Louisiana school superintendents are starting to fight back against forced charter schools

[madfloridian]

A change in Louisiana law last year is forcing local school systems to pay for many new charter schools whether they like them or not. The battles are heating up in many states as public schools see their money disappearing.

Charter school funding under attack

School superintendents are starting to fight back. Last month, superintendents flooded the state with letters of complaint directed at three proposals to create strictly online charter schools that in two cases would draw students from all over Louisiana. The superintendents submitted a range of complaints, including the involvement of for-profit companies in these would-be cybercharters, and whether these schools can comply with a raft of state laws.

The complaints prompted the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to postpone consideration of these cybercharters and several other charter school proposals until December.

A key underlying complaint of the superintendents is concern about how the state will determine who pays for these new schools. The law change is also at issue in a Union Parish lawsuit scheduled to reach a Baton Rouge courtroom Thursday.

Until June 2008, the state solely paid the cost for these charter schools, known as Type 2 charters. Charter schools are exempt from many of the normal requirements imposed on public schools in hopes that they will serve as educational laboratories.

Louisiana was a target for the Educational Management Organizations EMOs that are often the management of charter schools. It was an easy target after Katrina destroyed so much of that city, it is easy to move in and set up.

Deregulation, New Orleans Schools, and the Kindness of Strangers

In the meantime, the small change merchants of greed have come to New Orleans and other urban centers, where charter schools are replacing most of the public schools that were blown up by natural disasters (Katrina) and by manmade disasters (NCLB). These bottom-feeding greed merchants of the ed industry have been handed the schools to exercise their marketing savvy and their business acumen, where oversight of accounting practices (test scores) are non-existent and protection of consumers (children and parents) is nowhere to be found. And, of course, due process and decent benefits for workers (teachers) is a thing of the past.

As reported in the Times-Picayune, edu-entrepeneurs are out canvassing the Wal-Mart parking lots around New Orleans looking for families with children of school age, preferably non-poor 6th graders without learning difficulties or other special needs. And no one wants fourth graders or eighth graders in particular, since children in these grades have to take the high-stakes LEAP test, and where the peristaltic bulges of failed children are the largest. (See chart from the Times-Picayune).

Interesting comment from the article linked in that blog. It is called "Schools scramble for New Orleans students"

. . .Beabout promised confidentiality to principals he interviewed. One, he said, spoke of wanting to serve families from the middle-class neighborhood surrounding the school. The principal sought to win accreditation for a prekindergarten program specifically with this in mind.

"We had our initial meetings . . . to work on a (national) accreditation because that's a big thing with all these young little yuppie . . . moms and stuff, I want to" attract, the principal told him.

But it appears the school districts will have to go along with the DOE if they want a share in the 4.3 billion in extra money in discretionary spending that Arne has been given.

Today Obama was speaking and warning schools not to fight the changes. It is my understanding the federal government can not force the merit pay or charter schools, but money like that that can be very convincing.

Meanwhile Obama only offers Race to the Top money to those who have those charter schools...as well as merit pay.

The proposed guidelines for the federal government's Race to the Top program have been available since summer, but Obama said the real competition will begin once states can start competing for those grants. States can't do that until the federal government releases the final applications for Race to the Top in a few weeks.

"We're putting over $4 billion on the table - four billion with a 'B' - one of the largest investments that the federal government has ever made in education reform," he said. "But we're not just handing it out to states because they want it. We're not just handing it out based on population. It's not just going through the usual political formulas. We're challenging states to compete for it."

Obama noted that Wisconsin has a law prohibiting using student achievement data to evaluate teacher performance, a law that makes the state ineligible for Race to the Top.

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Legislature is expected to pass a bill that will eliminate that firewall, as well as bills that would encourage high standards for charter schools and allow for the sharing of student data between K-12 and post-secondary institutions.

The states are going along to get the money. Even if they had rules in place, they are giving them up for the money.

Other school boards and superintendents are waking up to the fact that this money going to charter schools is coming from their public schools. Seems like a little too late.

[waiting for hope]

1. New Orleans has had a troubled history

with Public Schools - the main staple has always been Catholic Schools (My husband and his five brothers all went to Catholic Schools in NO) - I hope they can successfully fight this and find a real solution to the PS system.

K&R

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Not only in Louisiana, but people are starting to

realize the scam these are. And people are starting to fight back. GOOD... bout bloody time. Now if Arnie Duncan read the memo... PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO HAVE THEIR SCHOOLS PRIVATIZED...

Oh and that includes the President too.

