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Backpack Full Of Cash: The Film About Education and Privatization That You MUST See!

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
21

“BACKPACK FULL OF CASH” IS THE INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY THAT FRIGHTENS CORPORATE REFORMERS.

IT WAS MADE BY PROFESSIONAL FILMMAKERS.

IT IS NARRATED BY MATT DAMON.

PUBLIC TELEVISION IS AFRAID TO SHOW IT (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?).

IT IS A TRUE GRASSROOTS FILM, MADE BY FILMMAKERS WITH PASSION, AND SHOWN COMMUNITY BY COMMUNITY.

YOU CAN ARRANGE TO SEE IT IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

The photograph below is, from the left, filmmaker Vera Aronow; Nancy Carlsson-Paige (mother of Matt Damon and Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education at Lesley College); narrator Matt Damon; and filmmaker Sarah Mondale.

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BACKPACK moving full speed ahead!

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BACKPACK in the spotlight, igniting conversations worldwide!
Have you heard? “Backpack Full of Cash” is moving full steam ahead––thanks in great part to your support! Recently, we attended a wonderful screening in Albany, NY, and a big event in Boston with Matt Damon, the film’s narrator, and his mother Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, which drew a crowd estimated at 650. There have been multi-city screenings in New Zealand and an encore event in Canada this fall. Two recent screenings in Denver were sold out, and many others are planned in the months ahead. The film is also continuing its festival run, showing at the Heartland Film Festivalin Indianapolis and the Ellensburg Film Festival in Washington state.
There’s been a lot of positive press, although as you can imagine, there’s push back from advocates of school privatization. Just yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with Jeanne Allen, founder of the Center for Education Reform who formerly worked for the Reagan administration and the Heritage Foundation, and who was interviewed for the film. Although she has yet to see “Backpack Full of Cash”, Allen attacks it, Matt Damon, and us, personally.  She also attacked our film today in The Boston Globe.
We stand by our reporting and believe Ms. Allen’s words are used in their proper context in BACKPACK. We regret that she doesn’t like her portrayal in a film that she hasn’t seen, but also appreciate that she’s kept the conversation going on the national level about the health of our public school system. Given the policy directives of the Trump administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, we feel strongly that these discussions should be taking place in every school, library and community center across the country.
We spent five years making the film to generate deeper discourse on the state of public education — especially the consequences of privatization on public schools and the most vulnerable students who rely on them — and hope that future media attention will focus more on the issues.
Meanwhile, our grassroots screening campaign is catching fire. BACKPACK screenings are turning out to be a powerful tool for informing communities about what is happening in public education today. To find out more about how you can host a screening in your community, go to www.BackpackFullofCash.comand click on Host a Screening. Thanks for your ongoing support!
Sarah Mondale, Vera Aronow, and the BACKPACK team

 

SIGN UP TO HOST A SCREENING

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Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Steven Singer Was Blocked by Facebook for Writing This Post: ”School Choice Is a Lie”

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
20

Steven Singer was blocked by Facebook for a week because of the post you are about to read. This post “violated community standards.” Steven Singer was censored by an algorithm. Or, Steven Singer was censored by the Political Defense team that tries to prevent any criticism of charter schools and TFA. This team swarms Facebook and other social media and complains that a post or tweet is “offensive” and the machine blocks the offending post.

This is the post by Steven Singer that has been blocked. This is the lie about “school choice” that DeVos and ALEC and charter promoters don’t want you to read.

He writes:

Neoliberals and right-wingers are very good at naming things.

Doing so allows them to frame the narrative, and control the debate.

Nowhere is this more obvious than with “school choice” – a term that has nothing to do with choice and everything to do with privatization.

It literally means taking public educational institutions and turning them over to private companies for management and profit.

He adds:

There are two main types: charter and voucher schools.

Charter schools are run by private interests but paid for exclusively by tax dollars. Voucher schools are run by private businesses and paid for at least in part by tax dollars.

Certainly each state has different laws and different legal definitions of these terms so there is some variability of what these schools are in practice. However, the general description holds in most cases. Voucher schools are privately run at (at least partial) public expense. Charter schools are privately run but pretend to be public. In both cases, they’re private – no matter what their lobbyists or marketing campaigns say to the contrary.

