It truly breaks my heart. We Americans have been so lied to, so
misdirected, so put down that we are losing our ability to think
clearly.
A good example is the constant pressure to privatize public services.
Take public education. Despite the fact that our nation became great
in part due to the growth of our public education. Even the sons of
farmers, loggers, fishermen and factory workers could rise up on the
social ladder through public education. Abe Lincoln comes to mind.
But somewhere we began being fed the line that public workers were
lazy, incompetent and dull witted. Private corporations could do the
job so much better because they were competitive.
Somewhere we began to believe that we, the common folk, could not
supervise our own public services. Despite school boards and PTSA
organizations, we simply were too dull to see how we were being taken
to the cleaners by our public servants.
Did we think to check and find out how much our state legislatures
were giving to education? Anyone who ever worked for the government
agencies learned quickly that there was lots of "fat" to be trimmed
from programs. Over and over the legislatures "trimmed the fat". We
dull witted folk just went along accepting the fact that there is
always more fat to trim. So when school buildings fall down, when
teachers leave for jobs that pay real wages, when families move to the
suburbs looking for better schools, we are told that it is due to poor
management. Private business could manage things so much more
efficiently.
Do we ask how the private sector can do that, when their bottom line
is profit? And the bottom line for public education is the student?
How does that work?
Someone must think we Working Class folks are pretty simple minded not
to figure out that the problem is a matter of decent funding and
teachers and administrators who are paid a respectable wage.
Are we really so beaten down that we think we need to hire the
Corporate Professionals to run our schools?
If so, the very first thing we common folk need is a brain transplant.
Then we need to sit together and take charge of our lives, and the
lives of our children. The public school system may be dented but it
is not broken. A "Paid For" public education for all of our children,
right up through their college, will return benefits a thousand fold.
But if we allow the privatization of our public schools, we will be
handing over the future freedom of our children.
Do we really want our children to look like corporate CEO's?
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Great Charter School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to
> Education 'Reform' Phonies
> ________________________________________
> The Great Charter School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to
> Education
> 'Reform' Phonies
> By Jeff Bryant [1] / Salon [2]
> May 26, 2015
> Last week when former President Bill Clinton meandered onto the topic of
> charter schools, he mentioned something about an "original bargain" that
> charters were, according to the reporter for The Huffington Post [3],
> "supposed to do a better job of educating students."
> A writer at Salon [4] called the remark "stunning" because it brought to
> light the fact that the overwhelming majority of charter schools do no
> better than traditional public schools. Yet, as the Huffington reporter
> reminded us, charter schools are rarely shuttered for low academic
> performance.
> But what's most remarkable about what Clinton said is how little his
> statement resembles the truth about how charters have become a reality in
> so
> many American communities.
> In a real "bargaining process," those who bear the consequences of the deal
> have some say-so on the terms, the deal-makers have to represent themselves
> honestly (or the deal is off and the negotiating ends), and there are
> measures in place to ensure everyone involved is held accountable after the
> deal has been struck.
> But that's not what's happening in the great charter industry rollout
> transpiring across the country. Rather than a negotiation over terms,
> charters are being imposed on communities - either by legislative fiat or
> well-engineered public policy campaigns. Many charter school operators keep
> their practices hidden or have been found to be blatantly corrupt. And no
> one seems to be doing anything to ensure real accountability for these
> rapidly expanding school operations.
> Instead of the "bargain" political leaders may have thought they struck
> with
> seemingly well-intentioned charter entrepreneurs, what has transpired
> instead looks more like a raw deal for millions of students, their
> families,
> and their communities. And what political leaders ought to be doing -
> rather
> than spouting unfounded platitudes, as Clinton did, about "what works" - is
> putting the brakes on a deal gone bad, ensuring those most affected by
> charter school rollouts are brought to the bargaining table, and completely
> renegotiating the terms for governing these schools.
> Charter Schools As Takeover Operations
> The "100 percent charter schools" education system in New Orleans that
> Clinton praised was never presented to the citizens of New Orleans in a
> negotiation. It was surreptitiously engineered.
> After Katrina, as NPR [5] recently reported, "an ad hoc coalition of
> elected
> leaders and nationally known charter advocates formed," and in "a series of
> quick decisions," all school employees were fired and the vast majority of
> the city's schools were handed over to a state entity called the "Recovery
> School District" which is governed by unelected officials. Only a "few
> elite
> schools were . allowed to maintain their selective admissions."
> In other words, any bargaining that was done was behind closed doors and at
> tables where most of the people who were being affected had no seat.
> Further, any evidence of the improvement of the educational attainment of
> students in the New Orleans all-charter system is obtainable only by "jukin
> the stats" [6] or, as the NPR reporter put it, through "a distortion of the
> curriculum and teaching practice." As Andrea Gabor wrote for Newsweek [7] a
> year ago, "the current reality of the city's schools should be enough to
> give pause to even the most passionate charter supporters."
> Yet now political leaders tout this model for the rest of the country. So
> school districts that have not had the "benefit," according to Arne Duncan
> [8], of a natural disaster like Katrina, are having charter schools imposed
> on them in blatant power plays. An obvious example is what's currently
> happening in the York, Pennsylvania.
