The Games Charter Schools Play.

[madfloridian]

The Games Charter Schools Play

Frank Breslin is a retired high-school teacher with 40 years of experience in the New Jersey public school system, where he taught English, Latin, German, and social studies.

The first game is cherry-picking.

Rarely, do they accept students with learning disabilities, emotional disorders, autism, ADHD, speech or language impairment, behavioral problems, or immigrant children still learning English, since these students tend to test poorly and would lower a charter's overall average.

.....However, sometimes, a few students who do test poorly are accepted, and only later then asked to leave after a charter has received the public-school money that comes with these students.

The other game is trickier.

Charters play a second game. They seem to have a curious split-personality whenever it suits them. In one breath, they claim to be public schools entitled to taxpayer money, while, in the next, they claim they are not, being private schools exempt from public-school accountability.

This seems a bizarre self-contradiction. Charters claim that they're private schools in being able to admit only certain students, yet when they do accept taxpayer money, they're legally bound to accept everyone! But when they, in fact, accept only certain students, they are not entitled to taxpayer money! Is this legal or logical?

In fact back in 2011 one charter school claimed to be private, but still got 23 million dollars.

Chicago charter school claims to be private so teachers won't unionize. Got 23 million public money

Charter schools: Public or private?

Another Chicago charter has claimed it's a "private" school in order to stop its teachers from unionizing. The school has received $23 million in public funds since it opened in 2004. But eight months ago, a solid majority of the school's teachers voted to organize. The school's board, with backing from the charter school association and the Civic Committee, decided to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in hopes of stalling off union certification.

"In papers filed with the National Labor Relations Board, attorneys for the Chicago Math and Science Academy on the city's North Side say the school should be exempt from an Illinois law that grants employees of all public schools the right to form unions for contract negotiations. -- Tribune"

In 2013 NCLB decided Chicago charter school is really private, subject to private sector laws.

The National Labor Relations Board gives its verdict: charter schools are NOT public schools!

Teachers at a Chicago charter school are now subject to private-sector labor laws, rather than state laws governing public workers. The move could impact how public schools are run down the road.

The ruling, made by the National Labor Relations Board last month, said the Chicago Math and Science Academy is a “private entity” and therefore covered under the federal law governing the private sector.

The decision overrules a vote taken by teachers last year to form a union in accordance with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. At the time, two-thirds of teachers at the school approved the union and it became official under state law.

The author decides the charters can get away with these games because after all:

And that, more importantly, charters were here to stay with no need of any legal justification whatsoever because, in the end, Big Money talks!

[liberal_at_heart]

1. "Big money talks." That says it all.

[madfloridian]

2. Yes, it really does.

They just had to get public education into the private sector to make the big bucks.

[Luminous Animal]

3. A friend of mine teaches 3rd grade in San Francisco...

There are 2 other 3rd grade classrooms and they work together on their curricula and do co-teaching and class room exchange.

This is what they were hit with this year.

1) Reading: Levels A-Z and enough of each level that each student can take 5-10 books to read each week. San Francisco limits 22 students per classroom. Her school has no library so, doing the math, she needs at least 3000 books in her classroom to accommodate all reading levels.

2) A new math curriculum that was not delivered until 2 weeks before the start of school.

3 ) A new online database of student data that was not working a month into school year.

4) A new "incentive" team building program for the students that, when one teacher asked, "What happens to the student who always fails the team and the other students get pissed?" Answer... well then the student has to sit by their self. Goody. Equivalent to a dunce cap.

5) One of the other 3rd grade teachers has a remarkably and sadly disturbed child who, randomly, lashes out and destroys the classroom. The teacher has to stop instruction and take all the other students out of the classroom for their safety. This situation has put her entire class at risk for not meeting "Common Core" goals but also diminishes the chance of working with the other 3rd grade teachers.

[madfloridian]

4. It's almost unbelievable....except it's really happening.

Over and over and in many places. This bipartisan reform is making a big mess of education..hurting everyone involved.

[femmocrat]

8. Re: #5

I have seen this happen! One disruptive child can hold the entire class hostage. That is the common practice now, to remove the entire class while one kid has a meltdown -- Instead of removing the disruptor. We don't want the children to witness the "unpleasantness" of having a classmate removed from the room, I guess.

[madfloridian]

5. .....

Was all of this a cunningly devised smokescreen to so financially weaken public schools that they'd be declared "failures" to advance a right-wing agenda of certain governors, legislatures, and the school privatization industry?

First bleed the public schools white over years to discredit them with the public, whereupon those "failed" public schools would then become charters?

In addition, you would have billions of taxpayer dollars with no accountability, as well as vast amounts of investment capital and dark money gushing into charter school coffers as quid pro quo payoffs to politicians who made it all happen?

"Billions of tax dollars with no accountability"....test the kids with increasingly harder tests then declare failure for public schools. Charters wait in the wings.

[LWolf]

6. To answer your question...

YES.

And it's been highly effective.

[Starry Messenger]

7. K&R

[spanone]

9. k&r...

[AngryAmish]

10. The largest operator of charter schools in the US is a Turkish cult.

It is a complete grift.

[madfloridian]

16. And no one in authority seems to be noticing that.

It's just ignored.

[Archae]

11. Don't forget the charter schools that close with no notice.

There was one charter school in Milwaukee, it closed with no notice in the middle of the school year.
Even the teachers were left out in the cold.

The two big shots that ran the school fled to Florida, and are now trying to set up yet another charter school.

[madfloridian]

12. FL has more than its share of charters with no oversight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024282410
More charter school problems in FL. Where's the oversight of taxpayer money?


And it's not getting any better.

[greatlaurel]

18. This has happened here in Ohio many times and the GOP is still pushing ever more charters.

It is theft of public tax dollars.

[CrispyQ]

13. ~kick.

I can't believe how school has changed since I was a kid back in the 60s-70s.

[msanthrope]

14. I have to unrec this thread for incorrect legal analysis of the NLRB decision...

I've already taken the trouble to explain this to you previously.....

The NLRB did not find that the school itself---Chicago Math and Science Academy-- was a private entity. The non-profit contracted to run it, CMSA, is a private entity, and thus the teachers must organize under federal, not state law. This distinction is important, and underscores the problem of relying on an education reporter and a music teacher for legal analysis.


The issue in this case is whether a private, nonprofit
corporation that established and operates a public charter
school in Chicago, Illinois, is exempt from our jurisdiction
because assertedly it is a political subdivision of the
State of Illinois within the meaning of Section 2(2) of the
National Labor Relations Act.1 The union that seeks to
represent teachers employed at the school—under Illinois
law—argues that the Board lacks jurisdiction. In contrast,
the nonprofit corporation itself has filed an election
petition with the Board and argues that the Act does apply.

http://www.nlrb.gov/case/13-RM-001768

Private non-profits should not be recognized as governmental entities as a general rule, even when contracted to run public services, such as a public school-- the NLRB decision is exhaustive in its analysis.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022121286#post24

[madfloridian]

15. You meant you "trashed" (hid) this thread. There is no unrec. So you won't see my reply.

My reply is welcome I was waiting for you to find something.

Now that is what I call really nitpicking.

So they really are public after all? They should get taxpayer money? Then they should be regulated.

[msanthrope]

17. No--I am unreccing it. It's not nitpicking when I point out that your

legal analysis of the decision is fundamentally incorrect.

As in the prior thread, I urge you to read the decision you are opining on. Then we can discuss why you think the separation between church and state should be further eroded.


FYI--the teachers can still unionize.