2nd BANANA: Top Posts This Week 8/4/18

Top Posts This Week

• 

  An Explanation to My Readers | Diane Ravitch's blog
• 

  DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC
• 

  New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates
• 

  The DeVos Democrats and Betsy DeVos’ Message to Students: You Have the Right to Be Ripped Off
• 

  Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out - The Hechinger Report
• 

  Randi Weingarten joins Margaret Hoover to Discuss the Supreme Court Janus Ruling | Firing Line | PBS
• 

  Hess/Addison: Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU
• 

  LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation
• 

  LeBron James, education reformer. Attn. Waltons. | Arkansas Blog
• 

  How Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times

 Posts This Month

YESTERDAY

How Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times

by mike simpson / 21h

How Tech Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times How Tech Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole Late in 2014, Nicholas Woodman, the founder and chief executive of GoPro, announced what appeared to be an extraordinary act of generosity. Mr. Woodman, then 39, had just taken his camera company public, and was suddenly worth about $3 bill

AUG 02

School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam | tultican

by mike simpson / 1d

School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam | tultican School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam ACSA endorsed a candidate for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction who actively works to privatize public schools. As a participant in the Destroy Public Education (DPE) movement, he supports initiatives undermining the teaching profession and good pedagogy. Esta

LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation

by mike simpson / 1d

LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise A school funded by LeBron James in Akron, Ohio, is a beautiful example of what all our public education should look like. “ W e don’t deserve LeBron James.” This has been the drumbeat, steadily repeated on social media, ever since the greatest basketball

Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin + The Privatization of Puerto Rico’s Public Schools Has Begun – Betsy DeVos Is On the Job | Video Worth Watching

by mike simpson / 1d

Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin This past school year, Wisconsin taxpayers sent $250,000,000 to religious schools. Catholics received the largest slice, but Protestants, evangelicals, and Jews got their cuts. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reveals that private Islamic school

DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC

by mike simpson / 2d

DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now From the policy of separating immigrant families, to limiting the power of labor unions, to naming the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, this summer the DeVos family name has been all over the news. Over the years, the parents, in-laws and husband of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy

AUG 01

New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates

by mike simpson / 2d

New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates New Report Uncovers Systemic Failure by California Charter Schools to Meet Local Control Obligations A new report by Public Advocates Inc. uncovers a massive failure on the part of California charter schools to be transparent about how they spend milli

Privatization and Segregation of U.S. Public Education Endangers Democracy - BTL

by mike simpson / 3d

Privatization and Segregation of U.S. Public Education Endangers Democracy - BTL Privatization and Segregation of U.S. Public Education Endangers Democracy Interview with Noliwe Rooks, author and director of American studies at Cornell University, conducted by Scott Harris Randi Weingarten, who leads the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers union declared in August that President Tr

JUL 31

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/31/18

by mike simpson / 3d

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/31/18 TODAY CHARTER SCHOOL CROOKS IN THE NEWS: Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune | WBEZ by mike simpson / 3h Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune Com

CHARTER SCHOOL CROOKS IN THE NEWS: Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune | WBEZ

by mike simpson / 3d

Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds A for-profit company that educates at-risk students won tens of millions of dollars from Chicago Public Schools with help from then-CEO Barba

CHARTER SCHOOL CROOKS IN THE NEWS: Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune

by mike simpson / 3d

Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds - Chicago Tribune Company used convicted Chicago schools chief in 'highly unethical' work to win millions in CPS business, watchdog finds A for-profit company that educates at-risk students won tens of millions of dollars from Chicago Public Schools with help from then-CEO Barba

Inside A FCMAT Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team Audit of One More Unaccountable California Charter School

by mike simpson / 3d

Livermore charter schools accused of misuse of public funds Inside A FCMAT Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team Audit of One More Unaccountable California Charter School LIVERMORE — An audit released Thursday suggests Livermore’s two charter schools misappropriated public funds, including a tax-exempt bond totaling $67 million, and mainly pointed the finger at former CEO Bill Batchelor. The

What New Orleans Tells Us About the Perils of Putting Schools on the Free Market | The New Yorker

by mike simpson / 4d

What New Orleans Tells Us About the Perils of Putting Schools on the Free Market | The New Yorker What New Orleans Tells Us About the Perils of Putting Schools on the Free Market A year ago, I volunteered to serve on the board of a charter elementary school in New Orleans, where I live. Two months ago, in a cafeteria crowded with whiplashed parents, I tried to give some comfort by explaining why,