[madfloridian]

3. I really hope so. It is time.

:hi:

[goclark]

70. Yes! they are a scam ~

[imdjh]

4. We have an interesting charter school here in Pinellas. Maverick

It's a school for high schoolers who don't like going to school. It also seems to attract high schoolers either don't like getting up before God in the morning, or who don't like spending too much time in school. It's from noon to four and runs year around. The year 'round schedule is based in the belief that kids who don't like going to school in the first place, are especially disrupted by long breaks from school.

As you can see in the comments, the school is disliked by regular school teachers. But one thing which is inarguable is that the school is offering something that the regular schools don't- accommodation.

Now , personally, I'm a big believer in "do it my way because I say so" when it comes to kids, but I know one kid who goes to this school and she was on the road to juvenile hall before she found something she could live with in the program.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2009/08/will-pinellass-newest-high-school-live-up-to-its-promise.html

[Luminous Animal]

12. The school has been open for only a couple of months.

How could you possibly assess the program?

[imdjh]

15. What is the problem?

I didn't make any claims of success beyond my personal experience. Everything else I said was a comment on the design. If I see a faucet running water, am I not qualified to declare that it appears to be connected to the main?

[Hannah Bell]

30. so the kid has been in the program 2 months, & you declare he's no longer

on the road to juvie - that's a comment on the design?

[imdjh]

33. That's 4 weeks longer than the last school and she isn't fighting it. Why do you care?

If it's working for her, and it doesn't cost any more per pupil than the Per Pupil Expenditure, then why do you care?

[Hannah Bell]

39. because the same program could be done in the public schools & i don't want ed privatized,

obviously.

& 2 months is obviously not long enough to declare a child is "saved".

[imdjh]

41. But it wasn't. And that is how life works: Lead the way or be led by others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/education/24charter.html

[Hannah Bell]

43. it *wasn't* because the ruling class wants charters. *you're* being led by others,

straight into the brave new world of privatized for-profit ed.

[imdjh]

65. Ruling class? Wake up.

The ruling class aren't the ones demanding safe schools, vouchers, charters, special grant schools.

You see any of the ruling class here? : http://www.academyprep.org/stpete/index.htm

[defendandprotect]

50. ...however, this is something that public education could do . . . take over . . .

[imdjh]

5. People do want options, though.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. yeah the option I want will never happen

a national curriculum, that is competitive with Europe....

And there are reasons for that. there are also reasons for these private, err charter schools and for NCLB... but people are realizing that MOST of them are failing, and failing BADLY.

[Greyskye]

7. "Adopting internationally benchmarked academic standards."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-11-04-obamatop04_st_N.htm

•Tying teacher and principal pay – and school assignments – to student test scores.

•Adopting internationally benchmarked academic standards.

•Turning around their lowest-performing schools.

•Building long-term student tracking systems.

•Loosening legal caps on the number of charter schools that states allow each year.

[imdjh]

11. We already have a national curriculum identical to Europe- it's called IB

What we don't have in the US, which tends to distort our results a bit, is a system which decides at 14 whether a child is going to college, to vocational school, or to unskilled labor. Instead, we treat every kid as if he should be headed for college and is a failure if he isn't.

[mopinko]

17. ib is very dated.

not necessarily outdated, but it is a 50's idea of a good education. there is a lot more available to kids out there today, and i sure wouldn't put a kid in ib who had other options.

[imdjh]

18. please give more detail - I have a kid in IB and she hates it

[mopinko]

52. well, i don't know what to tell you exactly, except that i had a kid in it, and

she flopped out. mostly, she was there because that was one of very few choices that i thought would work for her. it kept her in a small, somewhat protected group, which is what she needed.
it is high school like when i was in high school. a limited, but tried and true college prep curriculum. as long as the kid doesn't want to do much in the arts, and there aren't expanded math and/or science things available, it is fine.

kids hate high school, tho, i can verify that.

[imdjh]

56. I don't get it. I loved high school. But I didn't take honors courses.

I took higher maths and A group stuff, but not advanced math and science. I went to school every day, more for the social aspects than anything else. The school work was largely a breeze, which didn't work out so well in college, because college actually required doing the reading.

Actually, if she were headed to Bennington or some other super liberal "great books" curriculum, there really wouldn't be a problem. She could breeze anything which required voluminous reading. It's a degree with some marketability that would be tougher for her right now. We don't have the social connections for her to glide to an editorial position or a nonprofit with a Bennington degree. The good news is that she's cute enough to marry rich, the bad news is she's all about artists and actors at the moment.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. So there is no more local control? WHO KNEW?

And that is the problem...

I need to be able to move a kid from the Poway Unified School District to San Diego Unified, and for the textbooks to the the same ones, the curriculum to be the same ones and for the BS about local control to die. Don't expect that... there are historic reasons for that.

