CURMUDGUCATION: What Privatization Actually Means

CURMUDGUCATION: What Privatization Actually Means

What Privatization Actually Means

When we talk about the privatization of education, the conversation is almost always about the privatization of the vendors. Publicly owned and operated schools replaced by privately owned and operated charter and private schools, plus a dizzying web of real estate developers, charter management organizations, other support businesses. Even the extreme form, where education is unbundled and can be provided piece by piece--a nice prospect for those who balk at operating an entire school, but can imagine making a buck selling math tutoring.

This vision also includes a privatization of oversight. Let the parents vote with their feet. Let free market forces handle the issue of "quality." Make it easier for vendors to have access to the market and make a buck; let the market sort out winners and losers.

How far do some of these folks want to go? Here's Jeremy Kaufman, voice of the Libertarian Free State outfit, being blunt on Twitter.

All of this privatized profiteering can well be a feature of reformster policies (they never, ever, call it privatization), but to stop here is to miss a critical part of the picture.

The education privatization movement is also about privatizing "consumption" of  education.

In a public system, education is "consumed" by the public. All of the public, together, collectively. Hence the system of everyone  CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What Privatization Actually Means

Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

 Some of the post may seem familiar as I wrote most of it last year. I am just going to update it every time a new IDEA scandal hits the news.

IDEA Public Schools CEO JoAnn Gama and Chief Operating Officer Irma Munoz have been fired after a forensic review found “substantial evidence” that top leaders misused money and staff at the state’s largest charter school network for personal gain, the organization’s board president announced Tuesday.  

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/IDEA-Public-Schools-fires-CEO-chief-operating-16202852.php

Jacksonville needs another charter school like the average person needs another hole in their head and I think most people would agree. That however isn't going to stop DCPS from approving a massive expansion at their next board meeting. Here is the thing, the state despite the Florida constitution saying the school board is the final say doesn't give them a lot of leeway, but that being said wouldn't you like a little fight out of the board?

The IDEA charter school wants to open, and this is just a start, three new charter schools. You may have CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Is it time for New York City Charter Schools to be absorbed into a redesigned New York City School System? | Ed In The Apple

Is it time for New York City Charter Schools to be absorbed into a redesigned New York City School System? | Ed In The Apple

Is it time for New York City Charter Schools to be absorbed into a redesigned New York City School System?

Twenty years ago Governor Pataki bundled a salary increase with a charter school law in a lame duck session of the state legislature. Has the law achieved its purposes? (See NYS Charter School Law here).

The law established two authorizers, the State Education Department and SUNY. The State Education Department created Charter School Frameworks. (See Charter School Frameworks here)

The charter school law requires charters schools to:

* Improve student learning and achievement;

*Increase learning opportunities for all students, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for students who are at-risk of academic failure;

*Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;

 * Provide schools with a method to change from rule-based to performance-based accountability systems by holding the schools established under this article accountable for meeting measurable CONTINUE READING: Is it time for New York City Charter Schools to be absorbed into a redesigned New York City School System? | Ed In The Apple

Shawgi Tell: Charter School Promoters’ War on Consciousness | Dissident Voice

Charter School Promoters’ War on Consciousness | Dissident Voice

Charter School Promoters’ War on Consciousness

Charter school promoters have always relied on disinformation and irrationalism to justify the existence of charter schools, but in recent weeks and months it appears that a new, more pernicious, form of self-serving disinformation and irrationalism has reared its head.

This new disinformation and irrationalism seeks to further debase social consciousness and takes the form of casually and repeatedly declaring the exact and complete opposite of what research and experience confirm. The hope is that just by asserting and declaring something repeatedly, people will spontaneously believe it and abandon any conscious act of investigation.

Charter school promoters are increasingly desperate to make their pay-the-rich schemes look and sound like they are harmless and exist for the good of humanity. They have to do this because consciousness of the retrogressive character of privately-operated charter schools keeps steadily growing.

Several forms of this newly concerted strategy of disinformation and irrationalism have emerged.