LeBron James, education reformer. Attn. Waltons. | Arkansas Blog

by mike simpson / 4d

LeBron James, education reformer. Attn. Waltons. | Arkansas Blog LeBron James, education reformer. Attn. Waltons. Give a read to the new public school basketball star LeBron James is backing to serve at-risk kids in Akron. Imagine. It's a part of the Akron School District. It is NOT a charter school. It is NOT a private school. They aren't skimming students from motivated families who might alrea

L.A. School Board in Limbo After Member's Felony Plea | Capital & Main

by mike simpson / 4d

L.A. School Board in Limbo After Member's Felony Plea | Capital & Main L.A. School Board in Limbo After Member’s Felony Plea A troubled charter-school advocate calls it quits — but not before participating in a string of key policy votes. “Learning Curves” is a weekly roundup of news items, profiles and dish about the intersection of education and inequality. Send tips, feedback and announcements

JUL 30

Randi Weingarten joins Margaret Hoover to Discuss the Supreme Court Janus Ruling | Firing Line | PBS

by mike simpson / 4d

Randi Weingarten | Firing Line | PBS Randi Weingarten joins Margaret Hoover to Discuss the Supreme Court Janus Ruling Randi Weingarten | Firing Line | PBS

Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out - The Hechinger Report

by mike simpson / 4d

Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out - The Hechinger Report Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out Dissatisfied with low pay and school funding, teachers in more red states are poised to protest. I n 2015, Jennifer Vetter decided to change careers and become a teacher. The 46-year old quit her well-paying management job at an orthodontic clinic in Gilbert, Ariz

The DeVos Democrats and Betsy DeVos’ Message to Students: You Have the Right to Be Ripped Off

by mike simpson / 5d

Betsy DeVos’ Message to Students: You Have the Right to Be Ripped Off Betsy DeVos’ Message to Students: You Have the Right to Be Ripped Off The education secretary’s new rules on student loans favor the predatory institutions that don’t provide good educations and blame the students who trusted them. When I read about what Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did last week on student loans, I thought

JUL 29

An Explanation to My Readers | Diane Ravitch's blog

by mike simpson / 6d

An Explanation to My Readers | Diane Ravitch's blog An Explanation to My Readers Dear Readers, Most of you have been faithful readers of this blog since I started it in 2012. I consider you my friends, even when we disagree. You have tolerated (and even corrected) my typos and errors because you know that everything I write here is written by me, not by a staff. I am the only staff. You know that

JUL 28

Damn Good Education Daily:A Twitter List by @coopmike48/birds on a wire on Twitter

by mike simpson / 7d

Damn Good Education Daily - Paper.li Damn Good Education Daily Damn Good Education Daily - Paper.li A Twitter List by coopmike48 @coopmike48/birds on a wire on Twitter

Randi Weingarten: Teaching demands respect from Keleher | Meter

by mike simpson / 7d

Teaching demands respect from Keleher | Meter Teaching demands respect from Keleher The Association of Teachers held a demonstration to clarify, among other things, the uncertainty lived by about 2,000 teachers who have not been relocated Teachers and teachers of the Puerto Rico Teachers Association (AMPR) gathered today in front of the facilities of the Department of Education to demand, among o

Hess/Addison: Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review

by mike simpson / 7d

Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review Teachers’ Unions Plan to Become ‘More Political, Not Less Political’ The recent Supreme Court decision has not led to moderation. I n a 

How Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times

How Tech Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times

How Tech Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole

Late in 2014, Nicholas Woodman, the founder and chief executive of GoPro, announced what appeared to be an extraordinary act of generosity.

Mr. Woodman, then 39, had just taken his camera company public, and was suddenly worth about $3 billion. Now he was giving away much of that wealth — some $500 million worth of GoPro stock — to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, an organization based in Mountain View, Calif., that would house the assets of the newly formed Jill and Nicholas Woodman Foundation.

“We wake up every morning grateful for the opportunities life has given us,” Mr. Woodman and his wife said in a statement at the time. “We hope to return the favor as best we can.”

The executive basked in prestige and gratitude. The Chronicle of Philanthropy named Mr. Woodman one of “America’s most generous donors” that year, placing him alongside established philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael R. Bloomberg.