They take money from public schools that serve all students and give it to privatized schools that choose their students and expel those they don’t want.

Charters and vouchers are the Walmartization of public education. They introduce corporate chains to run what used to be neighborhood public schools. The only difference is that everyone may shop at Walmart, but not everyone who applies will be accepted at a choice school. The school does the choosing, not the family.

Steven reinforces what I wrote in Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. “School choice” is a hoax, a lie. It is promoted by rightwing ideologues and by Democratic politicians hungry for funding by the financial sector, which sees schools as an emerging industry. Don’t be fooled.

School choice is privatization. And privatization is very bad for those who are not chosen. And very bad for our democracy.

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, For-Profit, Lies, Privatization, School Choice, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

Shocker: Starbucks Supports Rightwing Policy Group in Washington State, DeVos Scheduled to Speak

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
20

Starbucks is my favorite brand of coffee, but I won’t be buying it anymore.

I just learned that Starbucks supports the Washington Policy Center, a rightwing policy group in Washington State that supports right-to-work (for less) laws, opposes a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and supports charters and vouchers. Bear in mind that the Supreme Court of Washington State ruled that charter schools are not public schools and not entitled to public funding. The Washington Policy Center supports school privatization.

Its last event featured Nigel Farage, the British politician who led the movement for Britain to secede from the European Union, or Brexit.

WPC has invited Betsy DeVos as its keynote speaker at its annual dinner on October 13 in Bellevue. Her views on school privatization are the same as those of the Washington Policy Center.

Melissa Westbrook, community activist, contacted Starbucks for their response. The statement she received by Email confirmed that Starbucks sponsors the Washington Policy Center but had nothing to do with the choice of speaker. This is an irrelevant answer. Why is Starbucks supporting a rightwing policy center at all? Next year the speaker might be Scott Walker or Charles Koch.

Express your disappointment with this hashtag: #whyStarbucks. Or sign this petition.

Corporations that bill themselves as “progressive” should not support rightwing policy centers that promote school privatization.

Starbucks is free to support any cause it chooses, and I am free not to buy their coffee anymore.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers, Washington State

ProPublica: The Fraud of For-Profit Charter Schools in Ohio That Run Dropout Recovery Centers

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
10

ProPublica and USA Today teamed up to conduct an investigation of charter fraud in Ohio (although there is so much charter fraud in Ohio that this piece investigates only one aspect of it).

This story is about dropout recovery centers that collect large sums of money even if the students don’t show up.

It focuses on a “school” run by EdisonLearning, the latest version of the Edison Schools that were launched in the early 1990s with the goal of creating a network of 200 privately run schools.

It begins like this:

Last school year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a Thursday in May, students’ workstations in the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning resembled place settings for a dinner party where most guests never arrived.

In one room, empty chairs faced 25 blank computer monitors. Just three students sat in a science lab down the hall, and nine more in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out, head down, sleeping.

Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all week.

Some stay away even longer. ProPublica reviewed 38 days of Capital High’s records from late March to late May and found six students skipped 22 or more days straight with no excused absences. Two were gone the entire 38-day period. Under state rules, Capital should have unenrolled them after 21 consecutive unexcused absences.

Though the school is largely funded on a per-student basis, the no-shows didn’t hurt the school’s revenue stream. Capital billed and received payment from the state for teaching the equivalent of 171 students full time in May.

It is yet another charter fraud.

Another reform scam. It is not about “the kids.” It is about the money.

Do legislators care?

Question: How many charter scandals and frauds does it take to get the attention of the Ohio legislature?

Speaking of scandals, ECOT (the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) has threatened to close its virtual doors if the state doesn’t leave them alone and stop pestering them to provide a real education to real students. No doubt the owner William Lager is bluffing. But if he does close down ECOT, he will do everyone a favor by shutting down the nation’s biggest dropout factory. He has collected more than a billion dollars since he opened ECOT and given only a few millions to Republican (and a few Democratic) politicians (in Ohio, they sell their votes cheaply). How likely is he to walk away from his fabulous money stream?

