Charter Schools

Charter Schools Cannot Be Prettified

July 29, 2019 Shawgi Tell, Dissidentvoice.org Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Privatization

A July 2019 “study” funded by the pro-privatization Walton Family Foundation, “Charter School Effects on School Segregation,” reports that charter schools intensify racial and ethnic segregation, but not by much and for reasons that are supposedly understandable and acceptable. The authors of the “study” want the public to believe that we should not be too concerned about the role of charter schools in increasing segregation. We are to believe that deregulated privately-operated charter schools are really not that bad.

How Teach For America Evolved Into An Arm Of The Charter School Movement

June 21, 2019 By Annie Waldman, Propublica.org Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Privatization, Teach for America

When the Walton Family Foundation announced in 2013 that it was donating $20 million to Teach For America to recruit and train nearly 4,000 teachers for low-income schools, its press release did not reveal the unusual terms for the grant. Documents obtained by ProPublica show that the foundation, a staunch supporter of school choice and Teach For America’s largest private funder, was paying $4,000 for every teacher placed in a traditional public school — and $6,000 for every one placed in a charter school.

Democrats Must Choose Between Teachers And Charter Schools

June 8, 2019 Jeff Bryant, Truthdig.com Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Electoral Politics, Teachers

For years, the safe havens for education policy debate in the Democratic Party have been expanding pre-K programs and providing more affordable college, but in the current presidential primary contest, another consensus issue has been added to the party’s agenda: salary increases for K–12 classroom teachers. Kamala Harris has gotten the most press for coming out strongly for raising teacher wages, but other frontrunners including Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Bernie Sanders have also called for increased teacher pay.

Thousands Of Charter Schools Perform Poorly

May 29, 2019 Shawgi Tell, Dissidentvoice.org Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Privatization, Schools

“Performance-based accountability” is a hackneyed, Skinnerian, neoliberal buzz-phrase often repeated dogmatically by charter school promoters in order to falsely claim that privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools are more accountable and higher-performing than public schools. But it is becoming clearer to everyone with each passing day that charter school promoters have long vastly over-promised and under-delivered, while rapidly enriching themselves at the expense of students, parents, the public, the economy, and the national interest.

Charter School Support Slipping Among Democrats

May 17, 2019 Jeff Bryant, Blackagendareport.com Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Electoral Politics, Privatization

The politics of charter schools have changed, and bipartisan support for these publicly funded, privately controlled schools has reached a turning point. A sure sign of the change came from Democrats in the House Appropriations Committee who have proposed a deep cut in federal charter school grants that would lower funding to $400 million, $40 million below current levels and $100 million less than what the Trump administration has proposed. Democrats are also calling for better oversight of charter schools that got federal funding and then closed.

Will Oklahoma Rein In Epic Charter Failure?

April 3, 2019 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Oklahoma

As the Network for Public Education documents a billion dollars wasted on failed charter schools, the national news is full of the latest charter financial scandals stretching from New Jersey to California. We can’t forget, however, that virtual charters, like Oklahoma’s Epic for-profit charters, have the potential of producing even more harm to our poorest students. The millions of dollars invested in Epic allow adults to pretend that thousands of students have not been abandoned, merely because they have enrolled in the online school.

Charter School Promoters Terrified Of Growing Opposition To Their Full-Frontal Assault On Public Education

March 11, 2019 Shawgi Tell, Dissidentvoice.org Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Public Education

The ongoing widely-supported teachers’ strikes across the United States are bringing to the fore many problems that have been confronting public education for decades, including a big and overdue focus on the havoc and destruction caused by charter schools against public schools and the public interest for the last 28 years. Teacher strikes everywhere are smashing the silence on charter schools and awakening many out of their charter school stupor. Even the most anti-conscious individual is slowly beginning to see the disaster that charter schools and the neoliberal antisocial offensive are producing. Criticism and rejection of charter schools is becoming more mainstream with each passing month.

West Virginia Teachers Walk Out To Oppose Charter Schools

February 20, 2019 Jerry White, Wsws.org Resist! Charter Schools, Class Struggle, Education, Teachers, Walkout, West Virginia

Thousands of teachers and support staff in West Virginia are walking out of schools today and descending on the state capitol in Charleston to oppose legislation that would introduce the state’s first charter schools and divert public resources and students from traditional public schools. Facing the possibility of imminent wildcat strikes, the teachers unions called the walkout for Tuesday but are scrambling to shut it down as soon as they can.