But four years on, there is almost no trace of the Woodman Foundation, or that $500 million. The foundation has no website and has not listed its areas of focus, and it is not known what — if any — significant grants it has made to nonprofits. An extensive search of public records turned up just one beneficiary: the Bonny Doon Art, Wine and Brew Festival, a benefit for an elementary school in California.

Instead, the Woodman Foundation essentially exists as an account within the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which is not required to disclose details about how, if at all, individual donors spend their charitable dollars. Mr. Woodman, GoPro and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation all declined to discuss the Woodman Foundation.

If the benefit to the needy is difficult to see, the benefit to Mr. Woodman is clear. After GoPro’s initial public offering, he faced an enormous tax bill in 2014. But by donating via the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, he eased his tax burden in two ways. First, Mr. Woodman avoided paying capital gains taxes on that $500 million worth of stock, a figure that most likely would have been in the tens of millions of dollars. He was also able to claim a charitable deduction that most likely saved millions of dollars more, and probably reduced his personal tax bill for years to come.

Mr. Woodman achieved this enticing combination of tax efficiency and secrecy by using a donor-advised fund — a sort of charitable checking account with serious tax benefits and little or no accountability.

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Donor-advised funds, or D.A.F.s, allow wealthy individuals like Mr. Woodman to give assets — usually cash and stock, but also real estate, art and cryptocurrencies — to a sponsoring organization like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Fidelity Charitable or Vanguard Charitable. But while donors part ways with their money, they don’t give up control. The sponsoring organizations make grants to hospitals, schools and the like only at a donor’s request. So while donors enjoy immediate tax benefits, charities can wait for funds indefinitely, and maybe forever.CONTINUE READING: How Tech Billionaires Hack Their Taxes With a Philanthropic Loophole - The New York Times

School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam | tultican

School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam | tultican

School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam

ACSA endorsed a candidate for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction who actively works to privatize public schools. As a participant in the Destroy Public Education (DPE) movement, he supports initiatives undermining the teaching profession and good pedagogy.

Established in 1971 to advance the cause of public education, the ACSA has joined ranks with groups working to end taxpayer supported universal public education. The endorsement of Marshall Tuck over Tony Thurmond for Superintendent makes this clear.

Tuck and Thurmond are both Democrats. Thurmond is a progressive and Tuck is a neoliberal. The California Teachers Association (CTA) endorses Thurmond as do a long list of elected officials and organizations including Senator Kamala Harris.

Jenifer Berkshire’s article “How Education Reform Ate the Democratic Party,” describes neoliberals:

“‘The solutions of the thirties will not solve the problems of the eighties,’ wrote Randall Rothenberg in his breathless 1984 paean to this new breed [of Democrats], whom he called simply ‘The Neoliberals.’ His list of luminaries included the likes of Paul Tsongas, Bill Bradley, Gary Hart and Al Gore …. …, the ascendancy of the neoliberals represented an economic repositioning of the Democratic Party…. The era of big, affirmative government demanding action—desegregate those schools, clean up those polluted rivers, enforce those civil rights and labor laws—was over.”

Pictures snipped from campaign cyber sites and reformatted by Ultican.

Tony Thurmond spoke at the CTA delegates meeting in October 2017. He won their endorsement. The CTA news release said:

“We won’t stand for vouchers and we will not allow the privatization of public schools in the great state of California,” Thurmond told cheering delegates. He declared that resolving the teacher shortage is key to closing student achievement gaps. “I don’t know how we close the achievement Continue reading: School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam | tultican

Tony Thurmond for State Superintendent of Public Instruction - https://www.tonythurmond.com/

LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation

LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation

LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise

A school funded by LeBron James in Akron, Ohio, is a beautiful example of what all our public education should look like.

“We don’t deserve LeBron James.” This has been the drumbeat, steadily repeated on social media, ever since the greatest basketball player on earth opened a new public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, called I Promise. The school, which serves 240 at-risk third- and fourth-graders, is a sight to behold. It stands as a breathtaking piece of architecture, sending an immediate message to the children about their worth from the moment they step through the doors. In addition to meals, job training for parents, and even a bicycle and helmet for every student, the school offers guaranteed college tuition for everyone who goes on to graduate high school.