I dare you! I double-dare you! Close your doors, ECOT! You won’t be missed.

Although the legislators and other elected officials will miss your campaign contributions.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Failure, For-Profit, Ohio, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

Good News! Florida Parents Drive Away For-Profit Charter Chain-For Now

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2017 //
4

When parents in Alachua County, Florida, heard that the for-profit chain Charter Schools USA was planning to move into their district, they organized to stop them. Led by Sue Legg, the education director of the state League of Women Voters, they created Parents Against Corporate Takeovers.

Good News! Charter Schools USA backed away and did not file its request. It may be back.

“Florida Charter Educational Foundation, backed by the for-profit Charter Schools USA, did not meet the Oct. 2 deadline to file an official application to open a charter school next academic year.

“A nonprofit organization did not file an official application to open a charter school in Alachua County by its Oct. 2 deadline after its draft proposal caused pushback among county residents.

“Florida Charter Educational Foundation, backed by the for-profit Charter Schools USA, submitted a draft application May 1 to open a 1,145-student charter school in southwest Alachua County in the 2018-2019 school year.

“Of Alachua County’s 14 charter schools, Micanopy Area Cooperative School has the most students this year, with 238 students.

“The draft led to a group of Alachua County residents forming a political action committee, Parents Against Corporate Takeovers, in July. It campaigned against Charter Schools USA, arguing that the charter school would deprive resources from the district’s traditional public schools without being held to the same standards as those schools.”

Parents, don’t let down your guard. Keep the corporate predators away.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, Privatization

Jeff Bryant: DeVos Dispenses $253 Million to Fund Failures and Frauds in Charter Industry and Undercut Needy Public Schools

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2017 //
13

Jeff Bryant, writing for the Education Opportunity Network, analyzes the U.S. Department of Education’s recent award of $253 Million to the Failing Charter Industry. He is especially appalled by the funding of charters in New Mexico, whose state auditor has identified numerous frauds in the charter sector, and whose public schools are shamefully underfunded.

He writes:

“Previous targets for federal charter grants have resembled a “black hole” for taxpayer money with little tracking and accountability for how funds have been spent spent. In the past 26 years, the federal government has sent over $4 billion to charters, with the money often going to “ghost schools” that never opened or quickly failed.

“In 2015, charter skeptics denounced the stunning selection of Ohio for a $71 million federal chart grant, despite the state’s charter school program being one of the most reviled and ridiculed in the nation.

“This year’s list of state recipients raises eyebrows as well.

“One of the larger grants is going to Indiana, whose charter schools generally underperform the public schools in the state. Nearly half of the Hoosier state’s charters receive poor or failing grades, and the state recently closed one of its online charter schools after six straight years of failure.

“Another state recipient, Mississippi, won a federal grant that was curiously timed to coincide with the state’s decision, pending the governor’s approval, to take over the Jackson school district and likely hand control of the schools to a charter management group.”

(Coincidentally, Stephen Dyer just posted about Ohio’s scandal-plagued charter sector. He wrote that nearly one-third of the charters that received federal funding never opened or closed right after they got the money, I.e., they were “ghost schools.”)

Worst of all, writes Bryant, is the $22.5 Million that will be sent to New Mexico, which has high child poverty and perennially underfunded public schools, as well as a low-performing charter sector.

What possible reason is there to fund a parallel school system when the state refuses to fund its public schools?

“According to a state-based child advocacy group, per-pupil spending in the state is 7 percent lower in 2017 than it was in 2008. New Mexico is also “one of 19 states” that cut general aid for schools in 2017, with spending falling 1.7 percent. “Only seven states made deeper cuts than New Mexico.”

“New Mexico’s school funding situation has grown so dire, bond rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently reduced the credit outlook for two-thirds of the school districts in the state, and parent and advocacy groups have sued the state for failing to meet constitutional obligations to provide education opportunities to all students.

“To fill a deficit gap in the state’s most recent budget, Republican Governor Susana Martinez tapped $46 million in local school district reserves while rejecting any proposed tax increases.