> School districts across the state of Pennsylvania are financially troubled
> due to chronic state underfunding - only 36 percent of K-12 revenue comes
> from the state [9], way below national averages - and massive budget cuts
> [10] imposed by Republican Governor Tom Corbett (the state funds education
> less than it did in 2008).
> The state cuts seemed to have been intentionally targeted to hit
> high-poverty school districts like York City the hardest. After combing
> through state financial records, a report [11] from the state's school
> employee union found, "State funding cuts to the most impoverished school
> districts averaged more than three times the size of the cuts for districts
> with the lowest average child poverty." The unsurprising results of these
> cuts has been that in school districts serving low income kids, like York,
> instruction was cut and scores on state student assessments declined.
> The York City district was exceptionally strapped [12], having been hit by
> $8.4 million in cuts, which prompted class size increases and teacher
> furloughs. Due to financial difficulties, which the state legislature and
> Governor Corbett had by-and-large engineered, York was targeted [13] in
> 2012, along with three other districts, for state takeover by an unelected
> "recovery official," eerily similar to New Orleans post-Katrina.
> The "recovery" process for York schools also entailed a "transformation
> model" [14] with challenging financial and academic targets the district
> had
> little chance in reaching, and charter school conversion as a consequence
> of
> failure. Now the local school board is being forced to pick a charter
> provider and make their district the first in the state to hand over the
> education of all its children to a corporation that will call all the shots
> and give York's citizens very little say in how their children's schools
> are
> run.
> None of this is happening with the negotiated consent of the citizens of
> York. The voices of York citizens that have been absent from the bargaining
> tables are being heard in the streets [15] and in school board meetings.
> According to a local news outlet [16], at a recent protest before the
> city's
> school board, "a district teacher and father of three students . presented
> the board with more than 3,700 signatures of people opposed to a possible
> conversion of district schools to charter schools," and "a student at the
> high school also presented the board with a petition signed by more than
> 260
> students opposed to charter conversion." Yet the state official demanding
> charter takeover remains completely unaltered in his view that this action
> is "what's bets for our kids." [16]
> What's important to note is York schools are not necessarily failures
> academically, as New Jersey-based music teacher and education blogger going
> by the name Jersey Jazzman [17] stated on his personal blog. Looking at how
> the districts' students perform on state assessments, he found that
> academic
> performance levels were "pretty much where you'd expect them to be" based
> on
> the fact that "most of York's schools have student populations where 80
> percent or more of the children are in economic disadvantage," and
> variations in student test score performance almost always correlate
> strongly with students' financial conditions. He concluded that what was
> happening to York schools more represents a "long con" in which tax cuts
> and
> claims of "budgetary poverty" have prompted a rapacious state government to
> "declare an educational emergency, and then let edu-vultures . pick at the
> bones of a decimated school system."
> The attack on York City schools is not unique. As an official with the
> National Education Association recently pointed out on the blog Living in
> Dialogue [18], "It's the same story that played out in Detroit [19], Flint
> [20], and Philadelphia [21] where these 'chief recovery officers' or
> 'emergency managers' have all made the same recommendation: to hand over
> the
> cities' public schools to the highest private bidder."
> Then, hiding behind pledges to do "what's best for kids," these operators
> too often do anything but.
> Charter Schools Takeover, Corruption Ensues
> York teachers and parents have good reasons to be wary of charter school
> takeover. As a new report discloses, charter school officials in their
> state
> have defrauded at least $30 million intended for school children since
> 1997.
> The report [22], "Fraud and Financial Mismanagement in Pennsylvania's
> Charter Schools," was released by three groups, the Center for Popular
> Democracy, Integrity in Education, and ACTION United.
> Startling examples of charter school financial malfeasance revealed by the
> authors -just in Pennsylvania - include an administrator who diverted $2.6
> million in school funds to a church property he also operated. Another
> charter school chief was caught spending millions in school funds to bail
> out other nonprofits associated with the school. A pair of charter school
> operators stole more than $900,000 from the school by using fraudulent
> invoices, and a cyber school entrepreneur diverted $8 million of school
> funds for houses, a Florida condominium, and an airplane.
> What's even more alarming is that none of these crimes were detected by
> state agencies overseeing the schools. As the report clearly documents,
> every year virtually all of the state's charter schools are found to be
> financially sound. The vast majority of fraud was uncovered by
> whistleblowers and media coverage and not by state auditors who have a
> history of not effectively detecting or preventing fraud.
> Pennsylvania spends over a billion dollars a year on charter schools, and
> the $30 million lost to fraud documented in this study is likely the
> minimum
> possible amount. The report authors recommend a moratorium on new charter
> schools in the state and call on the Attorney General to launch an
> investigation.
> The report is a continuation of a study earlier this year [23] that exposed
> $100 million in taxpayer funds meant for children instead lost to fraud,
> waste, and abuse by charter schools in 15 states. Now the authors of the
> study are going state-by-state, beginning with Pennsylvania, to investigate
> how charter school fraud is spreading.
> What's happening to York City is not going to help. The two charter
> operators being considered for that takeover - Mosaica Education, Inc., and
> Charter Schools USA - have particularly troubling track records.
