These parents want to know simple everyday things about the way their schools are being "turned around."
"Turnaround" is one of the options offered when districts get Race to the Top money. These charters schools, in this case Charter Schools USA, get to take over schools and get the money once given to the school district and its public schools.
Indiana is closely following
the ideas of Jeb Bush and his Foundation for Excellence in Education.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels "would like to adopt everything Bush described — and more." State superintendent of public instruction Tony Bennett was equally enthusiastic, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
"There is nothing off the table in the areas of freedom, competition and accountability," Bennett told the Courier-Journal.
It appears that the schools which are being closed and turned around into charter schools do not have to let the parents know anything at all in a timely manner. They will not know until next spring what programs the schools will offer or how they will be set up.
From the Indy Star:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20111126/LOCAL18/111260333/Parents-can-t-get-information-what-takeover-schools-will-offer?odyssey=mod">mostcom| Parents can't get information on what takeover schools will offer
(the link looks odd, but it does work)
The type of information parents need, such as which programs, curriculum and extracurricular activities will be provided -- will not be approved and made public until probably spring, according to an IDOE official.
"I want to know, 'Are you having honors classes? What will the honors classes be like? What sports are you offering?' " Shaffer said. "I want to plan now."
Actually, parents of students in takeover schools need to plan now -- because, in some cases, time is running out. For example, one option parents might consider is placing their child in an Indianapolis Public Schools magnet program. But the application deadline is Dec. 15 -- perhaps months before parents will know how the takeover operators intend to run their schools.
Profiting from taxpayer money...this is a good example of it.
The state is paying $3.8 million total to the takeover operators this year to plan for next year's takeover. That money is coming out of federal school improvement grant dollars and covers tasks such as training and evaluating the staff, gathering community feedback and creating an action plan.
That is most likely Race to the Top money. Then later they will get more money:
Beginning next school year, the state will redirect to the turnaround operators aid it normally sends to the local school districts to educate each student. Out of that amount, the turnaround school operators will pay to run the school and retain a fee for their services.
Companies that manage schools for a fee typically operate that way, with an agreed-upon maximum percentage the company can keep as profit.
That in my mind leaves no doubt that taxpayer money is being taken from public schools and being handed freely to private companies. Some may call themselves non-profit...but they are profiting from money that the public schools will no longer have.
Remember Edison Schools, the ones that Jeb Bush bailed out in Florida with
our pension money?"Edison's collapse would have been a major embarrassment for boosters of educational privatization--that is, if an unlikely white knight hadn't come to the rescue, purchasing the company for $182 million. Edison's savior, ironically, was the Florida Retirement System (FRS)--the pension fund for public employees, roughly half of them teachers, whose union has vigorously criticized both Edison and privatization. The purchase, made by Liberty Partners, an investment firm that made private equity investments exclusively with FRS money, not only put the retirement security of public employees at risk; it financially underwrote the cause of privatization, which public employee unions oppose as a threat to jobs and the pensions of its members. But neither public employees nor their unions had a voice in the matter."
Well, guess what? They are playing a big role in Indiana now.
Edison Learning, the New York company taking over the school in Gary, provides an example. The company has worked for a decade with Perry Township, where it runs Rosa Parks and Jeremiah Gray elementary schools. Under that contract, the company receives $6,690 per student -- 1,245 students total -- to cover the costs of operating the schools and their fees. Edison makes a profit of about $200,000 annually.
That $6,690 is money that is no longer going to public schools. Where is the outrage about this blending of public and private in such a blatant way?
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