“Given the state’s grim education funding situation, it would seem foolhardy to ramp up a parallel system of charter schools that further stretches education dollars, but New Mexico has doubled-down on the charter money drain by tilting spending advantages to the sector.”

To make matters worse, charter schools are funded at a higher level than public schools, and the state’s three online charters operate for profit. Despite their funding advantage, the charters do not perform as well as public schools. There is seldom any penalty for failure.

The state auditor in New Mexico has called attention to frauds and scams that result from lack of oversight in the charter industry.

So the U.S. Department of Education under Betsy DeVos is now in the business of funding failure. Quality doesn’t matter. Ethics don’t matter. Undermining the educational opportunity of the majority of children doesn’t matter. For sure, money matters, but only when it is spent for privatization.

A few pundits predicted that DeVos would be unable to inflict harm on the nation’s public schools. They were wrong.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Corruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ethics, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Privatization, School Choice

DeVos Cancels Visit to Ontario, Canadian Educators Relieved

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2017 //
16

Betsy DeVos planned a study visit to Ontario. Canadian Educators were appalled. They don’t like her privatization ideology any more than American Educators.

She canceled. A last minute “scheduling conflict.” Why go where they don’t want you?

“There had been a reluctance among public-school officials in Ontario to welcome Ms. DeVos, a polarizing figure who many in education circles see as the centre of a movement to use public dollars to pay for tuition at private and religious schools. Ms. DeVos has been accused by the president of the American Federation of Teachers as the “most anti-public education secretary of education ever” and of wanting to “destabilize and privatize” public schools.

“It remained unclear which schools she would be visiting. Several school boards contacted by The Globe and Mail, including in Toronto, York, Peel and Dufferin, said she was not visiting their schools.

“Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said he was pleased to learn that Ms. DeVos was not coming to Ontario.

“After The Globe first reported on her visit earlier this week, Mr. Bischof said in a statement that it was “alarming” the provincial government would allow her to tour Ontario schools.

“I couldn’t be more pleased that it’s cancelled,” he said on Wednesday. “She simply attracts attention to ideas that are of no value in the Ontario education system.”

“Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, added: “If you support an inclusive, equitable, not-for-profit, publicly funded public education system, this is good news.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Meet Jacob Rosecrantz, the Teacher Who Was Elected to the Oklahoma House!

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2017 //
18

In a recent special election, teacher Jacob Rosecrantz won election to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. They need him.

I asked him to write a short entry for the Blog.

This is what he wrote:

“My name is Jacob Rosecrants. I’m a father of two kiddos who go to public schools, and I’m a teacher at Roosevelt Middle School, located in the inner city part of Southwest Oklahoma City.

“I recently was elected as the next State Representative of House District 46, which covers West Norman and Noble, Oklahoma, running on a very pro-public schools platform.

“I became involved in politics almost immediately after I began my first year of teaching in 2012. Corporate reform featuring high-stakes tests was the newest fad for our schools.

“It is a joyless way to teach for educators and a horrible way for students to learn. After attending rallies at my state Capitol, I got the sense that our public schools were being viewed as a cash cow for testing companies and their lobbyists. I made it my mission to fight against all corporate school reform. This brings us to the question: What can I do to help our schools?

“Our public school system has dealt with the largest budget cuts in the nation. Our teachers are now officially the lowest paid in the nation. Anti-public school legislators rule the roost at the State House, supported by groups such as Oklahoma Federation for Children (backed by the voucher-happy Betsy DeVos) and “school and parent choice” advocates who believe that our schools should be run like businesses.

“I’m currently going to enter the Capitol as a member of the minority party; in fact the Republicans enjoy a super-majority in our Senate, House, and the Governor’s mansion. This super-majority will not even let bills that were generated by the Democrats be heard on the floor, even if that bill would be supported by the majority of people.

“What I can do in this environment is limited.

“But I will most definitely be an independent voice for our schools and our children. I will fight against all forms of school vouchers. I will educate my constituents about the meaning of “school and parent choice”, and how those terms are really just putting lipstick on a big corporate reform pig.

