Day of the Spy Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Day of the Spy Diane Ravitch's blog

 A site to discuss better education for all

Valerie Strauss Recaps Betsy DeVos’s Testimony about the Budget and Civil Rights

by dianeravitch / 11min

I confess. I didn’t watch Betsy DeVos testify. I didn’t want to. No one pays me to blog every day, so I have some discretion in how I use my time. What I did instead, which was very taxing, was to watch preview DVDs on the PBS special 

An Open Letter to the Education Minister of Liberia

2by dianeravitch / 41min

Education International, which represents teachers unions around the world, issued a bulletin about disturbing developments in Liberia, which threaten freedom of research about the performance of corporate outsourced schools. EI wrote in a letter I received: “As you would be aware, just over 12 months ago, in an unprecedented move, the Government of Liberia announced its intention to out-source i

Sources of Innovation: Our Public Schools, Honoring Outstanding Student Broadcast Journalism

1by dianeravitch / 41min

Looking for innovation? Check out your public schools, where the entire district can collaborate to develop new ideas and sustain them, and where districts can exchange and incubate good ideas and practices. On June 5, the Southold Independent School District honored high school students engaged in broadcast journalism. Representatives of schools from across Long Island gathered for the inaugural

Chan-Zuckerberg Put Their Money on Depersonalized Learning

4by dianeravitch / 41min

Boy wonder Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan are placing their bets on technology to teach children better than humans. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017/6/6/chan-zuckerbergs-

Georgia Reviews Low-Performing Charter Schools

2by dianeravitch / 22min

Charter schools were supposed to “save poor children from low-performing public schools.” But some of them are low-performing schools , worse than the public schools the children leave. The State Charter School Conmission is 

New York: NYSAPE Blasts State ESSA Plan

2by dianeravitch / 35min

New York State Allies for Public Education represents more than 50 parent and teacher organizations. It has led the Opt Out movement, in which 20% of the eligible children have refused the state tests year after year, including 50% on Long Island. Their members regularly attend legislative hearings in Albany and meet with legislators. They attend meetings of the Board of Regents. They follow the

Audrey Watters: Education Technology as “The New Normal”

2by dianeravitch / 1h

Audrey Watters blogs about technology. This post was recommended by a reader. This is a speech posted on her blog that she delivered at an ed-tech conference in Mexico. Here is a brief excerpt: “When I hear the phrase “the new normal,” I cannot help but think of the ways in which those same words were used in the US to describe the economy during and since the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and su

Nevada Rejects ESA Vouchers, But Funds Tax Credit Voucher

3by dianeravitch / 1h

A voucher is a voucher is a voucher. It means shifting public tax money to private schools. The Democrat-controlled Nevada Legislature rejected Education Savings Accounts vouchers, which would have allowed every family to have a debit card for education. It was hailed by conservatives as the best universal voucher program in the nation. But it will not be funded. However, the Democrats did alloca

Alan Singer: Pearson and the Neo-Liberal Global Assault on Public Education

8by dianeravitch / 2h

Alan Singer writes here about the global ambitions and activities of Pearson, the giant British corporation that seeks to dominate education. He writes: “Powerful forces are at work shaping global education in both the North Atlantic core capitalist nations and regions historically referred to as the Third World. Neoliberal business philosophies and practices promoted by corporations and their pa

YESTERDAY

Congratulations, Peter Greene!

2by dianeravitch / 11h

Today, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Greene welcomed Walter and William into the world. Congratulations to the family! Thank you for giving these two beautiful gifts to this troubled world to bring you and all who know them great joy!

Fake News about the Saudi Arms Deal

6by dianeravitch / 19h

Bill Moyers’ website reports: Showmanship –> On returning from his first foreign trip, Donald Trump touted the $110 billion weapons deal he’d cut with the Saudi government. But Bruce Riedel, director of the Brookings Intelligence Project, writes that “there is no deal. It’s fake news.” According to Riedel, “there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers tha

CNN on NSA Leaker

4by dianeravitch / 20h

CNN reported that Realty Winner, the woman accused of leaking a top-secret document about Russian interference in the 2016 election, called Trump the “orange fascist” on a social media account. Now we know why she leaked that document and why she will never be pardoned. Ten years in jail.

