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To download, click on title or arrow above. File is a pdf with live links to cited documents. Selected/related links are below: Privatizing Schooling and Policy Making: The American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] and New Political and Discursive Strategies of Education Governance // Educational Policy http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/28/0895904814528794.abstract
Cashing In On Kids: 172 ALEC Education Bills Push Privatization in 2015 https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13054/cashing-kids-172-alec-education-bills-2015 How Online Companies Bought America’s Schools
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-online-learning-companies-bought-americas-schools/ The Profit Motive Behind Virtual Schools in Maine www.pressherald.com/2012/09/01/virtual-schools-in-maine_2012-09-02 K12Inc: California Virtual Academies’ Operator Exploits Charter, Charity Laws For Money, Records Show https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/17/k12-inc-california-virtual-academies-operator-exploits-charter-charity-laws-for-money-records-show/ Enrollment in California Public Versus Charter Schools https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/ceffingertipfacts.asp Santa Clara County Office of Education Annual Charter School Databook https://www.sccoe.org/supoffice/charter-schools-office/Documents/2016-17%20Charter%20School%20Report%20Final.pdf Death By A Thousand Cuts: Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage // https://www.j4jalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/J4JReport-final_05_12_14.pdf IES National Center for Education Statistics: Percentage of Public School Students Enrolled in Charter Schools, By State (2014) https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30 Center for Media and Democracy Publishes List of [2,200]+ Closed Charter Schools (with Interactive Map) http://sco.lt/6KOm6z The Perfect Storm: Disenfranchised Communities [Video] https://vimeo.com/161523742 “School Closure Playbook” – [Video] https://vimeo.com/120338240 Charter School Closure Leaves Parents Scrambling For Alternatives http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article199107149.html The Continuum of Structural Violence: Sustaining Exclusion Through School Closures http://sco.lt/9IcTKb KIPP Refuses Agreement To Abide By Conflict of Interest Law: Gets Approved By State Board of Education https://eduresearcher.com/2018/03/13/denykipp/ How Did The State Board of Education Vote on Controversial Charter School Petitions? https://eduresearcher.com/2018/09/07/how-will-state-board-of-education-vote-on-controversial-charter-school-petitions/ Separate and Unequal: The Problematic Segregation of Special Populations In Charter Schools Relative to Traditional Public Schools // Stanford Law and Policy Review http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/are-charters-beacons Charter Schools, Civil Rights, and School Discipline: A Comprehensive Review: The Center for Civil Rights Remedies (UCLA) https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/charter-schools-civil-rights-and-school-discipline-a-comprehensive-review/losen-et-al-charter-school-discipline-review-2016.pdf Are California’s Charter Schools The New Separate But Equal “Schools of Excellence”, or Are They Worse Than Plessy? https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3128802 How Privatization Increases Inequality: Section 5: Privatization Perpetuates Socioeconomic and Racial Segregation // In The Public Interest https://public.tableau.com/profile/civil.rights.project.at.ucla#!/vizhome/CostofCASuspensions/DistrictDash NAACP Resolution Calling for a Moratorium on the Expansion of Charter Schools [Original] https://eduresearcher.com/2016/10/21/naacp/ KIPP Refuses To Abide By Conflict of Interest Code; Gets Approved By State Board of Education: https://eduresearcher.com/2018/03/13/denykipp/ [Link no longer active – this was original document for State Legal Counsel’s opinion that a “charter school is subject to” government code 1090] https://cde.app.box.com/v/SBE2018MARCH/file/282675343163 Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
http://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Charter-School-Fraud_Report_2017 Rocketship Pushes Expansion Despite State Denials and Strong Community Opposition // https://eduresearcher.com/2016/03/09/rocketship-pushes/ John Danner (Co-Founder of Rocketship) Why Blended Schools Are “Whales” In The Ed Institutional Context Quote: “Schools like Rocketship will be a great way to test and validate products and we are happy to do it…” https://beyondschools2.blogspot.com/2012/ New Orleans Charter School Problems Exposed at NAACP Hearing https://eduresearcher.com/2017/04/29/nola-charter/ “Blended Learning: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Tech-Assisted Teaching” // Philanthropy Roundtable (formerly chaired by B. Devos) // http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/file_uploads/Blended_Learning_Guidebook.pdf Breaking Point: The Cost of Charter Schools For Public School Districts https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/report-the-cost-of-charter-schools-for-public-school-districts/ Education School Dean: Urban School Reform Is Really About Land Development (Not Kids) // https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/28/ed-school-dean-urban-school-reform-is-really-about-land-development-not-kids/?utm_term=.ef77a9f69fd5 Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where The Market Meets Grassroots Resistance // http://sco.lt/6vGDMf Spending Blind: The Failure of Policy Planning In California’s Charter School Funding // https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL_ITPI_SpendingBlind_April2017.pdf A Comprehensive Guide To Charter School Closure http://sco.lt/80B85Z San Pablo Rocketship Appeal to State Board in Sacramento (Video with evidence of expanding gaps) https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgIRGe0-q7Safim1TwdTNlcV7auIbigPr&v=uHpH63PsXKs Cybercharters Have An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2015/10/CREDO_online_charters_study.html Virtual and Blended Learning Schools Continue to Struggle and Grow http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2016/04/virtual-schools-annual-2016 Red Flags Known and Overlooked With State Board Votes On San Jose Charter Schools // https://eduresearcher.com/2018/01/18/charter-red-flags/ How Will State Board of Education Vote on Controversial Charter School Petitions? // https://eduresearcher.com/2018/09/07/how-will-state-board-of-education-vote-on-controversial-charter-school-petitions/ Understanding Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/charter-revenue New Report Uncovers Systematic Failure by California Charter Schools to Meet Local Control Obligations https://www.publicadvocates.org/uncategorized/22875/ KIPP subset of posts on Charter Schools & “Choice”: A Closer Look page: https://www.scoop.it/t/charter-choice-closer-look?q=kipp Rocketship subset of posts on Charter Schools & “Choice”: A Closer Look page // https://www.scoop.it/t/charter-choice-closer-look?q=rocketship For more with current updates, please see: http://bit.ly/chart_look
http://bit.ly/privatization_explained
http://bit.ly/naacp_resolution
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
July 27, 2020 10:47 AM
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By Valerie Strauss
"The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, is a $660 billion business loan program established as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus legislation that Congress passed in the spring. PPP was aimed at helping certain small businesses, nonprofit organizations, sole proprietors and others stay in business during the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Small Business Administration administered the program, and recently the SBA and the Treasury Department released some data on what organizations won loans from the program and how much they received. (Some loans can be forgiven if the PPP money is spent on keeping employees on the payroll.) The release of funding details sparked some controversy about whether some of the organizations that received funds should have gotten them, including public charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately operated — and some elite private schools. (A Washington Post database shows the data.) Charter schools received emergency stimulus money from Congress from the same fund that traditional public schools did — but some charter schools decided to apply for PPP loans as well, saying that they are underfunded through regular funding formulas and had a right to seek more aid. Other charter schools chose not to apply for loans, saying it would be double-dipping in federal aid funds.
Among those charters that did were some that knew they didn’t actually need the money to maintain financial stability. For example, 2KUTV in Salt Lake City did an investigation into Utah charter schools taking PPP funding and found that they took a total of $7.9 million. It reported on a discussion at the June 25 meeting of the governing board of the Utah Military Academy, a charter with two campuses, in which an unidentified board member explained how the $1.15 million in PPP funding that the school was expecting would be spent.
The conversation, heard on audio tapes, went like this, according to the CBS affiliate:
“So we take this money to pay the salaries, and the money we were going to pay salaries is going to go into our accounts to help flush up our funds,” said the board member.
