Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars
While the New York Times seems determined to promote charter schools, other news agencies and educational groups are expressing increased reservations about their lack of performance, excessive expense, and political and financial backing. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reports that 2,500 charter schools have failed since 2000. The list includes "ghost" schools that collected public funds but never served any students. These include 25 charter schools in Michigan that were awarded federal grants of between three and four million dollars in 2010-2011 but never opened. CMD estimates that during the last twenty years the charter school industry has received over three billion dollars in federal tax dollars that should have gone to public schools.
These are just some of the recent charter school debacles.
Florida's fifteen-year charter expansion program largely operated by private, for-profit, companies, cost billions of dollars in public funds. Although it is one of Florida's fastest growing "industries," there is virtually no public oversight of spending and performance. In the last five years, over fifty 56 charter schools in South Florida alone have been forced to close, mostly because of because of mismanagement. The companies that ran the closed schools owe large sums to local school districts for services not provided. A major supporter of Florida charter schools was former Governor and current Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.
In the state of Washington courts recently ruled against providing public money to charter schools, arguing that they lacked public accountability. The court case was brought by a coalition of civic groups including Washington Education Association, the League of Women Voters of Washington, El Centro de la Raza and the Washington Association of School Administrators. Washington Education Association is a union representing Washington state teachers.
In the financially strapped Chester Upland school district in Pennsylvania publicly funded, privately operated, charter schools, drained the resources from public schools that are on virtual life support. Pennsylvania requires the district to pay charter school operators $40,000 for every special education student enrolled in a charter, but the state only reimburses the district about $16,000. A majority of the districts 7,500 children now go to the charters. The district is now broke and public school teachersare working without pay. Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum sent his own children to the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School when he was a Senator. While in the Senate, Santorum voted in favor of a motion supporting charter schools and school vouchers.
In Nashville, Tennessee there is a backlash against charter schools led by school board member Will Pinkston. The Nashville school system ranks 54th out of 67 urban school systems in America in per-pupil funding. Meanwhile charters are currently costing the district about $75 million a year with projected increases to between $150 and $160 million. The charter expansion campaign in Nashville is led by the KIPP network that "partners" with the Walton (Walmart) Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates (Microsoft) Foundation, and the Dell (Computers) Foundation.
In Ohio, Governor John Kasich, another Republican Party Presidential contender, has close ties with the state's charter schools. This summer, David Hansen, the school-choice chief in the Ohio Department of Education was forced to resign after Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars | Alan Singer: