Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/who-profiting-charters-big-bucks-behind-charter-school-secrecy-financial-scandal-and

Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption


Studies shows that charter schools don’t typically outperform public schools and they often tend to increase racial and class segregation. So one must wonder, what exactly is motivating these school “reformers”? And why have they pushed for more and more closure — and new charter schools — at such an unprecedented rate in recent years?

Pro-charter supporters will tell you that it’s time for public institutions like our schools to start competing more like for-profit institutions. Test scores and high enrollment, then, define success. Unsuccessful schools, they say, should close just as unsuccessful businesses do. For neoliberal school reformers from today’s Arne Duncan-led Department of Education to scandal-ridden movement leader Michelle Rhee to billionaire Bill Gates, it is taken on faith that market principles are desirable in education.

But since it’s not clear that market principles are benefiting students on a large scale, it seems likely that something else is at stake. And reformers may be more than a little disingenuous in publicly ignoring that other, less high-minded thing: Profit. Critics of charter schools and school closings point out that proponents may not really be motivated by idealism, but by self-gain.

But who precisely is profiting? And how? Untangling answers to these questions is a more daunting task. Compared to public schools, charters schools are an extremely unregulated business. They contract with private companies to provide all kinds of services, from curriculum development to landscaping. Most of the regulations that bind charter schools are implemented at the state level. And unlike public institutions, the finances of charter schools are managed on a school-by-school basis. Because they are not consistently held accountable to the public for how they distribute funds, charter schools are often able to keep their business practices under wraps, and thus avoid too much scrutiny.

[hobbit709]

1. follow the money is always the way to find out who got it.

[xchrom]

2. Punishing Students For Not Making Eye Contact? How Charter Schools' Prejudiced Policies Undermine

http://www.alternet.org/education/punishing-students-not-making-eye-contact-how-charter-schools-prejudiced-policies-continue

Punishing Students For Not Making Eye Contact? How Charter Schools' Prejudiced Policies Undermine Equality


On the heels of news that Philadelphia will be closing 23 schools for the 2013-2014 academic year, Chicago has made an even more startling announcement: Chicago Public Schools has proposed closing 54 schools for the next academic year. The idea is to replace them with charter schools, an initiative that Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has supported enthusiastically.

Enthusiasm for charter schools primarily comes from them being hailed as a panacea that could solve longstanding disparities in education quality, and possibly even turn around longstanding divides like racial disparity and economic inequality.

Without irony, the charter school movement has adopted the banner of the civil rights movement to create an aura of moral authority. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised pro-charter propaganda film Waiting for Superman for ushering in a “Rosa Parks moment.” And a Goldman Sachs banker famously called charter schools the “civil rights struggle of my generation.”

Ultimately, however, not only do charter schools fail children of color and students with disabilities, they often actively work against them as they try to transform students into what they imagine is the status quo. From outrageous fees to strict disciplinary codes, charter schools continuously work to target students they don't want.

[Recursion]

3. I'm not sure "competition" is the main argument

You have that in most cities anyways, at least at the high school level, since open enrollment is pretty much the norm. Speaking just from having dealt with DCPS, the issue is getting out from under a corrupt, incompetent, and grossly ineffective district bureaucracy.

[Fumesucker]

15. In order to install a corrupt, incompetent and grossly ineffective private bureaucracy

Frying pan or fire, take your pick.

[DrDan]

4. and by Presidential proclamation, this is Charter School Week

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/03/presidential-proclamation-national-charter-schools-week-2013#.UYlzOW8myb8.twitter

[DhhD]

10. Last week, May 6-10, 2013 was Public School Week. Public School Week has been celebrated

for many years. Now we have a Democratic Administration that supports privatization and a free public education.

Perhaps the smaller the government is the more easily it can be privatized; which is a move to the Right.

[HiPointDem]

5. kr

[chuckstevens]

6. The "Other" Financial Scandal

Most people do not realize that if a students opts out of a public school to goes to a charter school, the public school loses the funding for each that student who leaves the system. However, when the students realizes the charter school was falsely advertised as to its "greatness" and they decide to go back to the public school, the public school DOES NOT GET A DIME BACK FROM THE CHARTER SCHOOL! Gee, not problem with stretching an already constrained budget!

Multiple that with the number of kids nationwide who do leave charter schools and go back to public schools and you'll see that whole thing is a freckin scam. Waiting for Superman My Ass!

[DhhD]

11. The public school District has the right to ask for private tuition from the parent for the rest of

the school year in some states. Then the state funding kicks back in for the following school year to that public District.