URGENT: Why NSA Contractor Leaked Top-Secret Evidence of Russian Interference in 2016 Election

12by dianeravitch / 21h

A woman working for an NSA contractor heard a podcast by The Intercept in which Glenn Greenwald and others expressed skepticism about Russian hacking of the 2016 election. According to news reports, she copied top-secret evidence and sent it to The Intercept to prove that Russians hacked into election software before the 2016 election. “On March 22, The Intercept hosted a podcast online looking a

NY Times: The Tech Billionaires Who Are Remaking America’s Schools

17by dianeravitch / 22h

This is an important article about the Silicon Valley billionaires who want to remake America’s schools, although none has any deep knowledge of children or cognition or the multiple social issues that affect children and families. Being tech entrepreneurs, most of them think there is a technological fix for every problem. The article focuses on several billionaires and what they aim to achieve.

Jan Resseger: Meet the National Lobbyists Who Have Pushed a Far-Right Wing Agenda into the States

23by dianeravitch / 23h

Jan Resseger read Gordon Lafer’s new book, “The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time,” and she understood the pattern on the rug. “Gordon Lafer explains that in the November 2010 election, “Eleven state governments switched from Democratic or divided control to unified Republican control of the governorship and both houses of the legislature. Since these

Nancy E. Bailey: Pre-School Rigor Is Child Abuse

87by dianeravitch / 1d

Well, she didn’t exactly use that term, but I did. Bailey reviews a study that calls for more “rigor” in preschool and the New York Times’ shameless endorsent of this finding. What if someone did a study and concluded that leeches are the best curative and every hospital should order a supply? Just because someone does a “study” doesn’t mean that it is just or reasonable. Suppose a study found th

Take One Minute to Learn Why TFA Is a Problem

32by dianeravitch / 1d

This is a very brief video about Teach for America. It demonstrates the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. It needs to be updated: a one minute video is worth a 10,000 word essay of the video is well done. Salute the arrival of a brilliant new film production company. It won’t make anyone rich because it gives away its product for free. It is the BadAss Teachers Association and Stev

“The Demolition of American Education,” By Trump and DeVos

12by dianeravitch / 1d

I wrote an article for the New York Review of Books about the proposed Trump-DeVos budget. The whole world needs to know what Trump and DeVos want to do to limit access to college and to undermine public education.

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Take Action to Save Afterschool: President Trump's budget eliminates funding for afterschool and summer programs

Afterschool Alliance:

Take Action to Save Afterschool

President Trump's budget eliminates funding for afterschool and summer programs

Afterschool Alliance:

Sacramento Schools Ready To Put Farm-To-Fork Into Student Lunches « CBS Sacramento

Sacramento Schools Ready To Put Farm-To-Fork Into Student Lunches « CBS Sacramento:

Sacramento Schools Ready To Put Farm-To-Fork Into Student Lunches

SACRAMENTO — The farm-to-fork lifestyle is blooming in one Sacramento school district.

Sacramento City Unified is launching its Central Kitchen Project, where food will be prepared locally and sent to schools. The project is being funded by Measure R which voters passed in 2012, to allow the district to improve the health and safety of children.

Hiram Johnson High School is one of 80 schools in the district that’s getting a menu makeover. The goal of the project is to bring clean, locally grown food into the cafeteria. While cafeteria workers at Hiram Johnson High School unveil Monday’s lunch, Sac City Unified is unveiling plans to turn a bus yard into a central kitchen.

“I’m kind of a picky eater too so I don’t enjoy certain types of food,” said senior Cody Tuyen.

He finds himself skipping meals during school.

“The chicken and hamburgers are dry,” Tuyen said.

For athletes like Sabrina Lee, school lunches sometimes aren’t an option.

“I’ve started to notice that I can’t eat a lot of school food because my body doesn’t feel as great like when I eat something healthier,” Lee added.

According to Sacramento County’s Department of Health and Human Services, 36 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds are obese.

The school district says it recognizes the need for nutrition-packed school meals, which is why it’s getting ready to build a central kitchen. The hope is to make healthy eating a new trend.

“We are really gonna focus on dinner-style options, anything you see at a restaurant or have at home,” said Diane Flores of the district.

Clean, fresh and local is the goal. Right now, most schools within Sac City Unified don’t have the kitchen space to prepare food from scratch, often relying on frozen and processed foods.

“We are hoping to prepare something fresh, send it the next day, it will look better and taste better,” Flores added.

Entrees will be made from scratch in the central kitchen, along with every other dish on the school menu.

“If it’s grown locally it’ll be more fresh and it’ll taste better especially like fruits,” said Tuyen.

