CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

Chester Upland is a district that has struggled with issues and money and racism for decades; they are the history of every problem facing public education in the last century, right up to and including the gutting of a public education system by privatizing charter operators. Poorer and Blacker than all surrounding districts, they have suffered through one damn thing after another.

Chester Upland School District has been under the state's thumb via a declaration of financial collapse for about a decade. The court has been in charge of the district, and has okayed the idea of letting the charters that have drained the districts of resources go ahead and buy up the last of the bits.

It's hard to track everything that has happened because so little of it has happened in public view, but three charter organizations have now submitted plans for partial charter takeover of the district's schools.

The three proposals were pitched at a meeting that was presented in person and on line, and critics of the plan were not impressed. 

Harris indicated Thursday’s presentation was designed to communicate Friendship’s philosophy CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: PA: One District (Mostly) For Sale

Impoverished Pennsylvania District About to Be Fully Charterized, Despite Parent Opposition | Diane Ravitch's blog

Impoverished Pennsylvania District About to Be Fully Charterized, Despite Parent Opposition | Diane Ravitch's blog

Impoverished Pennsylvania District About to Be Fully Charterized, Despite Parent Opposition

Chester-Upland school district is one of the poorest in the state. Seventy percent of its students are black. One big charter school, owned and operated by a wealthy Republican lawyer from Philadelphia, already dominates the district with his Chester Community Charter School. The district has been in receivership and under state control for years. Even though CCCS is a low-performing charter, the state’s only idea is to hand over all the schools to charter operators.

This is an important story, well told by this reporter. It follows the template for charterization:  Underfund a predominately African-American school district for years, then have the state take control because of financial issues. Strip the school board of all power and appoint a CONTINUE READING: Impoverished Pennsylvania District About to Be Fully Charterized, Despite Parent Opposition | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Guest Post: Dispatch from Beleaguered PA District

CURMUDGUCATION: Guest Post: Dispatch from Beleaguered PA District

Guest Post: Dispatch from Beleaguered PA District

 I've been following the story of Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania. It's a long history featuring every imaginable problem that could afflict a school district. Currently the district is facing a charter takeover and a mysterious stack of vanished money.

The following post was sent to me from inside the district and written by a teacher who prefers to remain anonymous. It provides a picture of some of the issues within the district.

Promises made, broken and never even acknowledged…

This letter is penned from the desk of a frustrated and exhausted teacher within the Chester Upland School district. For months, if not years now, the district has made headlines in many news outlets for a variety of positive and challenging stories. The district has found itself under watch and scrutiny over the years, but this year seems to be holding nothing back. Surprisingly I have to write this to shed even more light on the conditions and lack of care by the district for its students and staff.

Let’s start with the Chester County Intermediate Unit. In the fall of 2020, the CCIU was awarded a 3 million dollar, 3 year contract to help oversee departmental operations of CUSD to aid in “righting CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Guest Post: Dispatch from Beleaguered PA District

CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

In Chester Upland School District, the process of selling off the district schools to charter operators has continued (for a deeper dive into CUSD's troubled history, read here). Three charter operators have made their bids, and we'll take a closer look at that another day. It's all pretty sad and ugly.

But there's another troubling aspect to the dismantling of Chester Upland schools. The three charter companies have placed their bids to take over CUSD elementary schools. As has been hinted at all along, nobody wants to take over either of the two high schools.

The debates about charters and choice have often centered on the question of the students left behind in a school. when other students leave for a charter. How do the financial resources balance out? How does a district financially support ten schools when it was having trouble supporting two? 

But this is a whole other scenario. The charter operators are taking over elementary operations, but leaving the high school untouched, meaning that the high school can find itself drained of resources with absolutely no reduction in cost at all. Theoretically it would not be a problem because the charters would be inheriting the same student body and therefor the same funding. Except that in Pennsylvania's screwy funding system, a special; education student is funded at a far higher level for charters than in a public school. In public schools, special ed students are arranged in tiers are according to how expensive it is to meet their needs; in charter CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

The Chester Upland School District frequently gets the adjective "embattled" in front of its name, and it has earned that name by suffering every hardship ever inflicted on a school district. Most recently, it has been the target of a plan to chop the district up and sell the parts off to various charter school operators.

But suddenly, this week, new issues. The story was first picked up by the Delco Times, and in that version, the FBI has descended upon the southwestern PA district. Yesterday the Philadelphia Inquirer's Maddie Hanna and Vinny Valla covered the story as well, and the narrative is morphing. In their version, the FBI makes no apearance and this is just an inquiry by the county DA.

But central to all versions of the story are "millions" of missing dollars.

Juan Baughn is the state's current receiver (the district has had several at this point) who moved directly to that job from the superintendent's position in the district. His explanation is, well...

Juan Baughn, the receiver overseeing the school district, said it contacted law enforcement after it didn’t receive “millions” of dollars in a subsidy payment due last week from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“Our system, between us and Harrisburg, somehow was hacked,” Baughn said Thursday. “It’s a cyber issue.”

This is an extraordinary story, and it raises many questions. Can one really "intercept" a cyber- CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Update: Chester Upland's Mysterious Missing Money

CURMUDGUCATION: Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances

CURMUDGUCATION: Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances

Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances

Chester Upland School District has been through the wringer, suffering through just about every problem a school district could face in the last century. Most recently they have been facing a state receivership and an administration that seems anxious to convert them to charter schools, the first district in Pennsylvania to be official dismantled, gutted and sold for parts.

Today, more trouble--at least for some folks:

The FBI and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer are investigating are investigating millions of dollars worth of missing funds in the Chester Upland School District, sources close to the investigation confirmed late Wednesday.

The DA's office became aware of the situation Monday. 

If this sounds fairly sedate, the rumors circulating are considerably less. Talk of a money-laundering scheme run through the district, with the FBI raiding the administration offices and collecting all computers, servers--the works.

Financial issues have been at the heart of district issues for years, with the state at one point declaring that the record keeping was such a mess that an audit couldn't even be completed. Missing CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Breaking: FBI Investigating Chester Upland District Finances

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Chester Upland School District On Verge of Charterization

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Chester Upland School District On Verge of Charterization

PA: Chester Upland School District On Verge of Charterization

I don't usually do this, but I've spent a ton of time working on a Forbes.com piece about a PA school district that is on the verge of making history by becoming the first district in the state to be fully charterized. It's a big complicated story, but it hits on many of the classic problems. The charter funding death spiral. The long term effects of de facto segregation; this school district shares a border with one of the wealthiest, top-rated districts in the state. 

And while we're all listening to testocrats argue that the spring test must be given because that's how states identify need and target resources--well, Chester Upland test scores have been screaming "help us" for a long time, and the state hasn't sent jack or squat in targeted resources--just a long string of disruptive, failed takeover attempts. 

So this is a story that's important and worth reading, and I'm hoping you'll click on over and take a look while it's still fresh. 

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Chester Upland School District On Verge of Charterization

PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE