Open Letter to LAUSD Board regarding Citizens of the World Charter School Corporation

A copy of this letter was sent to each individual member via email

March 11, 2020

Dear Members of the Board of Education:

I am an educational rights attorney and law professor here in Los Angeles. I am writing you regarding the Citizens of the World Charter School Corporation (“CWC Corp.”), an alleged non-profit benefit corporation that operates a number of privately managed charter schools authorized by the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”).

CWC Corp. is currently trying to occupy a portion of a public school, Shirley Avenue Elementary School, under the provisions of Proposition 39. I will not discuss the myriad flaws, inequities, and attendant problems associated with Proposition 39 in this communication. I do, however, want to ask you to put off any consideration of allowing CWC Corp. to move forward with its hostile occupation of a public school while they have seemingly repeatedly refused to pay their legally obligated bills to LAUSD.

As you know, charter school corporations utilizing Proposition 39 to force their hostile occupations of public schools are obligated to pay over-allocation fees in certain circumstances. CWC Corp. currently owes LAUSD hundreds of thousands of dollars in over-allocation fees. Before allowing them any further opportunities to continue operating in bad faith, LAUSD should collect all payments past due and obtain written assurances from CWC Corp. that they will pay their obligations in the future.

Children in Los Angeles public schools are starved for resources. Our students go without school librarians, full-time health-care professionals, adequate access to services, etc. Meanwhile, just three years ago, CWC Corp.’s Executive Director Mark Kleger-Heine received a staggering salary of over $231,000.00 USD (see CWC Corp.’s 2017 Form 990 Part VII). This disparity of resources is by design, and underlies the purpose of the charter school industry. Public school students go without, while charter school executives collect fat checks.

As a member of the LAUSD Board of Education, I hope you will turn your attention to resolving this matter not only with CWC Corp., but with all of the charter school corporations that are in arrears in their over-allocation fee payments with LAUSD.

-rds

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A charter school story

I want to apologize to Schools Matter readers for my infrequent contributions. I thought once I graduated from law school and passed the most difficult bar examination in the country on my first attempt, that I'd have more time to write. Instead, in addition to my long-time day job, I now have an internship once a week at an education law firm, and I am teaching on Thursday nights at my law school. In a word — I'm swamped. However, I managed to piece together this twitter thread on Monday, that I thought was worth reposting here.

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1/10 Researching for a case and came across a personal injury settlement between a charter school corporation in the Central Valley and multiple student plaintiffs for some $6-million+. The amount is on the low side considering the… #EdReform #SchoolChoice #EdChat @DianeRavitch

— Robert D. Skeels, JD 🎏🇵🇸🔻 (@rdsathene) April 15, 2019

Researching for a case and came across a personal injury settlement between a charter school corporation in the Central Valley and multiple student plaintiffs for some $6-million+. The amount is on the low side considering the horrific injuries some of the students suffered.

It was the typical charter school money-making scam. They had a former employee form an unregistered and uninsured transportation company. The charter's Vice Principle provided one of their family's vehicles to that company. They paid themselves $6K a month from public money to operate a vehicle that had several defective seatbelts. Moreover, they consistently exceeded the vehicle's passenger capacity. Students had to share seats and some had to ride on the floor.

Struck by another vehicle traveling at high speed, the charter corporation's vehicle rolled multiple times and ejected several of the unrestrained students. The injuries were as bad as you could imagine them to be.

This was the inevitable result of putting public money into private hands. Because charter school corporations are privately managed with de minimis oversight, transparency, and accountability, they find ways to channel public revenue streams into their pockets, all the while cutting corners on students. Here, that cost cutting had drastic consequences that altered the lives of several students whose injuries were severe.

In this case it was a transportation company that the charter corporation created, but we've seen the same thing with Charter Management Organization real estate holding firms, and charter school side-companies like convicted felon and charter school mogul Refugio 'Ref' Rodriguez's Better 4 You Foods and Better 4 You Fundraising.

The diversion of public funds to private pockets doesn't stop at individual charter school corporations, as evidenced by their trade association—the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). CCSA sells its member charter schools products and services, paid for out of the public purse. One of them, which would later become known as CharterSafe, generated profits so lucrative, that large firms like Travelers and Gallagher & Co. partnered with them. Here's a quote from a CCSA executive:

"…generated 30% profit margins in subsequent years–with 20-30% lead generation and 20-50% close ratios."