The main one, however, has to do with school funding. Common sense, CONTINUE READING: Charter School Promoters’ War on Consciousness | Dissident Voice

We're Still Waiting For The Promise Of Brown v. Board Of Education To Be Fulfilled | HuffPost

We're Still Waiting For The Promise Of Brown v. Board Of Education To Be Fulfilled | HuffPost

We’re Still Waiting For The Promise Of Brown v. Board Of Education To Be Fulfilled

“When the Supreme Court’s decision finally etched itself upon the country, the social stuff of that imprinting behaved in ways other than intended.”

Our house had a cottonwood tree in the backyard. In the excruciating Texas summer, it bloomed and cotton flew around the house like a summer snow. It caked over the window screens and blocked the wind from coming into the house.

Some of our neighbors had water cooler fans that blew out a cool mist. It made the whole house feel like a swamp and made everyone in the house feel like they were trying to breathe underwater. I hated those fans and was grateful we couldn’t afford one.

We were poor, but not in the ways that mattered. No one went hungry. No one was homeless. There were no drugs. No gangs and no neighborhood blight. The front door to our house was never locked. And everybody owned the home they lived in. My parents purchased our home in the 1950s, and it was a significant accomplishment for them.

When I enrolled in elementary school, all of my teachers were Black and they preached excellence like a well-rehearsed Sunday sermon. By the time I began middle school, in sixth grade, I was a track star, held first chair in the band and was among the top five grade earners.

But all of that changed in 1974, when I was in seventh grade. As part of the mandate issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, my classmates and I were among the first group of Dallas students to CONTINUE READING: We're Still Waiting For The Promise Of Brown v. Board Of Education To Be Fulfilled | HuffPost

Shawgi Tell: Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools

Anyone who has carefully followed charter school news and analysis in recent years knows that privately-operated charter schools are not only segregated but actually increase segregation in the sphere of education. It has become common knowledge that charter schools are notorious for consistently under-enrolling English Language Learners, students with disabilities, homeless students, and other groups of students. Even though they are ostensibly public and “open to all,” most charter schools do not serve all students, let alone equally. Privatized education has never paved the way for all students to have an education.

But even when non-profit and for-profit charter schools are publicly exposed, cited, and rebuked for discriminatory enrollment practices, they are usually allowed to operate with impunity and to continue to siphon enormous sums of money from public schools that accept all students at all times. Many are frustrated by this persistent lack of accountability by schools that constantly claim to not only be accountable but to be more accountable than the public schools they continually drain large sums of money from. The public does not want to fund schools that frequently cherry pick students. Publicness is about inclusivity, not exclusivity. Public means for the common good, for everyone. To claim that you are a public entity while acting like a private entity is CONTINUE READING: Segregated Unaccountable Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Charter Lobby Backs Leading Candidates for NYC Mayor | Diane Ravitch's blog

Charter Lobby Backs Leading Candidates for NYC Mayor | Diane Ravitch's blog

Charter Lobby Backs Leading Candidates for NYC Mayor

The executive director of StudentsFirstNY, Jenny Sedlis, has taken a leave of absence from her job to manage a fundraising PAC for Eric Adams, one of the leading candidates for mayor. The election is this November.

Sedlis previously was the lead spokesperson for Success Academy, Eva Moskowitz’s charter chain.

The new entity plans to run digital and TV ads supporting Adams’ candidacy, without being beholden to the strict spending limits imposed by the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Ahead of Sedlis establishing the PAC with the Board of Elections, StudentsFirstNY released a poll showing Adams closing the gap with frontrunner Andrew Yang. A poll published yesterday showed Adams in the lead.

Sedlis has not begun raising money yet, but the group is hoping to secure $6 million — matching the stated aim of political consultant Lis Smith in her fundraising effort for Andrew Yang, Adams’ chief rival in the race…

“New York City’s comeback starts with Eric Adams as CONTINUE READING: Charter Lobby Backs Leading Candidates for NYC Mayor | Diane Ravitch's blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering

In March 2019 and October 2019, Democracy Prep charter chain founder and former employee Seth Andrew stole a total of $218K from three Democracy Prep escrow accounts. He was able to do so because two years after leaving Democracy Prep (in 2017), Andrew still had access to his school email account and could falsely portray himself as still associated with the charter chain. Andrew also still had access to the escrow accounts because he remained listed on documentation related to those accounts. Finally, given that Andrew was able to steal funds from the third escrow account five months after he depleted the first two accounts, it is obvious that Democracy Prep officials failed to adequately monitor all of the chain’s bank accounts.