“Can I ask a question?” a female voice said. “My understanding was that this money is for businesses who, because of the drop in business, were having trouble keeping all their employees. How do we qualify for that? Because our funding wasn’t cut at all.”
She also notes that no employees have been laid off by the school because of the covid-19 pandemic. Two more voices interject, “We’re a business,” and, “We’re a nonprofit.” A third voice is heard saying, “It’s some of that good free government money!” With that, here is the post about just how much charter schools did get in PPP money, written by Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, an alliance of organizations that advocates for the improvement of public education. Burris, a former award-winning principal in New York, has been chronicling the charter school movement and the standardized-test-based accountability movement on this blog for years. By Carol Burris On May 13, Washington Post reporter Perry Stein reported that some Washington, D.C., charter schools had been receiving funds from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), although all of their taxpayer revenue continued to flow. By June 15, the New York Times’s Erica L. Green also wrote a story about how charter schools, some of which had billionaire backers, had been applying for and getting PPP money. Before long, local news agencies picked up on the story, questioning why schools that received public funding were tapping into the SBA program.
Unknown at the time was the national scope of the use of PPP funds by charters. Therefore, the Network for Public Education decided to scour the list of PPP recipients disclosed by the SBA and create lists by state of the charter schools and their management organizations that had received funding. The amount that we have identified is staggering. More than 1,300 charter schools and their nonprofit or for-profits and management companies secured between $925 million and $2.2 billion through the PPP. We provide a range not from uncertainty but because the SBA chose not to report the exact amounts of the forgivable loans. Even this range is an underestimate. Excluded from our calculations is the sizable number of PPP loans below $150,000 — which the Trump administration has not disclosed. You can find our state-by-state list of charter schools and charter management organizations, along with each school’s PPP range amounts, on our website here.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools informed its members via email in March that it had successfully lobbied for charter schools to receive PPP funds and provided instructions on how such funding could be obtained. The blog that contained the contents of that email has been removed, but you can find it in the Internet archives here. Not only did the charter school alliance encourage its members to apply, but the organization received its own PPP forgivable loan in the range of $350,000 to $1 million. Because the laws regarding charter transparency vary from state to state, prior to the publication of the SBA list we could only obtain information about PPP loans by reading charter school minutes, if they were posted. In some cases, we were able to listen to available recordings of meetings. From that limited information, a disturbing pattern emerged.
Well-funded charters with ample funding were applying for and receiving large PPP awards. A discussion of the governing board of California’s Summit Public Schools was particularly insightful. Not only did the school’s CEO report that the schools were in good fiscal standing, the only major concern of the board, in addition to public relations, was whether they would find themselves under criminal investigation if they took the funds and it was then discovered that Summit did not need the money. When the SBA finally released the PPP data, a nonprofit research and policy organization group called In the Public Interest, and the nonprofit grass-roots advocacy group Parents United for Public Schools, analyzed charter school recipients in the state of California. Meanwhile, Carol Burris, Marla Kilfoyle and Darcie Cimarusti of the Network for Public Education concentrated on the other 49 states and Washington, D.C. Professor Gary Miron of Western Michigan University provided a national list of for-profit and nonprofit charter management organizations, which we checked against the PPP database as well. Because some organizations did not list themselves as nonprofits but rather as corporations, and some charter schools have nonprofits with names different from the name of the school, it is likely we missed a sizable number of grantees. California has the most charter schools in the nation — approximately 1,300. Even so, its charter sector received a disproportionately large amount of PPP funding, which may be as high as half a -billion dollars. More than 400 charter organizations received loan money totaling between $240.7 million and $565.6 million. In the Public Interest has created a searchable database of the California charters that received PPP loans, available here. Two-thirds of these charters are affiliated with “CMO’s,” or “charter management organizations,” such as Learn4Life and Magnolia Public Schools, large chains with campuses statewide. Inspire Schools, whose founder and former CEO has recently drawn criticism for receiving more than $1 million in retroactively authorized payroll, took as much as $29.7 million in PPP funding. This home-schooling charter network was expelled last fall from the California Charter Schools Association, an organization that typically unabashedly defends its members. In Los Angeles County — where the Los Angeles Unified School District has more charter schools than any other school system in the country — according to In the Public Interest, charters received as much as $201 million. San Diego County charters received as much as $91 million.
The New York State charter sector received between $126 million and $293.2 million — even as local businesses were going belly up because of a lack of revenue during the high point of the coronavirus pandemic in that state. While New York public school districts may have felt the pain of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s (D) decision to not distribute federal Cares Act funding to schools and use it to fill the state’s budget hole instead, 146 of the 327 charter schools had that blow cushioned by PPP. For example, six of the eight New Vision Charter High Schools received PPP funding, which totaled at the high end of the range to $10 million. In addition, the New Visions charter management organization that manages the schools received its own PPP funding in an amount between $2 million and $5 million. Beside California and New York, two other states’ charter sectors received high-end range PPP funding in excess of $100 million: Florida, at $152.8 million, and Louisiana, at $107.4 million. The charter sectors in three other states received up to $80 million or more: Arizona, $99.4 million; Pennsylvania, $85 million; and Texas, $81.1 million. Again, readers can find state totals along with school names and funding ranges here.
National charter chains cash in Learn4Life is a charter school chain claiming 80 campuses in California enrolling nearly 40,000 students. It is expanding to North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Its schools are often storefronts in malls where over-aged or at-risk students pick up work to independently complete. On-site teachers provide support if needed.
According to In the Public Interest, Learn4Life schools received as much as $51.7 million in PPP funds — more than the total amount received by the entire charter sectors in the majority of states. Last June, a judge ordered the chain to close three of its San Diego County locations after school districts said they were operating illegally within their boundaries. Later that year, a Voice of San Diego investigation revealed that John Helgeson, a Learn4Life executive vice president, was collecting two paychecks paid with public money. In a scheme described as “a classic conflict of interest,” Helgeson owned a for-profit company that loaned money and leased corporate office space to Learn4Life while he worked for the chain. At a glance, Learn4Life seems too big to apply for a PPP loan. But like Shake Shack and other corporations with multiple locations, Learn4Life’s leaders took advantage of the chain’s structure to apply school by school, while also applying for their central management organization. Learn4Life was hardly alone. Twenty-one organizations related to the KIPP charter chain have in total received an amount at the high end of the range, $68.7 million, more than the high end of the charter sector in 42 states.
The for-profit charter management organization Academica runs charter schools in seven states. Its home office is located in Florida, where the company manages scores of charter schools down the east coast of the state from Fort Pierce to Homestead. Academica also has a presence in Arizona, California, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Academica Management LLC, Academica West and Academica Virtual Education, which the organization uses to support online schooling, received PPP funding, as did 15 of the schools it manages and supports. High-range amounts for Academica and its schools produce a total of $35.7 million.
Small charter management organizations jumped in as well. Philips Education Partners, located in Newark, New Jersey, got between $150,000 and $350,000. It runs two charter schools. One of those two schools, Philips Academy of Patterson, also received PPP in the same amount — $150,00 to $350,000 — as the charter management organization. Miguel Brito, the CEO of Philips Education Partners, received total compensation in 2017 of $410,205. Meanwhile, the average salary for New Jersey school superintendents in 2017-2018 was $155,631, according to an NJ Advance Media analysis of state data.
Authentic need or money grab?
The board of Palisades Charter High School near Los Angeles voted in June to accept $4.6 million in PPP funding despite admitting that they didn’t have an immediate need for the money. Yet, earlier this month, they voted to lay off five staff members, including a tutoring center coordinator, and reduce the hours of 18 other employees.
Palisades was not alone. In all of the minutes we read, and recordings we listened to, charter school boards reported ample fund balances and justified taking the money because future funding was uncertain. During a meeting of the Utah Military Academy, one board member described taking PPP funds as follows: “So we take this money to pay the salaries, and the money we were going to pay salaries is going to go into our accounts to help flush up our funds.”