> According to a report from Politico, after Mosaica took over the Muskegon
> Heights, Michigan school system in 2012, "complications soon followed."
> After massive layoffs, about a quarter of the newly hired teachers quit
> [24], and when Mosaica realized they weren't making a profit within two
> years, they pulled up stakes [25] and went in search of other targets.
> As for the other candidate in the running, Charter Schools USA, a report
> from the Florida League of Women Voters [26] produced earlier this year
> found that charter operation running a real estate racket that diverts
> taxpayer money for education to private pockets. In Hillsborough County
> alone, schools owned by Charter Schools USA collaborated with a
> construction
> company in Minneapolis, M.N. and a real estate partner called Red Apple
> Development Company in a scheme to lock in big profits for their operations
> and saddle county taxpayers with millions of dollars in lease fees every
> year.
> In one example, cited by education historian Diane Ravitch [27], Charter
> USA's construction company bought a former Verizon call center for
> $3,750,000, made no discernible exterior changes except removal of the
> front
> door and adding a $7,000 canopy, and sold the building as Woodmont Charter
> School to Red Apple Development for $9,700,000 six months later. Lease fees
> for the last two years were $1,009,800 and $1,029,996.
> No wonder York citizens are concerned.
> What Happened To Charter School Accountability?
> Charter schools that were supposedly intended to be more "accountable" to
> the public are turning out to be anything but.
> As an article for The Nation [28] recently observed, "Charters were
> supposed
> to be laboratories for innovation. Instead, they are stunningly opaque."
> The article, written by author and university professor Pedro Noguera,
> explained, "Charter schools are frequently not accountable. Indeed, they
> are
> stunningly opaque, more black boxes than transparent laboratories for
> education."
> Rather than having to show their books, as public schools do, Noguera
> contended, "Most charters lack financial transparency." As an example, he
> offered a study of KIPP charter schools, which found that they receive "'an
> estimated $6,500 more per pupil in revenues from public or private sources'
> compared to local school districts." But only a scant portion of that
> disproportionate funding - just $457 in spending per pupil - could
> accurately be accounted for "because KIPP does not disclose how it uses
> money received from private sources.
> In addition to the difficulties in following the money," Noguero continued,
> "there is evidence that many charters seek to accept only the least
> difficult (and therefore the least expensive) students. Even though charter
> schools are required by law to admit students through lotteries, in many
> cities, the charters under-enroll the most disadvantaged children."
> This tendency of charter schools operations provides a double bonus as
> their
> student test scores get pushed to higher levels and the public schools
> surrounding them have to take on disproportionate percentages of high needs
> students who push their test score results lower. Noguera cited a study
> showing that traditional schools serving the largest percentages of
> high-needs students are frequently the first to be branded with the
> "failure" label.
> If charter schools are going to have any legitimacy at all, what's
> required,
> Noguera concluded is "greater transparency and collaboration with public
> schools."
> Fortunately, yet another new report points us in the right direction.
> This report [29], "Public Accountability for Charter Schools," published by
> the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, "recommends changes to state
> charter legislation and charter authorizer standards that would reduce
> student inequities and achieve complete transparency and accountability to
> the communities served," according to the organization's press release.
> According to the report, these recommendations are the product of "a
> working
> group of grassroots organizers and leaders" from Chicago, Philadelphia,
> Newark, New York, and other cities, who have "first-hand experience and
> years of working directly with impacted communities and families, rather
> than relying only on limited measures such as standardized test scores to
> assess impact."
> These new guidelines are intended to address numerous examples of charter
> school failure to disclose essential information about their operations,
> including financial information, school discipline policies, student
> enrollment processes, and efforts to collaborate with public schools.
> For instance, the report notes that the director of the state Office of
> Open
> Records in Pennsylvania, "testified that her office had received 239
> appeals
> in cases where charter schools either rejected or failed to answer requests
> from the public for information on budgets, payrolls, or student rosters."
> In Ohio, a charter chain operated by for-profit White Hat Management
> Company, "takes in more than $60 million in public funding annually . yet
> has refused to comply with requests from the governing boards of its own
> schools for detailed financial reports." In Philadelphia, the report
> authors
> found a charter school that made applications for enrollment available
> "only
> one day a year, and only to families who attend an open house at a golf
> club
> in the Philadelphia suburbs." In New York City, where charter schools are
> co-located in public school buildings, "public school parents have
> complained that their students have shorter recess, fewer library hours,
> and
> earlier lunch schedules to better accommodate students enrolled at the
> co-located charter school." The report quotes a lawsuit filed by the NAACP,
> which documented public school classrooms "with peeling paint and
> insufficient resources" made to co-locate with charters that have "new
> computers, brand-new desks, and up-to-date textbooks."
> The Annenberg report's policy prescriptions fall into seven categories of
> "standards," which include:
> 1. Traditional school districts and charter schools should collaborate
> to ensure a coordinated approach that serves all children.
> 2. School governance should be representative and transparent.
> 3. Charter schools should ensure equal access to interested students
> and prohibit practices that discourage enrollment or disproportionately
> push-out enrolled students.
> 4. Charter school discipline policy should be fair and transparent.
> 5. All students deserve equitable and adequate school facilities.
