'That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented...' While Chicago plans further expansion of charter schools, Columbus has just closed 17 of them, mostly because of incompetence and corruption
One week from today (January 15, 2014), at the Chicago Board of Education meeting on January 22, 2014, Chicago will vote to expand its already overloaded load of charter schools. The specific number to be expanded will not be known until Monday, January 20, when the agenda of the meeting is published under the provisions of the Open Meetings Act. But under mayoral control and the hegemony of corporate America, Chicago has ignored all reports of corruption in Chicago's charter schools. Rahm Emanuel insists on expanding them despite the evidence, and the corrupt CPS Inspector General continues to proceed as if it is impossible for a Chicago charter school to be corrupt.
Despite the growing evidence of the corruption, mendacity and incompetence of both Chicago's charter schools and Rahm's hand picked CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett, Chicago will legally decide to expand its charter school load at the January 22, 2014 meeting of the Board of Education.In Columbus Ohio, the charters are being closed, as the following report from the Columbus Dispatch shows:Schools closing at alarming rate, costing taxpayers and disrupting the lives of hundreds of students
The school on S. 6th Street is one of four Olympus schools shuttered.
At the beginning of 2013, one long-struggling charter school closed. Over the summer, five more did. And in the fall, 11 more Columbus charters closed their doors, most of them brand new.
That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented.
“It shows the power of a couple of players with standards that are not up to par really affecting an overall market,” said Chad Aldis, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors 10 charter schools in Ohio, some in Columbus.
Nine of the 17 schools that closed in 2013 lasted only a few months this past fall. When they closed, more than 250 students had to find new schools. The state spent more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money to keep the nine schools open only from August through October or November.
But while 2013 was unusual, closings are not rare. A Dispatch analysis of state data found that 29 percent of
