That sickening noise you just heard was Duval County Schools approving two more charter schools

Duval County Charter Schools approved two new charter schools on May the fifth, another KIPP school for the Northside and a Charter Schools USA school

The KIPP School is the baby of influential business man and chair of the state board of education Gary Chartrand. I believe the evidence is dubious for the expansion, despite spending a third more per child, not backfilling when kids leave and having smaller classes and longer days the KIPP Impact school has earned grades of F, the lowest grade in northeast Florida, a miraculous B, a grade protected C, it would have been a D if the aforementioned Chartrand wouldn’t have helped pass a rule saying school grades could only drop one letter grade and another B. I submit that is any public school had the same resources and advantages it would have received nothing but A grades.   

The CUSA school at the Flagler Center is being placed right in the middle of four high performing 

schools three of which are under enrolled. It is being placed in an area town that does not need a charter school. The only possible purpose it serves is to enrich the owner of the for profit Charter Schools USA.

The superintendent and several board members have bemoaned the expansion of charter schools which according to the Jacksonville Public Education Fund’s website both hurt public schools by siphoning away resources and as a group perform worse.

Other districts are pushing back against charter schools of which over 270 have opened taken public money and closed and of which many of the ones that are successful have set up in neighborhoods where successful public schools already are draining away precious resources. Our super and board however has embraced charter schools and I don’t think it is a coincidence that our overall district grade has dropped to a C as charter schools have increased by over 300 percent over the last few years.

It’s time our board and super did the job they were elected and hired to do instead of out sourcing our children’s education to for profit charter schools many of which do worse than their public school counterparts.