However, preparing for possible uncertainties or “flushing up funds” was not the purpose of the program. We are aware of no other sector funded nearly exclusively by the taxpayers that received PPP.
This raises questions about whether charter schools should have been allowed to access PPP money, and whether harm was caused by allowing them to do so.
Charter schools have received the same continuity of funding as district-run neighborhood public schools during the pandemic. Eligible charter schools — those schools with large numbers of low-income students — have also received federal Cares Act funding, as well as other state-based coronavirus relief. While receiving this funding that was intended to support public schools, charter schools are now also receiving funding that was intended for small businesses and nonprofits whose revenue streams were drastically impacted by the pandemic.
Granted, charter schools are not alone among nonprofits in taking funding just because they can. We found 17 nonprofit organizations that support charter schools (or advocated for charters receiving PPP funding) receiving that funding themselves — in total receiving between $6.3 million and $14.8 million. For example, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a school reform think tank, is also an authorizer of charter schools in Ohio. It received between $350,000 and $1 million in PPP funding despite its initial endowment of $50 million. In 2018, the organization ended the year with a fund balance of $8 million. Readers can find a list of these charter support organizations and the amounts they received here.
And now to the question of harm. By taking PPP when not needed, systemic inequities increased. The PPP has been widely criticized as being difficult to access for many small businesses, particularly those owned by people of color.
A survey conducted in May of 500 black and Latinx small-business owners found that just 12 percent of those who had applied had received the funds they asked for, with nearly 50 percent anticipating having to permanently close in the next six months. A recent study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found “different levels of encouragement to apply for loans, different products offered, and different information provided by bank representatives.”
Certainly, there are other nonprofit and for-profit organizations beyond the charter school world that took coronavirus money just because they could. Although eligible via our nonprofit status, the Network for Public Education did not apply for PPP funds. We encourage other nonprofit organizations that were able to meet payroll without the funding to return those funds, making them available to the small businesses that never received them or that may need a second infusion of cash." For full post, please visit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/27/charter-schools-their-management-companies-won-least-925-million-federal-coronavirus-funding-data-shows/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 27, 2019 6:58 PM
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By Jean Rimbach and Abbott Koloff, New Jersey Record
A series in five parts - Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three
- Part Four
- Part Five
Part I:
Millions of your tax dollars have disappeared into New Jersey's flawed charter school experiment School buildings that are paid for with millions of dollars in public money but owned by private groups. Inflated rents, high interest rates and unexplained costs borne by taxpayers. And tax dollars used to pay rents that far exceed the debt on some school buildings. This is the world of charter school real estate in New Jersey. Where public money can disappear in a maze of intertwined companies. Where businesses and investors can turn a profit at taxpayer expense. And where decisions about millions in tax dollars are made privately, with little public input and little to no oversight by multiple state agencies. More than two decades into the state’s experiment to create charter schools, which were conceived to provide residents with choices and to spur innovation, serious flaws in the design of the system have led to the diversion of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to private companies that control real estate. Two of the state's largest charter school operators, KIPP New Jersey and Uncommon Schools, have been permitted by the state to monopolize hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for public school construction, helping them to create networks of privately owned buildings. And investors positioned themselves to make millions from taxpayers, including real estate entrepreneurs, developers and a range of lenders."... For full post, see: https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ For the KIPP subset of posts on the Charter Schools & Choice: A Closer Look page, see:
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 11, 2019 12:02 AM
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By Rachel M. Cohen "Parents had until May 1 to enroll their children in schools matched through D.C.’s high-stakes school lottery. But families that selected a new Rocketship charter school in Ward 5 were in for a rude awakening: After the enrollment deadline had passed they learned the school they had chosen would not actually be opening. Rocketship, which operates two schools in Ward 7 and 8, had been set to launch its third campus this fall. City Paper first learned about the situation on May 9 after speaking with a Ward 5 parent who was still struggling to find a new school for their child. The parent, who requested anonymity, says the day after the enrollment deadline passed she received a voicemail from Rocketship telling her to call them as soon as possible. “I called as soon as I got off work and they said the Ward 5 school wouldn’t be opening, that something happened with the building so they can no longer move into the space they had planned,” she says. “They didn’t say why or what the reason was.” Rocketship had been planning to temporarily lease space in the LAMB Public Charter School building on 18th and Perry streets in Northeast. Children would attend school there for one or two years before Rocketship relocated into a more permanent Ward 5 location. On May 3, the day after learning her daughter’s school would not open, the parent reached out to MySchoolDC—the agency which handles school choice enrollment—for help finding an alternative. “There was just no level of sympathy for my situation. They didn’t sound overly familiar, there was no sense of urgency,” she says. When the parent pressed MySchoolDC for help, she says she was told that Rocketship was giving all families the chance to enroll in their Ward 7 and 8 campuses. “But I picked Ward 5 based off proximity to my home, and those other schools were extremely inconvenient,” she says, adding that she also had safety concerns about those options. After making clear she was not interested in sending her child to a campus far from her home, she says MySchoolDC told her she could always enroll her child in her in-bound traditional public school. But the parent wasn’t satisfied with that choice either. “If I had wanted that then I wouldn’t have gone through the MySchoolDC lottery in the first place,” she says. The parent had her child on two other Ward 5 charter waiting lists—Yu Ying and Stokes—and asked if MySchoolDC could help her child get into those schools given the circumstances. “I asked them if there was anything they could do to help students who were displaced and they told me that each school makes their own waitlist decisions and they can’t force any school to let children in,” she says. The parent then called the Public Charter School Board, where she says she was also told that the waitlist situation is out of their control. More than ten days after getting the news that Rocketship’s Ward 5 campus would not open as expected, the parent was still waiting for waitlist updates and was actively considering private school options. Joyanna Smith, the Ombudsman for Public Education with the DC State Board of Education, had also been planning to send her son to Rocketship’s Ward 5 campus. Smith tells City Paper that her family didn’t learn the school would not actually be opening until three days after the MySchoolDC enrollment deadline had passed. “Someone called us to tell us Rocketship would not be opening because of a permitting issue but that we could probably get off the waitlist at Perry Street Prep,” she says. Perry Street Prep is housed in the same LAMB Public Charter School building that Rocketship was set to be in, and Smith will be able to enroll her child in the new school this week. “I’m glad that we were able to settle things for my child, but in my role as SBOE ombudsman I feel there has been all this miscommunication,” she says. “If we had wanted we could have kept my son in private daycare, but for a lot of families they don’t have those same choices and that’s really frustrating.” In an interview with City Paper, Jacque Patterson, the regional director for Rocketship DC, says 44 families had matched with Rocketship’s Ward 5 campus, and 22 families had enrolled. Their enrollment target had been 160 students (100 students in kindergarten through second grade, and 60 3 and 4-year-olds.) But low enrollment numbers was not the reason why Rocketship decided to postpone opening its Ward 5 school, according to Patterson. He says that even if they had hit their enrollment goals, their temporary building location would have still required far more repairs than they had originally budgeted for. Rocketship DC signed a letter of intent with Perry Street Prep in April to rent their third floor for the 2018-19 school year. Rocketship officials knew the third floor required a host of repairs, and toured the premises before they signed their letter of intent. Patterson tells City Paper that at the time, they concluded they could handle the scope of needed repairs. But, he says, “in the last two or three weeks” they brought in their own construction workers to assess the facility, and then determined the repairs would cost substantially more than what they had anticipated. “The decision we made was that it’d be just impossible to open the school given the amount of construction and repairs that was needed for a one-year lease,” he says. “Even if we had enrolled all 160 children, it would not have been financially responsible and we wouldn’t have been able to provide all the programs and services we needed to.” Patterson says the school will still be moving into a permanent Ward 5 building for the 2019-20 school year, though a precise location has not yet been finalized. He also says Rocketship worked with every family that had enrolled to help them find a new high-quality school. But the parent City Paper spoke with under the condition of anonymity says they still have yet to figure out what they’ll do next year. City Paper asked the Public Charter School Board if Rocketship would face any consequence or penalty for its delayed opening. In 2014 the PCSB conditionally approved Rocketship to open eight schools throughout the city. In a statement, Scott Pearson, executive director of the PCSB, says: “We’re very concerned any time a school fails to meet its charter commitment and that will be taken into