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Postscript:

The examples of charter corporation greed and self-dealing keep increasing. It's the inevitable result of putting public money into private hands.

As founders of a charter network, Parker and his wife cast themselves as philanthropists but schools paid them $800,000 in annual rent, contracted services to Parkers’ nonprofits and companies and hired Clark Parker for $575,000 to manage construction #CharterSchoolFail https://t.co/hm6GQo6FYB

— Jeff Bryant (@jeffbcdm) April 16, 2019

Facts about Los Angeles Charter Schools

from Carl Peterson: 

On Saturday, July 30, 2016, I presented at Charters, Privatization and the Defense of Public Education, a California Education/Action Conference at Richmond High School in Richmond, California. My speech asked “If the charter law was passed to improve education through competition, why isn’t the LAUSD School Board playing to win?” and is based on the following paper:

“Men associating with crooks and gamblers could expect no leniency”

Philadelphia charters show the way to CBE

A report on a Philadelphia TV news show about what is in the works with Competency Based Education. Since there is greatly reduced whole class instruction, there is no collaboration, no debate, no critical thinking. It's like farm factories which engineer their plants and animals to create the desired product for the market. The Philadelphia School Partnership has a portfolio of schools that are experimenting with CBE.

Philadelphia charter hands over tracking student progress to Mission Control | CBS Philly

Also see:
Netflix Billionaire Reed Hastings' Crusade to Replace Public School Teachers With Computers | Alternet

Will the Real Hillary Clinton Please Stand Up?

Hillary Clinton with Eli Broad at the pre-ball dinner hosted by Broad

at the Inauguration Ball of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.

by Ken Derstine

December 23, 2015

Hillary Clinton has caused a major scramble by her supporters after she spoke at a small high school outside Des Moines, Iowa. In her remarks she told the students at Keota High School on Tuesday, December 22,

This school district and these schools throughout Iowa are doing a better than average job. Now I wouldn't keep any school open that wasn't doing a better than average job. If a school is not doing a good job then, you know, that may not be good for the kids, but when you have a district that is doing a good job it seems kind of counterproductive to impose financial burdens on it.

Her political opponents have seized on this, claiming that she is in favor of closing almost half the schools in the country.

U.S. News and World Report came to her defense Wednesday, December 23, saying her remarks “were taken out of context”. Education writer Diane Ravitch agreed. Sounding like a Clinton campaign manager, Ravitch echoed the paper, saying.

She mis-spoke. Hillary understands that the federal government doesn’t close schools. Period. A mistake. A slip of the tongue. An unthinking bow to corporatist ideology. She was wrong and she knows it. She has to walk back this careless statement. We don’t need any more school closings. Such closings have had a disproportionately harmful affect on communities of color.  Talk about school support, school helping, not closings. That’s yesterday.

So where does Clinton stand on the Broad method of closing “low-performing” public schools in low-income communities and turning them over to charters?

In a December 17^th article in the Wall Street Journal, “Clinton Views on Charter Schools, Teacher Evaluations Upset Some Democrats” (You must do a Google search for the article title to get the full article.) it was reported that some neo-liberal Democrats are worried that Hillary Clinton isn’t fully committed to corporate education reform. Laura Meckler reported,

Their worries stem from skeptical comments she has made about charter schools and teacher evaluations, as well as her close relationship with teachers’ unions, who are critical of both.

There are a lot of deep-pocketed donors who are concerned, and they’re going to hang onto their checkbooks until there is more clarity,” said Whitney Tilson, managing partner of Kase Capital, who has given more than $150,000 to Democrats in recent years. He hasn’t donated any money to Mrs. Clinton or the super PAC supporting her this year “primarily because of this issue.”

Another major Democratic donor, Eli Broad, refused requests for contributions from another friendly super PAC, and only changed his mind after personal reassurances from former President Bill Clinton and campaign chairman John Podesta that Mrs. Clinton will support charter schools.

