Charter schools are good at making money. That’s really what they are best at doing. Charter schools don’t perform better than public schools. They do, however, take money away from public schools, and land, and they cheapen the teachers union. So, if you hate the idea of public education and you dislike teachers, charter schools are super amazing. Educator Ann Berlak recently wrote an amazing op-ed about charter schools, in which she explained how “There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Public Charter School’”:
When students leave public schools for charter schools they take their per pupil expenditures –which in California averaged $9,794 last year–with them, leaving public schools with less revenue but the same overhead.
The federal government also spends millions on charters at the expense of public schools. Taxpayers paid one consulting firm nearly $10 million to the U.S. Department of Education Charter Schools. That’s $10 million fewer federal dollars for public schools.
Mississippi parents have filed a lawsuit against the state of Mississippi, with help from the Southern Poverty Law Center:
This is a state constitutional challenge to the funding provisions of the Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013 (“CSA”), Miss. Code § 37-28-1, et seq. The CSA diverts public money to charter schools through two funding streams: ad valorem tax funds from local school districts and per-pupil funds from the Mississippi Department of Education (“MDE”). Both funding streams are unconstitutional and must be struck down.
Of course, everyone’s favorite homophobic Kojak character Governor Phil Bryant is getting wicked bent out of shape about being named in the lawsuit.
“Because they’re public schools. They’re under public school authority. Those children’s parents pay taxes. They expect their children to get a good education. This is a method to help those inner-city youth that have been failed, that have failed in those public schools that are not prepared for their needs,” said Governor Phil Bryant.
It’s such a cannibal’s argument. Here is one of the plaintiffs, Cassandra Overton-Welchlin, who has three children in the Jackson Public School system.
My daughter who is pretty sassy and has Global Childhood Apraxia, her disability is very complicated and compacted. The district has been required and asked to purchase and implement special tools and equipment for her to communicate,” said Overton-Welchlin.
But, Overton-Welchlin says it’s been her experience that JPS has lacked resources to train staff to use the technology her daughter needs.
For every feelgood story about a charter school taking innovative steps to educate its students, there are many more horror stories that read like parables of corporate greed. Recently, charter school operators have been sued for taking public money and then maybe not spending it on the services they promised to provide.
Kinston Charter Academy – which closed 10 days into the school year in September 2013 – got more than $666,000 in state money in August 2013, according to the lawsuit. The money was based on a projected enrollment of 366 students and was supposed to last until October.
On Sept. 3, the school had 189 students. It closed three days later. The students transferred to other schools, and the lawsuit says the state had to pay twice to educate those students for three months.