consideration next time a school wishes to expand or open a new facility. We are particularly concerned about the students and their families which is why we required Rocketship PCS to work with MySchoolDC to help the affected families find alternate, quality education for this fall.” Chloe Woodward-Magrane, a spokesperson for the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education, tells City Paper that this is the second time that a campus has not opened or has delayed opening in the five years that MySchoolDC has been in existence. Catherine Peretti, the executive director of MySchoolDC, tells City Paper that she first learned of Rocketship’s decision to delay its Ward 5 opening on May 3. City Paper asked Woodward-Magrane what kind of response they’ve received from families left to find new schools. In a statement, she says: “OSSE and My School DC realize this is a challenging time for families matched with the Rocketship Public Charter School campus in Ward 5. My School DC is working with families enrolled at the Rocketship campus that will not open in order to restore the families to waiting lists of other schools they identified during the lottery process. Rocketship is also providing assistance to help them re-enroll in their current school placement or another Rocketship campus.” Patterson will be leaving his role as Rocketship DC’s regional director on June 1 to start as KIPP DC’s Chief Community Engagement and Growth Officer. He tells City Paper he will also be joining Rocketship’s board of directors, and that a search to find his replacement is currently underway." For original post, see: https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/article/21005020/families-stranded-after-rocketship-charter-school-fails-to-open-ward-5-location
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
July 30, 2018 2:07 AM
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By Jim Horn "On February 19, 2014, former KIPP teacher, Jessica Marks, wrote to me after searching the web for any kind of confirmation that she might not be alone in her misery. She had been fired by KIPP just before Christmas, after 5 months as an 8th grade English teacher for KIPP Austin. In her search for solace and understanding, she came across my blog, Schools Matter, which includes many posts about teachers’ experiences at KIPP. This is Jessica’s letter to me: _______________________________ 'Hi, James— I was wondering if you were still doing a study about KIPP - I got your email [address] from a blog that was posted more than a year ago, so I understand that you might be finished with your work. In case you need more stories, I have time to talk and I would like to discuss what happened to me. I moved to Austin to teach English at KIPP Academy of Arts & Letters in July and I was fired in December. I am not bitter or angry about getting fired - please understand. I don't have a vendetta against the organization, and I hold everyone who is still at the school in high regard. I still believe in their mission of sending all students to and through college. However, KIPP misled me, and I think it is harmful for students and teachers to go there. I had been teaching at an early college high school in Prescott Valley, Arizona. I'd become a kind of teacher celebrity (if there is such a thing) in the town over the four years that I taught there. In fact, I was even named one of three finalists for First Year Teacher of the Year by the Yavapai County Education Foundation. I was experienced—more so than any other core content teacher at KIPP Academy of Arts & Letter—but I left Arizona because I thought I could do more good. Over the course of the six months that I worked at KIPP, I was harassed, ridiculed, and intimidated by administrators so much that I eventually suffered a nervous breakdown. I'm on the mend, but KIPP squashed my spirit and my confidence and it did so without cause. I worked 90 hours a week and was told that "effort doesn't equate results" and then told to take better care of myself because "how did that look to the children to have someone so stressed out be their leader?". If you would like to discuss further, I would be absolutely willing to talk or email more, if it would help you with your research. As a teacher (and as being a reporter before I was a teacher!) I can appreciate someone trying to find evidence for a study and I'd like to help. I apologize if this email was too long or not what you were looking for. If your study is over, please accept my thanks for doing good work. The interviews I read online already have been validating and completely accurate. All the best, Jessica Marks' ______________________ When I first talked with Jessica the following week on February 27, 2014, she asked to remain anonymous, as did all but one of over two dozen teachers that I interviewed for my book, Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys through ‘No Excuses’ Teaching. Just weeks after being fired and in the throes of despondency, Jessica feared what her KIPP principal, or the KIPP Foundation, might do or what influence KIPP supporters might exert as retribution against her speaking out. Jessica, too, suffered a deep sense of shame that is typical among former KIPP teachers for failing at a job that she had put her heart and soul into and had so obviously failed to meet the expectations of KIPP administrators. Jessica began work at as a KIPP teacher July 2013, and she was fired just before Christmas the same year. When I talked with her just two months later in February, she was still living in Austin, Texas and seeing a therapist for what she described as a nervous breakdown, which was clearly in full flower at the time she was fired in December. Jessica’s principal at KIPP Academy of Arts and Letters had recommended a particular therapist, who he knew by way of at least one other KIPP teacher who, too, had suffered a mental and emotional breakdown while teaching at KIPP. Following extensive treatment, that teacher had eventually returned to her job at KIPP. Even though Jessica’s treatment was extensive, too, her future would be quite different. After some deliberation, Jessica would return to public school teaching the following school year. And as I was to find out in 2017 when she contacted me once more, she would come to thrive anew. Today, Jessica no longer fears what KIPP Austin or the KIPP Foundation might do, or try to do, for sharing the truth about her experiences at KIPP. Her documented accomplishments since leaving KIPP reach far beyond the fearful behavioral vice and unsustainable job expectations of KIPP’s corporate creed, where individual creativity quickly wilts within an organizational pressure cooker based on total compliance and unsustainable performance requirements. With time, a good therapist, and a new job where she is valued, trusted, and rewarded,
Jessica has regained her confidence and tapped into those deep wells of care and empathic understanding that made her a great teacher to begin with. In fact, on April 27, 2018, Jessica Marks (her real name) will offer an address to the Yavapai County Education Foundation in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Her speech will be her last official act as Teacher of the Year for Yavapai County, Arizona will focus on the critical need to value teachers and teaching. So based on our written communication and interviews, this is Jessica Marks’s story of what happened before and after her short stint as a KIPP teacher. Spoiler alert: it is a story of how personal tragedy was disrupted by personal triumph and redemption."
The Jessica Marks Story:“Getting fired from KIPP was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.” by ontogenyx on Scribd For post on Schools Matter blog, see: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2018/03/the-jessica-marks-story-getting-fired.html
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 21, 2018 3:11 AM
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By Ade Adeniji"Brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab rode the emerging wave of online investing to amass client assets of over $2 trillion, and he now has a net worth of $6 billion. Schwab is one of those people who's been rich for a very long time, since the 1970s, and he's now well along in his philanthropy. The Charles and Helen Schwab Family Foundation (CHSFF) funds programs in several areas, but of course, being a finance guy, Schwab's biggest passion is education and, more specifically, charter schools. We're not sure why charters and finance billionaires go together like peas and carrots, but we'll save the theorizing for another article. What's notable about Schwab is that he's deeper into this area than many of the more glitzy hedge fund donors who get so much attention. Perhaps his profile is lower because he's based out West. While he's very much a national funder, with grantmaking that has reached into many states, such as New York and Massachusetts, Schwab's biggest investments have been in California. He was born and raised in the state, got a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Stanford University and Charles Schwab Corporation is headquartered in San Francisco. Let's take a closer look at what CHSFF has been funding in recent years. The first thing that jumps out is that the foundation has put money into a pretty broad swath of the usual suspects in the ed reform world. These include charter school chains like Aspire Public Schools and KIPP, and charter advocacy outfits like the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and California Charter Schools Association. CHSFF has also given money to Michelle Rhee's outfit, StudentsFirst. The foundation is also working the human capital side of things, and has put money into Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, and the Stand for Children Leadership Center. Money has also gone for "ideas," with support for the Thomas Fordham Institute among a few other places. All in all, it's just the sort of diversified portfolio that a finance guy might put together. A $1 million gift to the Charter School Growth Fund in 2011 stands out, not only because of the size of the gift but also because of its destination. Founded in 2005, the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a bit like the mother ship of the charter school movement, working to grow and professionalize this alternative ed sector. A lot of the major players in the charter school funding world have given to CSGF, including Walton, Gates, Dell, Bradley, and Fisher. Schwab 's investment here is yet more evidence that it's a core member of the charter cabal."... https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/charter-schools/2014/7/11/whats-charles-schwab-into-charter-schools-of-course.html
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 11, 2018 7:17 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 11, 2018 4:53 PM
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[Re-shared from NY Public School Parents page. Original title: "At KIPP, I would wake up sick, every single day"] "A few months ago, Class Size Matters met with a former KIPP student who lives in the Bronx and her mother to hear about their experiences at the celebrated charter school. What follows are excerpts from this interview. The girl’s name has been changed to protect her privacy.