“During this past election, my voters were subjected to slanderous mail pieces featuring me paid for by Oklahoma Federation for Children. This was a full-on onslaught against me and my pro-public schools platform. There is a proverbial war under way here, with corporate school reform and charters (and their ALEC bought and paid for legislators) on one side, and an ever-rising wave of public school advocates, including parents, teachers, and other stakeholders, who are so concerned about our schools and the funding issues that they saw fit to elect an actual classroom teacher this past Tuesday.

“The battle may have been won, but this war continues every day, and I cannot wait to get in the trenches at the State Capitol in these upcoming months; a warrior for our public schools and core services.

“Jacob Rosecrants
“Representative-Elect of Oklahoma House District 46”

Editor:

The Oklahoma Federation for Children is part of Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children, as he notes. That means Jacob beat DeVos!

Categories Betsy DeVos, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Oklahoma, Privatization

Jersey Jazzman: The Education “Reform Movent” is a Rightwing Movement

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2017 //
58

Jersey Jazzman is a teacher, blogger, and doctoral student in New Jersey. He has been writing brilliant statistical analyses of the differences between charter schools and public schools for years. He is no ideologue. He is a pragmatist.

In this post, he concludes what I long ago concluded: the so-called “reform movement” is a rightwing endeavor. I believe its real goals are to stamp out unions, deprofessionalize teaching (think TFA), and turn a profit on school funding.

JJ (aka Mark Weber) notes that Eva Moskowitz gets sizable funding from Wall Street and such notorious right wingers as the Mercer Family, which is also funding Steve Bannon. He notes the racist comments of the chairman of her board, as well as the Republican ties of other board members.

It is no secret that the notoriously rightwing Walton Family Foundation claims credit for opening one of e rey four charter schools in the nation. The Waltons hate unions.

One could go on and identify ALEC model legislation for charters. The connections are too glaring to overlook or excuse.

Betsy DeVos, Trump, ALEC, the Waltons, the Mercers…it is hard to find a rightwing politician or organization that is not pushing charters and vouchers.

That’s why the subtitle of my last book was “The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s public schools.”

The “hoax” was that the “reform movement” was actually a rightwing privatization movement.

As JJ writes:

“I really don’t know how much more clear this could be:

“- The education “reform” movement provides a pretext for underfunding public schools, which aligns with right-wing values.

“- The education “reform” movement is inherently anti-union, which aligns with right-wing values.

“- The education “reform” movement thrives when communities of color lose agency over their schools, which aligns with right-wing values.

“- The education “reform” movement is financed by wealthy people who openly profess conservative values.

“Can we please, then, stop this nonsense about charter schools and vouchers being a policy embraced by the left? Yes, there are some Democrats and other folks who are otherwise liberals who support “choice.” But their embrace of “reform” — whether out of ignorance or hypocrisy or, yes, even genuine belief — is inconsistent with the liberalism they espouse in other policy areas.

“Education “reform” is a right-wing movement. There is nothing remotely liberal about privatizing schools, demonizing unions, and making excuses for underfunding education. If you support charter schools and vouchers and call yourself a liberal, that is, of course, your right. But it’s really no different than being a pro-assault weapon liberal, or a pro-life* liberal: you’re holding a position on at least one issue (and likelyothers) that is philosophically aligned with the right.”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Where Betsy DeVos Is Spreading Federal Funds for Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
October 3, 2017 //
31

Thanks to Leonie Haimson for assembling this information about the US ED plans to spread charter money.

US ED announces more funding for charter schools nationwide, including 5 NYC charters, & yet another $3.2M for Success which has received many millions already from the feds as well as from private sources.

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-awards-253-million-grants-expand-charter-schools

more info here: https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/charter-schools-program-grants-for-replications-and-expansion-of-high-quality-charter-schools/

and https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/

Charter apps and reviewer comments here: https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/charter-schools-program-grants-for-replications-and-expansion-of-high-quality-charter-schools/awards/

U.S. Department of Education Awards $253 Million in Grants to Expand Charter Schools

September 28, 2017

Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that The Expanding Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Program (Charter Schools Program or CSP) has awarded new grants this week to fund the creation and expansion of public charter schools across the nation, totaling approximately $253 million.

