TRUMP AGENDA - Killing Public Education

"Are school vouchers good for education?  That debate is playing out in Indiana" PBS NewsHour 3/14/2017

REMINDER:  Many of the 'Charter Schools' that receive payment are for-profit companies.  These companies exist to make money for the owners, NOT for providing good education.  Do not confuse method for purpose.

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SUMMARY:  Indiana is one of nearly 30 states that offer vouchers or similar programs with the goal of allowing parents to use public funds for private schooling.  When the state launched the program, it was designed for low-income students.  But enrollment skyrocketed when the program was dramatically broadened by then-Gov. Mike Pence.  Special correspondent Lisa Stark of Education Week reports.

LISA STARK, special correspondent:  It's the start of the day at Emmaus Lutheran School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where chapel is held once a week.

About 20 miles away, this is how the day begins at Fairfield Elementary, the city's largest public elementary school.

Fairfield is warm and welcoming.  So is Emmaus.  Fairfield get top grades from the state for academics.  So does Emmaus.  But one is a public school, the other a private school that accepts vouchers.

They symbolize opposite sides of the heated voucher debate, only likely to intensify, given the administration's strong support for school choice.

At the heart of the debate, money, and how education dollars are divvied up.  Normally, the state distributes tax dollars to public schools to educate students.  In Indiana, that's about $5,800 a student.  Vouchers change that.  A portion of the money, the tax dollars, follow the student instead, allowing parents the use those dollars to pay tuition at the private school of their choice.

That's the voucher program.

Robert Enlow is an advocate.

ROBERT ENLOW, President, EdChoice:  We have seen over time our traditional school systems, because they're based on zip code assignment and where you live, not providing always the best options for families.

Let's put the money in the backpacks of the parent and let them choose where they want to go by giving parents the best options for their kids.

LISA STARK:  Indiana is one of nearly 30 states that offers vouchers or similar programs.  All have the same goal, allowing parents to use public funds for private schooling.

Jerry and Miriam Lunz use vouchers to send their children to private Lutheran schools, rather than their local public schools.

JERRY LUNZ, Parent:  I would say the schools in our particular area are not the best from the academic standpoint.  That played into some of it, but mostly the moral aspect is what we wanted, the Christian aspect, same taught at the school as at the home.

LISA STARK:  Without vouchers, private high school was mostly out of reach.

MIRIAM LUNZ, Parent:  We looked at the financial aspect, and we had no idea how we were going to cover the cost.  Jerry is the hardest-working truck driver I know, but that doesn't pay a lot.

LISA STARK:  More than 300 private schools in Indiana accept vouchers.  The vast majority are religious schools.

Keith Martin is the principal at Emmaus Lutheran.

Why does this school participate in the voucher program?

KEITH MARTIN, Principal, Emmaus Lutheran School:  Simply because it allows us to serve more students and more families.

LISA STARK:  In fact, nearly half of the 193 students at Emmaus rely on vouchers, bringing in about $400,000 for the school, more than a third of its budget.

KEITH MARTIN:  It's obviously very helpful, but you know, our school was here 100 years before the voucher program, and I'm confident that we will have it here 100 years with or without the voucher program.

LISA STARK:  At Fairfield Elementary, a drop in students and resources due partly to vouchers has strained budgets, according to principal Lindsay Amstutz-Martin.

LINDSAY AMSTUTZ-MARTIN, Principal, Fairfield Elementary:  I do know I have lost teachers every year.  I have lost allocations of teachers every year, because we're losing students, and sometimes that makes — certain grade levels' class sizes are large.

NEW YORK - Alarm, Hidden Finances of Charter Schools

"NY State Official Raises Alarm on Charter Schools — And Gets Ignored" by Marian Wang, ProPublica 12/16/2014

A top official in the New York State Comptroller’s Office has urged regulators to require more transparency on charter-school finances. The response has been, well, nonexistent.

Add another voice to those warning about the lack of financial oversight for charter schools.  One of New York state's top fiscal monitors told ProPublica that audits by his office have found "practices that are questionable at best, illegal at worst" at some charter schools.

Pete Grannis, New York State's First Deputy Comptroller, contacted ProPublica after reading our story last week about how some charter schools have turned over nearly all their public funds and significant control to private, often for-profit firms that handle their day-to-day operations.  The arrangements can limit the ability of auditors and charter-school regulators to follow how public money is spent – especially when the firms refuse to divulge financial details when asked.

Such setups are a real problem, Grannis said.  And the way he sees it, there's a very simple solution.  As a condition for agreeing to approve a new charter school or renew an existing one, charter regulators could require schools and their management companies to agree to provide any and all financial records related to the school.

"Clearly, the need for fiscal oversight of charter schools has intensified," he wrote in a letter to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio last week.  "Put schools on notice that relevant financial records cannot be shielded from oversight bodies of state and local governmental entities."

It's a plea that Grannis has made before.  Last year, he sent a similar letter to the state's major charter-school regulators – New York City's Department of Education, the New York State Education Department, and the State University of New York.

He never heard back from any of them.  "No response whatsoever," Grannis said. Not even, he added, a "'Thank you for your letter, we'll look into it.'  That would have been the normal bureaucratic response."

We contacted all three of these agencies and the mayor's office for comment.  None of them got back to us.

The charter-school debate in New York, as elsewhere, is politically fraught.  De Blasio's cautious stance on charters has put him at odds with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose financial backers include some big-dollar charter-school supporters.  The state comptroller's office has faced repeated lawsuits from charter groups and operators challenging its authority to audit charter schools.

