AFT, Advocacy Group Want More Accountability for Charters
The American Federation of Teachers and In the Public Interest claim some for-profit charter school operators aren't held to the same accountability standards as public schools.
Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers banded with another public school advocacy group to raise concerns of transparency and accountability among some charter school operators.
Charter schools were created to serve as incubators of good practice, and have the freedom to operate independently with public funds, assuming they meet certain accountability standards. But the rapid expansion of charter schools throughout the country has some worried that they lack critical elements of transparency, accountability and quality, according to a new collaboration between the American Federation of Teachers and advocacy group In the Public Interest.
Cashing in on Kids, as the venture is called, looks into concerns that have been raised with five different for-profit charter school operators: K12 Inc., Academics, Imagine Schools, Charter Schools USA and White Hat Management. The group claims the operators do a poor job of serving students and taxpayers, and that private interests have trumped the public good.
"This is a simple exercise of following the money," says Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, one of the nation's two largest teachers unions. "How many times do people simply get up on a pedestal and say we care about kids, and then you realize that they care about profits, they care about tax deductions, they care about privatizing the public system?"
For each charter operator, the website compiles a collection of news stories, official documents, reports and investigations of the operator, which Weingarten says is intended to serve as a resource for the public.
"This is not an opinion website," she says. "If accountability and transparency should go all ways, let's look at the accountability and transparency in terms of charter schools, not just in terms of public schools."
On the page dedicated to Charter Schools USA, for example, the group points out the for-profit operator contributed more than $200,000 to political candidates and organizations during the 2012 election cycle. In contrast, thus far in the 2014 election cycle, AFT has given more than $2 million in political contributions, according to OpenSecrets.org.