All credit to LeBron James, who just adds to his résumé as someone—much to the chagrin of Laura Ingraham and her Fox News acolytes—who will never just “shut up and dribble.” As James said to ESPN about his school, “We want to create an environment of family and not like a workplace. Sometimes you can get tired if you look at it like work—you kind of get tired of it. We want to create an environment of family where you want to always be around your family. No matter the good and the bad, you always want to be around that support system.”

The praise he is receiving is more than deserved. That the school is public and not a charter is also special and demands particular attention. I spoke to Jesse Hagopian, activist Seattle public-school teacher and co-author of the book Teaching for Black Lives. He said, “Corporate education reformers have claimed that charter schools—taking public funds for privately run schools—are the only way to bring innovation to education. With his ‘I Promise’ public school, LeBron has shook that idea like so many opponents on his way to the rack. By partnering with the Akron Public Schools—not trying to subvert them or profit off of them with an unaccountable charter—LeBron has demonstrated to the world the power of truly investing in public education.”

While going on a media tour to promote the school, James has taken the opportunity to challenge Trump’s racism, telling CNN, “He’s kinda used sport to kinda divide us. And that’s something that I can’t relate to because I know that sport was the first time I was ever around someone white.”

He also said that Trump has emboldened racists. “The president in charge now has given people… they don’t care now―they throw it in your face now.” When asked what he would say to Trump if he was sitting across the table from him, James just said, “I would never sit across from him.”

It’s true, we maybe don’t deserve LeBron James in our cultural life. At the same time, it is vital that we don’t fall in love with the idea that the wealthy philanthropist, no matter how exemplary, is going to fix the crisis of public education in this country. James, one of the the most powerful and wealthy athletes on earth, just put his heart and soul into building this school, and its reach is still 240 children in Akron. In Baltimore, thousands of young people freeze in their schools’ dilapidated buildings during the winter and face unbearable heat over the summer. As Aaron Maybin, former NFL player and current Baltimore art teacher, said last winter, “How would your kids concentrate if you sent them to school in a refrigerator for eight hours? With failing lighting. Two classes in one room? We tried our best as Continue reading: LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise | The Nation

Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin + The Privatization of Puerto Rico’s Public Schools Has Begun – Betsy DeVos Is On the Job | Video Worth Watching

Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin

Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin

This past school year, Wisconsin taxpayers sent $250,000,000 to religious schools. Catholics received the largest slice, but Protestants, evangelicals, and Jews got their cuts. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reveals that private Islamic schools took in $6,350,000. Of the 212 schools collecting voucher money, 197 were religious schools.

The Wisconsin voucher program was expanded before the 2014-2015 school year. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “Seventy-five percent of eligible students who applied for taxpayer-funded subsidies to attend private and religious schools this fall in the statewide voucher program already attend private schools ….”

Money taken from the public schools attended by the vast majority of Milwaukee’s students is sent to private religious schools. Public schools must adjust for stranded costs while paying to serve a higher percentage of special education students because private schools won’t take them. Forcing public schools to increase class sizes, reduce offerings such as music and lay off staff.

A mounting social division like those faced after the civil war is developing. Katherine Stewart shared that history in her stunning book, The Good News Club:

By the latter half of the nineteenth century, Lutherans as well as Catholics had developed extensive systems of parochial education. For many Protestants, however, the loss of students from those denominations was not a welcome development. It was feared that the combined force of the Lutheran and Catholic electorate would endanger the existence of public education altogether. The tensions between those who wanted universal public education and those who wanted their schools to look like their churches continued to grow. In 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant declared that if a new civil war were to erupt, it would be fought not across the Mason-Dixon Line but at the door of the common schoolhouse. In an 1876 speech in Des Moines, Iowa, he articulated the conclusion many people had already drawn concerning the continuing struggles over religion in the public schools: “Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions,” he said. “Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards I believe the battles which created the Army of Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.” (pages 73-74) (emphasis added)

Privatizing Public Schools Not Achieving Predictions

John E. Chubb was a co-founder of the for-profit Edison Schools and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. Terry M. Moe was a professor of political science at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Chubb and Moe co-authored Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools which was published by Continue reading: Destroying Public Education With Vouchers and Charters in Wisconsin

The Privatization of Puerto Rico’s Public Schools Has Begun – Betsy DeVos Is On the Job | Video Worth Watching

Since our platform is about expressing ideas and ideals instead of cash flow, clicks, or fundraising, we have the freedom to include a wide range of topics and formats that might not work elsewhere. We don’t need or want paid content, promotional materials, or story lines designed to please donors.

So the idea here is to present videos one or more of the editors feel speaks to them. Sometimes it will be news. Sometimes it will be history. And a lot of the time it will be culture. You can not and should not separate these things: it is diversity and intersectionality that makes our movement strong.

Feel free to suggest videos at contact@sandiegofreepress.org

The Privatization of Puerto Rico’s Public Schools Has Begun – Betsy DeVos Is On the Job | Video Worth Watching - https://sandiegofreepress.org/2018/08/the-privatization-of-puerto-ricos-public-schools-has-begun-betsy-devos-is-on-the-job-video-worth-watching/ on @SDFreePressorg

DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC

DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC

DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now

From the policy of separating immigrant families, to limiting the power of labor unions, to naming the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, this summer the DeVos family name has been all over the news.

Over the years, the parents, in-laws and husband of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have given hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative causes. And many of those causes are front and center of policy initiatives and goals of the Trump administration right now.

Those foundations include: the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation (founded by the education secretary and her husband); the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative (formerly the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation), founded by Betsy DeVos' in-laws; and the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, founded by her parents.

Betsy and Dick DeVos support free-market conservative organizations "because of their mainstream, common commitment to freedom, the most universal civil liberty," said Greg McNeilly of the Windquest investment group, one of the family's for-profit financial holdings, in response to inquiries about Betsy DeVos' giving. "This commitment to protecting and promoting freedom is an animating core of their worldview."

And, he added, the family supports humanitarian organizations, because "helping the poor and disadvantaged is a driving principle of their worldview and it's reflected in the history of their foundation."

Betsy DeVos oversaw some of this giving personally, as a member of the board of directors of the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation since 1989. In a disclosure form prior to her confirmation as education secretary, DeVos reported resigning her position at the foundation as of December 2016.

During her confirmation hearing, DeVos denied making decisions for the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, which is on record giving to many anti-LGBT groups, despite being listed as a board member for 17 years; she said this was a clerical error.

Lonnie Scott, who tracks the family's philanthropic giving as head of the progressive Continue reading: DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC

New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates

New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates

New Report Uncovers Systemic Failure by California Charter Schools to Meet Local Control Obligations

A new report by Public Advocates Inc. uncovers a massive failure on the part of California charter schools to be transparent about how they spend millions of taxpayer dollars to benefit high need students, as required by state law.

The report, which is the first systematic analysis of charter school Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) found critical financial and engagement information missing, unavailable, or incomplete at a shocking number of charter schools.

Not a single school analyzed for this report properly documented how it was increasing or improving services for high need students, services for which those charter schools received $48.6 million this past year. Even more concerning, two-thirds of that amount was completely unaccounted for. Statewide, charters receive over $900 million annually to increase or improve services for high need students.

The report, “Keeping the Promise of LCFF in Charter Schools,” included an investigation 43 schools in Oakland, Sacramento, Richmond, Los Angeles, and San Jose and found that:

• One-third of all charter schools examined had no LCAP online. These public documents were still missing after email requests to the school, its authorizer, and the County Office of Education
• More than two-thirds of the state funds generated by high need students—over $30 million—were unaccounted for; of the $48.6 million these schools received specifically for high need students in 2017-2018, there was only documentation for $15.8 million in planned spending
• Only 21% clearly measured how they engaged parents in school decision-making, and only 37% described how community engagement impacted their planning process
• 91% of charter schools examined serving 15% or more English learners did not post their LCAPs in a language other than English
• Of the 12 Charter Management Organizations examined in the report and that manage 123 charter schools in multiple cities, 100% adopt LCAPs at a single meeting in a single location, with minimal public comment

The report calls for expert oversight and improved support over charter school LCAPs, especially when it comes to transparency for funds designated to improve services for high need students. The report also recommends legislation that would holds charter schools to similar standards of transparency and engagement as public schools.

Click here for a copy of the report
Click here for a list of the charter schools investigated for this report
Click here for a copy of the press release in English
Click here for a copy of the press release in Spanish

Read More: New report uncovers systemic failure by California charter schools to meet basic obligations of transparency and accountability - Public Advocates

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