To Grannis, though, his efforts aren't about politics.  His office is "agnostic on charters," as he put it.  His office also audits the finances of traditional public-school districts, he pointed out.

"We're the fiscal monitors.  We watch over the use or misuse of public funds," Grannis said.  "This isn't meant to be anti-charter.  Our job is not to be pro or anti."

Grannis has not yet gotten a response from the mayor's office about the letter he sent last week.

As to the charter-school regulators who got his letter the year before?  He's still puzzled why they wouldn't be more interested in a possible fix, or why the charter regulators never bothered to respond.

"I honestly don't know," Grannis said.  He said he's going to send another round of letters to them.

THE SLEAZE FILES - Non-Transparency of Charter School Management

"Charter School Chain Finally Discloses Salaries — With One Missing" by Marian Wang, ProPublica 11/20/2014

It’s the latest round in a fight between North Carolina regulators and a charter-school power broker who has tried to keep the financial details of his companies secret.

Last week, it appeared that a North Carolina charter school chain had finally put an end to more than a month of wrangling with state regulators when it turned over salary data for administrators working at the schools.

But the salary list has a curious omission.  The son of the schools' founder, despite working as "Information Systems Admin" at one of his father's schools, is missing from the disclosures.

As ProPublica detailed last month, both the chain of charter schools and the company that manages them were founded by a politically connected local businessman, Baker Mitchell. Millions of public dollars have flowed through the nonprofit schools to Mitchell's for-profit charter-management firm and another company he owns.

A believer in the power of the free market to drive education reform, Mitchell makes no apologies about the arrangement.  He has also fought to keep the financial details of his management firm secret.

In a push for more transparency on how public dollars for charter schools are spent, North Carolina regulators this summer ordered charter schools to turn over the salaries of any management-company employees assigned to work at the schools.

Nick Mitchell, Baker Mitchell's son, is on the payroll of Roger Bacon Academy, his father's for-profit management company, according to both his LinkedIn profile and the schools' own organizational charts.  The younger Mitchell is the only management firm employee listed on the schools' organizational charts whose salary is not on the list turned over to regulators.

The North Carolina State Board of Education last week took Mitchell's charter schools off financial probation after finally receiving the salary list.  After ProPublica flagged the missing salary to the state board, an agency attorney, Katie Cornetto, said the state has "asked the school to clarify" and is awaiting a response.

We also requested comment from Baker Mitchell and John Ferrante, the chair of the nonprofit board that oversees the schools.  In an email reply ending with a smiley-face emoticon, Ferrante declined to answer ProPublica's question about the missing salary.  (Read the email exchange.)   Mitchell did not respond to the request for comment.

The salary list submitted to regulators last week is marked as containing "proprietary and confidential" trade secrets "owned by a private person, Roger Bacon Academy."  The State Board of Education released the list on Monday.

EDUCATION - Family Members as Summer Teachers

"Turning parents into teachers to fight the ‘summer slide’ in reading" PBS NewsHour 8/22/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  As the new school year approaches, teachers have come to expect that many of their students will have forgotten some of what they learned earlier.  It’s called summer learning loss, and some teachers believe it’s inevitable.  Are they right?

Special correspondent for education John Merrow of Learning Matters reports.

SARAH PISANO, Springboard Teacher:  Everyone, turn to page three, please.

JOHN MERROW:  The traditional educator’s remedy for summer learning loss is more of the same, more hours and more days of classes and, of course, summer school.

SARAH PISANO:  Now we’re on page four.

JOHN MERROW:  But suppose there is another solution.

SARAH PISANO:  Good morning, Springboard families.  Please sign in.

JOHN MERROW:  What if schools enlisted family members as partners to help teach the children?  That’s what’s happening here at Russell Byers Charter School in Philadelphia.  For five weeks this summer, Sarah Pisano helps 6- and 7-year-olds get better at reading.

EDUCATION - Traditional Public Schools Under Same Roof With Charter Schools

"In Houston, traditional public school shares ideas and a roof with charter schools" PBS NewsHour 7/22/2014

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SUMMARY:  Charter schools have often been seen as a threat to traditional schools, diverting resources and students to these publicly funded but privately run institutions.  In Houston, Texas, the superintendent of one school district has invited competing charter schools to set up shop alongside a regular middle school.  Special correspondent John Merrow reports on their evolving partnership.

EDUCATION - Charter Schools Push-Back

Alternate Post Title:  How Big-Money Buys Your Child's Education

"Are charter schools monopolizing public resources?" PBS NewsHour 4/24/2014

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GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  A little more than a decade ago, only about 300,000 students were enrolled in charter schools nationwide.

As their growth has soared, especially in cities, nearly 2 million students are now enrolled.  In New York City alone, attendance has jumped from 2,300 children a year to nearly 70,000.  But that expansion has created serious competition for limited public resources.

Special correspondent John Tulenko of Learning Matters reports.

PROTESTER:  Save our schools!  Save our schools!

JOHN TULENKO, Learning Matters:  In early March, thousands of charter school supporters rode buses for hours to come to Albany, New York’s state capital, to stop a school of theirs from being closed.

NARRATOR:  Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking away a public school.

JOHN TULENKO:  A $4 million dollar ad campaign drove the message home.

NARRATOR:  Don’t take away our children’s future.

JOHN TULENKO:  And it quickly became national news.

MAN:  The mayor of New York wants to shut down the highest-performing school?

WOMAN:  Correct.

MAN:  It’s disgusting.