The idea is appealing to him, and he says the farm-to-fork approach will entice more students to dine at the school cafeteria in hopes of getting kids to switch from burgers to berries.

The school district is holding a public meeting at Hiram Johnson High School on Wednesday to get input from parents and students. The central kitchen will launch in the Fall of 2021.

Angela Musallamfacebook

Sacramento Schools Ready To Put Farm-To-Fork Into Student Lunches « CBS Sacramento:

DeVos says school spending and student outcomes aren’t related, but recent research suggests otherwise | Chalkbeat

DeVos says school spending and student outcomes aren’t related, but recent research suggests otherwise | Chalkbeat:

DeVos says school spending and student outcomes aren’t related, but recent research suggests otherwise

 More money is not the answer for schools, suggested U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in Senate testimony Tuesday — but a wave of new studies show that additional money for schools can make a big difference for students.

In an exchange with Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, DeVos reiterated her view on the topic. Kennedy began by saying, “Do you find it at all strange that in America now, we seem to judge success in education by how much money we’re spending as opposed to whether our kids are learning?”

DeVos replied, “I do find that strange. In fact, in the last administration there was $7 billion invested specifically into schools that were failing … to improve them and there was absolutely zero outcome from that investment.”

“The notion that spending more money is going to bring about different results is ill-placed and ill-advised,” she said.

DeVos was relying on evidence from one specific program, but the broader research on money in education generally paints a more positive picture.

“There’s this notion out there that increased spending doesn’t help,” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach who has studied school spending and is the director the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. “There’s good evidence that indeed increased spending does help — it increases student test scores and it improves later life outcomes.”

A few major national studies have reached that conclusion.

One analysis, published in the peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal of Economics, found that court-ordered increases in school spending caused students to attend college at higher rates and earn more money as adults. Another study, coauthored by Schanzenbach, showed that when states increased spending they saw substantial increases in scores on the federal NAEP exam.

Other national research has linked more spending to higher graduation rates and DeVos says school spending and student outcomes aren’t related, but recent research suggests otherwise | Chalkbeat:

Betsy DeVos is 'peripherally aware' that people don't like her - LA Times

Betsy DeVos is 'peripherally aware' that people don't like her - LA Times:

Betsy DeVos is 'peripherally aware' that people don't like her

What exactly would a federal school voucher program look like, and would it fund schools that discriminate against students based on their gender, religion, race or sexual orientation?

That question was a major flash point — once again — on  Tuesday as senators in an appropriations subcommittee questioned U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked DeVos if any voucher program would follow anti-discrimination laws.

DeVos repeated, at least six times over the course of the hearing, that any school accepting federal money would have to follow federal law. 

But some senators were dissatisfied with this answer.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) had a heated back-and-forth with DeVos over the question. "Where law is unsettled, this department will not be issuing decrees," DeVos said. When she gave the answer she kept repeating again, Merkley said he wanted the public to know that DeVos refuses to affirm that she would prevent discrimination. DeVos said that was not true: "I don't support discrimination."

Exactly how nondiscrimination law would apply to which programs is unclear though. Some parts of the law are murky. Discrimination by race, color or national origin is not allowed in any private school under Title IX. But there is no federal law explicitly protecting LGBTQ students from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And protections for students with disabilities haven't been fully defined by laws or the courts.

DeVos insisted several times that there is no federal voucher program. But here's what we know about what could be in the works:

• President Trump and DeVos have hinted that they would favor a tax-credit program that would give businesses that donate to nonprofit scholarship organizations tax breaks — with the scholarships produced allowing for students attend private or parochial schools.
• It would be up to Congress to create such a tax-credit program. Such a program would not necessarily be subject to nondiscrimination laws because the dollars would flow from companies to nonprofits to schools. 
• Trump's budget proposed using $250 million to encourage states to boost "private school choice."

It was unclear which specific laws the senators who pushed back on DeVos' refrain were asking about. The federal government, however, can attach conditions to the money it gives out in programs such as the proposed Betsy DeVos is 'peripherally aware' that people don't like her - LA Times:

Russ on Reading: On Teaching Well: Five Lessons from Long Experience

Russ on Reading: On Teaching Well: Five Lessons from Long Experience:

On Teaching Well: Five Lessons from Long Experience

Today I turned 70 years old. I have no idea how this happened. I was going along, struggling to do the best I could and then suddenly I woke up and this old guy was staring back at me from the mirror. Turning 70, though, has its advantages. One of those advantages comes from accumulated experience. Another comes from the graying countenance that seems to make people pay attention to what that experience has taught you. I'll take it. It is flattering to have an audience of readers who think you still have something to say. Later today I will celebrate this milestone with family and friends, but this morning I wanted to celebrate with you, my esteemed readers. And so I share five lessons I have learned from a career in education spanning nearly 50 years.