Besides the misleading statement that the leadership of the teachers’ unions are opposed to teacher evaluations based on standardized tests and charters, the article portrays Eli Broad and Bill Clinton as distant acquaintances.  On September 19, 2015, at the dedication of Eli Broad’s museum in Los Angeles, the LA Times Reported,

Of his friendship with the Broads, Clinton turned to them and asked,

“What year did you come and sit in the living room with me?” Edythe Broad noted that Clinton daughter Chelsea, now an active figure in the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, had been a baby at the time and that Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of State, had been Eli’s lawyer. After settling on 1983, Clinton said, “I looked up one day and Eli was in my living room, and my life has never been the same.” (Boldface added)

Far from being distant acquaintances, the Clinton’s have had a close relationship with Eli Broad for more than thirty years. [See my article “Eli Broad and the Clintons: Update of the Update” for the full details.]

It should also be pointed out that Mortimer Zuckerman, the chairman and editor-in-chief of the U.S. News and World Report (and publisher of the New York Daily News), was on the Broad Foundation Board of Directors for a number of years.

Also see:

Context Does Not Absolve Clinton
Curmudgucation – December 23, 2015

Hillary Clinton: Vowing to Close Schools Not “Above Average”
Mercedes Schneider @ deutsch29

Hillary Clinton: Still on the Hook
Mercedes Schneider @ deutsch29 

Was Hillary misquoted? Taken out of context?
Mike Klonsky's Smalltalk Blog - December 23, 2015
Includes a report on Randi Weingarten's supporting role in the damage control.

Which Side Are You On, Hillary?
The New York Times - March 12, 2015


Ignored, Uninformed and for the GOP, Crazy for Charters: Presidential Candidates Get an F Grade on K-12 Public Education
Alternet - March 24, 2016

 



For more related links, see this article on Defend Public Education!
 

Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law

There is a small grass-roots group that has been working diligently to create a ballot proposition to repeal the charter school laws. While a seemingly daunting task, there might not ever be another chance to do this before the privatizers eliminate public schools altogether (Eli Broad just announced his plans to cut LAUSD's public schools in in half). The group has an online petition that now has over 600 signatures. They also have a facebook group. Both of which are linked here:

Ballot Initiative to REPEAL the CA Charter School Act of 1992

Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

Most importantly, they have picked up a handfull of key labor leaders and organizations:

• AFT Local 6161 (Palomar Faculty Federation)
• North County Labor Alliance
• Escondido Public School Advocates
• Bill Freeman- NEA Board member for California
• Alita Blanc- United Educators of San Francisco

The coalition is working hard to get several more organizations on board, including local Democratic party clubs in several large cities. Please consider getting involved, and perhaps even endorsing the efforts of the group.

Fredrick Hess: Duplicity Personified

By Ken Derstine

June 22, 2015

Frederick Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. He has a blog on Education Week called Straight Up.

On June 11, 2015 he posted this column on his blog:

5 Thoughts on Nevada’s Landmark School Choice Law

In the article Hess praises the newly enacted Nevada law that makes Education Savings Accounts (vouchers) available to all families for a hodgepodge of education choices if parents want to flee the funding and resource starved public schools. The bulk of his article sings the praises of disaster capitalism as the means to promote privatization of public schools.

He concludes his article with the astonishing statement:

“Finally, per usual, I'm puzzled as to why teachers aren't embracing this kind of reform and all the possibilities it holds for them. Instead, Nevada State Education Association president Ruben Murillo has denounced the bill, arguing that taxpayers should not be helping families to attend "private school interests. Now, I’ve met Murillo (Nevada NEA President). He knows that plenty of teachers in Nevada are frustrated with testing, disciplinary issues, teacher evaluation, accountability systems, and more. And the opportunity for families to choose the kinds of teaching and schooling that will best serve their children means more kids will be in different kinds of schools—which gives teachers opportunities to work in schools that aren’t wired into the system of state-mandated evaluations and accountability, if they wish. After all, many of those “private school interests” will offer a very different school culture and approach. Seems like a win-win to me. I hope Nevada’s educators proceed with that possibility in mind.”

On February 5, 2015 Hess moderated four hours of panels at the American Enterprise Institute. The theme of the conference was “Is the ‘new’ education philanthropy good for schools? Examining foundation-funded school reform”. The main purpose of the conference was how to promote standardized tests for teacher evaluation.