Teachers At Four Chicago Charter School Campuses Walk Out

February 7, 2019 Kristina Benitis, Wsws.org Resist! Charter Schools, Chicago, Protests, Teachers

With contract talks stalled after nine months of negotiations, 175 teachers at four Civitas campuses, part of Chicago International Charter School (CICS), walked out on strike Tuesday at 6 a.m. Teachers and staff are seeking raises, smaller class sizes, a reduction in healthcare costs and more support staff including social workers. The talks broke down over the demand for 8 percent raises in the first year. CICS says it would accept the proposal only by eliminating crucial support staff, like social workers and counselors.

L.A. Teachers Showed Us How It’s Done

January 27, 2019 By Samantha Winslow, Labor Notes Strategize! Charter Schools, Strike, Teachers

Of course, wages and benefits were central to the teachers’ fight. But like many successful strikes, theirs was about something bigger—that the district should invest in public education as a public good, rather than stripping schools of their value and selling them off as parts. And because the union had lifted workers’ expectations of what they can win, members were inspired and motivated to fight. They organized themselves school by school, workplace by workplace.

Charter Schools And Race In New Orleans

December 24, 2018 Michael David Raso, Bigeasymagazine.com Educate! Charter Schools, Education, New Orleans, Race, Schools

Thursday night, New Orleans public schools as we knew them ended. With a 5-2 vote by the Orleans Parish School Board, the last remaining public high school in New Orleans became its latest charter school. In a room filled to capacity, replete with security, protesters, placards, chants, and shouts of dissatisfaction, McDonogh 35 Senior High School’s future was turned over to charter school group InspireNOLA. Many were outraged, some were left in tears, but it changed nothing. With the 5-2 decision, New Orleans became the first city in the United States to turn its entire school system over to an all-charter system.

Chicago Teachers Win First Charter Strike In History

December 17, 2018 By Barbara Madeloni, Portside.org Resist! Charter Schools, Chicago, Strikes, Teachers

In a charter network where 90 percent of the students are Latino, strikers won an agreement to designate all its schools as “sanctuary schools,” off-limits to immigration police. This article, originally published on December 4 as the strike began, has since been updated. --Editors. Chicago teachers are leading the way again. They have declared victory in the first charter school strike in U.S. history. The four-day strike included 550 teachers and paraprofessionals who work at all 15 Chicago charter schools in the Acero charter chain. It ended December 9 with an agreement that includes smaller class sizes and salary increases that will align charter teachers with their counterparts in the Chicago Public Schools.

First Charter School Strike In Nation Eyes Day 2 As Acero Teachers Walk Out

December 5, 2018 By Manny Ramos, Alice Yin, and Lauren FitzPatrick, Chicago.suntimes.com Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Strikes, Teachers

The historic Acero charter-schools strike is set to enter its second day Wednesday as teachers plan to hit picket lines at Acero’s campuses by 6:30 a.m., the teachers union said late Tuesday. Then the Chicago Teachers Union will hold a rally at 10 a.m. just before the Chicago Board of Education’s monthly meeting at 42 W. Madison St. Union President Jesse Sharkey plans to discuss the strike during the Chicago Public Schools board meeting at 10:30 a.m., according to a statement released by CTU on Tuesday night. Picket lines stretched two-and-a-half blocks around Acero’s downtown Chicago headquarters at 209 W Jackson Blvd. on Tuesday afternoon as the nation’s first-ever strike by charter school educators canceled classes for thousands of students.

First Charter School Strike in US History Authorized In Chicago

November 4, 2018 Rebecca Burns, In These Times Resist! Charter Schools, Chicago, Strike, Teachers

On Tuesday, teachers at 15 Chicago charter schools voted 98 percent to authorize a strike as they continue to bargain a contract with Acero Schools, the largest unionized charter network in the city. On Friday, four locations of the Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS) will take a strike authorization vote. And teachers at nine other Chicago charter networks are also in contract negotiations, and could similarly opt to take strikes votes in the coming months.

DC Teachers From Only Unionized Charter School March

April 27, 2018 Perry Stein, Washington Post. Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Teachers, Unions

Washington, DC - A rare battle between teachers and administrators at a charter school has broken into public view, with educators taking to the streets of a D.C. neighborhood to press their case that the school is spending millions of dollars on consultants while cutting core classroom positions. The teachers at Chavez Prep Middle — the first D.C. charter school to unionize — say the administration’s spending is hurting students, who predominantly come from low-income, Hispanic families. The teachers voted in June to unionize and are represented by the American Federation of Teachers.

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