Report: U.S. government wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools and still fails to adequately monitor grants
In @BetsyDeVosED’s budget, there are major cuts to programs like the Special Olympics. Sec. DeVos didn’t know the number of kids who would be hurt by that cut, so I made sure she now knows that 272,000 kids are seeing their support taken away. pic.twitter.com/6ZiOfDU4Ou— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 26, 2019
The U.S. government has wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools that never opened, or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons, according to a report from an education advocacy group. The study also says the U.S. Education Department does not adequately monitor how its grant money is spent.
The report, titled “Asleep at the Wheel” and issued by the nonprofit advocacy group Network for Public Education, says:
- More than 1,000 grants were given to schools that never opened, or later closed because of mismanagement, poor performance, lack of enrollment or fraud. “Of the schools awarded grants directlyfrom the department between 2009 and 2016, nearly one in four either never opened or shut its doors,” it says.
- Some grants in the 25-year-old federal Charter School Program (CSP) have been awarded to charters that set barriers to enrollment of certain students. Thirty-four California charter schools that received grants appear on an American Civil Liberties Union list of charters “that discriminate — in some cases illegally — in admissions.”
- The department’s grant approval process for charters has been sorely lacking, with “no attempt to verify the information presented” by applicants.
- The Education Department in Republican and Democratic administrations has “largely ignored or not sufficiently addressed” recommendations to improve the program made by its own inspector general.
“Our investigation finds the U.S. Department of Education has not been a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars in its management of the CSP,” it says.
The Education Department did not respond to questions about the study’s findings. The report has been given to members of Congress with education oversight authority.
Charter schools are publicly financed but privately operated, sometimes by for-profit companies, and they have become a controversial part of the “school choice” movement that has gained ground throughout the country over the past few decades.
Today, about 6 percent of U.S. schoolchildren attend charter schools, with 44 states plus the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico having laws permitting them. Some states have only a few charters while others have many. California has the most charter schools and the most charter students; in Los Angeles, 20 percent of children attend such schools. In the District, almost half of the city’s schoolchildren go to charter schools.
Supporters first described charters as competitive vehicles to push traditional public schools toward reform. Over time, that narrative changed, and charters were touted by supporters as offering choices for families who CONTINUE READING: Report: U.S. government wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools and still fails to adequately monitor grants - The Washington Post