“These grants will help supplement state-based efforts to give students access to more options for their education,” said Secretary DeVos. “What started as a handful of schools in Minnesota has blossomed into nearly 7,000 charter schools across the country. Charter schools are now part of the fabric of American education, and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to work with states to help ensure more students can learn in an environment that works for them.”

The following grants slates were awarded:

The State Entities program awarded approximately $144.7 million in new grants to nine states.

The Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Charter Schools program awarded approximately $52.4 million in new grants to 17 non-profit charter management organizations.

The Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program awarded approximately $56.25 million in new grants to six non-profit organizations and two state agencies.

These grants are awarded to state educational agencies and other state entities, charter management organizations (CMOs) and other non-profit organizations and represent the first cohort of new awards under the program’s new authorizing statute, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Please see below for the list of grantees, first year grant amounts and total recommended funding (contingent on future Congressional appropriations).

State Entity Grantees:

Grantee Name FY 17 Funding (Year 1 and 2 Funding) Total Recommended Funding

Indiana Department of Education $24,002,291 $59,966,575

Maryland State Department of Education $5,490,859 $17,222,222

Minnesota Department of Education $22,381,611 $45,757,406

Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board* $4,240,819 $15,000,000

New Mexico Public Education Department $6,358,693 $22,507,805

Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, Inc.* $4,264,870 $16,499,722

Rhode Island Department of Education $1,953,000 $6,000,000

Texas Education Agency $38,034,535 $59,164,996

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $37,954,114 $95,777,775

Total $144,680,792 $331,896,501

* Eligible applicants under this program are state entities. A state entity is defined under ESSA as a state educational agency; a state charter school board; a Governor of a state; or a charter school support organization.

CMO Grantees:

Grantee Name State** FY17 Funding Total Recommended Funding

Ascend Learning, Inc. NY $3,661,357 $9,484,885

Brooke Charter Schools MA $353,747 $836,136

Eagle Academy Public Charter School DC $449,066 $812,885

East Harlem Tutorial Program NY $542,640 $2,781,280

Environmental Charter Schools CA $566,063 $900,000

Family Life Academy Charter Schools, Inc. NY $739,260 $900,000

Fortune School of Education CA $1,350,600 $2,043,100

Freedom Preparatory Academy, Inc. TN $1,451,301 $4,297,000

Great Oaks Foundation, Inc. NY $1,958,400 $3,834,000

Hiawatha Academies MN $1,121,400 $1,875,000

IDEA Public Schools TX $26,316,168 $67,243,986

New Paradigm for Education, Inc MI $2,365,400 $5,084,100

Rocketship Education CA $5,090,134 $12,582,678

Success Academy Charter Schools, Inc. NY $3,225,240 $6,130,200
The Freedom and Democracy Schools Foundation, Inc. MD $603,003 $1,533,528
University Prep Inc. CO $1,360,730 $3,734,750

Voices College-Bound Language Academies CA $1,258,415 $2,699,999

Total:

$52,412,924 $126,773,527

**State reflects where the organization is based; school expansion sites funded under this grant may differ.

Credit Enhancement Grantees:

Grantee Name State** FY17 and Total Project Funding

Building Hope…A Charter Schools Facilities Fund DC $8,000,000
California School Finance Authority CA $8,000,000

Center for Community Self-Help NC $8,000,000

Charter Schools Development Corporation MD $5,000,000

Hope Enterprise Corporation MS $8,000,000

Low Income Investment Fund CA $8,000,000

Massachusetts Development Finance Agency MA $8,000,000

Raza Development Fund AZ $3,250,000

Total

$56,250,000
**State reflects where the organization is based; school expansion sites funded under this grant may differ.

Additional information regarding these grant programs and awards, including copies of grantee applications, may be found at: https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/charter-schools/

I hope we won’t hear from any of the “progressives” who agree with DeVos about charters. She knows exactly what she is doing. Funding schools to compete with and undermine community public schools.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, U.S. Department of Education
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