Indiana lawmakers may forgive 12 million in loans to failed charter schools. Wow!

[madfloridian]

Failed charter schools may get bailout from Indiana taxpayers

Indiana lawmakers are considering forgiving $12 million in loans that "failing" charter schools accepted from the state.

Seven schools whose charters were revoked by Ball State University in January would be absolved of payments along with another school which did not seek to renew its charter. The Indiana Department of Education loaned the money to the schools to help them with startup costs.

The loan forgiveness is included in roughly $80 million the Senate has budgeted to repay loans taken by charter schools.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley said state fiscal analysts are reviewing the eight charter schools to determine if they should have their loans waived. The analysts will have to work quickly because lawmakers plan to wrap up their 2013 session in a few days.

There are no words for this left in my vocabulary.

[Starry Messenger]

1. *setting my watch*

How many people who scream about how much education costs per pupil in public education will show up to this thread to decry the utter theft and waste of resources squandered on failed charter schools?

[madfloridian]

2. I hold my breath.

This is simply unbelievable.

[joshcryer]

6. Do they post that here?

That's fucked up. Haven't seen it myself.

[HiPointDem]

9. you know the answer...00000000000

[Downwinder]

3. How many additional public school teachers would that cover?

[jmowreader]

4. If a teacher costs the state $50,000...

...in total expenses...240 teachers. What do you think? Enough to staff three or four complete schools?

My question is, since Indiana mandates a balanced budget and we're talking about blowing a $12 million hole in it, how many nights a week will The Poor go to bed hungry to cover this?

[Half-Century Man]

5. On the bright side....

Indiana's public schools get to absorb the new influx of students from the failed schools. (-)$ 12,000,000 and additional burdens on public school in one fell swoop.
Go Hoosiers

[AngryOldDem]

7. Indiana wants public schools to die. Period.

A lot of education legislation this session dealt with charter schools, and making them easier to access through vouchers. Another big scam is that parents can take their kids out of performance-challenged public schools -- with financial help from the state -- and put the kids in equally poor performing charter schools. As one Democratic House member put it, it's a program that is going to be filled with fraud.

Instead of looking at the problem of failing public schools, the state just wants to get rid of them en masse in favor of charters.

[madfloridian]

22. Indiana adopted Jeb's reforms several years ago...

and the present governor continues to support charters and vouchers. So you are very right.

[HiPointDem]

8. jesus fuckn christ.

[madfloridian]

10. More on this from the WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/23/a-windfall-for-failing-charter-schools/

The schools’ charter authorizer, Ball State University, decided that the schools were not performing well and revoked the charters of seven of them last January; the eighth school did not seek a charter extension. Under a state grading system for schools, the schools all got “Ds” or “Fs.”

Three of the schools are operated by the Imagine Schools network, which is challenging the loss of the charters. The AP story said Imagine still owes $6.28 million from $6.3 million it borrowed.
The AP story said that legislators who support forgiving the loans say that the schools were never properly funded to begin with.

Critics call it what it is: A windfall.

[sofa king]

16. At least this greed lands squarely upon the perps.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the parents of the students who went to these shitty schools were overwhelmingly white, privileged, Republican and looking to place their children in an equally privileged system that gave them an advantage over their lesser equals.

Instead, a generation of Republican children spent years of critical development time in a for-profit system that probably lowered the competitive edge of those children while still pampering them and giving them a false sense of entitlement.

They're never leaving the basement, now, and the parents will pay for that for the rest of their children's unexceptional adult lives.

[madfloridian]

11. They can do this with impunity because...

those who would ordinarily oppose such a ridiculous thing must remain silent to show loyalty to the Democrats who support the rise of charter schools.

It's really terribly sad.

[Trey9007]

19. I hope you're wrong........

Im a Democrat, I support Charter schools, and I think whats going on in Indiana is wrong and feel Democrats AND Republicans should be going crazy about this.

ON a side note, I don't get why so many Democrats are against Charters. IMO, we should be trying to organize the people employed at these schools. We're supposed to be the party of labor, and Charter schools provide an opportunity to show what that really means. There's nothing that says Charter school employees can't join union or can't be Democrats. Instead of working on eliminating Charter schools, we should be organizing them, and work to eliminate the risk of their being teachers with little to no voice in the workplace. Whether they're employed by the state or by private companies, we need to be trying to organize as many as possible.

[madfloridian]

24. I am against charter schools because they deprive public schools of money and resources....

There are some charters run by the district school boards that I might support, but overall the movement is to allow private companies to control public education. This gives taxpayer money, public money, to private companies who are not regulated.

Suddenly schools that are good schools with good teachers are being declared unfit because of test scores. The tests are developed secretly with no regulation, no oversight, and it takes a lawyer to try and get access for concerned parents. I know that because I had it happen before I retired. I monitored the test, I know what happened, and the parents had just concerns.

They are declaring public schools as failures based on iffy info so they can use the Obama/Arne turnaround system to get more charter schools more quickly.

The burden is off the shoulders of the students and parents to do well, and the blame is squarely on the teachers.

It is becoming more about profit and less about depth of learning. In the meanwhile career teachers are suffering. They are fired or laid off in spite of contracts.

[kelliekat44]

12. Don't their taxpayers have something to say about that? More loans to the private sector as bailout

But they would be the first to decry anything to help public schools.

[elehhhhna]

13. Fiduciary duty to protect taxpayers $$$, anyone?

[RainDog]

18. Dennis Bakke, the founder of these schools, is an evangelical christian

this is a scam by Republicans to funnel money to promote religious fundamentalism. Republicans control the state of Indiana beyond Indianpolis and the college towns.

They are also attempting to shut down planned parenthood offices in the state by putting undue burdens on them.

of course they are going to "forgive" those loans.

and attempt to deny women reproductive health care.

...because it's religious extremism that is the marker of the Republican Party across the U.S. at this time.

[madfloridian]

23. That's why some Imagine Schools will be forgiven loans.

Bakke has a lot of power.

[marmar]

14. It's a can't-lose business proposition ......

...... Fleece the taxpayers, screw over the schoolchildren ....... and get bailed out on your loans, unlike the college students $60,000 in the student loan hole who can't get a job.

Bollocksed up.

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Once again the capitalist system.....

socializes the losses. But I'd be willing to bet that if there HAD been profits, they wouldn't have been socialized.

[madfloridian]

17. Basically getting rewarded for failing. If public schools fail, they get closed.

What a pathetic situation is being allowed because both parties support the policy.

[Blue_Tires]

20. It was planned from the start no matter the outcome

I bet dollars to yen that those lawmakers and charter school execs golf at the same country club or something

[HiPointDem]

21. +1