The collapse of 60 charter schools leaves Californians scrambling

[JoFerret]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/17/education/17charter.html?hp

...
The disintegration of the California Charter Academy, the largest chain of publicly financed but privately run charter schools to slide into insolvency, offers a sobering picture of what can follow. Thousands of parents were forced into a last-minute search for alternate schools, and some are still looking; many teachers remain jobless; and students' academic records are at risk in abandoned school sites across California.

Investigators are sifting through records seeking causes of the disaster, which has raised new questions about how charter schools are regulated.

"Until the Charter Academy went into its tailspin, few people predicted that these crashes could be so bloody, but this has been a catastrophe for many people," said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley. "The critics of market-oriented reforms warned of risks with the philosophy of let-the-buyer-beware, but in this case, buyers were just totally hung out to dry."

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[DebJ]

1. Amazes me that anyone believes 'for profit' schools are

better or cheaper, anyway.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Gee...I wonder how that affects the voucher program?

[Corgigal]

3. SC, in my area isn't having much luck

either. One was shut down because , allegedly, the administration was taking the money and they threatened to shut down another because they aren't spending the funds as described in the charter.
Lots of crooks appear when you're talking about these kind of funds.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. In live in Alachua County Florida and we are having great success

with our Charter Schools.

However, the ones that were approved in our area were all grassroots projects by people within the community.

Not all charter school programs are bad.

Come to Alachua County and see what a good charter school program looks like.

[noonwitch]

11. Charter schools in Detroit are similar

Most were started by community groups and churches. They seem to be working. I'm only concerned when they start comparing them to public schools, without noting that the public schools take all students in their area, regardless of their previous grades, and charter schools are not required to provide special education programs. A charter school can kick a kid out for not keeping his grades up, a public school can't.

[Peregrine]

20. Maybe in MI but not in FL

I teach in a charter school. We have to have ESE and ESOL just like the public schools. We have to provide justification to the county and state for expelling a student from the school and academic failure is not one of the justifications. The best we can do is convince the parent to remove the student.

[mbperrin]

4. "Few" people predicted?

Maybe, but I was one of them!!!

These schools are strictly a way to put public funds into private pockets, and when the lazy, incompetent bastards that put the fix in get tired because it's actually HARD WORK to teach students, they walk off, just like they have all their lives, with no accountability, no liability, and a steamer trunk full of cash.

Anyone confused about this needs to look up the definition of a public good rather than just a publicly-owned good.

This private bullshit CANNOT work, and it is HARMING people!

[punpirate]

5. In the right's mania to privatize everything...

... they failed to consider, for even a moment, the consequences.

Public funds demand public oversight. Public funds given to private firms result in less oversight, as the article shows.

Public funds converted to private enterprise do not ensure success--they only ensure that some portion of those public funds will be taken as profit.

That profit could have paid for better services on a publicly-funded basis, and did not.

The right wing's program is to starve education through privatization at a time when the government's role should have been to put money into quality education, instead of their friends' pockets.

One day, even the fundies will understand what privatization means--putting money in private pockets with no better results.

[annabanana]

7. Is Cal. the Canary in the coalmine again?

Deregulation (privatization) of energy = Enron
Deregulation (privatization) of schools = school disintegration

How's the deregulation (privatization) of the water supply going?

Buyer beware, indeed.

[Rose Siding]

10. I think Chicago went through a huge privatized ed failure recently

...within the last 2 or 3 years.

edit- No, it was Philadelphia where the Edison schools failed-

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_7_34/ai_94775367

That article doesn't seem to have all the crash and burn details but I did notice in this one that the Failure of a program was initiated by our very own HS guru Tom Ridge!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41436,00.html

[lil-petunia]

13. There was a fiasco in the Chicago area - my old firm was involved

in the litigation.

Some of the allegations were astounding, unbelievable, until the same facts kept creeping up. The result was some major settlements, with a promise to amend the way they did business.

So far, growth in pay-per-pupil private brainwashing institutions has been mainly limited because of funding problems. Even the catholic cattle calls are shutting down schools because of $$$ problems.

