General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo wonder Arne Duncan's leaving. More charter scandals in the media.
He will be receiving media accolades of course, but there will be many teachers and parents disagreeing. The problem is that his successor is even more in the pocket of charter school operators.
From the Chicago Sun Times last week.
Charter firm suspected of cheating federal grant program
A clout-heavy charter-school firm that operates four taxpayer-funded schools in Chicago is suspected of defrauding the government by funneling more than $5 million in federal grants to insiders and away from the charter schools, according to court records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
No criminal charges have been filed in the ongoing investigation of Des Plaines-based Concept Schools, which has built a network of powerful supporters, including Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.
.....Concept has 30 schools in Illinois and five other states, including four Chicago Public Schools-funded campuses with a total of about 2,200 students. CPS funds them under school-choice laws that provide for government funding of certain privately operated schools.
In June 2014, the FBI raided Concepts northwest suburban headquarters and 18 other sites in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, seizing records regarding top Concept officials and the companys participation in the federal E-Rate program, the Sun-Times reported last year. At the time, authorities would say only that they were investigating a white-collar-crime matter.
That article did not mention that Concept Schools are Turkish-based Gulen charter schools. Here is a more about that.
Remember that taxpayer money goes to charter schools, and there has been little or no accountability the last few years.
FBI raids Concept Schools in Illinois, 2 other states
The FBI and two other federal agencies conducted raids in Illinois and two other states at charter schools run by Des Plaines-based Concept Schools, FBI officials said Tuesday.
Search warrants were executed at 19 Concept schools in connection with an ongoing white-collar crime matter, said Vicki Anderson, a special agent in the Cleveland FBI office thats leading the probe.
The U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission also were involved in the June 4 raids, but officials said the warrants remain under seal, and they wouldnt give any details about the investigation.
....Concept was founded by Turkish immigrants and has ties to Turkish-American groups that have hosted Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other state lawmakers on trips to their homeland in recent years, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in December. In 2012, Madigan visited Concepts Chicago Math and Science Academy at 7212 N. Clark St., and praised the school in a video posted on YouTube.
After its efforts last year to open two new taxpayer-funded charter schools in Chicago were rejected by Chicago Public Schools officials, Concept appealed to the Illinois State Charter School Commission, which overrode CPS and allowed Concept to open Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park at 2845 W. Pershing Rd. and Horizon Science Academy Belmont at 5035 W. North Ave.
There is more about Gulen charter schools at The Perimeter Primate and at Charter School Watchdog
chillfactor
(7,584 posts)The students are top-notch, the staff a joy to work with, the teachers are all high-quality, and we have super IT people on staff. I get so tired of hearing how charter schools are put down....yes there may be some bad ones. but public schools can also have rotten apples...and it is why public schools are crying for teachers. Many public school teachers are leaving because 85% of their jobs are fighting with obnoxious, disrespectful. foul-mouthed. smart-ass kids....thank goodness not where I teach.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)As are some other charters.
My argument is that public school money is being taken and given to charters that are mostly run by private companies.
Look up White Hat schools in Ohio. They are claiming the public schools and all that goes with them as their own property.
Our nation is supposed to educate everyone even the "obnoxious, disrespectful. foul-mouthed. smart-ass kids." as you call them.
Sorry you are tired of hearing about it, but many teachers and parents and students are living the pain of charter rejection all because of the need for high test scores.
If there are no publicly funded "public" schools left, where will the charter schools send their rejects???
caballojm
(273 posts)where we are required by law to teach everyone, I'm horrified by your characterization of grade school students. I wonder where your 85% statistic came from? All charter schools have the luxury of picking and choosing their students. That is why you have no "obnoxious, disrespectful. foul-mouthed. smart-ass kids." Your attitude is one of the many reasons why we need to halt the advance of the for-profit charter system.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)They yanked their charter. They hid behind another....and got caught again.
just bleeding public dollars to privatize our school system.
paleotn
(17,989 posts)....the rest are left in underfunded and forgotten public schools? Sounds like a recipe for societal disaster.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)paleotn
(17,989 posts)....how anyone can think the whole charter school paradigm is a good plan, I have no idea. Except for those making a buck off of it I guess.
JanMichael
(24,897 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)I taught in one of the more poverty stricken schools for years. It angered me when the poster called such students name. I had some of the toughest classes in town, but we managed well as long as I treated them with respect and gave them caring attention.
I think a system of two-tier serves no one well.
lindysalsagal
(20,747 posts)Because this is supposed to be a place where "liberty and justice" are "for all."
Wait until you're too expensive to keep, and your lack of tenure, seniority, and job protection land you in an even lower paying catholic school, or in the unemployment line.
You are short-sighted, and these politicians are counting on it.