Lesson 1: Teaching is about Relationships

At its most basic, teaching is about building individual relationships with children. If children trust you, they will be willing to follow you in your flights of instructional fantasy and if they follow you they will learn from you. As a young teacher I stumbled upon this insight. I was teaching in what was then called a junior high school, grades 7,8 and 9. I saw about 150 students a day. At first I found this task very daunting. I learned my student's names, but I did not think of them as people so much as classes, Russ on Reading: On Teaching Well: Five Lessons from Long Experience:

After Acrimonious Standoff, One State Legislature Rejects DeVos-ALEC School Privatization Scheme | janresseger

After Acrimonious Standoff, One State Legislature Rejects DeVos-ALEC School Privatization Scheme | janresseger:

After Acrimonious Standoff, One State Legislature Rejects DeVos-ALEC School Privatization Scheme

Unless you are a parent or a taxpayer in Nevada, you will probably conclude that this blog post doesn’t relate to you. But the defeat of Nevada’s ALEC-driven plan for Education Savings Account vouchers is directly relevant to you. Education Savings Accounts are among the most extreme of the school voucher schemes being promoted by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, whose education priorities will, most likely, have to been enacted at the state level. On Sunday night, Nevada’s legislature defeated this plan after a two-year battle. This subject matters to you because your state could soon be considering such a program.

Here is a bit of background from the Washington Post‘s Lyndsey Layton and Emma Brown, writing in June of 2015: “In January (2015), Republicans took control of the Nevada legislature and the governor’s mansion for the first time since 1929, generating the political momentum to enact the country’s most expansive voucher plan.”  “Starting next school year, any parent in Nevada can pull a child from the state’s public schools and take tax dollars with them, giving families the option to use public money to pay for private or parochial school or even home schooling… Nevada’s law is singular because all of the state’s 450,000 K-12 public school children—regardless of income—are eligible to take the money to whatever school they choose.” The only qualification was that the child must have attended a public school for 100 days.

Last September, after the Nevada Supreme Court found the funding for the Education Savings Accounts unconstitutional, the program was put on hold. David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center and co-counsel in the case that found the funding for this program unconstitutional, provides a quick summary of what happened to this program after the After Acrimonious Standoff, One State Legislature Rejects DeVos-ALEC School Privatization Scheme | janresseger:

Stability and Change in a Four Decade Career in Teaching (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Stability and Change in a Four Decade Career in Teaching (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Stability and Change in a Four Decade Career in Teaching (Part 2)

In 1963, I and my family moved to Washington, D.C. where I taught history at Cardozo High School and also trained returned Peace Corps volunteers to teach in urban settings. Called a “master teacher,” I taught two history classes while supervising interns who also taught two classes on their own. They would see me teach and I would observe their classes. While I still planned history lessons around materials I and others had created and designed the questions I would ask, I had also begun to incorporate into my repertoire techniques I had found successful at Glenville and expanded at Cardozo during the mid-1960s.  Student-led discussions, dividing the class into groups for varied tasks, creating instructional materials out of primary and secondary historical sources initially to supplement and later to replace the textbook became routine parts of my lessons. These approaches at the time could be loosely called the “new social studies,” a reform aimed at encouraging teachers to use inquiry, analysis of primary and secondary sources, and students doing research. The ex-Peace Corps interns used filmstrips, 16mm films, and the overhead projector for transparencies they had prepared for their classes. I began expanding my repertoire, learning from them, showing occasional films, making transparencies, and using the overhead projector.[i]

After directing the teacher-training project, I returned to teaching history five classes a day of history at Roosevelt High School also in the District of Columbia. In one of those five courses I organized the class so that students would spend at least one 50-minute period a week going from one teaching station to another that I had established for the lesson. Each of these stations, say a lesson on causes of the Civil War, would have a pair or trio of students answer questions as they moved from activity to activity (e.g., filmstrip to watch, photos to analyze, Stability and Change in a Four Decade Career in Teaching (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Belittling Parents and Ignoring Evidence Won't Work | Truth in American Education