 For a synopsis of the conference, see:

 Talking to the Choir: AEI panels discuss their attack on public education

Apparently the “starve the public schools, feed the charters” tactic of corporate education reformers to make charters appealing to parents is evolving into “flee from the public schools to escape standardized testing” (which corporate education reformers initiated and are promoting).

Duplicity – deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same manner; double-dealing.

Also see:

Privatization Primer
Curmudgucation - June 20, 2015 

Investors Ready to Liquidate Public Schools
Life at the Intersections - November 9, 2014
It's over half a year old, but this article captures the corporate education reform method.  

Colorado Parents See Wizard Behind the Curtain

"It's time to unite our community"

"Teachers can be silenced, but you can't fire a parent"

"Teacher morale will improve overnight when we get our four candidates elected"

"Parents, teachers students rallying together to win schools back"

Listen to this radio broadcast from Douglas County, CO @thechalkface radio to get a nuanced look into the brilliant way ALEC and friends' divide and conquer community by community.

Conservatives in Douglas County Colorado won school board election by vilifying the teacher union and dividing parents and teachers in the local community. This was done through a well-financed campaign by ALEC and friends.

ALEC approved school board members get in, the board silences the administration, the administration silences the teachers and the parents are left in the dark to figure out who turned out the lights on their children's education. Looks like some parents are trying to put the lights back on.

Share this radio broadcast from Douglas County, CO @thechalkface radio with suburban parents all across the country who are still scratching their heads as they watch their local public schools turn into slums.

It's coming to a community near you!

If you don't believe me, read this: From The Progressive

In what has become a typical divide-and-conquer tactic of the Wisconsin Republican legislative leadership, the hearing was scheduled at the same time as three other public education-related hearings involving school mascots, scholarships, and a high profile Common Core hearing. 

It was sparsely attended by public education advocates, who wanted their voices to be heard in the Common Core hearing. Most of the people who testified were registered lobbyists for the charter school industry, or people who work in charter schools.

In her opening statement on the bill, Sen. Darling used the frame favored by school privatizers to justify their theft of public resources: failing schools and bureaucracy vs. kids. “This bill gives children the opportunity to attend a charter school that works,” she said. 

When challenged by Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine), who called it a “statewide mandate requiring school boards to approve schools whether or not they want to approve them,” Darling replied, "You could look at it as diminishing the authority of school boards, or as increasing the freedom of charter schools to innovate."

Education "Reform" with David Sirota

YouTube Introduction What's really happening in education politics? Would you believe it's a battle between greedy school teachers and corporate CEOs who want what's best for the children? Well, not so much. Charter schools backed by these so-called "education reformers" aren't necessarily better than standard public education - it's actually been proven that they aren't. Charter schools do however make sense as a business strategy, allowing corporations to make big money off school children. How does this strategy work? David Sirota explains.

Memphis Commercial-Appeal Continues to Ignore Reasons Behind Projected School Budget Deficit

Today the Memphis Commercial-Appeal has a big story on the 80-90 million dollar hole in next year's school budget for the new "unified" Shelby County Schools.  Reporter Michael Kelly manages to point to a number of reasons for the shortfall without ever mentioning the primary reason, charter schools, the expansion of which creates inefficiencies throughout the system that will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions over the next decade if current charter plans continue.  

Has Kelly not bothered to read the transition plan ( it is available on the Web), which spelled out these facts in a report from last summer?  

Or is the Commerical-Appeal to beholden to oligarchs like Bill Gates to carry out the responsibilities of a free press to inform the public on civic issues? 

Some of Report presented below from an earlier post at SM:

Here below are some choice tidbits with a few of my own comments.  (My bolds within the text)

Overall Shelby County public school enrollment is projected to decline 3% from FY2012 to FY2016, resulting in approximately 147,400 students enrolled in Shelby County public schools by FY2016. The enrollment mix is expected to shift to non-district operators (including charter schools and the ASD), from 4% of total public school enrollment in FY2012 to 19% in FY2016, resulting in approximately 118,700 students enrolled in district-operated schools by FY2016 (p. 13).