> Districts and charter schools should collaborate to ensure facility
> arrangements do not disadvantage students in either sector.
> 6. Online charter schools should be better regulated for quality,
> transparency and the protection of student data.
> 7. Monitoring and oversight of charter schools are critical to protect
> the public interest; they should be strong and fully state funded.
>
> Unsurprisingly, the report got an immediate response from the National
> Alliance for Public Charter Schools [30], arguing against any regulation on
> charters. That organization's response cites "remarkable results" as an
> excuse for why charters should continue to be allowed to skirt public
> accountability despite the fact they get public money. However, whenever
> there is close scrutiny of the remarkable results the charter industry
> loves
> to crow about, the facts are those results really aren't there [31].
> Charter Accountability Now
> Of course, now that the truth about charter schools is starting to leak out
> of the corners of the "black box" the industry uses to protect itself, the
> charter school PR machine is doing everything it can to cover up reality.
> Beginning with the new school year, the charter school industry has been on
> a publicity terror with a national campaign [32] claiming to tell "The
> Truth
> About Charters" and high dollar promotional appeals in Philadelphia [33]
> and
> New York City [34].
> But the word is out, and resistance to charter takeovers is stiffening in
> more places than York. In school systems such as Philadelphia [35],
> Bridgeport [36], Pittsburgh [37], and Chicago [38], where charter schools
> are major providers, parents and local officials have increasingly opposed
> charter takeovers of their neighborhood schools. A recent poll in Michigan
> [39], where the majority of charter operations are for-profit, found that
> 73
> percent of voters want a moratorium on opening any new charter schools
> until
> the state department of education and the state legislature conduct a full
> review of the charter school system.
> There's little doubt now that the grand bargain Bill Clinton and other
> leaders thought they were making with charter schools proponents was a raw
> deal. The deal is off.
> Jeff Bryant is an associate fellow at Campaign for America's Future and the
> editor of the Education Opportunity Network website. Prior to joining
> OurFuture.org he was one of the principal writers for Open Left.
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [40]
> [41]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/education/great-charter-school-rip-finally-truth-cat
> ches-education-reform-phonies
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jeff-bryant
> [2] http://www.salon.com
> [3]
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/bill-clinton-charter-schools_n_5878
> 084.html
> [4]
> http://www.salon.com/2014/09/25/bill_clinton%E2%80%99s_stunning_statement_on
> _charter_schools_why_its_more_striking_than_it_looks/
> [5] http://apps.npr.org/the-end-of-neighborhood-schools/
> [6]
> http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/the-dishonest-case-for-the-new-orlean
> s-school-reform-model/
> [7]
> http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/politicsandgovernment/184
> 8/the_great_charter_tryout?page=entire
> [8]
> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thi
> ng-for-new-orleans-schools/
> [9]
> http://thenotebook.org/summer-2007/07104/how-schools-are-funded-pennsylvania
> -primer
> [10] http://www.factcheck.org/2014/06/playing-politics-with-education/
> [11] http://www.psea.org/general.aspx?id=11715
> [12] http://www.psea.org/general.aspx?mid=906&id=8918
> [13]
> http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/legislation_for_state-tak
> eover.html
> [14]
> http://www.yorkdispatch.com/portal/breaking/ci_26281976/seven-charter-school
> -groups-submit-york-city-proposals?_loopback=1
> [15]
> http://www.wgal.com/teachers-parents-rally-possible-york-charter-school-take
> over/28115492
> [16]
> http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_26555680/york-city-teachers-say-no-c
> harters
> [17]
> http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/09/everything-wrong-with-education-re
> form.html
> [18]
> http://www.livingindialogue.com/york-pennsylvania-community-rallies-school-p
> rivatization/
> [19]
> http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/09/18/charter-schools-mo
> ratorium-legislation-michigan/15804605/
> [20]
> http://www.abc12.com/story/25990669/a-plan-to-outsource-jobs-is-latest-budge
> t-cutting-move-by-flint-schools
> [21] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/01/20/phil-j20.html
> [22]
> http://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/charter-schools-PA-Fraud.pdf
> [23]
> http://integrityineducation.org/release-new-report-charter-industry-exposes-
> 100-million-taxpayer-funds-meant-children-instead-lost-fraud-waste-abuse/
> [24]
> http://michiganradio.org/post/1-4-teachers-muskegon-heights-schools-quit-dur
> ing-first-3-months-school-year
> [25]
> http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/state_approves_14_milli
> on_emer.html
> [26]
> http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-league-of-women-voters-blast
> s-charter-school-movement/2181931
> [27]
> http://dianeravitch.net/2014/04/07/florida-league-of-women-voters-finds-char
> ters-do-not-improve-achievement/
> [28]
> http://www.thenation.com/article/181753/why-dont-we-have-real-data-charter-s
> chools
> [29]
> http://annenberginstitute.org/sites/default/files/CharterAccountabilityStds.