Mom: Students who are accepted to KIPP and who have IEP's [individualized education plans] do not get the correct services or help to be successful. The school would rather make it difficult, leaving the parent frustrated and forcing her to remove her child. The principal always invited me to take my child out if I did not like the way she was being treated. My response was always, "She has a right to be here just like any other child who went through the lottery system. She will stay until she finishes." My reasons for her to continue were because the curriculum was good and I knew that she could benefit academically from the rigorous demands, but sometimes they went to the extreme and she suffered for it."...
For full post, see here: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/03/at-kipp-i-would-wake-up-sick-every.html
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 7, 2018 3:11 PM
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By Erin Mulvaney "The founding principal at KIPP Sunnyside High School has resigned after not reporting that several staff members brought alcohol to campus this summer and drank with minors, a school spokeswoman said. Principal Shannon Wheatley was not on the charter school campus at the time of the incident, but he was aware that the gathering took place, KIPP spokeswoman Chris Gonzalez said. “It is unacceptable to have alcohol on our campuses,” Gonzalez said. “No children were on campus, but regardless of that we have to hold that line. The principal was not there. He wasn’t even in town, but he did not report it to the administration.” “We took a hard stance because he was aware and did not follow our protocol,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez could not elaborate on whether Wheatley was forced to resign. She said he is no longer employed by KIPP. Wheatley could not be reached for comment. The principal resigned on Aug. 9, after four clerical staff members brought alcoholic beverages onto campus after hours sometime in July, Gonzalez said. No students were present but two college-aged alumni drank at the unauthorized gathering. The alumni were volunteers interning at KIPP over the summer. Gonzalez said she does not know if the incident was reported to police. The four clerical staff members are also no longer employed at KIPP, she said."... For full post, see: https://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2012/08/kipp-principal-quits-after-alleged-campus-drinking-party/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
February 23, 2018 12:45 AM
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By Anemona Hartcollis
"KIPP, one of the country’s largest and most successful charter school chains, dismissed its co-founder on Thursday after an investigation found credible a claim that he had sexually abused a student some two decades ago, according to a letter sent to the school community. The co-founder, Michael Feinberg, was accused last spring of sexually abusing a minor female student in Houston in the late 1990s, according to someone with close knowledge of the case who was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. An outside investigation found her claim credible after interviewing the student and her mother, who both gave the same sequence of events. Mr. Feinberg denies the accusation, his lawyer, Christopher L. Tritico, said. Investigators also uncovered evidence that Mr. Feinberg had sexually harassed two KIPP employees. One case, in 2004, led to a financial settlement, the letter said; the other could not be corroborated because the woman involved would not cooperate, but the letter found it to be credible. “We believe that Mr. Feinberg’s actions were incompatible with the leadership qualities that are central to our mission,” said the letter, which was sent Thursday afternoon to teachers, administrators and families of students. Mr. Feinberg was told of his dismissal at a meeting on Thursday in Houston. Mr. Tritico said an initial investigation last summer by outside counsel for KIPP’s Houston board had found the 1990s allegation to not be credible, before a second investigation by WilmerHale, a law firm specializing in sexual misconduct, reversed that finding. He said Mr. Feinberg had never been told of the precise allegations against him, and had not been given a chance to defend himself. “The investigation was conducted without even the most rudimentary form of due process,” Mr. Tritico said. KIPP said the first investigation found the claim inconclusive. The program, started in Texas in 1994 with 47 fifth-grade students, achieved extraordinary results with poor and minority schoolchildren and became a model that many others sought to replicate around the country. Today it has nearly 90,000 students and 209 schools in 20 states. The vision of Mr. Feinberg and the other founder, David Levin, Ivy League graduates who came together through Teach for America in the early 1990s, is largely credited with its success. In the early years, Mr. Feinberg was a teacher and administrator in Houston, but his current role had been mainly external — fund-raising, lobbying, political advocacy and college partnerships. In the year ended June 2016 — the latest period for which the organization’s tax filings were available — Mr. Feinberg received $231,885 in compensation and benefits while working for KIPP’s Houston schools, and $220,241 for work at the parent foundation in San Francisco, the filings show. KIPP Houston Public Schools, as the local chapter is known, contacted Texas Child Protective Services, which declined to investigate because the victim was no longer a minor, according to the person with knowledge of the case. After an initial investigation, KIPP Houston and the KIPP Foundation hired WilmerHale. Mr. Feinberg is the latest in a cascade of prominent men to be forced out of jobs over sexual misconduct allegations since October, when dozens of women stepped forward to accuse the film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse. The Weinstein allegations touched off a movement that has added impetus to investigations of sexual assault and raised the discussion about sexual harassment. “It certainly is not a good time for anyone to be accused of something like this,” Mr. Tritico, Mr. Feinberg’s lawyer, said. Mr. Levin said he had spoken to Mr. Feinberg about the matter, but he would not describe the conversation. “It is very hard to reconcile — I’ve known Mike for almost 30 years,” Mr. Levin said. “To reconcile what we’ve learned as a result of this investigation and the evidence that’s been presented to us with the work I’ve known him to do is very hard.”... For full post, see: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/us/kipp-sexual-misconduct-michael-feinberg.html
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
February 5, 2018 4:14 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
January 9, 2018 7:52 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
August 11, 2017 1:59 AM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
February 6, 2021 2:06 PM
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By Carl Peterson ..."why is it always okay for big money to generate toxic messes in non-white communities?” Common sense would dictate that a site chosen for a school building would be free of any hazards to children. This would be especially true in neighborhoods in areas like Cudahy and the rest of Southeast Los Angeles where there is a “history of environmental injustice”. This is the same area that is dealing with the long-term effects of the arsenic and lead released by the now-closed Exide Battery Plant. One of the schools in this area, Park Avenue Elementary, was built on “an old city dump site that contained contaminated soil with pockets of the toxic sludge”. These are the same neighborhoods where last year Delta Airlines dumped jet fuel directly on children as they played in their schoolyard.
As an organization that claims that they “will always prioritize safety as [their] #1 concern” and “knows the responsibility [they] have to ensure the environment and community are safe”, one would assume that KIPP Charter Schools is especially sensitive to the environmental injustice suffered by generations of residents in Southeast Los Angeles. Knowing the history of the area, this chain of privately operated schools would definitely not purchase a plot of land that “has been used for approximately 90 years for manufacturing metal” and storing the resulting “hazardous materials”. Its concern would be especially heightened if soil samples at the site showed “levels of arsenic…as high as 14.5 milligrams per kilogram,” which is “200 times the amount of arsenic that is identified as safe for human health by the state of California for school or residential areas.” The fact that the “site is contaminated with toxic gases” which “can cause cancer, cognitive and motor impairments, liver damage, kidney damage, and impair one’s immune system, development, reproductive system, and fertility” would have definitely killed any purchase agreement. According to a lawsuit filed against the City of Cudahy, KIPP not only purchased this land but also intend on building a school on the property. The charter school chain says on their website that they “completed all of the required environmental investigations to ensure the Cudahy campus is safe for our community”. However, the suit alleges that the city improperly waived the need to perform a full study under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This study would have included a “full environmental review for the project”.
