A Tough Month for Charters
Charters are in the news this month, and not in a good way. Eva Moskowitz, the queen of New York City’s Success Academies, was featured in a PBS News Hour Report by John Merrow. The video report, embedded below, discusses Moskowitz’s charter schools and their tendency to freely use student suspensions as a means to discipline students.
Once the report was aired, Moskowitz immediately demanded an apology – apparently for telling the truth about her schools – and in the process, inappropriately revealed confidential information about a student for which aCease and Desist letter has been sent. PBS then issued a clarification, agreeing that it should have given Moskowitz a chance to respond, but essentially standing by its report as accurate.
In addition to the PBS/Moskowitz flap, the Center for Media and Democracy issued a report titled Charter School Black Hole: Special Investigation Reveals Huge Gaps in Public Info on Taxpayer Money Spent.
The report outlines charter school issues in eleven states and the District of Columbia (including Indiana). The problems range from taxpayer money given to charter startups which never materialized, to poor accountability about where taxpayer money was spent. Unlike true public schools, many states have lax accountability laws for charter schools.
JOHN MERROW vs. EVA MOSKOWITZ
“In the end, how charter schools conduct their business is basically their own business.”A Tough Month for Charters | Live Long and Prosper:
2015 Medley #34
Why Teachers Quit, Kindergarten,
Caregiving, Bill Gates
Caregiving, Bill Gates
WHY TEACHERS QUIT
Two Indiana legislators, State Senator Dennis Kruse and Representative Bob Behning, chairs of their respective legislative body’s education committee, have led the “reform” of public education in Indiana. Behning is a florist turned charter school consultant. Kruse graduated college in 1970 with a degree in education and then went into his family’s auction business. They jointly called for an investigation into the state’s (and by extension, the nation’s) teacher shortage.
The most logical response to their questioning the reasons for the teacher shortage would be for them to look in a mirror. However, now that the investigation is in full swing, it seems that their plan is to deny that there is a teacher shortage. In a marathon committee session earlier this month, “experts” debated whether the data actually showed a teacher shortage at all, while parents and teachers waited almost nine hours to have a chance to speak.
A nearly nine-hour study committee hearing on the teacher shortage issue was stacked to allow so-called expert testimony at the start, leaving parents, school board members and teachers to wait hours to address the handful of2015 Medley #34