The Committee developed these priorities and recommendations with the understanding that Shelby County Schools will not be structured like a traditional school district in 2013–14. With the growth of the Achievement School District (ASD), the Innovation Zone, and charter schools, the district will be a mix of school operators and types. The TPC recognizes that the district does not, and should not, have the authority to mandate some of the recommendations below in charter schools and the ASD (p. 31).

The details on the Achievement School District are not complete, but it will essentially operate without local control or oversight.  It will be run out of Nashville, and it will replace the lowest scoring (poorest) public schools in the state with corporate charters.

Some details on the cost of the new Gates-Walton-Edelman Plan:

Cost Management of Enrollment Shifts

Summary

A system with multiple school operators (e.g. District, ASD and charter schools) inherently costs more to operate due to loss of scale with fixed costs being allocated across a smaller volume of students. This multi-operator environment is in place today and is projected to expand irrespective of the merger. To date, the districts have found creative ways to manage the increased costs of the existing multi-operator system (e.g. cutting or shifting 400+ positions out of the General Fund to right-size staff). However, with the projected share of students in non-district operated schools expandingrapidly in the next few years—from approximately 4% in FY2012 to 19% by FY2016 (equivalent to approximately $212M of revenues shifted to charter schools and the ASD in FY2016)—it is critical to implement strategic cost management to ensure each pathway in the Multiple Achievement Paths model is financially equitable to students. The majority of these enrollment shifts are projected to happen irrespective of the merger, and the increased cost of the system is not the “fault” of the district or charter schools. Although merged SCS will continue to be responsible for managing most of these costs, other operators will also contribute as participants who benefit from this overall system (p. 168).

Here are some specifics from the Plan with details about what they mean.  Note that almost 400 public school teachers will be lost in the first 3 years, and the Stand on Children folks are planning to make sure that these teachers lose the opportunity to transfer to the charter system being planned for urban Memphis.  One of the new priorities for the ALEC owned State Legislature will be  “Repealing TCA § 49-5-511 which requires districts to place tenured teachers on a preferred reemployment list if they lose their jobs due to a reduction in force”(p. 195):

• From FY2012 to FY2014, the shift of an estimated 9,500 students from district-operated schools to other operators (e.g. charter schools, ASD) will result in a shift of approximately $70M in revenues. Charter school revenue share will continue to be a pass-through to the district and ASD revenue share is expected to be directly provided by the State.

• If the merged SCS aggressively implements a set of management practices to manage its school and staffing footprint, it can recover an estimated $58M. This assumes 85% of step-variable costs can be recovered with the district pursuing regular staff right-sizing and active management to hold student-teacher ratios constant. For example, with an estimated decline or shift of 9,500 students from FY2012 to Fy2014, the district will have to make the following types of approximate reductions—390 general education teachers, 60 elective and vocational teachers, 50 clerks, and 15 central office positions—keeping in mind that new teaching and other employment opportunities would be created in the ASD and charter schools.

• Other operators’ paying for benefits received (e.g. utilities and maintenance in shared facilities, shared staff, shared services) can help contribute approximately $3M (seeOperations Plan chapter for more details on shared services). [Presently, TN state law requires charter operators to pay nothing for these services provided by local districts]

• A modest and differentiated contribution from other operators of an estimated 4% (blended average across operator types ranging from 0% to 7% depending on specific choices made by the operators, e.g. full conversion of existing attendance zone in existing facilities contribute 0%, lottery system in existing facilities contribute 5% if choose to share school-level costs) can help recover a further approximately $3M. Enforcing contributions will require a legislative change as current Tennessee law does not allow charter school authorizers to require charter schools to contribute to district overhead. Note that benchmarks of other large urban districts show contributions to range from 2% (Denver) up to 20% (Chicago) (p. 171).

Even if all the cost savings can be implemented, including privatizing custodial and transportation operations and turning over the keys of 21 public schools to charter school operators, the TPC still projects a $57 million deficit in FY 2016.  Below is the wish list that the TPC has developed to try to close the gap created by the drain of education dollars into the corporate charter schools and ASD charter schools.  Note that there is presently no state law requiring charter operators to pay for any shared services, either utility bills, transportation costs, or shared librarians, for instance.

City, county, and state action

There are a number of outstanding issues that require city council, county commission, or state action.

