Conservatives Thrilled by NEA Decision to Ignore Candidates’ Views on Charter Industry
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) expressed its delight over a decision at the recent NEA meeting in Houston not to take into account a presidential candidate’s views on privatized charter schools when making its endorsement. AEI is a conservative, free-enterprise think tank in D.C. that is partially funded by Betsy DeVos and her family foundation, who appreciate AEI’s libertarian stances.
Friends at the NEA meeting tell me that the organization contains a few charter teachers and did not want to offend them. If you were there and have a different view, please comment. There are 7,000 charter schools. A few hundred have organized and joined the NEA or AFT. Ninety percent are non-union, which is what their funders (like the anti-union Waltons) want.
NEA’s decision signals that it is fine if a candidate like Cory Booker or Michael Bennett gives full-throated CONTINUE READING: Conservatives Thrilled by NEA Decision to Ignore Candidates’ Views on Charter Industry | Diane Ravitch's blog
Indiana: State Tries to Recover $40 Million from Virtual Charter Frauds
Indiana is one of the state’s that has been all in for choice. One of the choices pushed by former governors Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence is Virtual Charter Schools. These are online schools that allegedly enroll home-schoolers or students who prefer not to attend a Brick-and-mortar school.
Study after study has found that these online schools have high attrition, low test scores, and low graduation rates. However they are very profitable since their operators are paid far more than their actual costs.
The name of their game is enrollment, since their costs decline as enrollment grows, and they must constantly replace those who drop out.
Unfortunately, the incidence of fraud is high since the online schools are seldom auidited.
Indiana is currently trying to recover $40 million from two online charter corporations and their authorizer, which was stolen by inflating enrollments.
Indiana will try to claw back around $40 million from two CONTINUE READING: Indiana: State Tries to Recover $40 Million from Virtual Charter Frauds