Charter schools have made the news a lot over the last few days and not for good reasons.
First Ohio which has emulated Florida’s charter school movement is running into several problems, the first being the system is an unmitigated disaster. http://www.ohio.com/news/local/academic-ratings-for-ohio-charter-schools-likely-to-tank-in-new-scoring-system-1.386455
Then in Las Angeles a charter school operator is facing prison time for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-charter-20130406,0,515080.story
Next the Boston Globe reports charter schools are over inflating their wait lists, http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/07/waiting-lists-for-charter-schools-overstate-demand-review-shows/Zg0HPk9JtVhebUfUBT9ePP/story.html the article reports that some schools never purged their lists from year to year, greatly skewing the statistics
Finally closer to home charter schools are expected to cost the Pinellas School district 6 million dollars, http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/charter-expansions-could-cost-pinellas-schools-nearly-6-million/2113813 I wonder what kind of impact that will have on the children not in charter schools.
Theft, lies, bad programs and a siphoning away of funds that hurt public school kids aren’t indicative of every charter school but they are of enough. Charter schools have a role to play as a supplement to public schools and then only when needed or when they bring innovations to the table but that is not how they are being used. All the powers-that-be are doing now is lining the pockets of their friends and supporters and the cost besides tax payer’s money is the future of many of our children.