These include:

• Securing the $55M in funding from the City of Memphis

• Waiving the Shelby County residency requirement for all SCS employees, given the number of current MCS employees who do not reside in Shelby County

• Ensuring that all operators (e.g. district, charter schools, ASD) receive state and local funds in the same timeframe

• Seeking definitive clarity from the state on to whom the "leveling up" requirement of the Norris Todd Act applies, and securing an agreement on that definition

• Advocating for the legislature to implement the approved changes to BEP funding, and for the proposed changes made by the BEP Review Committee. There are reforms passed in the State BEP 2.0 formula that are pending funding for full implementation. Some of these reforms, including an increase in the State share for instructional components in the formula from 70%to 75%, could yield as much as $30M in incremental revenue.

• Advocating for the state to provide funding during the merger transition period, per TCA § 49-2-1207 (5), and/or TCA § 49-2-1262

• Advocating for the legislature to approve a charter school and ASD holdback, and charter school attendance zones

• Repealing TCA § 49-5-511 which requires districts to place tenured teachers on a preferred reemployment list if they lose their jobs due to a reduction in force.

• Exploring options to recover the education portion of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) (p. 195).

Now if the wish list does not lead to the desired funds, then the TPC has a contingency plan to pay for the ridiculous and needless and expensive turnover of 20 percent of Memphis schools to charter operators.  Here it is:

Contingency Plan

If all four recommendations for additional funding have been exhausted and a budget deficit remains, the TPC has identified potential incremental cost reductions worth $48M as a reluctant contingency plan. This contingency plan is not a recommendation of the TPC. The TPC believes that these types of reductions, which would increase class size and reduce school-level staff, undermine the potential of the Plan to create a world-class educational system, and should only be pursued as an absolute last resort.

The exact initiatives would need to be identified by the district-led working committee; however, some illustrative examples are detailed below. These examples total $48M in annual savings.

• Shifting to State minimum ratio of librarians which would result in a $5.5 additional annual savings from about 115 fewer librarians

• Retracting investment in additional Assistant Principals and shifting toward a 'SCS minus one' staffing model which would provide an additional $11.4M in annual savings from eliminating close to 100 AP positions

• 15% reduction in other school staff positions (e.g., clerks, educational assistants, therapists) for an annual savings of $10.5M

• Moving to a student-teacher ratio of 'MCS plus one' for an annual savings of $20M resulting from eliminating 280 teachers (p. 177).

Obama Pushes Apartheid Charter Movement in Georgia Over the Top

My first year of teaching was in Georgia in 1971, one year after the end of segregation in Washington County, where I would teach Title I English at TJ Elder Jr. High School.  The personnel director (before people became human resources) wore a white suit and white patent leather loafers, and he grinned widely as he told me that he was glad to welcome another young white family to Sandersville.

The head of the little English department at Elder was a little blue-haired woman who leaned against the door frame as I dug around the book room looking for something, I didn't know what, that would be good for my students, who were almost all black, since the year before private Baptist academies had sprung up all over Georgia to keep the white children away the black ones.  The department chair told me I shouldn't be worrying too much about choosing books that would work, for as she said, smiling sweetly, "after all, Mr. Horn, a nigra is a nigra and there's nothing you are going to do about that."

Now forty years later the white folks have another resegregation strategy that involves academies, too, but this time around they are paid for with public dollars, run mainly by corporations, are all white OR all black, and supported by America's first African-American president.  What would Vonnegut say if were alive today?

The big referendum in Georgia sailed right through last week, due primarily to some bombardment of ads on Black Radio paid for by the oligarchs and featuring a mash-up of supportive remarks for charter schools by Barack Obama.

The story is here, the ad below:

Guest Post: Linda Sutton to Washington State Voters

By Linda Sutton

Defeated in 1996, 2000, and 2004, the Charter school industry will NOT give up. Another initiative is scheduled for this year's ballot. Unfortunately, the AP Sunday article begins with "some research has found" and spins in favor of charters.

Washingtonians were right in voting down this idea three times, and I would urge another NO vote. Coming from California, I witnessed the devastation to public schools caused by the corporate push to privatize public schools.