In my May 01, 2021, post on the situation, I surmised that Andrew may have believed that Democracy Prep would not competently monitor its finances, thereby causing him to believe that he could get away with the theft. Indeed, the complaint against Andrew details the passage of 14 months from the first thefts (March 2019) to the maturing of a six-month certificate of deposit (CD) that Andrew purchased using the stolen funds (May 2020).

To lock that stolen money up for six months and patiently wait for it to mature demonstrates a level of certaintly that no one would be coming for that stolen cash.

Examination of Democracy Prep’s tax forms from 2007 to 2018 shows that the charter chain struggled to manage its money and to keep a positive balance CONTINUE READING: Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Shawgi Tell : No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools (Part Two) | Dissident Voice

No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools (Part Two) | Dissident Voice

No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools (Part Two)

Non-profit and for-profit charter schools are privatized, marketized, corporatized education arrangements that appeared 30 years ago in the U.S. They are legal in 45 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and Guam. About 3.3 million youth are currently enrolled in roughly 7,400 charter schools.

Charter schools openly embrace “free market” ideology and siphon billions of public dollars a year from public schools, many of which are chronically under-funded. Their academic track record is unimpressive and often very poor. Many do not provide employee retirement programs. Like a private business, charter schools spend lots of money on advertising and marketing and have high student, teacher, and principal turnover rates. They are also frequently mired in controversy, scandal, and corruption. They cannot levy taxes, are run by unelected individuals, and regularly hire uncertified teachers. Most charter schools are segregated and thousands have closed over the course of three CONTINUE READING: No Justification for the Existence of Charter Schools (Part Two) | Dissident Voice

Toolkit: School Privatization Explained - Network For Public Education

Toolkit: School Privatization Explained - Network For Public Education

Toolkit: School Privatization Explained

The Network for Public Education Toolkit: School Privatization Explained was first created in 2017 to alert the general public regarding the various forms that privatization takes and the consequences associated with each. We’ve updated the toolkit to ensure the information is up-to-date. This toolkit presents evidence of what we already know about charters, vouchers and other forms of privatization. It is organized around key questions, providing answers in clear language to the questions we at NPE are most often asked.

Each dropdown below contains a link to a pdf that we hope you will read, share and download.

Charter Schools

CONTINUE READING: Toolkit: School Privatization Explained - Network For Public Education

Minnesota: Elites Propose Constitutional Amendment to Enable Segregated Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Minnesota: Elites Propose Constitutional Amendment to Enable Segregated Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Minnesota: Elites Propose Constitutional Amendment to Enable Segregated Schools

Minnesota was the first state to pass a charter law in 1991. As blogger Sarah Lahm wrote in the Progressive in 2019, the new charters were exempt from most state regulations, including desegregation. A number of its charters are segregated by race and ethnicity, intentionally so, because the charter industry believes that segregation is culturally affirming. This situation led to a lawsuit to assure the rights of children of color in the state.

So now leading figures in the state charter lobby want to pass an amendment to the state constitution that would make segregated schools acceptable, while adding that school quality would be determined by standardized tests.

Blogger Rob Levine explains:

The Page Amendment is best understood if you recognize these foundations’ overall public education strategies. For 30 years the Minneapolis Foundation and its allies have been creating, funding, and persuading the CONTINUE READING: Minnesota: Elites Propose Constitutional Amendment to Enable Segregated Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: Charter Industry Goes for the Gold: Power | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: Charter Industry Goes for the Gold: Power | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas: Charter Industry Goes for the Gold: Power

Texas has five million public school students. It has 356,000 charter school students. The latter matter far more to the Governor, the Legislature and the State Education Commissioner than the former.

This report came to me from Austin, where officials are trying to remove any “barriers” to charter. The local school board has no say in whether a new charter should open in their district. Local folks may be strong supporters of their public schools but they are not allowed to veto new charter schools.

