The Duval County School Board simply did not want to know the Acclaim Charter School was going to fail.

They say there was no notice, they say there was no way they could have known, well the truth is they could have known had they wanted too.

Another Acclaim charter school in March was taken over by the Osceola County school board nearly six weeks before the school in Duval abruptly closed. Had the county been paying attention they could have had a heads up instead of the blindside they claim happened.

Furthermore the state DOE in today’s Times Union’s article said there is nothing to stop districts from asking prospective owners background questions, like, have you ever filed for bankruptcy (the owner of Acclaim had) or run a school before (he had not)?  Our board didn’t do so because quite frankly they aren’t very good at their job and because they didn’t want to know.

Even though the super and board constantly publicly bemoans the loss of resources to charter schools the truth is there is not a more accommodating board in the state and I believe it’s because both the super and many of the board members owe their positions to charter school owners and supporters.  

We have school board members currently serving who would dismantle public education if they could and it’s a shame because teachers and students will pay the price for their ideological and self serving interests.

So don’t believe for a second that the school board didn’t know or even as a group really cares, this was just a bump in the road on the way to them privatizing local public education.