> pdf
> [30] http://www.publiccharters.org/press/annenberg-report/
> [31]
> http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2014/09/review-meta-analysis-effect-char
> ter
> [32] http://www.publiccharters.org/truthaboutcharters/
> [33]
> http://dianeravitch.net/2014/09/20/charters-will-blitz-philadelphia-with-pr-
> campaign/
> [34]
> http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/09/8553454/charter-advo
> cacy-group-launch-big-ad-campaign-Monday
> [35]
> http://articles.philly.com/2014-06-07/news/50390416_1_aspira-philadelphia-sc
> hool-district-mastery-charter-schools
> [36]
> http://connecticut.news12.com/news/voters-reject-proposed-bridgeport-charter
> -change-1.4242074
> [37]
> http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/07/23/Pittsburgh-school-boar
> d-rejects-charter-school-expansion-at-Frick-Park/stories/201407230220#ixzz38
> LPk5o6z
> [38]
> http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20131022/downtown/parents-community-groups-pr
> otest-proposed-charter-school-expansion
> [39]
> http://www.freep.com/article/20140831/NEWS06/308310070/charter-schools-poll-
> Michigan
> [40] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Great Charter
> School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to Education
> 'Reform' Phonies
> [41] http://www.alternet.org/
> [42] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > The Great Charter School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to
> Education 'Reform' Phonies
>
> The Great Charter School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to
> Education
> 'Reform' Phonies
> By Jeff Bryant [1] / Salon [2]
> May 26, 2015
> Last week when former President Bill Clinton meandered onto the topic of
> charter schools, he mentioned something about an "original bargain" that
> charters were, according to the reporter for The Huffington Post [3],
> "supposed to do a better job of educating students."
> A writer at Salon [4] called the remark "stunning" because it brought to
> light the fact that the overwhelming majority of charter schools do no
> better than traditional public schools. Yet, as the Huffington reporter
> reminded us, charter schools are rarely shuttered for low academic
> performance.
> But what's most remarkable about what Clinton said is how little his
> statement resembles the truth about how charters have become a reality in
> so
> many American communities.
> In a real "bargaining process," those who bear the consequences of the deal
> have some say-so on the terms, the deal-makers have to represent themselves
> honestly (or the deal is off and the negotiating ends), and there are
> measures in place to ensure everyone involved is held accountable after the
> deal has been struck.
> But that's not what's happening in the great charter industry rollout
> transpiring across the country. Rather than a negotiation over terms,
> charters are being imposed on communities - either by legislative fiat or
> well-engineered public policy campaigns. Many charter school operators keep
> their practices hidden or have been found to be blatantly corrupt. And no
> one seems to be doing anything to ensure real accountability for these
> rapidly expanding school operations.
> Instead of the "bargain" political leaders may have thought they struck
> with
> seemingly well-intentioned charter entrepreneurs, what has transpired
> instead looks more like a raw deal for millions of students, their
> families,
> and their communities. And what political leaders ought to be doing -
> rather
> than spouting unfounded platitudes, as Clinton did, about "what works" - is
> putting the brakes on a deal gone bad, ensuring those most affected by
> charter school rollouts are brought to the bargaining table, and completely
> renegotiating the terms for governing these schools.
> Charter Schools As Takeover Operations
> The "100 percent charter schools" education system in New Orleans that
> Clinton praised was never presented to the citizens of New Orleans in a
> negotiation. It was surreptitiously engineered.
> After Katrina, as NPR [5] recently reported, "an ad hoc coalition of
> elected
> leaders and nationally known charter advocates formed," and in "a series of
> quick decisions," all school employees were fired and the vast majority of
> the city's schools were handed over to a state entity called the "Recovery
> School District" which is governed by unelected officials. Only a "few
> elite
> schools were . allowed to maintain their selective admissions."
> In other words, any bargaining that was done was behind closed doors and at
> tables where most of the people who were being affected had no seat.
> Further, any evidence of the improvement of the educational attainment of
> students in the New Orleans all-charter system is obtainable only by "jukin
> the stats" [6] or, as the NPR reporter put it, through "a distortion of the
> curriculum and teaching practice." As Andrea Gabor wrote for Newsweek [7] a
> year ago, "the current reality of the city's schools should be enough to
> give pause to even the most passionate charter supporters."
> Yet now political leaders tout this model for the rest of the country. So
> school districts that have not had the "benefit," according to Arne Duncan
> [8], of a natural disaster like Katrina, are having charter schools imposed
> on them in blatant power plays. An obvious example is what's currently
> happening in the York, Pennsylvania.
> School districts across the state of Pennsylvania are financially troubled
> due to chronic state underfunding - only 36 percent of K-12 revenue comes
> from the state [9], way below national averages - and massive budget cuts
> [10] imposed by Republican Governor Tom Corbett (the state funds education
> less than it did in 2008).
> The state cuts seemed to have been intentionally targeted to hit
> high-poverty school districts like York City the hardest. After combing
> through state financial records, a report [11] from the state's school
> employee union found, "State funding cuts to the most impoverished school
> districts averaged more than three times the size of the cuts for districts
> with the lowest average child poverty." The unsurprising results of these
> cuts has been that in school districts serving low income kids, like York,
> instruction was cut and scores on state student assessments declined.
> The York City district was exceptionally strapped [12], having been hit by
> $8.4 million in cuts, which prompted class size increases and teacher
> furloughs. Due to financial difficulties, which the state legislature and
> Governor Corbett had by-and-large engineered, York was targeted [13] in
> 2012, along with three other districts, for state takeover by an unelected
> "recovery official," eerily similar to New Orleans post-Katrina.