To show how nutty this embrace of charters is, one legislator tried to slip in a proviso giving charters the power of eminent domain. Imagine the Jones family sitting down for their evening meal, and someone knocks at their door to inform them that a KIPP or IDEA charter needs their lot for a playground; they are given a few days or weeks to vacate their beloved home.

On the third reading of the bill—-SB 28– the eminent CONTINUE READING: Texas: Charter Industry Goes for the Gold: Power | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: To Choice Advocates: Some Questions

CURMUDGUCATION: To Choice Advocates: Some Questions

To Choice Advocates: Some Questions

I have concerns about school choice programs, and I usually express them as complaints, criticism, general snark. This time, I'd like to come at it a little differently. Let me frame these concerns as questions, because maybe there are answers that I'm just not aware of. As is obvious from a multitude of posts, I am skeptical; these questions show exactly what I'm skeptical of. 

And before I start, I'll agree that some of these concerns are not always well-addressed by public schools. So I'm not looking for answers in the old mode of "Yeah, but public schools do X!" I'm still wondering how a charter or voucher system would do a better job of managing the issues. If you want to take a shot an answering these, the comments are open.

1) A choice system is built on the idea of making parents the primary stewards of their child's education. Contrary to the usual criticism, I believe that the majority of parents are smart and capable and caring. But a non-zero number are not. I've told the stories: the student whose mother tried to run her over with a car; the student who was always tired because dad spent the utility money on beer; the student whose father threw him out of the house for trying to take some of dad's drugs; the student who was thrown out for coming out as gay; etc.  In those sorts of CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: To Choice Advocates: Some Questions

Shawgi Tell: New York State: 50 Charter Schools Closed in 20 Years | Dissident Voice

New York State: 50 Charter Schools Closed in 20 Years | Dissident Voice

New York State: 50 Charter Schools Closed in 20 Years

According to New York Charter School Fact Sheet (January 2021) from the New York State Education Department, the number of charter schools issued in New York State since the passage of the state’s charter school law in 1998 is 397. The total number of privately-operated charters permitted statewide under 2015 legislative amendments is 460. It is worth noting that a conversion of an existing public school to a charter school is not counted toward the numerical limits established by Article 56 of Education Law. This amounts to about 10 charter schools.

A separate but related document from the New York State Education Department, New York State Charter Schools (January 2021), claims that 46 privately-operated charter schools closed or never opened in the state. Fifteen of these charter schools closed since 2010.

It is not unreasonable to assume that more investigation and more recent data would reveal that more than 46 charter schools have actually closed in the state over the past 20 years. For example, the Buffalo School Board voted in April 2021 to close two failing charter schools in Buffalo.

Broken Promises: An Analysis of Charter School Closures From 1999 – 2017 provides a more comprehensive picture of the high failure and closure rate of charter schools nationwide. Equally problematic, persistently poor oversight CONTINUE READING: New York State: 50 Charter Schools Closed in 20 Years | Dissident Voice

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

Charters vs. Vouchers

While charter schools and vouchers are both members of the school choice family, they are cousins who only occasionally get along. And as a public school fan, I have a definite preferred cousin.

It may seem like a thousand years ago, but when Betsy DeVos first turned up as an education secretary candidate, some charter fans actually expressed concerns. DeVos felt the need to reach out to charter fans and offer an olive branch. That's because DeVos, like many fans of a pay-your-own-way voucher system, was content to back charters as a way to crack apart the public education system and get the school choice foot in the door. But now that the time seems ripe (conservative judges, GOP legislatures, Espinoza, etc), many erstwhile charter fans are dumping the poor old girl for their true love. 

There are many reasons that charters and vouchers are natural competitors. 

The obvious area is simple competition for market share. Both private voucher schools and charter schools are after the disaffected don't-want-to-go-to-public-school crowd. Voucher-accepting schools have an advantage in competing for the religious school market because they can be more direct and explicit about their religious content. And the super-voucher education savings account systems are aiming to bust things up even more--you don't even have to a "school," but can just pick various education odds and ends from various marketplace vendors. In the marketplace, charters (with their constant insistence that they are CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

Arthur Schwartz, the Lawyer Who Beat Success Academy Charter Chain in Court | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arthur Schwartz, the Lawyer Who Beat Success Academy Charter Chain in Court | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arthur Schwartz, the Lawyer Who Beat Success Academy Charter Chain in Court

Civil rights attorney Arthur Schwartz is running for City Council in District 3, Manhattan, which includes SoHo-Hudson Square, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, the Theater District, and Hell’s Kitchen. Arthur has spent his career as a warrior for justice. He was the lead attorney in the successful lawsuit on behalf of parents against the powerful Success Academy charter chain. I donated to his campaign. I hope you will too.