Democracy depends on an educated, informed electorate. Public schools are our only hope.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)smart ass kids live in poverty and come from homes with alcoholic abusive parents. My husband was one of them. Sending him to public alternative school was the best thing they could have done with him because they cared about him. They gave him the attention he needed. They believed in him. They helped him when no one else would, and he graduated when even the principal at the regular school told him he would amount to nothing. It is our public school systems that fail those kids, not the kids. And the public school systems would be able to do better by them if they had the resources to have smaller classes, higher paid teachers, and allowed teachers more control over the curriculum.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)You and your for-profit schools cherrypick the best kids from the public schools and call the rest of the taxpayers' children names. I question your professionalism. And I question your CEO's integrity. Charter schools are no different than Enron and your comment about the kids who attend public schools remind me of the way Enron employees made fun of Grandma Mildred while they ripped off the ratepayers in California.
Shame on you!
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)a comment like this on a "progressive" website, written by a "progressive" member. I find it repulsive, especially coming from a teacher.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Thanks!
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)there may be a problem.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)....the administration as they find positions post-Obama.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Not sure about Bernie's stance yet, not even sure he has one. But Hillary and the Republicans most likely will continue the privatization of public schools.
George II
(67,782 posts)....some are good, some are bad. Public schools are not all good - some are good, some are bad.
There's good and bad in all aspects of life.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)There is good and bad in every school and school system.
However the biggest difference is that when a kid goes to charter school, the money goes with him. No, it doesn't mean the public school has one less student...it means they are losing money.
The public schools teach everyone, even the terrible kids described in a post above.
The charter schools don't have to keep anyone they don't think meets their standards. They send them back to public school often humiliated, BUT I have not heard of any public schools getting their money back when the kid comes back.
They are giving PUBLIC resources to PRIVATE companies.
SteveG
(3,109 posts)Like has happened here in DE several times. The school is shut down (usually because of fiscal mismanagement or gross malfeasance on the part of staff, and those kids are sent back to public schools which have to take them, but they get no money for those students.
paleotn
(17,989 posts)It's like throwing up our hands and giving up on true public education. What it does do is use the taxpayers dime to perpetuate the system of haves and have nots while enriching a few insiders.
Orrex
(63,233 posts)If they're so great, then they should be funded independently and should be required to provide and maintain their own facilities, equipment, materials, staff, and faculty.
When a charter school tried to latch onto my own small town's already low-income public school, the would-be parasite disclosed that it would be using the buses, the nurse, and some of the grounds and equipment belonging to the public school.
If public schools have one problem, it sure as hell ain't an overabundance of funds. Anything that takes even more money away from public schools is a terrible idea.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)As noted above, the charter schools take the best students, refuse the rest, and then point at the public schools and say, "look, those teachers suck." The end game is to completely do away with public schools, and make sure that the billionaires take 20% or more of the entire national education budget. At the end we'll have the most expensive, and worst quality, education in the world, just like our healthcare.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)DhhD
(4,695 posts)State Education Codes. A state has almost no control over the learning process and facilities. How long before the FBI is stretched too thin with way to many business to investigate? Mean while there is no State over sight on the student's education process.
Conservative state legislatures and therefore, legislators are going to privatize education big time if a corporatist is elected to the highest office in 2016. IMO, the Secretary of Education appointee will move to assign a voucher to every child, so that the property of the public school district will be legally given over to or confiscated by the charter business.
Vouchers will be forced on Texans in the 2017 Texas Legislature even though the public is against the privatization by the state conservative government. The 4 year term of the GOP elected state official Dan Patrick will not end until 2018 after he runs herd over Texans. Well Texans voted for him in 2014 knowing that vouchers were turned down before in the 2011 and 2013 state legislatures. If the 2016 election completely removes all democrats, Vouchers will destroy public education in Texas by the 2017 legislature. What a shock to all those Red voters who do not pay attention.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Give parents the money from the public coffers to send their little ones to religious private schools. Ultimate destruction of public education.
Truprogressive85
(900 posts)He spent more time working on his jump shot for NBA All Star games than as Secretary of Education
under his watch more charter school and failed schools
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Truprogressive85
(900 posts)worst Sec. of Education I can remember
mountain grammy
(26,658 posts)If a corporation wants to run private schools, have at it! Go for it, you know, free market, yadda, yadda. I don't understand how these so called free market freaks feel they have a right to taxpayer money for their businesses. If they can educate kids better, they should convince parents of that, charge tuition and do it. Many private schools do a fine job, taking very little if any taxpayer money. Corporate influence in public school systems around the country is not, and in my opinion, never will be a good thing.
For profit education is like for profit prisons and for profit health care; a disaster waiting to happen.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Money that is taken from out public schools and given to private corporations or churches.