Charter Schools Are Bilking California Taxpayers
In The Public Interest, an organization that researches and reports on the effects of privatization, has just released a comprehensive study entitled "The Failure of Policy Planning In California Schools." As the title suggests, it's not pretty. With the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, pushing for the privatization of America's schools, reports like this will be the main weapon in defending our public schools.
Raping the Taxpayers
There are over 1,200 charter schools with over 600,000 students in California. That's roughly 10% of schools. According to the report, charter schools have received more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds during the last 15 years. The amount of money isn't at issue so much as the lack of any accountability for charters. In California, like many other states, charters are not required to meet the same standards as public schools.
In California, pert' near anyone can open a charter school. Charter school applications can only be turned down if they submit an "unsound educational program" or "the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the petition." This criteria is completely subjective. There are no guidelines as to what they literally mean by this, and therefore the "criteria" is utterly useless.
Charter petitions are authorized without any consideration of necessity. For a public school to open, studies of whether or not the school is needed must be conducted. The state takes into account the amount of students as well as current and projected class sizes before investing in a new public school. Charters however, have no such restrictions causing overcrowding of schools fighting for funds; fights that take money from the public schools. Over 450 charter schools in California were opened in areas with no discernible need for more schools. That number was calculated by using just half of the data on California charter schools. The actual number could conceivably be as high as 900.
Charter companies are eligible for funding assistance to build or lease their property and buildings from a variety of funds such as bonds, start-up loans, tax credits and even some federal programs. Shortage of money for charters is not a problem like it is for public schools. Start-up funding only becomes an issue when charters fail. If the charter used Charter Schools Are Bilking California Taxpayers | Crooks and Liars:
