In case you missed it an Orlando Charter school
threatened to kick out students who did not get FCAT prep, they however say it
was just a big misunderstanding.
From the Miami Herald: The Orange County school system is investigating a charter school that wrongly threatened to dismiss students for failing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests, or FCAT.
The school, Cornerstone Charter
Academy, retracted the threat Thursday, blaming a “poorly written letter” from
the principal to parents.
Still, the move was enough to spark
a new round of allegations that charter schools, which are privately managed
but receive taxpayer funding, inflate their state-issued school grades by
“cherry picking” students.
“If a child does not pass FCAT and
the school discontinues that child’s enrollment because of it, then they are
rigging their own school achievement scores by dismissing students who may
bring down the school’s grade,” said Sandy Stenoff, who withdrew her child from
Cornerstone last year.
Cornerstone Charter Academy is run
by the Miami-based school management firm Academica, which manages more than
three dozen charter schools in South Florida, and has ties to top state
lawmakers.
What?!? A charter school
with ties to elected officials, how unbelievably common in Florida! What is
also common is charter schools counseling out poor performers and discipline
problems after FTE (money time) and before the FCAT. This steals money from
public schools and jacks up charter school scores which are still no better
despite numerous advantages.
It’s time Florida got a
clue and put the brakes on the charter school expansion unless you like a
system where kids get substandard educations while politicians with close ties
to charter schools benefit.
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