While KIPP maintains that “no material issues were identified during” its “extensive” environmental investigations, the suit states that a Site Assessment for the Project Site found that “elevated levels of arsenic…‘pose a…exposure and contact risk to the children and general public human health.’” This assessment also found that the site “has elevated waste oil concentrations” and “is not currently safe for construction of a school or housing.” It states that “without environmental mitigation”, this construction “will put children at KIPP Pueblo Unido at risk of exposure to toxic gasses.”
KIPP itself acknowledges that soil on the site was “impacted by arsenic” and they “already removed 50 cubic yards of impacted soil.” This is a small percentage of what is on the property as another 36,000 cubic yards of soil will be excavated to build the school’s underground parking garage. If this soil is not properly tested, then the site’s neighbors and others will be at risk of possible exposure as the soil is disturbed and trucked out through the neighborhood.
KIPP owes its future students, the taxpayers who are helping to fund its construction project, and the citizens of Southeast Los Angeles assurances that its proposed Cudahy campus is completely safe. It needs to cease its attempts to avoid the studies required by CEQA before embarking further on a project that is alleged to pose “significant environmental harms to students”. Better yet, KIPP should find a site that is not “identified by the State of California as a hazardous materials release site on the Hazardous Waste and Substances Sites (‘Cortese’) List.”...
For full post, visit: https://changethelausd.medium.com/kids-last-d6d69df749d4
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 23, 2019 12:04 PM
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By Maggie Angst
"After nearly a decade serving San Jose students, administrators of Summit Public Schools have announced that they will close Summit Rainier — one of their two charter schools in the city — due an inability to get private facilities for both schools.
“Unfortunately, the combination of a strong economy and tightened city restrictions has prevented us from securing a private facility for each school in San Jose. After ten years of searching, we must conclude that a private facility is not a pathway forward for both Rainier and Tahoma,” Summit Superintendent Anson Jackson said in a statement.
According to a tentative plan, Summit Rainier — a charter school serving about 315 students in East San Jose — will cease operations at the end of the school year. KIPP Navigate College Prep — another charter school that currently shares a campus with Rainier’s partner school Summit Tahoma in South San Jose — will move to the Summit Rainier campus.
Students from Summit Rainier will be given the option to attend Summit Tahoma, which is located on the campus of Oak Grove High School about ten miles south from Rainier’s current school grounds, or another school of their choosing. Although the school’s faculty can apply for a position at another Summit school, including Tahoma, they have no certainty of securing a job. The East Side Union High School District, which is mandated to share facilities will all three schools under Proposition 39, said Summit and KIPP came to the district to discuss negotiating a new facility plan late last school year — nearly two years before the agreements between the two Summit schools and the district were set to expire.
The district is currently home to 12 charter schools, including Rainier, and 11 of its own district schools. As more charter schools have been added to the district in recent years, the district has been forced to parse more and more of its campuses.
Summit Tahoma and Summit Rainier opened in 2011 as two separate schools on the National Hispanic University campus. But when the university decided to use the space for other uses, the two schools moved into separate portable sites owned by the East Side Union High School District — the campuses of Oak Grove High School and Mt. Pleasant High School.
When KIPP Navigate College Prep opened two years ago, the district placed the school on the same campus as Summit Tahoma. As a consequence, Tahoma lost classrooms “below a sufficient number to operate its basic programs”, according to the Summit statement.
“While the Rainier campus at Mt. Pleasant and the Tahoma campus at Oak Grove have been functional, neither one of them on their own can provide for the basic operation of a Summit school,” Jackson said. “This permanent home will allow us to serve Summit’s families and the San Jose community well for years to come.”
Kipp Navigate began with a freshman class during the 2018-19 school year, added sophomores this school year and will continue to add a junior and senior class in the subsequent two years. While KIPP Navigate is expected to more than double its enrollment once it adds the additional grade levels, enrollment at Summit Rainier has gradually declined.
KIPP Public Charter Schools operates nearly 250 schools across the nation, including four in San Jose. In a statement, KIPP said it was looking forward to having a “long-term home for the school” and “continuing to provide a safe, nurturing environment for our scholars.”
East Side Union School District Superintendent Chris Funk said that due to the KIPP’s growing enrollment, it “wasn’t feasible” to have both KIPP and Summit Tahoma at the Oak Grove campus.
“I think it’s a win-win for everyone,” Funk said. “It means that KIPP, which was eventually going to have to move anyway, will have room to grow and there will less competition for gym times and athletic fields for Summit because there will only be one school at the Oak Grove campus.”
But Summer Rainier teachers, who recently voted to establish a union, are questioning whether the closure had any relation to their efforts to try and secure a more fair contract.
“My stomach is constantly in knots,” said Isela Mosqueira, a Spanish teacher who has worked at the school for the past three years. “It’s really hard to talk to my students and answer their questions. They want to know what is happening next year and where I’m going to go but I don’t have much to tell them.”
In January, 75% of teachers from the eight Summit Public Schools across northern California submitted paperwork to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board to form a union. But the teachers have been unable to negotiate a contract with Summit because the administration is waiting on the California Public Employment Relations Board to approve the merits of the union petition.
“At our campus, we’re pretty historically outspoken about advocating for services and programs that can improve things for our kids,” Mosqueira said. “And so it’s hard not to see a lot of these actions as retaliation for unionizing.” Redwood City-based Summit Public Schools operates 11 tuition-free charter schools in northern California and Washington. The charter system revolves around a personalized learning approach, small class sizes and specialized one-on-one mentoring from teachers.
Abraham Rios, a junior at Summit Rainier, said he thought it was a joke when he initially heard the news traveling around his peers last week.
