Charter school families find they have little say over company

[Hannah Bell]

On paper, charter schools are supposed to give parents more of a voice in their children’s education...But in the case of one company — Imagine Schools Inc. — parents say the expectation of local control is not being met...

For fiscal year 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, the Valle campus received $1.3 million in state funding. Of that, $706,000 — just over 54 percent — went to salary and benefits. Another $170,583 was paid to Imagine for its management services and $214,000 went to the company’s real estate affiliate for rent.

When the state announced it was cutting public education funding by 6.9 percent to help close a massive budget gap, parents at the Valle campus thought it would be a good time to review their pricey contract with Imagine, which is up for renewal.

But the company shows no intention of offering to shave costs. In fact, Imagine intends to move the 300-student Imagine School in the Valle from a YMCA building, where its lease has run out, to a more expensive stand-alone facility...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/02/charter-school-families-find-they-have-little-say-/

[goclark]

1. Tip of the iceberg

Eyes will be wide open in about 2 years.

There is a Charter now around UCLA.
A friend said her grandchildren are bussed to school everyday - takes more than an hour.
Lovely neighborhood school nearby that has been given a Charter Wing by the LAUSD.

The grandmother was an excellent teacher and went out to visit and observe. She offered to help in the classroom.

The Principal called her into the office and said she would be no longer welcome ~

She was in shock!

She came home and begged her daughter to take the children out and return them to the neighborhood school.

I'm not talking about ALL Charters but this one is suppose to be the
" ELITE " example of the Charters of the future.

[TheMadMonk]

2. Here's a stupid idea. NOT! Why don't pissed off communities incorporate...

...their own charter schools?

If the stories here are anything to go by, there are more than enough out of work teachers and school administrators to give it a go.

[Hannah Bell]

3. um - public schools belong to their communities. they're funded by their communities,

their boards come from their communities, & they serve a local community.

the advantage of a charter = ?

mainly to avoid unions & federal regs.

[TheMadMonk]

4. Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Though I think you meant state regulations, since my reading is that charter schools are a federal initiative.

However, the intersection points between fairness and real life are damned few and far between.

Absent some radical change at the top, it would appear that the public school system is going the way of the dinosaur, or at best will become a place to rack the hopeless and hoplessly poor.

Recreating what a public school bloody well should be, within the framework of the charter system, through community effort seems like it might have at least a marginally greater chance of success than bitching about and to people who couldn't give a flying fuck for your opinion.

[Hannah Bell]

5. no, i meant federal regs. and charter schools didn't start as a federal initiative, nor are they

(officially) one now.

and there's no recreating public schools as charter schools.

sorry if you don't get it.

[donco6]

14. No, charters are state institutions.

Education is in the purview of the state.

And why recreate a charter when you already have a school system in place you can transform? To kill the union? Is that what you really think the problem is?

[Dinger]

6. Right Again, As Usual

:)

[PCIntern]

16. As usual?

Not necessarily...

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Because??

You obviously disagree. Why?

[annabanana]

9. +1 . .. . . . n/t

[bahrbearian]

7. So where is the PTA?

[mmonk]

8. Darn. I get page not found when I follow the link.

[starroute]

11. The story is there -- I got to it through google

But it's impossible to link to it directly.

You can google on the opening words and get to it that way.

Or you can try this link, which is the same story at a different site:
http://inform.com/special-interests/charter-school-families-find-company-893031a

[Hannah Bell]

12. it was there yesterday. try rhis:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/02/charter-school-families-find-they-have-little-say-/

[blindpig]

10. Like damn near everything we've seen of late...

bait & switch.

k&r

[Brickbat]

13. Gosh, whoever could have seen that coming?

[Catshrink]

15. There is some irony here.

I remember the cries for local control of schools (meaning no federally mandated desegregation/busing). Now schools are being offered up to charter companies where the control is in some corporate office - or with the DOE and Arne's testing machine where the almighty test dictates curriculum.

[Hannah Bell]

17. and what we're going to wind up with is *global* for-profit education corps

for the masses, & boutique private ed for the privileged few.

"something's happening here & you don't know what it is, do you, mr. jones?"

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Just found out something very interesting about charters

In MO charters receive state aid based on the enrollment count they take once a year. Public schools have to do a once a year count too but THEY are paid based on average daily attendance (ADA).

So a charter reports X number of kids and gets a check from the state. When they lose some of their kids, they still get paid for them even though they are no longer enrolled. But when kids leave a public school, the school loses the aid.

Just more bizarro world charter school regs. :crazy:

[Hannah Bell]

20. biased to favor charters, more than bizarro. bizarro is like, it's all crazy & random -- but it's

anything but.