Did I mention Poway and San Diego share borders?


And that is what I am talking about... A NATIONAL CURRICULUM ACROSS ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

[imdjh]

35. what if the national curriculum sucks? We already have an apple out of undue influence. Texas.

We already have the Texas school board screwing up text books for the entire country due to its influence.

Why do you need to move kids from one school district to another?

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. In san diego it happens

and if you are a military family it happens.

Now why is Texas doing that? Because we do NOT have a national curriculum.

Read Jabocy The Age of Unreason for the cliff notes as to why we don't have a national curriculum, but we should.

Don't expect it... but you just answered your question as to why it is needed... and this local control makes our educational system suck, and suck major ass. I also used Poway and San Diego for dramatic effect... since they do share borders, but school books and curricula are indeed different. And that is a MAJOR problem. Of course those who scream local control don't get it, nor will they ever get it. Also local control is all about keeping controversial, pointy head, liberal subjects like oh Evolution OUT OR SUPPRESSED, and the same goes for inconvenient history.

The end result is an ignorant, and proud of it, population.

[imdjh]

53. Americans don't want a federal school system.

Americans like having county and municipal school systems. Most Americans like local control, or the illusion of local control.

[nadinbrzezinski]

59. And why the system is collapsing

and our graduates are not competitive.

Oh and local control in the 21st century ensures that we keep getting this shitty system.

[imdjh]

64. Even if we have a national curriculum, we'll have good schools and bad schools.

Safe schools and unsafe schools. If you somehow take down the municipal and county borders, people who can will simply move beyond your control.

What they aren't going to do though, is continue to fund public schools that they can't use.

[pattmarty]

28. Also, a big fucking deal, is we DON'T have K-16 schooling or.............

............trade school equivalent. C'mon people, our system stinks like shit. I am 63 yo and went to a catholic grade school and a public HS and the system was better then than when my 40 yo kids went to school and that was better than when the grandkids went. The system is getting progressively worse and one of the biggest problems with it (especially with the economy in recent yrs) is the truly fucked up way of financing the system.

[imdjh]

37. We always had good schools and bad schools. The deterioration has been to the good schools.

Because there is a fundamental law of nature that is in conflict with the strategies of social utopians.

[pattmarty]

38. Jesusfuckingchrist!!!!!!! Get your fucking head out of your ass!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. Some people are indeed happy with a failing educational system

and they don't get it, has nothing to do with being a social utopian. When kids cannot read and cannot do math that should be a huge alarm... it isn't... because Americans are proud to be ignorant. No, not you... but some folks are.

We see it in the debates over vaccines... there should not be any debate, it is basic biology, but it is a debate since this basic biology is not taught... I mean the kids may learn about the scientific method and evolution, EEEWWWW.

We see it in health care... yes the issue is complex, but people do not understand the debate perse or History... or realize how much this is a pattern of... but if we taught history and civics our kids may buy a clue, EEEEWWWW

And of course the screwed way of financing the schools goes back to local control, read the above again... EEEEEWWW having kids taught is not what some folks really want, and this is not just the mythical powers that be... but sadly also parents, religious groups and other pressure groups that have managed to make things worst and worst every year.

Oh and I agree with you... education is getting much worst... and we as a nation will pay for it... and are already paying for it.

[pattmarty]

26. Here, here!!!!!!!

[WinkyDink]

21. Have your options; go for it. But PAY for them. Do people get to have private pools paid by taxes?

[imdjh]

23. Sure they do. They are taxpayers too.

We have all kinds of private schools and special expenditures both on students whose parents pay huge taxes and those whose parents pay none, or whose parents aren't in the equation.

Right now, my school taxes are going to provide some kid who is technically in public school, with a private tutor. Your school taxes are going to some other kid who is in a program that has nothing whatsoever to do with academics or vocational education.

[madfloridian]

29. Yes, under this admin they are getting private school paid by taxpayers.

And it is happening right under our noses.

And very few at this Democratic forum even care that their taxes are being used this way.

We seem to be accepting it just as we accept that our party no longer stands up for the rights of women or gays.

It's really easier going down that road now. :shrug:

[pattmarty]

32. People WANT good motherfucking schools!!!!!!!!!! ALL this other..............

.............stuff is fucking bullshit. AND, if you don't fucking think so, you better get more fucking involved. A school that's been "in operation" for two fucking months? C'mon, THINK.

[defendandprotect]

54. Public education can provide options -- flexibility -- but not when under constant attack

from the BFEE -- and "know-nothings" involved in education planning --

Americans should be broadly and liberally educated -- meaning given full educations --

not simply keeping them dumb enough to simply become robots for corporations.

