Feds failed to keep tabs on $3B in aid doled out to charter schools. 3 billion?

[madfloridian]

Juan Gonzalez: Feds failed to keep tabs on $3B in aid doled out to charter schools

The federal government shelled out $3.3 billion over the past 20 years to launch new charter schools nationwide, yet failed to monitor how that money was used, a new report has found.

Federal spending to launch charter schools zoomed from a mere $4.5 million in 1995 to more than $253 million today, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal watchdog group — with President Obama now asking Congress for a whopping increase to $375 million for next year.

And that’s on top of billions of dollars state governments spend for charter school operations.

Yet the new report concludes there is “no systematic public accounting for how the federal budget allocated to charters is actually being spent,” and “major gaps in the law allowing waste and fraud.”

.....The U.S. Department of Education doesn’t even bother to keep a public record of which charter schools get money from more than a half-dozen federal programs, said Lisa Graves, director of the Center for Media and Democracy. Her organization had to review thousands of pages of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Law requests before it could coming up with an initial tally of federal charter school spending.

This is money coming out of the public school coffers. The public school system is losing major resources, and yet more and more is being required of them.

[liberal_at_heart]

1. They don't really care where the money is going. All they care about is their sweetheart deals

with business leaders who claim they can make America competitive if we will only give them billions of dollars and the campaign donations those politicians get in return for their sweetheart deals. I'm so done with both parties, it isn't even funny. Bernie had better win. That is all I can say.

[madfloridian]

2. This is an outrageous lack of accountability.

While all the while teachers get the blame.

[Wilms]

3. ^

[newfie11]

4. Disgusting how corrupt this country has become

As a kid I remember reading about big bad Russia and how corrupt it was.

I think we have achieved the same status.

Meanwhile the funding for public schools are cut and private schools are doled out government money.

Is this the twilight zone!

[woo me with science]

6. [phone]

[Doctor_J]

5. The charter school scheme was never about education. It's always been about giving tax dollars

to zillionaires, including of course the Bush family. It's heritage care in the education setting.

Rec

[99Forever]

7. It's what happens when neocons and neolibs run the show.

Corruption, isn't just for breakfast any more.

[madfloridian]

8. Mentions FL and CA and lack of accountability toward charters.

The audit found, for example, that Florida “could not provide a reliable universe of charter schools . . . that received onsite monitoring, desk audits or closed during the grant cycle.”

In California, auditors reviewed 12 charter schools that closed after receiving federal startup funds — some even before opening their doors to any students. The state “had no followup documentation” for any of the schools, nor “any indication of what happened to any assets purchased” with federal funds, the audit concluded.

Even when monitoring of charter schools showed major deficiencies, federal and state officials were slow to seek improvements, the audit found.

[CrispyQ]

9. Charter schools funded by public money is just another scam to loot the Treasurey.

[madfloridian]

10. Can't believe that so few people are concerned about the loss of all that money through the years.

[Starry Messenger]

11. K&R

[madfloridian]

12. Democracy Now covering this today. Transcript and video up.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/8/as_obama_admin_seeks_more_funding

As the Obama administration asks Congress to increase funding for charter schools by almost 50 percent, a new report claims charter schools are spending billions of dollars with nearly no oversight, regulation, or accountability. The Center for Media and Democracy argues the federal government has spent more than $3 billion over the past two decades on the charter school industry, but there is no comprehensive database showing how these funds are spent and what results they produce. The new report analyzes materials obtained from open records requests regarding independent audits of how states interact with charter schools and their authorizers. It concludes that the anti-regulatory environment around charter schools coupled with their lack of financial transparency warrants a moratorium rather than increased charter funding. We are joined by Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. The group’s new report is "New Documents Show How Taxpayer Money Is Wasted by Charter Schools."
Transcript

.....LISA GRAVES: Thank you so much. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how much money has even been spent by the federal government fueling this industry. And it turned out the sum is $3.3 billion. And so we thought, with that much money at stake, there’d be tremendous controls on that spending. But our open records request showed time after time in which the federal government and the state governments have no idea how that money’s being spent. And that, in part, is due to the design of those schools. The design at the state level, driven by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s, policies and a number of sort of extreme policies represent a real hostility to government schools, to the idea of public schools and government oversight. And so what we saw in our records request was, time after time, in which no one really knew how much money was being spent by the schools, how much of those tax dollars was being spent on executive pay, how much money was being outsourced to for-profit corporations.

