President elect, Donald Trump’s campaign tag line “Make America Great Again” should come under serious scrutiny with his appointment of Betsy DeVos for Cabinet Secretary who will oversee our countries education system.
For decades DeVos pushed hard in Michigan to promote “for profit" private schools, stripping away much needed tax dollars from the states public schools. The result of privatization in Michigan, as
well as other major cities, has been devastating for children attending public schools. Lack of funding has resulted in classrooms without books, quality curriculums, crumbling buildings and even heat during the winter.
There’s no mistake about it, if this is Donald Trumps idea of “Making America Great Again” we’re in for a very rough ride and our children will bear the brunt of it.
New York Times:
“Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, called Ms. DeVos “the most ideological, anti-public education nominee” since the secretary of education was elevated to the cabinet level four decades ago.”
For nearly 30 years, as a philanthropist, activist and Republican fund-raiser, she has pushed to give families taxpayer money in the form of vouchers to attend private and parochial schools, pressed to expand publicly funded but privately run charter schools, and tried to strip teacher unions of their influence.”
Exploring the consequences of charter school expansion in U.S. cities
Economic Policy Institute Report•By Bruce D. Baker
Executive Summary
This report highlights patterns of charter school expansion across several large and mid-size U.S. cities since 2000. In this report, the focus is the loss of enrollments and revenues to charter schools in host districts and the response of districts as seen through patterns of overhead expenditures. I begin by identifying those cities and local public school districts that have experienced the largest shifts of students from district-operated to charter schools, and select from among those cities illustrative examples of the effects of charter school expansion on host district finances and enrollments.
Effects of charter expansion
District schools are surviving but under increased stress
In some urban districts, charter schools are serving 20 percent or more of the city or districtwide student population. These host districts have experienced the following effects in common:
• While total enrollment in district schools (the noncharter, traditional public schools) has dropped, districts have largely been able to achieve and maintain reasonable minimum school sizes, with only modest increases in the shares of children served in inefficiently small schools.
• While resources (total available revenues to district schools) have declined, districts have reduced overhead expenditures enough to avoid consuming disproportionate shares of operating spending and increasing pupil/teacher ratios.
• Despite expenditure cutting measures, districts simultaneously facing rapid student population decline and/or operating in states with particularly inequitable, under-resourced school finance systems have faced substantial annual deficits.
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