[madfloridian]

71. Exactly. Under constant attack, hard for public education to fight back.

And it is probably intentional.

[defendandprotect]

75. Oooooh.... yes. Cute little code words like "Charter schools" keep public from

understand that, evidently -- !!!

Right wing propaganda is quite successful!

:)

[Fire1]

73. that's capitalism. ANYTHING for a dollar. But it will all come

curmbling down if they don't start paying descent salaries and THAT won't happen if there is no union. Where is EFCA, anyway? On the back burner? I thought so.

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. I hope the pushback works.

Unfortunately, I think too many people and elected officials will go for it.

One major reason is the 'bribe' using funds for states that will comply with the rules that Duncan has set up. Most states are sorely lacking in funds to support education, and they are continually cut.

They will be turning over the educational systems to a method that has not been tested enough and had the results quantified using Duncan's methods. There are various charter school setups around the country, but Duncan needs to move carefully and try his ideas in several selected places in different environments.

Instead he is moving like lightning to corral the education systems in each state. He has 3 BILLION dollars to use as he sees fit.

Change does need to happen. I cannot believe that the entire nation or a good part of it will be thrown into upheaval using a method that is still experimental.

If the medical community were to use the same tactics to get families to sign on to a program using a possibly good but untested drug in order to receive funds, people would storm the barricades.

[madfloridian]

10. "he is moving like lightning to corral the education systems" with 4.3 billion

Change could happen within the public schools if they would stop deliberately taking their resources away, cutting their funds.

There are other ways to bring change rather than using taxpayer money to experiment.

This is just crazy stuff he is doing. It is thoughtless, experimental, and can not be reversed once done.

[pattmarty]

34. And, that is just ONE more reason that I am disappointed in Obama.

[corpseratemedia]

9. "the education bubble"

:-(

[Brickbat]

13. K&R

[BrklynLiberal]

14. I hope that more people wake up to the scam that is being perpetrated on

taxpayers...and our future...by these charter schools

His support of charter schools is one of the many reasons I did not want to see Bloomberg re-elected. He is a big supporter of them

[imdjh]

16. What is your solution?

I know that's an annoying thing to say, but it really must be said in this kind of discussion.

Parents are not going to send their kids to a bad and/or dangerous public school to be at the mercy of an education system which has been broken by law, edict, and judgement.

[pattmarty]

36. Oh? And exactly where is a parent who's poor or lower class going...........

...........to send his/her kid? To fucking jail? Either grow up or "grow" some fucking brains. The system is fucked and one thing we don't need is MORE privatization. Look to the Europeans or Asians for fucks sake if we're too stupid to figure it out on our own.

[imdjh]

40. Which Europeans are you talking about?

I love how some people seem to think that everything is hunky dorey in Europe. It isn't. In some cases their problems are worse, in other their problems lag behind us. How safe do you think a Parisian inner city school is, or a London inner city school?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/teachers-to-get-innercity-danger-money-646787.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/teachers-to-get-innercity-danger-money-646787.html



With vouchers, a poor parent would have more options too.

[Hannah Bell]

47. much safer than here, statistically. and labeling it "danger money" =

political spin. it's higher pay to retain teachers.

[imdjh]

49. Yeah, high pay to retain teachers in hazard zones, aka hazard pay just like US cities.

[Hannah Bell]

55. look at the statistics. i lived in paris. you don't know what you're talking about.

[imdjh]

58. I like pecan pie. Jesus had long hair. You're clearly the expert.

[Hannah Bell]

60. the "bad" areas are outside the city of paris, in the suburbs. i'm expert enough to know that,

& also to have actually been inside or outside schools there.

& also to know a high percent of parisian children go to private or religious schools.

also to know paris violent crime rate lower than comparable cities in the us.

you? you have some fox news bullshit story.

[imdjh]

66. And you're clever enough not to nit pick when you know the point being made.

[Hannah Bell]

72. you have no point.

[pattmarty]

62. I'll give ya this, you're a great dreamer, but a whole lot of slow also.

[madfloridian]

19. I wonder why more people don't care where their tax money goes?

Okay, so a person likes the idea of school choice, meaning a charter school under this admin and the Bush admin. I can see liking the idea of choice.

But why are people not up in arms that their tax money is going to private companies in this grand experiment?

And why do people continue to allow their kids to be put under this high stakes testing which not only determines a teacher's future....but the future of their kid as well.

I don't understand.

[imdjh]

24. The same reason the elephants go East when the pond dries up.

They don't know that there is water to the east, but they know there is no water where they are.