“It’s like a slap in the face,” Rios said. “They always talked about how we were a family, so it makes no sense why they’re now deciding to break that up. It’s really disappointing that I won’t have that (mentor-mentee) connection next year — my senior year.”... For full post, please visit:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/22/san-jose-charter-school-to-close-teachers-question-if-its-a-retaliation-for-unionizing/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 15, 2019 2:57 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
November 11, 2018 5:19 PM
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To download, click on title or arrow above. File is a pdf with live links to cited documents. Selected/related links are below: Privatizing Schooling and Policy Making: The American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] and New Political and Discursive Strategies of Education Governance // Educational Policy http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/28/0895904814528794.abstract
Cashing In On Kids: 172 ALEC Education Bills Push Privatization in 2015 https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13054/cashing-kids-172-alec-education-bills-2015 How Online Companies Bought America’s Schools
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-online-learning-companies-bought-americas-schools/ The Profit Motive Behind Virtual Schools in Maine www.pressherald.com/2012/09/01/virtual-schools-in-maine_2012-09-02 K12Inc: California Virtual Academies’ Operator Exploits Charter, Charity Laws For Money, Records Show https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/04/17/k12-inc-california-virtual-academies-operator-exploits-charter-charity-laws-for-money-records-show/ Enrollment in California Public Versus Charter Schools https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/ceffingertipfacts.asp Santa Clara County Office of Education Annual Charter School Databook https://www.sccoe.org/supoffice/charter-schools-office/Documents/2016-17%20Charter%20School%20Report%20Final.pdf Death By A Thousand Cuts: Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage // https://www.j4jalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/J4JReport-final_05_12_14.pdf IES National Center for Education Statistics: Percentage of Public School Students Enrolled in Charter Schools, By State (2014) https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30 Center for Media and Democracy Publishes List of [2,200]+ Closed Charter Schools (with Interactive Map) http://sco.lt/6KOm6z The Perfect Storm: Disenfranchised Communities [Video] https://vimeo.com/161523742 “School Closure Playbook” – [Video] https://vimeo.com/120338240 Charter School Closure Leaves Parents Scrambling For Alternatives http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article199107149.html The Continuum of Structural Violence: Sustaining Exclusion Through School Closures http://sco.lt/9IcTKb KIPP Refuses Agreement To Abide By Conflict of Interest Law: Gets Approved By State Board of Education https://eduresearcher.com/2018/03/13/denykipp/ How Did The State Board of Education Vote on Controversial Charter School Petitions? https://eduresearcher.com/2018/09/07/how-will-state-board-of-education-vote-on-controversial-charter-school-petitions/ Separate and Unequal: The Problematic Segregation of Special Populations In Charter Schools Relative to Traditional Public Schools // Stanford Law and Policy Review http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/are-charters-beacons Charter Schools, Civil Rights, and School Discipline: A Comprehensive Review: The Center for Civil Rights Remedies (UCLA) https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/charter-schools-civil-rights-and-school-discipline-a-comprehensive-review/losen-et-al-charter-school-discipline-review-2016.pdf Are California’s Charter Schools The New Separate But Equal “Schools of Excellence”, or Are They Worse Than Plessy? https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3128802 How Privatization Increases Inequality: Section 5: Privatization Perpetuates Socioeconomic and Racial Segregation // In The Public Interest https://public.tableau.com/profile/civil.rights.project.at.ucla#!/vizhome/CostofCASuspensions/DistrictDash NAACP Resolution Calling for a Moratorium on the Expansion of Charter Schools [Original] https://eduresearcher.com/2016/10/21/naacp/ KIPP Refuses To Abide By Conflict of Interest Code; Gets Approved By State Board of Education: https://eduresearcher.com/2018/03/13/denykipp/ [Link no longer active – this was original document for State Legal Counsel’s opinion that a “charter school is subject to” government code 1090] https://cde.app.box.com/v/SBE2018MARCH/file/282675343163 Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
http://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Charter-School-Fraud_Report_2017 Rocketship Pushes Expansion Despite State Denials and Strong Community Opposition // https://eduresearcher.com/2016/03/09/rocketship-pushes/ John Danner (Co-Founder of Rocketship) Why Blended Schools Are “Whales” In The Ed Institutional Context Quote: “Schools like Rocketship will be a great way to test and validate products and we are happy to do it…” https://beyondschools2.blogspot.com/2012/ New Orleans Charter School Problems Exposed at NAACP Hearing https://eduresearcher.com/2017/04/29/nola-charter/ “Blended Learning: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Tech-Assisted Teaching” // Philanthropy Roundtable (formerly chaired by B. Devos) // http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/file_uploads/Blended_Learning_Guidebook.pdf Breaking Point: The Cost of Charter Schools For Public School Districts https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/report-the-cost-of-charter-schools-for-public-school-districts/ Education School Dean: Urban School Reform Is Really About Land Development (Not Kids) // https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/28/ed-school-dean-urban-school-reform-is-really-about-land-development-not-kids/?utm_term=.ef77a9f69fd5 Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where The Market Meets Grassroots Resistance // http://sco.lt/6vGDMf Spending Blind: The Failure of Policy Planning In California’s Charter School Funding // https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL_ITPI_SpendingBlind_April2017.pdf A Comprehensive Guide To Charter School Closure http://sco.lt/80B85Z San Pablo Rocketship Appeal to State Board in Sacramento (Video with evidence of expanding gaps) https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgIRGe0-q7Safim1TwdTNlcV7auIbigPr&v=uHpH63PsXKs Cybercharters Have An Overwhelmingly Negative Impact http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2015/10/CREDO_online_charters_study.html Virtual and Blended Learning Schools Continue to Struggle and Grow http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2016/04/virtual-schools-annual-2016 Red Flags Known and Overlooked With State Board Votes On San Jose Charter Schools // https://eduresearcher.com/2018/01/18/charter-red-flags/ How Will State Board of Education Vote on Controversial Charter School Petitions? // https://eduresearcher.com/2018/09/07/how-will-state-board-of-education-vote-on-controversial-charter-school-petitions/ Understanding Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/charter-revenue New Report Uncovers Systematic Failure by California Charter Schools to Meet Local Control Obligations https://www.publicadvocates.org/uncategorized/22875/ KIPP subset of posts on Charter Schools & “Choice”: A Closer Look page: https://www.scoop.it/t/charter-choice-closer-look?q=kipp Rocketship subset of posts on Charter Schools & “Choice”: A Closer Look page // https://www.scoop.it/t/charter-choice-closer-look?q=rocketship For more with current updates, please see: http://bit.ly/chart_look
http://bit.ly/privatization_explained
http://bit.ly/naacp_resolution
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
July 28, 2018 6:33 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 20, 2018 3:07 AM
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[Original Title]: Will KIPP Be Allowed To Bypass Conflict of Interest Law In Its Bid For State Funds?
[3/14/18] Update: The California State Board of Education has voted to approve two KIPP petitions to expand campuses into San Francisco and San Jose despite strong community resistance and knowledge of the charter chain's refusal to abide… https://eduresearcher.com/2018/03/13/denykipp/
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 11, 2018 7:04 PM
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Letter from East Side Union High School District to State Board of Education Trustees Urging Denial of KIPP
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
March 11, 2018 4:42 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
February 25, 2018 8:51 PM
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Abstract "The purpose of this paper is to proffer a critical perspective about a specific brand of American schools within the larger charter school movement: the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP is currently receiving wholesale acclaim as a radical alternative to public schooling ―that works.‖ While KIPP schools ostensibly claim that college acceptance for all students is their primary goal, the principles and practices that undergird their mission are founded upon capitalistic and militaristic ideals that run counter to the ideals of democratic education. I argue that KIPP schools merely preserve the status quo by asking students to overcome overwhelming disparities through ―hard work and ―motivation, instead of addressing the structural sources of poverty and poor academic achievement—i.e., the unequal distribution of resources in schools and society. By subscribing to a dictum of no excuses, KIPP essentially puts the onus on the victims of poverty and institutional racism. This clearly conveys the fallacy to urban students that failure in this society will solely be a reflection of not working long and hard enough, or simply not complying with rules set by those with authority." To download full paper, click on title, arrow above, or here: https://www.scribd.com/document/24518615/No-Excuses-A-Critique-of-the-Knowledge-Is-Power-Program-KIPP-within-Charter-Schools-in-the-USA
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
February 14, 2018 3:15 PM
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
January 10, 2018 12:59 AM
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By Tony Wan "Nothing should unite both critics and fans of education technology more than reports of companies making big money from shoddy products. But what about when the critic may also make a profit by betting that a company will tank because of its lackluster service and results?
