Are Charters Under Attack? Facts Show Otherwise

from the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools
January 30, 2018

Charter CEOs and supporters held a rally at City Hall on Tuesday January 30 to ask for a “seat at the table” when the new school board replaces the School Reform Commission. Several City Councilpersons attended the event, held in the Mayor’s Reception Room.

APPS members have said consistently that district budget problems stem not just from a lack of funding, but from the spending priorities of the SRC which keeps resources out of classrooms. Consulting fees, faux graduate school, training by outsourcing by unqualified and inexperienced people: Teach For America, The New Teacher Project, Relay Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Boston Consulting, Jounce, Institute for Student Achievement, etc.

But the biggest waste of money in the SD budget is the funding of malfunctioning charters. Report after report, including the latest from Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), shows that district schools outperform charters. Charter supporters say that they only support “high-quality” charters, that they want the failing charters closed. But when they have the opportunity to prove that, they are nowhere to be found. Some examples:

Click here to read the rest of the article 

and a Philadelphia Notebook report about the rally 

and comments about the new school board procedures.

Tell California State Senators to support SB 808

Network for Public Education (NPE) is helping to support California Senate Bill 808. The legislation, while it doesn't go far enough, is an important first step towards reeling in the outrageous excesses of the charter school sector. My letter to my State Senator appears below, as well as the call to action letter from NPE.

Senator de Leon:

I am a third year law student, studying hard so that I can become an attorney and defend families of children with disabilities against discrimination by the lucrative charter school industry. Prior to my studying law, I wrote for numerous publications about the essentially unregulated charter sector, exposing abuses, fraud, misrepresentation, and more importantly, discriminatory conduct towards the most vulnerable students.

Charters discriminate against English language learners, students with disciplinary histories, students with disabilities, and more. Meanwhile, their high-powered executives—many of whom are not even educators—pull down astronomical salaries and use their ability as unregulated 501c3s to award no bid contracts to their friends, relatives, or in the case of a current Los Angeles School Board member, to their own consulting firm. Since members of the taxpaying public don't elect charter school boards, there exists a system that puts public money into private hands with no mechanisms to ensure even a modicum of transparency or oversight.

Furthermore, my alma mater, UCLA, has conducted several studies demonstrating that charter schools exacerbate segregation, and fuel the so-called "school to prison pipeline." A perusal of the studies compiled by UCLA's The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles would cause any reasonable person to realize that decades of letting the revenue-stream-driven charter school industry "regulate" itself has resulted in an abject situation.

Therefore, I'm asking you to please support SB 808. This bill would give California’s democratically elected, local school boards the final say when it comes to the approval of charter school petitions. The present system takes away community control, forcing districts to navigate reduced budgets and high legal costs for schools over which they have no authority.

Schools that receive public dollars must be responsible to the public. Thank you.

---

Dear Robert D,

NPE and NPE Action have long been concerned about charter schools in California. You can read our NPE reports about them here.

Now there is a chance to make a small improvement. On April 26th, SB 808 comes up for a hearing before the Senate Education Committee.

This bill would give California’s democratically elected, local school boards the final say when it comes to the approval of charter school petitions. Under current laws, charter petitioners can appeal to state and county boards of education, thereby taking away community control, forcing districts to navigate reduced budgets and high legal costs for schools over which they have no authority. Meanwhile, charter schools often receive blank checks, in the form of pro-bono legal work, funded by the billionaire-backed lobbying group, The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). We need to level the playing field, so that all schools which receive public funding are responsible and accountable in the same ways.

Here is what we need you to do.

1. Send an email to your Senator. We make it very easy- just click here.

2. Call the members of the Senate Education Committee and ask them to vote YES on SB 808.

• Benjamin Allen, Chair (Santa Monica) 916-651-4026
• Scott Wilk, Vice Chair (Santa Clarita) 916-651-4021
• Cathleen Galgiani (Stockton) 916-651-4005
• Connie M. Leyva (Chino) 916-651-4020
• Tony Mendoza (Artesia) 916-651-4032
• Richard Pan (Sacramento) 916-651-4006
• Andy Vidak (Hanford) 916-651-4014

Let them know that the taxpayers of California deserve local, democratically elected and accountable officials overseeing how their children are educated and tax dollars are spent. Let them know that you are tired of charter school scandals. California's children and taxpayers deserve better.

Thank you for all that you do.

Carol Burris

Executive Director of NPE Action

Charter Parents Support Charter Hearing; Post Will Still Demonize Perkins

The New York Post and the various other right-wing papers in NY will undoubtedly portray today's Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions Committee hearing as State Sen. Bill Perkins' personal vendetta against charter schools. The Post already did it here, here, here, and here, but they're neglecting to tell the public about a major supporter of the hearing: the New York Charter Parents Association, a group of self-organized pro-charter parents with concerns about existing charter schools.