[pattmarty]

63. Maybe you're fucking high??? Please I'm curious now, at least give a hint.

[imdjh]

69. Nope. It doesn't matter what I say to Madfloridian. She's deaf to reason.

She has no ideas. All she says is "We're underfunded" and tries to blame the condition of the schools on parents who are trying to protect and educate their kids. She won't declare a breakdown, so she can't possibly come up with a fix.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. In the case of New Orleans public schools people don't believe it could possibly get any worse

I don't know nearly as much about education as you do, but I can tell you about the politics of this.

Basically, New Orleans public schools are some of the worst in the country and the school board is notoriously corrupt. The school board essentially became a scapegoat for all of the problems with New Orleans public education (even though it was only part of the problem). Charter schools circumvent the school board. Piece those parts together and you have an argument that people will buy.

"The school board is corrupt and they are the source of the problem. Charter schools eliminate the school board. Therefore we should move to charter schools."

[WinkyDink]

20. The drive to destroy public education continues apace.

[imdjh]

25. Things change.

[madfloridian]

31. A reminder that really really big business is behind this privatization.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5105

[imdjh]

42. The Catholic Church is behind Catholic Schools. And as much as I despise the Vatican, I would send..

... my kid to a Catholic school in a heartbeat if I thought she would go and I could afford it.

[Are_grits_groceries]

46. Charter schools and vouchers are

a guiding principle of conservatives. They want to destroy public education.

They like this idea because it would give them a lot of control. Duncan is handing out the money now, but what happens when Rethugs are back in power. They will be back in power at some point.

They probably have had plans in place to subvert the system, and Duncan is handing it to them. This is right in their wheelhouse.

Why do you think you haven't heard the teapotters screaming about this government takeover?? Their overlords know about it. They aren't peeping because they love it.

If you think the teapotters and friends are going to look out for the general welfare of all kids, I've got a lot of bridges I want to sell you. I'd rather blow the schools up and let the kids form gangs than put them into the hands of those flat-earth ideologues (rhetorically).

[madfloridian]

51. Jeb is proclaiming the greatness of Obama and Arne...and grinning.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5046

These are the goals Gingrich and the ultra-conservatives had for schools years ago.

They are happy.

[Are_grits_groceries]

57. People are so stupid.

They don't want BETTER education. They want NEATER education.

They want clean schools, well-dressed kids, desks in rows, and standardized everything. Anybody who can't meet the criteria will be shunted somewhere.

It would be nice to teach in Brigadoon, but the real world intrudes. However, Duncan and the teapotters promise this better world based on smoke and mirrors.

[defendandprotect]

48. k i c k - back later to read ....

We have to start calling "Charter" schools what they really are --

privatization of public education at taxpayer expense!

[bertman]

61. Recommended for ongoing education for DU'ers.

When I read about how a kid doesn't want to get up in the morning to go to a standard school so they start a school that only goes from noon til four pm, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Then I read about the kids who "don't like the school they're in" so instead of going to another school in the city/county system, the taxpayers are supposed to provide a different-style school for this kid to go to so he/she can LIKE school.

The problem is that our children have been pampered and treated like little gods and goddesses for so long that they think they can just whine their way into whatever situation THEY want. And THEY DO.

School is not designed to make a child happy, but to educate her/him. As long as the teachers are competent, the conditions are satisfactory for learning--meaning order is maintained, the subjects are presented well, and opportunities are provided for students to seek extra help if they need it--it's up to the STUDENT to suck it up and do the work. If they don't want to do that, let them get a job at McDonald's and experience a whiff of real life. Then, maybe they'll be ready to value school and what it has to offer.

I know that doesn't relate directly to the Louisiana school systems, but it is a sore point with me that everybody thinks their child needs a customized education and the taxpayers are supposed to provide it for them. If that is the case, let the parents pay for the customized school out of THEIR pockets and keep the public schools well-funded and well-monitored.

[madfloridian]

67. I will always remember that is how Jeb did it..made parents feel entitled

that public schools were not good enough for their kids. He held huge rallies in Tallahassee with minorities, and he kept saying they were entitled to a good education as well.

It was planned, it worked. FL gives huge numbers of vouchers to private schools, even though courts have rules against them.

Jeb gave a sense of entitlement....and that is how it is being presented right now.

Destroying public schools deliberately.

[optimator]

68. forced charter schools=insurance madates

tyranny is great isnt it?

[madfloridian]

74. It's on our watch....and few seem bothered.

That worries me so much.

[joeycola]

76. Obama "It's not just going through the usual political formulas" NO, he and

Duncan have their own political formula==more high stakes testing, merit pay and charter schools!! damm!!