[libdude]

7. Ohio and Charter Schools

Ohio has a very pro charter school Governor, Kasich, whose proposed biennium budget increase funding for charter schools by creating a program where the funding from the State follows the student. According to Policy Matters, charter schools have had poor track record with several not meeting the level of student proficiency. A scam has developed where after failing to meet standards for a couple of years, funding is pulled, the problem is that these schools just reopen under another name.
The problem with Kasich's plan is that this actually takes more funding away from already underfunded public schools, it should be noted that the current method of public school funding has be ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court, which leaves the starting point at a financially lower point.
Another aspect of Kasich's budget is that more financially well off school districts will actually receive additional state funding as many poorer districts will see spending frozen. This is after millions have been cut during Kasich's initial budget which has created problems for many districts.
The over reliance on property taxes to fund local schools has further created an atmosphere of deteriorated schools starved to meet basic educational targets and mandates.
The issue with charter schools is the same as many government services are privatized, is that the bottom line is a monetary matter of primary importance. The most profit for the least expenditure.

[Thor_MN]

8. Hundreds of ways to skim money off the top to make it look like the main org is just doing OK

I worked for a company in the 80's that was getting into cash flow issues. One of the reasons cash was tight is that we had to make the rent payment each month. It was always the first payment of the month. The landlord knew all the details, since he was also the owner of the company. We paid high buck rents for a pretty crappy building. We went through wage freezes and reductions, but the rent always was paid in full, on time. Security, cleaning, landscaping, maintenance were dished to relatives or cronies of the owner. Supplies were purchased at outrageous prices, from companies that kicked back to the owner. I'm sure that there were many other ways that money was being siphoned off the books of the company that wrote my paychecks.

[Half-Century Man]

9. Transparency is the cure

Transparency is the cure for most of our problems. Why does a business need secrecy? One reason to protect a key ingredient that enables their product to be greater than an opposing company's product. A trade secret.
When your trade secret is bullshit or addictive you are not serving the needs of your customers. You have become a scam artist, and deserve jail time.

[mountain grammy]

12. When W and company suckered the Dems into supporting NCLB, the fix was in.

A national mandate for standardized testing. Guess who had just bought into a large corporation that produced these standardized tests? Well, that would be none other than Neil Bush. Remember him? Old Silverado Savings and Loan, Neil! Still a thief, still stealing from the middle class. Gotta love those sons of Bushes.

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/

[midnight]

13. The Kochs, and the Bradely's profit.

Formerly known as Allen-Bradley Foundation, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (LHBF), was established in 1942. According to The Foundation's 1998 Annual Report and a 2011 report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation gives away more than $30 million per year.[1]
Harry was one of the original charter members of the far right-wing John Birch Society, along with another Birch Society board member, Fred Koch, the father of Koch Industries billionaire brothers and owners, Charles and David Koch.[2]
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “from 2001 to 2009, it [Bradley] doled out nearly as much money as the seven Koch and Scaife foundations combined.” [3]
According to the Media Transparency web site, the Foundation's "resources, its clear political agenda, and its extensive national network of contacts and collaborators in political, academic and media circles has allowed it to exert an important influence on key issues of public policy. While its targets range from affirmative action to social security, it has seen its greatest successes in the areas of welfare 'reform' and attempts to privatize public education through the promotion of school vouchers...
"The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. -- and the world -- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force. In other words, laissez-faire capitalism: capitalism with the gloves off.
"To further this objective, Bradley supports the organizations and individuals that promote the deregulation of business, the rollback of virtually all social welfare programs, and the privatization of government services. As a result, the list of Bradley grant recipients reads like a Who's Who of the U.S. Right ... Heritage Foundation ... Madison Center for Educational Affairs ... American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, literary home for such racist authors as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D'Souza (The End of Racism), former conservative officeholders Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and William J. Bennett, and arch-conservative jurists Robert H. Bork and Antonin Scalia...[4]
"Other Bradley grantees include ... Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation" ... Potomac Foundation, the MacIver Institute and Encounter Books. [5][6]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation

[chervilant]

14. For profit institutions...meh...

...like they're all that and a bag of chips.

In our crumbly, service industry economy, it's essential that our schools continue to produce service industry drones. And if corporatists like Duncan and Gates can make charters profitable, there's the one positive outcome in their "noble" efforts to educate the Hoi Polloi.

What they eventually want: children packed like sardines into large amphitheaters (or staying home) with laptops and compulsory benchmark tests to "prove" our "children is learning."