The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies

[geardaddy]

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/02/the_great_charter_school_rip_off_finally_the_truth_catches_up_to_education_reform_phonies/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on.

Last week when former President Bill Clinton meandered onto the topic of charter schools, he mentioned something about an “original bargain” that charters were, according to the reporter for The Huffington Post, “supposed to do a better job of educating students.”

A writer at Salon called the remark “stunning” because it brought to light the fact that the overwhelming majority of charter schools do no better than traditional public schools. Yet, as the Huffington reporter reminded us, charter schools are rarely shuttered for low academic performance.

But what’s most remarkable about what Clinton said is how little his statement resembles the truth about how charters have become a reality in so many American communities.

In a real “bargaining process,” those who bear the consequences of the deal have some say-so on the terms, the deal-makers have to represent themselves honestly (or the deal is off and the negotiating ends), and there are measures in place to ensure everyone involved is held accountable after the deal has been struck.

But that’s not what’s happening in the great charter industry rollout transpiring across the country. Rather than a negotiation over terms, charters are being imposed on communities – either by legislative fiat or well-engineered public policy campaigns. Many charter school operators keep their practices hidden or have been found to be blatantly corrupt. And no one seems to be doing anything to ensure real accountability for these rapidly expanding school operations.

Instead of the “bargain” political leaders may have thought they struck with seemingly well-intentioned charter entrepreneurs, what has transpired instead looks more like a raw deal for millions of students, their families, and their communities. And what political leaders ought to be doing – rather than spouting unfounded platitudes, as Clinton did, about “what works” – is putting the brakes on a deal gone bad, ensuring those most affected by charter school rollouts are brought to the bargaining table, and completely renegotiating the terms for governing these schools.

Much more at link.

[YarnAddict]

1. We had a charter school in our community

It didn't last long, but it did one great thing: It provided competition to an administration that smugly refused to listen to parent complaints and requests.

They had always had a "we're the only game in town, so what are you going to do about it?" attitude toward the students and their parents. Mediocrity was good enough for them.

When we moved here, less than half the students were testing at the satisfactory level in 3rd/4th grade reading! The schools were touting their "almost HALF tested satisfactory!" as some kind of a grand achievement. I was appalled. There were no AP classes, and the teachers all hopped on the "everyone's the same" bandwagon, which meant that they taught to the middle, and had 1/3 of the class completely lost, 1/3 completely bored, and 1/3 who were actually learning something. It was a mess. There was a book on the shelves of the 3rd/4th grade library that was entitled "Someday Man May Walk on the Moon." This was in 1993. It was 25 years out of date, but the truth was that no one CARED enough to pull it off the shelf.

When my younger son was going into 5th grade, this charter school idea came up. It had been intended to be a K--4th grade school, but due to such an overwhelming clamor from parents, the founders decided to expand to the 5th grade.

My child didn't go, but within just a couple of years our high school was offering AP, classes in general became more challenging, and more appropriate. They sought out new and competent staff, and started participating in some of the academic team competitions--like Science Olympiad.

Yes, the charter school failed, and didn't last, but its legacy was a good one, and lasted long after the charter school was gone.

[tech3149]

2. I've had to work in and with schools all my working life

I will agree with you that the concept of competition can prompt an administration into actually do something to provide improved education. What I've seen as the cause of most problems in the schools urban, suburban ,or rural can be placed at the feet of administrators and school boards. It always seemed to manifest in a few distinct ways. First and foremost was misapplication/disregard of resources. Spending outrageous sums on facilities that have no benefit in the educational process or a disregard of the true educators to do their job to the best of their abilities. Wasting money on sports or technology that provides little benefit is the most obvious but disregard of the teachers is the most insidious.
School boards are prime victims for wasting money. They get all wide eyed at the prospect of spending money on some flashy new project that will make it look like they really care about providing for the students when it's all about how they look. Administrators that have no classroom instruction time who implement authoritarian policies that clearly tell the teachers they have no value or input on determining education policy. Those that couldn't live with it left, those that did resigned themselves to servitude.

Of course, there is the consistent problem of basic funding. It's bad enough that every dollar that is allocated for a student that is taken by a charter school is taken from the public school but the effect is greater than that. For every student taken from the public school the fixed operating costs don't decrease by any significant factor. That means the facility and its maintenance will degrade because of the lowered operating budget and further reducing its ability to perform its job, causing further dissatisfaction with its results.

I attended a fairy rural public school way back in the day. The budget was pretty lean due to the relative income and low property values but I got a pretty good education. Most of my teachers were top tier. They could experiment and find a hook that would get you interested in learning. The administrators worked their way up through classroom performance. They could tell a good teacher from not so good. They didn't toss a teacher that was lacking, they found a way to work with them, find a mentor that could help make them better.

When the whole concept of charter schools started, I thought it was a great idea. Give those educators that have new and interesting ideas try them in a limited environment to evaluate the ideas.
What's not to love?
Now what do we have? Hedge funds investing in charters, teachers hired at subsistence wages only expected to work for two years? I didn't know jack about my "profession" after two years! Total lack of financial transparency or accountability? Seriously? That doesn't sound like an innovative forward thinking approach to education, more like a scam.
Enough for now got to go grocery shopping.

[YarnAddict]

3. Administrators . . .

When we were new in town, as a fervently dedicated parent volunteer, I was tapped to make GOTV calls for a millage. I had people slam the phone in my ear, and make some very rude comments. I was a little surprised at the hostility, and asked another mom about it. She explained that a few years earlier, they had gone through the same thing. "Help, help!! We're desperate!!" So people had approved the millage. And then the administrators went ahead and did some expensive renovations on their offices. Can't say I blame people for being upset about that.

We had come from Wisconsin, and had very, very good schools. When we did fundraising it was for something like taking every kid in the school to a play.

At the time we moved here, there were no PE, music, or art teachers. There was maybe one field trip/class/year. It was wretched. As a library volunteer I found "The Man on the Moon" book, and it nearly did me in. Tells you everything you need to know about the caring staff.

I was so upset, my husband didn't know I wasn't going to pack up and leave until I didn't!

[yurbud]

4. kick