Belittling Parents and Ignoring Evidence Won't Work | Truth in American Education:

Belittling Parents and Ignoring Evidence Won't Work

The Collaborative for Student Success (CSS) recently posted a particularly snarky piece blasting the moms who have been fighting back against the miseducation to which their children are being subjected under Common Core (CC). CSS is a propaganda outfit created by Common Core proponents such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ExxonMobil to push the national standards. The anti-mom piece (along with a new article repeating the false talking point that the new fed-ed law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), does away with CC) sheds no new light on the debate. In fact, it could have been written five years ago, as it ignores mountains of information that refutes its claims – but it does suggest that the moms’ success on social media is getting under the centralizers’ collective skin.

The CSS article contains so many flat-out deceptions that the most efficient way to address them is in bullet-point form. Here goes:

• CSS repeats the discredited claim that Patriot Journalist Network (PJNET) is a “bot” that manufactures anti-Common Core tweets. Nope. Every tweet issued via PJNET comes from a human, not a bot. It must really annoy Mr. Gates that the moms are using technology to outsmart him and his well-paid troops.
• CSS claims CC is merely a set of academic standards that some states have “chosen to adopt.” In fact, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) pushed the standards onto the states by tying their adoption to billions of dollars in federal Race to the Top money, during a time of deep recession when states were desperate for cash.
• CSS denies CC is a “data mining scheme,” but CC is, in fact, a large part of exactly such a scheme. In their rush to qualify for Race to the Top grants, states had to agree not only to adopt the standards but also to build out invasive student-data systems. CC also ushers in “digital learning,” through which corporations and the government collect the millions of data points students emit merely by using a sophisticated interactive software. This data can beBelittling Parents and Ignoring Evidence Won't Work | Truth in American Education: 

Indiana Ed Reform Ghostwriter Al Hubbard Will Not Join DeVos as US Deputy Ed Sec | deutsch29

Indiana Ed Reform Ghostwriter Al Hubbard Will Not Join DeVos as US Deputy Ed Sec | deutsch29:

Indiana Ed Reform Ghostwriter Al Hubbard Will Not Join DeVos as US Deputy Ed Sec

US Ed sec Betsy DeVos had been vetting Indiana businessman Al Hubbard for the position of US deputy secretary of education.

However, even though Hubbard avidly supports DeVos and her voucher-centric ed agenda, he has decided that the price of assuming the number two USDOE spot is too steep. As Chalkbeat notes on June 05, 2017:

Indianapolis businessman and philanthropist Al Hubbard is no longer in the running to serve under Secretary Betsy DeVos at the U.S. Department of Education.

Hubbard, who was a leading contender for the No. 2 spot at the department for months, told Politico and WFYI over the weekend that he withdrew his name from consideration because his family would have to sell off investments to meet ethics requirements.

In September 2013, the International Business Journal (IBJ) carried the following article on Hubbard’s involvement behind the scenes for “crafting education policy”:

The Indiana education overhaul that launched the nations broadest school voucher program and brought sweeping changes to how teachers and schools are evaluated angered thousands of teachers and made lightning rods of then-Gov. Mitch Daniels and schools chief Tony Bennett.

But emails and other documents obtained by The Associated Press show a small group of GOP powerbrokers crafted the details of the education policy that made Indiana a conservative model over Scotch whisky at an Indianapolis steakhouse and in meetings at a private club.

Hubbard was among this group of business elites who created Indiana’s 2011 ed reform package and then passed it along to lawmakers. Of course, this passing to lawmakers prefab legislation is exactly how the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) works.

Indeed, Jeb Bush’s Florida ed reform legislation serves as an ALEC model.

Thus, is will come as no surprise that when it came to Indiana Ed Reform Ghostwriter Al Hubbard Will Not Join DeVos as US Deputy Ed Sec | deutsch29:

NPE issues a position statement on charter schools - Network For Public Education

NPE issues a position statement on charter schools - Network For Public Education:

NPE issues a position statement on charter schools

Diane Ravitch did far more than criticize the Democrats in her recently published article entitled Don’t Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats. She reminded us that privatization did not begin with vouchers and Betsy DeVos. Charter schools, supported by both parties, have played a central role in the process of school privatization.

The bottom line is this–either you believe that taxpayer-funded schools should be nested in democracy, or you believe that private boards should run schools as they please with taxpayers footing the bill.