On the other hand, Mayor Little Big Man (Daley) wants to shutter 100 older schools and replace them with new ones, ones which are wired, have working windows and electricity and real honest to goodness plumbing! At the same time, they found $6,000,000 worth of computers and laptops sitting, wasting in a school supply storage building - just as Chicago lost about $20 mill in federal revenue sharing for failure it meet its goals to add computers to class rooms.

The indictments haven't started to fly yet, but the way those computers were purchased (friends of the mayor) and the no bid contracts (supporters and appointees of the mayor) and the waste of leaving them there unused (by a mayoral aide in charge of the program to computerize schools) - well, this is Chicago.

If you believe the worst, you are probably off the mark. Because the truth will be much seedier and disgusting.

[madmax]

18. Also in Texas

I remember something about Charter schools failing during the 2000 election. Fraud - I think?

[MisterP]

25. chimpy's "accountability thru testin'" success was FUDGED

by (wait for it) Rod Paige!

[2Design]

8. For Profit = break teacher union = low pay for teachers = religion

For profit as with everything else they have privatized has hurt people. This is not smaller government - this is trying to turn schools into religion or thought control schools. Get rid of teacher unions and pay low.

[Peregrine]

21. Charters fall under state and federal laws

Charters are bound by church-state separation just like public.

But you are right about pay and unions. The teachers in my charter make considerably less than the public schools. There are no pay scales, so pay is up to the administration and is determined by budget constraints.

[2Design]

23. teachers don't make much now but

they don't want anyone making over $10 an hour except themselves

They will not raise the minimum wage - that is ridiculous

[truth2power]

9. Well, well...

I guess the "unregulated free market will take care of everything" frikkin' neo-cons were hoist on their own petard yet again.

"Investigators are sifting through records seeking causes of the disaster, which has raised new questions about how charter schools are regulated."

Regulated? I thought there warn't no "regulated." Har de har har!

[oc2002]

12. Question: was it the Republicans that passed the charter schools?

who pushed the legislation through for charter schools, and is this not the centerpiece of 'No Child Left Behind'?

Thx.

[lil-petunia]

14. AKA, leave no Child's behind

[oc2002]

15. Is vouchers and charter schools conected then?

I am just trying to understand this issue, and what the DNC has to say about it and the GOP has done about it.

[lil-petunia]

16. charter skules were created in the hope of getting around

much of the deadweight that had been plastered on top of public skule admins, etc. Some, not all, union regs were admittedly onerous, and there were places where unqualified teachers were not even keeping attendance. (chicago, for one)

Many charter schools were created in an effort to avoid the worst of the above, and simply treat it like a business. Here's your money per student, you decide the curricula, buy new books, hire the teachers, get profs to donate time and effort, and raise readin' and 'rittin and mathin' scores.

Several corpserations were created, a couple quite good, many, very bad indeed. A collection of religious or just plain thieving con-men sucking the charter system dry. (chicago, for one)

Vouchers, on the other hand, were first planned by ultra-conservatives to avoid not only the worst of the above, but to simply spend that money on existing private schools, mainly those run by religious institutions. What they complained about most of all was Darwin, sex edukashun and science teaching which conflicted with their petty-minded, small-lobed, brain-dead biased view of the universe)
Separation of church and state, and other issues has pretty much stopped those programs from reaching fruition (and propogating ill-educated, brain-washed little bible beaters from spreading their word).

At the same time, much of the dead weight in some schools, (chicago, for an example) has been cut. If you see your revenue come to a halt, and your enrollment decline, it is time for a broom, as painful as it is.

[maxsolomon]

17. just a few bad apples, people. move along

and get back to predicting kerry's loss.

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. Free market education

California gets what it deserves. Prop 13, Arnold.

[leesa]

22. Privatization....always a failure.

[MisterP]

24. this happened in Pennsylvania: a public corp took over a district

and it ended with a "soccer mom riot" and the president barricading himself, then fleeing in his car.