Here's a clip of Mona Davids, founder of NYCPA, talking with a local FOX station:

In case you missed it, here's the really important part that the Post and other corporate rags will likely neglect to mention as they pen diatribes against public schools and those questioning charter schools (and we're not even talking about their academic merits - juts operating practices):

Anchor: You actually instigated this hearing tomorrow.

Mona Davids: I absolutely did. And for the record, Rosana, I want everyone to know it was the New York Charter Parents Association that asked, that requested Senator Perkins to conduct these hearings because we firmly believe in accountability and transparency for charter schools.

Charter schools: they're all about the kids (except the ones they kick out or exclude) and support parents (except when they ask questions about charter operators).

You can catch the hearing live here. It begins at 9AM EST and runs until 5PM.

Charter School by Day, Nightclub by Night?

Club Damani's website doesn't list their exact location: no address is given, and the only directions are "Media St. & Edgemore Rd. (Entrance on Edgemore Rd.)". Those directions lead you to - surprise! - the parking lot (and back entrance) of Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School.

In looking at the events calendar posted on the their website, the club appears to be somewhat of a multi-use community center (albeit one that serves alcohol at some events; and it sounds like the place is open at other times, too). It hosts birthday parties (for adults and kids), baby showers, bridal showers, grad parties, PTA events, and anniversary celebrations.

The news reporter notes charter schools are not subject to the same financial oversight - that's an understatement!

Renew Charter to Recoup $200k?

What do you do when a charter school - which owes the authorizing district $200k because of shoddy financial management - comes up for renewal? Well, any penny-pincing district (ie ever school district in America) would do whatever they could to recoup those funds.

The backstory to this $200k debt involves a company called EdChoices, a charter leader named Tim King (Tim's Twitter name is EdChoices), and a school district (and State) unable to monitor evolving charter operators and practices. King recently resigned from the head of his education management organization, AllPrep, after deciding his name was tainting the charter brand (although the truth is that AllPrep had failed to pay a nearby community college for providing classes for some of his students, and, yes, King's name is rather sullied given his track record and the recent alert issued by the Oregon DOE).

From The Oregonian:

North Clackamas School Board renews charter school that owes about $192,500

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

March 19, 2010, 1:31PM

MILWAUKIE – The North Clackamas School Board renewed the charter of the Clackamas Web Academy in a unanimous vote Thursday, but the district is still negotiating a contract with the school, which owes the district about $192,500 stemming from its inclusion in a charter school group.

There was no discussion on the action Thursday, but board members had previously raised concerns about the school's ability to operate while paying what could be $20,000 a year to the district.

How Imagine Schools, Inc. Preys on Schools in Poor Neighborhoods

Here is a clip from Part II of the the three part investigative series by the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette called Education Inc.:

. . . .Troy Bell knows exactly how Imagine Schools Inc. operates.

Bell used to be the director of development and new school concepts for Imagine Schools in Indianapolis but was laid off after what he calls a "power struggle" between him and Guy Platter, Imagine executive and former principal of Fort Wayne's Imagine MASTer Academy.

Imagine executives in Virginia look for cities in which to begin charter schools, pinpointing areas with poor test scores that are not meeting federal accountability standards, cities with low property values and states with solid charter school laws, Bell said. They then solicit community members in those cities to "start" the charter schools and become members of the board, he said.

It's not people self-organizing, it's a corporation encouraging the structure, Bell said.

"That initial stuff is what places the whole charter concept into a realm of potential misuse," Bell said.

In theory, Imagine Schools facilitates the charter application process, but in reality, an Imagine official completes the entire application and local people sign it, Bell said. The board then enters into a contract with Imagine Schools to manage the operations of the school.

At any time, the board can cancel that relationship, but then it's left with nothing: Imagine employs the teachers, administrators, usually owns the buildings and often owns the curriculum.

"Even though (Imagine) formally doesn't control the charter or the charter board, the school would really not exist if Imagine doesn't stay, and that's the leverage Imagine has over a board," Bell said. "That's basically the same model Imagine uses everywhere."

If Imagine – Fort Wayne Charter School were to break ties with Imagine Schools, for example, it would have to find a new campus after its lease expires, would have no Web site and would have to change its name. Teacher contracts would transfer to it, but those teachers would have no health insurance or other benefits until the school board bought them.

Bell confirmed the message in Bakke's memo is company policy.

"The attitude that Mr. Bakke has is the boards are there to support the efforts of the company, they're not there to run the school," Bell said. "They're there to provide us with the flavor and the culture of the community that we as outsiders of the community might not be privy to. They are not there to make decisions. They are there to help build relationships. That's the general attitude I was privy to when I was with the company."

It's a message that's getting through: In the 2 1/2 years the Imagine – Fort Wayne Charter School board has been meeting, not a single "no" vote has been recorded at its meetings, documents show.

None has been recorded for the two other Imagine school boards here, either. . . . .