Of course, cutting the budgets, demonizing teachers, and trashing unions help make "bad" schools a self-fulfilling prophesy. And the public and parents, disgusted with what is left in these money-starved and dumbed-down curriculums (caused by teach-to-the-test), grasp for any straw of hope. Thus, the corporate-driven propaganda constantly tells them that charters are the answer.

The racist element that is played in this sales effort is the idea that charters are "especially good at helping minority and low-income students improve...." So, those non-minorities and higher income voters now have a way to sooth their consciences for the lack of funding going into the public schools. Just pass the buck to charters and forget the rest.

And "forget the rest" is what has happened in CA. There is almost NO oversight, helped again by constant budget cutting. The idea of "quickly shutting down schools that aren't working" is a joke. Another "talking point" used to sell this bad idea. It doesn't happen. In the meantime, a generation of students is lost. With the budget situation in WA, I have no doubt that the promised "oversight" would fall during the budget-cutting sessions.

Charters are privately run but PUBLICLY funded — a diversion of public money to profit corporate coffers. Most charters are run by business executives with no formal training in education. This is solved by demonizing educators as unworthy of being trusted.

Teachers at charters don't have anything that helps keep qualified educators in education as a career. Low wages, no prep time, minimal (if any) benefits, and definitely no tenure. Any teacher can be fired at an administrator's whim. And, you can be sure there are many administrators who play favorites and fire anyone who disagrees in the least with anything they do.

Another point in the article, similar to a charter school press release, states that "the state should take what was learned elsewhere." One thing learned is that MANY charters do no better than the existing public schools, and MANY charters do worse. This is not mentioned at all.

Tweeking and presenting charters again and again and again and again, the corporate charter movement hopes to fool enough people so that they can edge their way into the state.

For a fuller background on this most important issue, go to Dr. Kathy Emery's: educationanddemocracy.org and read her dissertation and articles. Her book Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Pubic Schools remains one of the best in explaining the origins of the present state of education. It should be required reading for all of our elected officials.

Anyone who signed onto the charter petition, I hope that you re-think this and do more research to learn charters are not what they're cracked up to be.

Lobbyists Making the Rounds In Tallahassee for Bill Offering More in Corporate Welfare Check for Charters

From Miami Herald:

By Kathleen McGrory and Scott Hiaasen
shiaasen@miamiherald.com

 

A legislative plan to give charter schools a cut of local school districts’ construction money would steer millions of additional dollars to large charter-school networks that are already sitting on tens of millions of dollars in cash, records show.

The charter-school industry is lobbying hard in the capital to gain a share of tax dollars raised by school districts to cover the construction and maintenance costs of traditional public schools — tax revenue that has dropped dramatically in recent years with plummeting real-estate values. Currently, school districts are not required to share these tax dollars with charter schools.

School districts say the proposal could cost them as much as $140 million a year statewide and cripple their ability to repair aging school buildings and pay debts for past construction. But charter school operators say the lesser funding for their students is inherently unfair, and argue that withholding construction money has stifled charter schools’ growth.

Earlier this month, Doug Rodriguez, the principal of the Doral Academy Preparatory Middle/High charter school, told a Senate committee that the lack of construction money has “placed a cap on our school. We’re not able to expand.”

But many charter schools, including Rodriguez’s, routinely collect more tax dollars than they spend, and sock away the unspent cash. The Doral Academy charter-school network, comprised of five Miami-Dade schools, had net assets of $13.6 million last year, much of it cash, records show.

The Doral Academy network is one of four large South Florida charter-school chains run by Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator. These four school networks — the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — had combined assets of more than $83 million last year, records show. This money is held by nonprofit companies that own the schools, which are managed by Academica, a for-profit company based in South Miami.

These schools could stand to gain millions more every year from the construction tax dollars, which would be distributed on a per-student basis. For example, the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — which now have 45 percent of all charter-school students in Miami-Dade County — would receive an additional $14.5 million from the Miami-Dade school district this year alone under the proposal.

Academica’s schools aren’t the only ones with growing reserves. The Keys Gate charter schools in Homestead, managed by Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA, have about $5 million in cash reserves, and the nearby Charter School at Waterstone, run by Charter School Associates, had $2.6 million in assets last year, most of it cash, records show. . . . .

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/19/v-print/2649278/bill-would-benefit-big-charter.html#storylink=cpy