But we know that the $3.3 billion have fueled an industry that now devotes millions of dollars each year to lobbying for more charter schools, and devotes millions of dollars advertising on public airways for people to send their kids to charter schools, things that public schools don’t have a chance to do. Public schools don’t have the budget to advertise their benefits. Even though these things are called public charter schools, in many respects these operate in many instances for the private sector, for the benefit of CEO’s and Wall Street.

[madfloridian]

13. Obama wants 50% increase in charter school funding.

Yet billions unaccounted for.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/8/as_obama_admin_seeks_more_funding

[kentuck]

14. Meanwhile...

public schools continue to decline. Hmmmm..

[madfloridian]

16. Exactly right.

Things happen when funding dries up.

[Initech]

15. So let me get this straight.

Poor people have to be held accountable for every single cent they spend, and god forbid they spend it on a semi-luxury item. Whereas giant corporations and even government organizations like this can spend billions and they just don't care where it goes. Billions can disappear, no one is held accountable and no one is punished. But a poor person spending money on a cruise ship? Holy shit!!!!

Excuse me a minute...

[madfloridian]

18. Me, too.

Banging my head, that is.

[Rex]

17. It is a private business, so it gets special treatment say compaired to public schools.

The love for Wall Street will continue until not a drop of blood is left in the body.

[madfloridian]

21. ....

[reddread]

19. why do you think they want charter schools?

educating the populace is hardly on the to do list of our various governments.

[madfloridian]

20. I think there are numerous reasons.

The Orlando Sentinel in 2011 called charters a movement to "re-segregate" public schools.

Segregation is making a comeback in Florida's public schools with the new wave of charter schools springing up across the state.

One out of eight charter schools has a student body with 90 percent or more of a single race or ethnicity, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of the state's 456 taxpayer-financed charters shows. That compares with one out of 12 traditional public schools.

Those top heavy charters are adding to the list of out-of-balance public schools that have perplexed educators since integration 40 years ago. Educators have worked for decades to reduce the imbalance through rezoning, school-transfer options, magnet schools and other devices to shift students and make schools more diverse.

But the charter trend is toward segregation, and more of the charters with skewed enrollments may be on the way. Charter supporters say they have the best intentions and are following state law. Besides, they argue, students are not being forced to attend schools favoring one race or ethnicity. Parents make that choice, they say.

And those who invest in charter schools not only get money that once went to public schools, but there is a tax credit advantage.

From TeacherKen at Daily Kos

Thanks to a little discussed law passed in 2000, at the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency, banks and equity funds that invest in charter schools and other projects in underserved areas can take advantage of a very generous tax credit – as much as 39% -- to help offset their expenditure in such projects. In essence, that credit amounts to doubling the amount of money they have invested within just seven years. Moreover, they are allowed to combine that tax credit with job creation credits and other types of credit, as well collect interest payments on the money they are lending out – all of which can add up to far more than double in returns. This is, no doubt, why many big banks and equity funds are so invested in the expansion of charter schools. There is big money being made here -- because investment is nearly a sure thing.

And it’s not just U.S. investors who see the upside of investing in charters. Rich donors throughout the world are now sending money to fund our charter schools. Why? Because if they invest at least $500,000 to charters under a federal program called EB-5, they’re allowed to purchase immigration visas for themselves and family members -- yet another mechanism in place to ensure that the money keeps rolling in.

Proponents of education reform insist that investments like these are all about how successful charter schools are, and show how much support they’ve garnered in just a few short years. But it’s hard to take this on faith when there are billions of dollars of profit—and, for some, a path to U.S. immigration—at stake in these investments.

The "reformers" started like, like Jeb Bush, manipulating minorities to believe that they were not being properly educated. They made it sound so special to be in a charter school. It's been proven that results from charters are not better than public schools, but it's hard to convince anyone of that.

Actually the worst part is that so many in both parties just plain want government out of the school business. I think that will probably succeed, and parents and students will just have to take their chances.