Charter schools have made the
news a lot over the last few days and not for good reasons.
First Ohio which has emulated Florida’s charter school movement is
running into several problems, the first being the system is an unmitigated
disaster. http://www.ohio.com/news/local/academic-ratings-for-ohio-charter-schools-likely-to-tank-in-new-scoring-system-1.386455
Then in Las Angeles a charter school operator is facing prison
time for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-charter-20130406,0,515080.story
Next the Boston Globe reports charter schools are over inflating
their wait lists, http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/07/waiting-lists-for-charter-schools-overstate-demand-review-shows/Zg0HPk9JtVhebUfUBT9ePP/story.html
the article reports that some schools
never purged their lists from year to year, greatly skewing the statistics
Finally closer to home charter schools are expected to cost the
Pinellas School district 6 million dollars, http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/charter-expansions-could-cost-pinellas-schools-nearly-6-million/2113813
I wonder what kind of impact that will
have on the children not in charter schools.
Theft, lies, bad programs and a siphoning away of funds that hurt
public school kids aren’t indicative of every charter school but they are of
enough. Charter schools have a role to play as a supplement to public schools
and then only when needed or when they bring innovations to the table but that
is not how they are being used. All the powers-that-be are doing now is lining
the pockets of their friends and supporters and the cost besides tax payer’s
money is the future of many of our children.
No comments:
Post a Comment