And so it seemed important that NPE issue a strong and decisive position statement on Charter Schools. Our statement draws a bright line between what is truly a public school and what is not. It explains the problems created by charters and also proposes a course forward.

The NPE Position Statement on Charter Schools can be found in its entirety here.

You can also read it below. Please take the time to read it. Advocate for the 16 changes that we list at the end. And please share it on social media. Thank you for your continued support of NPE and public schools. You can post this position statement using this link.

NPE Statement on Charter Schools

The Network for Public Education believes that public education is the pillar of our democracy. We believe in the common school envisioned by Horace Mann. A common school is a public institution, which nurtures and teaches all who live within its boundaries, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, sexual orientation or learning ability. All may enroll–regardless of when they seek to enter the school or where they were educated before.

We believe that taxpayers bear the responsibility for funding those schools and that funding should be ample and equitable to address the needs of the served community. We also believe that taxpayers have the right to examine how schools use tax dollars to educate children.

Most importantly, we believe that such schools should be accountable to the community they serve, and that community residents have the right and responsibility to elect those who govern the school. Citizens also have the right to insist that schooling be done in a manner that best serves the needs of all children.

By definition, a charter school is not a public school. Charter schools are formed when a private organization contracts with a government authorizer to open and run a school. Charters are managed by private boards, often with no connection to the community they serve. The boards of many leading charter chains are populated by billionaires who often live far away from the schools they govern.

Through lotteries, recruitment and restrictive entrance policies, charters do not serve all children. The public cannot review income and expenditures in detail. Many are for profit entities or non-profits that farm out management to for-profit corporations that operate behind a wall of secrecy. This results in scandal, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds. The news is replete with stories of self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and theft occurring in charter schools.

We have learned during the 25 years in which charters have been in existence that the overall academic performance of students in charter schools is no better, and often worse, than the performance of students in public schools. And yet charter schools are seen as the remedy when public schools are closed based on unfair letter-based grading schemes.

By means of school closures and failed takeover practices like the Achievement School District, disadvantaged communities lose their public schools to charter schools. Not only do such communities lose the school, but they also lose their voice in school governance.

There is little that is innovative or new that charter schools offer. Because of their “freedom” from regulations, allegedly to promote innovation, scandals involving the finances and governance of charter schools occur on a weekly basis. Charter schools can and have closed at will, leaving families stranded. Profiteers with no educational expertise have seized the opportunity to open charter schools and use those schools for self-enrichment. States with weak charter laws encourage nepotism, profiteering by politicians, and worse.

For all of the reasons above and more, the Network for Public Education regards charter schools as a failed experiment that our organization cannot support.

If the strength of charter schools is the freedom to innovate, then that same freedom can be offered to public schools by the district or the state.

At the same time, we recognize that many families have come to depend on charter schools and that many charter school teachers are dedicated professionals who serve their students well. It is also true that some charter schools are successful. We do not, therefore, call for the immediate closure of all charter schools, but rather we advocate for their eventual absorption into the public school system. We look forward to the day when charter schools are governed not by private boards, but by those elected by the community, at the district, city or county level.

Until that time, we support all legislation and regulation that will make charters better learning environments for students and more accountable to the taxpayers who fund them. Such legislation would include the following:

·     An immediate moratorium on the creation of new charter schools, including no replication or expansion of existing charter schools

·     The transformation of for-profit charters to non-profit charters

·     The transformation of for-profit management organizations to non-profit management organizations

·     All due process rights for charter students that are afforded public school students, in all matters of discipline

·     Required certification of all school teaching and administrative staff

·     Complete transparency in all expenditures and income

·     Requirements that student bodies reflect the demographics of the served community

·     Open meetings of the board of directors, posted at least 2 weeks prior on the charter’s website

·     Annual audits available to the public

·     Requirements to follow bidding laws and regulations

·     Requirements that all properties owned by the charter school become the property of the local public school if the charter closes

·     Requirements that all charter facilities meet building codes

·     Requirements that charters offer free or reduced priced lunch programs for students

·     Full compensation from the state for all expenditures incurred when a student leaves the public school to attend a charter

·     Authorization, oversight and renewal of charters transferred to the local district in which they are located

·     A rejection of all ALEC legislation regarding charter schools that advocates for less transparency, less accountability, and the removal of requirements for teacher certification.

Until charter schools become true public schools, the Network for Public Education will continue to consider them to be private schools that take public funding.NPE issues a position statement on charter schools - Network For Public Education: