents in poor neighborhoods, where low-performing schools are often the norm. Many supporters expressed frustration that student achievement had not been a focus of the debate around the Los Angeles strike. Overall, the city’s public school students tend to perform worse in reading and math than their counterparts in many other large urban school districts across the country, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The low performance of district schools, charter supporters say, has led to about a fifth of the district’s students being enrolled in charter schools…..

But the defeat in the court of public opinion is clear: After years of support from powerful local and national allies — including many Democrats — charter schools are now facing a backlash and severe skepticism.

Over the past two years, charter school supporters were dealt painful political defeats in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states.

As the push for alternatives to traditional public schools has come to be more associated with President Trump and his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, the shift in Democratic Party politics has been especially pronounced. President Barack Obama supported expanding high-quality charter schools, and pushed teachers’ unions to let go of some of their traditional seniority protections and put more emphasis on raising student achievement.

But after a wave of mass teacher walkouts across the nation, and with a noticeable shift to the left in the party, ambitious national Democrats now seem more hesitant to criticize organized labor. Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who said they supported the striking teachers in Los Angeles. The city’s charter school leaders couldn’t help but notice that no equally prominent elected Democrat rose to the defense of Los Angeles charter schools as union leaders attacked them.

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Privatization

Jersey Jazzman: The Charter Scam in Camden, New Jersey

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
12

Jersey Jazzman (aka Mark Weber) has been preoccupied both teaching and earning his doctorate degree, but fortunately he did earn the degree so he is blogging again, shining the light of accuracy and truth on inflated claims.

In this post, he reviews the bait-and-switch in Camden, New Jersey. Camden has opened charters called “Renaissance Schools,” which were required by law to be open to all the children in their neighborhood. The charters are run by KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Mastery, all of which have a history of skimming the students they want.

JJ reviews a state auditor’s report that chides the charters for gaming the system, picking the students they want, contrary to the law.

No surprise here. More broken promises from the privatization industry. They are not better than public schools, although they are better at picking the students they want.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Cheating, Education Industry, Education Reform, New Jersey, Privatization

John and Laura Arnold Foundation Moving into Political Advocacy Role

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2019 //
35

 

 

i always watch my words when I mention John Arnold. In 2014, I referred to him as a billionaire who used to work for Enron, the hot energy company that went bankrupt, leaving its many employees without a dime since they invested in the company’s worthless stock. I got an email from John’s PR person telling me that he would sue me if I didn’t retract my words implying that he benefitted while others suffered. At that moment, I was in the hospital having my broken knee replaced and I had no fight in me, nor any desire to be sued by a billionaire. I apologized.

Here is a headline from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

John and Laura Arnold Join Other Billionaires in Move Away From Traditional Philanthropy

I don’t have a subscription. It’s behind a paywall.

The story:

”The Laura and John Arnold Foundation is changing its structure so its billionaire founders can rely more heavily on political advocacy as they work toward goals such as reducing the cost of health care and overhauling the criminal-justice system.”

Another passion of John Arnold is pensions. He thinks they are a danger to our society. He once tried to fund a PBS special on the “pension crisis,” but it was canceled after investigative reporter David Sirota challenged the funding deal.

He is also passionate about hating public schools and loving charter schools.

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Pensions, Privatization

Longview, Texas: New Charter Schools Will Get More Funding than Public Schools

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2019 //
5

The Longview (Texas) News-Journal doesn’t understand why Longview needs charter schools. A chain of 7 is opening.

But the answer, the newspaper says, is money.

The charters will get more money than the public schools. After all, they need more money for field trips, for international field trips. What?

The charter industry is making its move in Texas.

Will Beto stand up for public schools even though his wife operates a charter?

If he doesn’t, he can write off the votes of teachers and public school parents.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Texas

St. Louis: Charter School Under Investigation for Inflated Enrollments, Missing Money

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2019 //
11

St. Louis College Prep charter school is under investigation for fraud.

St. Louis College Prep has lost tens of thousands of dollars in state funding amidst an investigation into whether the charter school’s founder over-reported attendance records.

The Missouri State Auditor’s office accepted a request Jan. 11 from Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven to review St. Louis College Prep’s finances. Charter schools are public schools that receive state and federal funding but operate independently from traditional school districts.

The charter school’s sponsor, University of Missouri-St. Louis, in October “identified possible issues with attendance data and remedial enrollment numbers that would have resulted in overpayments to the school in previous years,” Bill Mendelsohn, the executive director of UMSL’s charter school office, said in a statement.

Mendelsohn brought the findings to the school’s board of directors. When questioned about the potential irregularities, the school’s founder and executive director, Mike Malone, resigned Nov. 1. The board alerted the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — or DESE — the following day.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization, St. Louis
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