> The "recovery" process for York schools also entailed a "transformation
> model" [14] with challenging financial and academic targets the district
> had
> little chance in reaching, and charter school conversion as a consequence
> of
> failure. Now the local school board is being forced to pick a charter
> provider and make their district the first in the state to hand over the
> education of all its children to a corporation that will call all the shots
> and give York's citizens very little say in how their children's schools
> are
> run.
> None of this is happening with the negotiated consent of the citizens of
> York. The voices of York citizens that have been absent from the bargaining
> tables are being heard in the streets [15] and in school board meetings.
> According to a local news outlet [16], at a recent protest before the
> city's
> school board, "a district teacher and father of three students . presented
> the board with more than 3,700 signatures of people opposed to a possible
> conversion of district schools to charter schools," and "a student at the
> high school also presented the board with a petition signed by more than
> 260
> students opposed to charter conversion." Yet the state official demanding
> charter takeover remains completely unaltered in his view that this action
> is "what's bets for our kids." [16]
> What's important to note is York schools are not necessarily failures
> academically, as New Jersey-based music teacher and education blogger going
> by the name Jersey Jazzman [17] stated on his personal blog. Looking at how
> the districts' students perform on state assessments, he found that
> academic
> performance levels were "pretty much where you'd expect them to be" based
> on
> the fact that "most of York's schools have student populations where 80
> percent or more of the children are in economic disadvantage," and
> variations in student test score performance almost always correlate
> strongly with students' financial conditions. He concluded that what was
> happening to York schools more represents a "long con" in which tax cuts
> and
> claims of "budgetary poverty" have prompted a rapacious state government to
> "declare an educational emergency, and then let edu-vultures . pick at the
> bones of a decimated school system."
> The attack on York City schools is not unique. As an official with the
> National Education Association recently pointed out on the blog Living in
> Dialogue [18], "It's the same story that played out in Detroit [19], Flint
> [20], and Philadelphia [21] where these 'chief recovery officers' or
> 'emergency managers' have all made the same recommendation: to hand over
> the
> cities' public schools to the highest private bidder."
> Then, hiding behind pledges to do "what's best for kids," these operators
> too often do anything but.
> Charter Schools Takeover, Corruption Ensues
> York teachers and parents have good reasons to be wary of charter school
> takeover. As a new report discloses, charter school officials in their
> state
> have defrauded at least $30 million intended for school children since
> 1997.
> The report [22], "Fraud and Financial Mismanagement in Pennsylvania's
> Charter Schools," was released by three groups, the Center for Popular
> Democracy, Integrity in Education, and ACTION United.
> Startling examples of charter school financial malfeasance revealed by the
> authors -just in Pennsylvania - include an administrator who diverted $2.6
> million in school funds to a church property he also operated. Another
> charter school chief was caught spending millions in school funds to bail
> out other nonprofits associated with the school. A pair of charter school
> operators stole more than $900,000 from the school by using fraudulent
> invoices, and a cyber school entrepreneur diverted $8 million of school
> funds for houses, a Florida condominium, and an airplane.
> What's even more alarming is that none of these crimes were detected by
> state agencies overseeing the schools. As the report clearly documents,
> every year virtually all of the state's charter schools are found to be
> financially sound. The vast majority of fraud was uncovered by
> whistleblowers and media coverage and not by state auditors who have a
> history of not effectively detecting or preventing fraud.
> Pennsylvania spends over a billion dollars a year on charter schools, and
> the $30 million lost to fraud documented in this study is likely the
> minimum
> possible amount. The report authors recommend a moratorium on new charter
> schools in the state and call on the Attorney General to launch an
> investigation.
> The report is a continuation of a study earlier this year [23] that exposed
> $100 million in taxpayer funds meant for children instead lost to fraud,
> waste, and abuse by charter schools in 15 states. Now the authors of the
> study are going state-by-state, beginning with Pennsylvania, to investigate
> how charter school fraud is spreading.
> What's happening to York City is not going to help. The two charter
> operators being considered for that takeover - Mosaica Education, Inc., and
> Charter Schools USA - have particularly troubling track records.
> According to a report from Politico, after Mosaica took over the Muskegon
> Heights, Michigan school system in 2012, "complications soon followed."
> After massive layoffs, about a quarter of the newly hired teachers quit
> [24], and when Mosaica realized they weren't making a profit within two
> years, they pulled up stakes [25] and went in search of other targets.
> As for the other candidate in the running, Charter Schools USA, a report
> from the Florida League of Women Voters [26] produced earlier this year
> found that charter operation running a real estate racket that diverts
> taxpayer money for education to private pockets. In Hillsborough County
> alone, schools owned by Charter Schools USA collaborated with a
> construction
> company in Minneapolis, M.N. and a real estate partner called Red Apple
> Development Company in a scheme to lock in big profits for their operations
> and saddle county taxpayers with millions of dollars in lease fees every
> year.
> In one example, cited by education historian Diane Ravitch [27], Charter
> USA's construction company bought a former Verizon call center for
> $3,750,000, made no discernible exterior changes except removal of the
> front
> door and adding a $7,000 canopy, and sold the building as Woodmont Charter
> School to Red Apple Development for $9,700,000 six months later. Lease fees
> for the last two years were $1,009,800 and $1,029,996.