At the Value Investing Congress in New York City on September 17, hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson of Kase Capital delivered a whammy of a case against online school provider, K12 Inc., with a 110-slide talk on "An Analysis of K12 (LRN) and Why It Is My Largest Short Position," shared on Business Insider. He said that K12 is his portfolio’s biggest short position. Tilson is a staunch and outspoken fan of education reform. He blogs regularly on education reform and circulates weekly newsletters championing charter schools, reform and edtech in general. He joined Teach for America in its early days and serves on the board of KIPP. And he invests. At last week’s meeting, Tilson argued that K12 Inc., the largest online K-12 education provider in the U.S., and manager of online charter schools in 33 states and D.C., is due for a fall. Although the company’s stock (ticker: LRN) has risen 70% since January 2012, Tilson says it’s “absurdly overvalued and sure to collapse.” Tilson’s analysis of why K12 is a poor investment briefly describes its financial numbers, then dives deeply into why it’s failing to deliver education value. On the numbers (slides 11-19): K12 says its revenue has grown 32% annually over the past decade and that projected earnings per share is expected to climb 32% over the next 12 months. Smoke and mirrors, contends Tilson. He notes that although net income and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) have climbed over the past two years, revenue growth is slowing. Profit margins (over the past two years) have been erratic. And other indicators--how long it takes K12 to get paid, its aggressive accounting practices, and so on--make Tilson jittery. Even more ominous are Tilson’s concerns about K12’s practices. Among them: (slide 8): - "K12's aggressive student recruitment has led to dismal academic results by students and sky-high dropout rates, in some cases more than 50% annually."
- "I have been looking for years and have not found a single K12 school that is free of scandal and posting even decent (much less good) academic results."
Through personal interviews, analysis of a class action suit and media coverage, Tilson has compiled a lengthy indictment of the quality of K12's service. He recounts stories from former employees (slides 21-25) who say the company follows a "growth-at-any-cost mentality" and "increasingly target[s] at-risk students that it knows are likely to fail." He has strong reservations against K12's publicized academic "successes" after poor results and "sky-high" dropout rates at its schools in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee (slides 33-59). These issues, along with other regulatory infractions, place K12 under intense scrutiny from state officials. Tilson notes that the company will not be opening schools in any new states next year (slide 81).
Following his presentation, Tilson wrote in an email that "K12 reminds me of the subprime mortgage lenders and for-profit colleges when they were flying high--and the ending will be similar I believe."... Full post is at the following page: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2013-09-21-why-investor-whitney-tilson-is-betting-against-k12
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Scooped by
Roxana Marachi, PhD
October 18, 2017 1:54 AM
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Book Review by Ciro Viamontes & Miriam D. Ezzani August 14, 2017 [TCR]
"In Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where the market meets grassroots resistance, Kristen Buras reveals details of the remarkable story of the privatization of public schools in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A New Orleans native, Buras brings to this study the influential context of the historical past of New Orleans public schools and educational policy. The text can be taken as an ethnography of the public policy conflicts between white and nonwhite communities in the context of extant hegemonic social structures that prohibit educational access. This historical setting takes on deeper significance when we are reminded that New Orleans was home to Homer Plessy, whose resistance to segregation there led to the infamous 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Buras’ advocacy and activism experience with the Urban South Grassroots Research Collective for Public Education (USGRC) will no doubt be used to attack the validity of this work. Yet Buras clearly addresses her positionality and acknowledges that “The critique presented in this book of market-based school reform does not imply the preexisting system in New Orleans was ideal” (p. 3). The included appendix on methodology further addresses and clarifies Buras’ positionality. Buras argues that “black education writ large cannot be understood adequately without examining the reconstruction of public education in the South” (p. 9). Moving towards that understanding, Buras expands her previously published research. Chapters Two and Six examine the actions of the white power elite, while Chapters Three and Four examine community efforts to secure equity in educational opportunities. Rather than examine this book in a linear chapter by chapter fashion, it may be helpful to think in conceptual terms. Using critical race theory, Buras proposes three conceptual facets to the political ecology of market-based privatization efforts: whiteness as property, accumulation by dispossession, and urban space economy. Arguing that New Orleans may be the American city that historically demonstrates the harshest forms of white supremacy, Buras leads us to understand how these factors intertwine to limit educational opportunities for communities of color. Charter school-based educational reform in New Orleans is a collaboration which can appropriately be examined as an ecological system (p. 40). The Recovery School District (RSD) effectively represents the interests of the white political establishment and educational entrepreneurs/reformers. The RSD acted with astonishing speed in taking over the public-school system post Katrina. Tacit support of the takeover came from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), Governor Blanco, Senator Landrieu (Democrat) and the State Legislature, with the assistance of national groups such as the Heritage Foundation, Teach for America (TFA), and the Cowen Institute. These actions, seen as a response to the catastrophe, incited little if any resistance to the actions of the RSD. Meanwhile, accumulation by dispossession is evidenced by the RSD’s elimination of a school district by taking control of the buildings. This allowed the en masse firing of veteran teachers, predominantly people of color who had evacuated, as their jobs no longer existed. Citing a “teacher shortage” BESE then contracted with Teach for America (TFA) allowing the RSD to replace fired teachers with inexperienced, non-certified, non-union, predominantly white teachers. TFA recruitment efforts focused on teaching in communities of color as an entrepreneurial opportunity. This entrepreneurial spirit spearheaded by the RSD functions to recruit white people to come to New Orleans. Other examples of accumulation by dispossession through RSD actions can be viewed as malicious: a dramatic example is the diversion of funds from the state of Louisiana's resources for the displaced teachers’ salaries and benefits to the operating budgets of charter schools inheriting the former school district’s buildings. Buras also shows how the historically racist political ecology served to shape the space economy of the city. The least desirable, lowest elevation, and thus most vulnerable areas became the predominately African-American areas (p. 12). It is for this reason that the African-American community suffered the brunt of the damage caused by Katrina. In these most vulnerable areas of New Orleans, grassroots groups have been struggling to mitigate the impacts of this historically inequitable political ecology. Delays in opening schools in African American communities, such as Bywater and the Ninth Ward continues to impact the space economy. After five years of RSD management, only three schools were reopened in the Bywater and lower Ninth Ward (p. 60). Even then, Frederick Douglass High School was reopened as a selective admittance charter school by the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). There are effectively no open enrollment high schools available to residents in the Bywater community, where Douglass served as a locus of community resistance to the white supremacist political ecology. Schools that were reopened relatively quickly were on the periphery of African-American areas near predominately white areas. The pattern of RSD re-establishment of educational facilities serves as a disincentive to African-Americans wishing to return to New Orleans, and also undermines grassroots movements. The concluding chapter of this book is a refutation of the charter school incubator New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) Guide for Cities. The NSNO Guide offers a template of lessons learned to facilitate other cities enacting New Orleans style market-based school reforms. Crafted in part by the USGRC, this chapter refutes four main points of the Guide using, in part, testimonies of community based groups that resisted the market-based reforms. Taken from a critical race theory perspective, these counterstories are used with other evidence to present the experiential perspective of communities of color on the lessons learned from the implementation of this public educational policy. These counterstories thematically share the argument that allegedly innovative market-based reforms fail to serve the needs of the students and the communities they live in. These failures are comprised of the marginalization of experienced minority teachers in favor of predominantly inexperienced white teachers, the restructuring of public education as a primarily profit generating asset, reducing access to special education services through “cost containment” measures, and a non-democratic process of external actors imposing reforms without regard to community input or participation. The last lesson is dramatically illustrated in a graphic representation of the relationship between and among the NSNO leadership and other outside actors. Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space represents a meticulously crafted work on the complexity of social justice issues in public education reform. Moving outside of the classroom and curriculum, this work details how historically inequitable political, economic, and social factors come together to create a “broken” educational system that limits the opportunities of communities of color. Rather than address the inequities of this artificially broken system Buras illustrates the reality of market-based reforms, which create a mechanism for educational “entrepreneurs” to profit from maintaining limited educational opportunities for communities of color. Further, Buras shows that the New Orleans experience is actively being presented as a template for public school privatization. This is an eye-opening book for anyone interested in the debate surrounding charter school based systems of reform." Teachers College Record, Date Published: August 14, 2017
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 22135, Date Accessed: 10/17/2017 Title: Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space Where the Market Meets Grassroots Resistance
Author(s): Kristen L. Buras
Publisher: Routledge, New York
ISBN: 0415814626, Pages: 230, Year: 2014
For original review in Teacher's College Record, see: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=22135
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