Charter School Sector Swindles the Public, Burns Tax Dollars, and Cheats Children—Part 2
Yesterday’s post launched a two day summary of abuses by charter school operators and charter management organizations due to the absence of regulation of a 44-state privatized education sector. Recent reporting, including an investigation by the Network for Public Education of the federal Charter Schools Program and newspapers across several states, have exposed a sector awash in financial scandal, fraud and conflicts of interest. The stories confirm what striking schoolteachers have been showing us all year: Charter schools suck money from the public schools—most often in the poorest city school districts where the needs of the students are greatest.
It was promised that charter schools—less regulated institutions than their traditional public school counterparts—would foster innovation. What we have learned from this 25 year experiment is that charter school operators have proven themselves extremely innovative in the way they have made piles of money at public expense.
Yesterday’s post featured the findings of five-part investigation by USA Today and the North Jersey Record of unscrupulous charter school deals in Chris Christie’s New Jersey. Today’s post will briefly track recent stories of charter school abuses in three other states.
California: Anna Phillips’ three part, Los Angeles Times investigation (here, here, and here) of California’s charter school laws summarizes years of problems in a state where an unregulated charter sector was launched in 1992. Phillips outlines the history of California charter schools: “Twenty-seven years ago, when California became just the second state to enact a law establishing charter schools, state leaders framed the experiment as a modest one that would allow only 100 schools at first. Free-market advocates saw charters as a way to empower all students to choose from a variety of schools. Other supporters envisioned them as laboratories for testing new teaching methods and then bringing successes back to traditional public schools. The new, privately operated schools would be government-funded CONTINUE READING: Charter School Sector Swindles the Public, Burns Tax Dollars, and Cheats Children—Part 2 | janresseger
