Scathing New Report Demands Moratorium on New Grants from Federal Charter Schools Program
The Network for Public Education has released Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for A Ride, a scathing condemnation of the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP), which is part of the Office for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education: “For over a decade, Congress has poured money into CSP at rates much higher than overall Education Department spending has increased. We estimate that approximately $4 billion federal tax dollars have been spent or allocated to start, replicate and expand charter schools.”
The report recounts mounting abuses over the quarter century since the federal Charter Schools Program was established: “The CSP… was established in 1994 as a way to kick-start the creation of new charter schools…. Over its 25-year existence, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that the program has offered federal dollars to as many as 40 percent of charter schools.” In this report, the Network for Public education evaluates three of the program’s seven funding streams: that award charter school start-up or expansion funds (1) to the 50 state departments of education, (2) to individual charter schools, or (3) to the Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) that operate chains of charter schools.
The Network for Public Education’s new report is explosive. The researchers conclude that if you want to start a charter school, you ought to hire a grant writer skilled at creating a compelling fictional narrative, because the department makes its grants without investigation—almost exclusively based on the story spun in the grant application: “While congressional appropriations to the CSP continue to climb, our investigation… found that not only does grant money awarded to charters by the CSP continue to go to schools that never open or quickly close, but hundreds of millions of dollars have been provided to schools that don’t resemble ‘high quality’ schools, including many that engage in exclusionary practices that keep some economically disadvantaged students, students of color, students with disabilities CONTINUE READING: Scathing New Report Demands Moratorium on New Grants from Federal Charter Schools Program | janresseger
