The Federal Government says no to Private Prisons, for profit Charter Schools should be next

Last year the Federal Government started going after for profit colleges, pointing out they don’t do as well and man were little more than scams. This past week we can add for profit prisons to the list.

From NPR:

U.S. Justice Department officials plan to phase out their use of private prisons to house federal inmates, reasoning that the contract facilities offer few benefits for public safety or taxpayers. 

In making the decision, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates cited new findings by the Justice Department's inspector general, who concluded earlier this month that a pool of 14 privately contracted prisons reported more incidents of inmate contraband, higher rates of assaults and more uses of force than facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 

"They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and ... they do not maintain the same level of safety and security," Yates wrote in a memo Thursday. 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490498158/justice-department-will-phase-out-its-use-of-private-prisons

I am not going to say there aren’t good charter schools, to do so would be disingenuous. However in my hometown of Jacksonville Florida, the good ones have set up in neighborhoods that already have great schools. There is not one charter school that serves poor communities of color that is doing better than the nearby public schools. But there they are dozens of charter schools allowed to exist that are either doing a poor job of that are making their owners rich.

The reasons that the federal government said no to private prisons could be said about charter schools.

Also from NPR:  

U.S. Department of Education officials plan to phase out their use of charter schools, reasoning that the contract facilities offer few benefits for public school students or taxpayers. 

In making the decision, Nadya Chinoy Dabby, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Innovation and Improvement cited new findings by the Department of Education inspector general, who concluded earlier this month that a pool of 14 privately contracted charters reported more incidents of closures, suspensions, students leaving mid-year, lower test scores on the NEAP and accounting problems, and financial irregularities, than facilities run by local school boards. 

"They simply do not provide the same level of educational services, programs and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and ... they do not maintain the same level of safety and Education," Dabby wrote in a memo Thursday. 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490498158/justice-department-will-phase-out-its-use-of-private-prisons

Did you see what I did there?

The concept of charters is an attractive one as I am sure private prisons was to some, but both of their realities have turned into nightmares for too many.