Arthur Schwartz & His Legal Team Win Multimillion Lawsuit Against Success Academy’s Unethical “Got To Go” Policy Singling Out Students With Learning Disabilities

On March 10, 2021 District 3 City Council candidate Arthur Schwartz was part of a team of attorneys representing parents who sued and won a $2.3 million settlement against the Fort Greene Success Academy. In the long awaited decision for a 2017 filed Discriminatory Harassment suit, Judge Fredric Block approved $1.1 million in damages to the 5 families of plaintiffs.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-academy-charter-school-singling-out-pupils-who-have-got-to-go.htmlThis victory highlights an ethical standard for academic administration at the highest levels of education across America and helps to protect families and students from learning disability-related discrimination and prejudice. In this case it involved 5-year olds.

The source of the suit was the internally code-named “Got to Go” list. The lawsuit accused the Fort Greene Academy principal and its parent Success Academy of creating lists of 5 year old students with possible learning disabilities that they wanted to push out because they were ‘not right’ for the school. These children, most in kindergarten, got suspended 20 times or more per year. One parent was CONTINUE READING: Arthur Schwartz, the Lawyer Who Beat Success Academy Charter Chain in Court | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters Circumventing Democracy

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters Circumventing Democracy

Charters Circumventing Democracy

In some states, charter schools have faced a particularly intractable obstacle--local elected school boards.

That's because in some states, a charter cannot open without the authorization of the local elected school board. This means the local board is deciding if they would like to have the taxpayers foot the bill for opening a new school in the district, which is generally a tough sell. 

Charter advocates have found a few ways around this. One is to throw weight and money behind candidates in local school board elections with the idea that once elected, these individuals will say, "Never mind the taxpayers or the public schools--I want to see more charters open here." The downside for this approach is that there's always another election coming.

More popular, or at least more effective for charter proponents, is to get the law changed. Right now, Florida, Iowa, and Texas are all looking at ways to get that whole pesky democracy thing out f the way of charter school entrepreneurism.

In Florida, the legislature would like to expand the power of universities, so that they can authorize charter schools on their own, with or without the agreement of the local school district. Texas has taken another route by making the State Commissioner of Education the super-powered uber-authorizer of charter schools; only a super-majority of the State Board of Education could overrule CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Charters Circumventing Democracy

Brookings Study: How D.C. School Choice Intensifies Segregation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Brookings Study: How D.C. School Choice Intensifies Segregation | Diane Ravitch's blog

Brookings Study: How D.C. School Choice Intensifies Segregation

The Brookings Institution published a study of the D.C. school system, which is almost evenly divided between public schools and charter schools. It was written by three scholars: Vanessa Williamson, Brookings Institution; Jackson Gode, Brookings Institution; and Hao Sun, Gallaudet University. The title of their study is “We All Want What’s Best for Our Kids.” Their findings are based on close reading of an online parent forum called “DC Urban Moms,” where school choice is an important topic.

What they found is not surprising. Choice intensifies and facilitates racial and socioeconomic segregation. This is the same phenomenon that has been documented in choice programs everywhere. The most advantaged parents master the system and get their children into what is perceived as the “best schools.” The “best schools” are those that have the most advantaged students.

The study begins:

Public education in the District includes a system of traditional public schools and a system of public 8
charter schools; in 2018–19, these schools served over 90,000 students at 182 schools. The city is highly diverse, as is the incoming school-age population. Among children under five, 48 percent are Black, 27 percent are white non-Hispanic, and 17 percent are Hispanic.9 54 percent of the city’s public school students are in CONTINUE READING: Brookings Study: How D.C. School Choice Intensifies Segregation | Diane Ravitch's blog