> No wonder York citizens are concerned.
> What Happened To Charter School Accountability?
> Charter schools that were supposedly intended to be more "accountable" to
> the public are turning out to be anything but.
> As an article for The Nation [28] recently observed, "Charters were
> supposed
> to be laboratories for innovation. Instead, they are stunningly opaque."
> The article, written by author and university professor Pedro Noguera,
> explained, "Charter schools are frequently not accountable. Indeed, they
> are
> stunningly opaque, more black boxes than transparent laboratories for
> education."
> Rather than having to show their books, as public schools do, Noguera
> contended, "Most charters lack financial transparency." As an example, he
> offered a study of KIPP charter schools, which found that they receive "'an
> estimated $6,500 more per pupil in revenues from public or private sources'
> compared to local school districts." But only a scant portion of that
> disproportionate funding - just $457 in spending per pupil - could
> accurately be accounted for "because KIPP does not disclose how it uses
> money received from private sources.
> In addition to the difficulties in following the money," Noguero continued,
> "there is evidence that many charters seek to accept only the least
> difficult (and therefore the least expensive) students. Even though charter
> schools are required by law to admit students through lotteries, in many
> cities, the charters under-enroll the most disadvantaged children."
> This tendency of charter schools operations provides a double bonus as
> their
> student test scores get pushed to higher levels and the public schools
> surrounding them have to take on disproportionate percentages of high needs
> students who push their test score results lower. Noguera cited a study
> showing that traditional schools serving the largest percentages of
> high-needs students are frequently the first to be branded with the
> "failure" label.
> If charter schools are going to have any legitimacy at all, what's
> required,
> Noguera concluded is "greater transparency and collaboration with public
> schools."
> Fortunately, yet another new report points us in the right direction.
> This report [29], "Public Accountability for Charter Schools," published by
> the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, "recommends changes to state
> charter legislation and charter authorizer standards that would reduce
> student inequities and achieve complete transparency and accountability to
> the communities served," according to the organization's press release.
> According to the report, these recommendations are the product of "a
> working
> group of grassroots organizers and leaders" from Chicago, Philadelphia,
> Newark, New York, and other cities, who have "first-hand experience and
> years of working directly with impacted communities and families, rather
> than relying only on limited measures such as standardized test scores to
> assess impact."
> These new guidelines are intended to address numerous examples of charter
> school failure to disclose essential information about their operations,
> including financial information, school discipline policies, student
> enrollment processes, and efforts to collaborate with public schools.
> For instance, the report notes that the director of the state Office of
> Open
> Records in Pennsylvania, "testified that her office had received 239
> appeals
> in cases where charter schools either rejected or failed to answer requests
> from the public for information on budgets, payrolls, or student rosters."
> In Ohio, a charter chain operated by for-profit White Hat Management
> Company, "takes in more than $60 million in public funding annually . yet
> has refused to comply with requests from the governing boards of its own
> schools for detailed financial reports." In Philadelphia, the report
> authors
> found a charter school that made applications for enrollment available
> "only
> one day a year, and only to families who attend an open house at a golf
> club
> in the Philadelphia suburbs." In New York City, where charter schools are
> co-located in public school buildings, "public school parents have
> complained that their students have shorter recess, fewer library hours,
> and
> earlier lunch schedules to better accommodate students enrolled at the
> co-located charter school." The report quotes a lawsuit filed by the NAACP,
> which documented public school classrooms "with peeling paint and
> insufficient resources" made to co-locate with charters that have "new
> computers, brand-new desks, and up-to-date textbooks."
> The Annenberg report's policy prescriptions fall into seven categories of
> "standards," which include:
> 1. Traditional school districts and charter schools should collaborate
> to ensure a coordinated approach that serves all children.
> 2. School governance should be representative and transparent.
> 3. Charter schools should ensure equal access to interested students
> and prohibit practices that discourage enrollment or disproportionately
> push-out enrolled students.
> 4. Charter school discipline policy should be fair and transparent.
> 5. All students deserve equitable and adequate school facilities.
> Districts and charter schools should collaborate to ensure facility
> arrangements do not disadvantage students in either sector.
> 6. Online charter schools should be better regulated for quality,
> transparency and the protection of student data.
> 7. Monitoring and oversight of charter schools are critical to protect
> the public interest; they should be strong and fully state funded.
> Unsurprisingly, the report got an immediate response from the National
> Alliance for Public Charter Schools [30], arguing against any regulation on
> charters. That organization's response cites "remarkable results" as an
> excuse for why charters should continue to be allowed to skirt public
> accountability despite the fact they get public money. However, whenever
> there is close scrutiny of the remarkable results the charter industry
> loves
> to crow about, the facts are those results really aren't there [31].
> Charter Accountability Now
> Of course, now that the truth about charter schools is starting to leak out
> of the corners of the "black box" the industry uses to protect itself, the
> charter school PR machine is doing everything it can to cover up reality.
> Beginning with the new school year, the charter school industry has been on
> a publicity terror with a national campaign [32] claiming to tell "The
> Truth
> About Charters" and high dollar promotional appeals in Philadelphia [33]
> and
> New York City [34].
> But the word is out, and resistance to charter takeovers is stiffening in
> more places than York. In school systems such as Philadelphia [35],
> Bridgeport [36], Pittsburgh [37], and Chicago [38], where charter schools
> are major providers, parents and local officials have increasingly opposed
> charter takeovers of their neighborhood schools. A recent poll in Michigan
> [39], where the majority of charter operations are for-profit, found that
> 73
> percent of voters want a moratorium on opening any new charter schools
> until
> the state department of education and the state legislature conduct a full
> review of the charter school system.
> There's little doubt now that the grand bargain Bill Clinton and other
> leaders thought they were making with charter schools proponents was a raw
> deal. The deal is off.
> Jeff Bryant is an associate fellow at Campaign for America's Future and the
> editor of the Education Opportunity Network website. Prior to joining
> OurFuture.org he was one of the principal writers for Open Left.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [40]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[41]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/education/great-charter-school-rip-finally-truth-cat
> ches-education-reform-phonies
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jeff-bryant
> [2] http://www.salon.com
> [3]
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/bill-clinton-charter-schools_n_5878
> 084.html
> [4]
> http://www.salon.com/2014/09/25/bill_clinton%E2%80%99s_stunning_statement_on
> _charter_schools_why_its_more_striking_than_it_looks/
> [5] http://apps.npr.org/the-end-of-neighborhood-schools/
> [6]
> http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/the-dishonest-case-for-the-new-orlean
> s-school-reform-model/
> [7]
> http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/politicsandgovernment/184
> 8/the_great_charter_tryout?page=entire
> [8]
> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thi
> ng-for-new-orleans-schools/
> [9]
> http://thenotebook.org/summer-2007/07104/how-schools-are-funded-pennsylvania
> -primer
> [10] http://www.factcheck.org/2014/06/playing-politics-with-education/
> [11] http://www.psea.org/general.aspx?id=11715
> [12] http://www.psea.org/general.aspx?mid=906&id=8918
> [13]
> http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/legislation_for_state-tak
> eover.html
> [14]
> http://www.yorkdispatch.com/portal/breaking/ci_26281976/seven-charter-school
> -groups-submit-york-city-proposals?_loopback=1
> [15]
> http://www.wgal.com/teachers-parents-rally-possible-york-charter-school-take
> over/28115492
> [16]
> http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_26555680/york-city-teachers-say-no-c
> harters
> [17]
> http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/09/everything-wrong-with-education-re
> form.html
> [18]
> http://www.livingindialogue.com/york-pennsylvania-community-rallies-school-p
> rivatization/
> [19]
> http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/09/18/charter-schools-mo
> ratorium-legislation-michigan/15804605/
> [20]
> http://www.abc12.com/story/25990669/a-plan-to-outsource-jobs-is-latest-budge
> t-cutting-move-by-flint-schools
> [21] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/01/20/phil-j20.html
> [22]
> http://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/charter-schools-PA-Fraud.pdf
> [23]
> http://integrityineducation.org/release-new-report-charter-industry-exposes-
> 100-million-taxpayer-funds-meant-children-instead-lost-fraud-waste-abuse/
> [24]
> http://michiganradio.org/post/1-4-teachers-muskegon-heights-schools-quit-dur
> ing-first-3-months-school-year
> [25]
> http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/state_approves_14_milli
> on_emer.html
> [26]
> http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-league-of-women-voters-blast
> s-charter-school-movement/2181931
> [27]
> http://dianeravitch.net/2014/04/07/florida-league-of-women-voters-finds-char
> ters-do-not-improve-achievement/
> [28]
> http://www.thenation.com/article/181753/why-dont-we-have-real-data-charter-s
> chools
> [29]
> http://annenberginstitute.org/sites/default/files/CharterAccountabilityStds.
> pdf
> [30] http://www.publiccharters.org/press/annenberg-report/
> [31]
> http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2014/09/review-meta-analysis-effect-char
> ter
> [32] http://www.publiccharters.org/truthaboutcharters/
> [33]
> http://dianeravitch.net/2014/09/20/charters-will-blitz-philadelphia-with-pr-
> campaign/
> [34]
> http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/09/8553454/charter-advo
> cacy-group-launch-big-ad-campaign-Monday
> [35]
> http://articles.philly.com/2014-06-07/news/50390416_1_aspira-philadelphia-sc
> hool-district-mastery-charter-schools
> [36]
> http://connecticut.news12.com/news/voters-reject-proposed-bridgeport-charter
> -change-1.4242074
> [37]
> http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/07/23/Pittsburgh-school-boar
> d-rejects-charter-school-expansion-at-Frick-Park/stories/201407230220#ixzz38
> LPk5o6z
> [38]
> http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20131022/downtown/parents-community-groups-pr
> otest-proposed-charter-school-expansion
> [39]
> http://www.freep.com/article/20140831/NEWS06/308310070/charter-schools-poll-
> Michigan
> [40] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on The Great Charter
> School Rip-Off: Finally, the Truth Catches Up to Education
> 'Reform' Phonies
> [41] http://www.alternet.org/
> [42] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
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