bounty44
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• The Life Skills Center of Miami-Dade County, for example, pays 97 percent of its income to a management company as a “continuing fee.” And when the governing board of two affiliated schools in Hollywood tried to eject its managers, the company refused to turn over school money it held — and threatened to press criminal charges against any school officials who attempted to access the money.
sounds like a bad business transaction/relationship to me and if the school ends up being dissatisfied with the management company’s performance, then that company wont be hired back.
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• Many management companies also control the land and buildings used by the schools — sometimes collecting more than 25 percent of a school’s revenue in lease payments, in addition to management fees.
So what?
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• The owners of Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator, collect almost $19 million a year in lease payments on school properties they control in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, audit and property records show.
So what?
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• Charter schools often rely on loans from management companies or other insiders to stay afloat, making charter school governing boards beholden to the managers they oversee. Loans to two Pompano Beach schools were disguised as gifts in financial documents to avoid scrutiny from the school district and make struggling schools appear solvent, the schools’ former managers said in court papers.
Sorry, when someone says “often” and then doesn’t provide numbers. There’s nothing to critique. As far as the loans, on the surface that sounds shady, but without actual dollars, or hearing the case from the other side, hard to judge.
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• At some financially weak schools, tight budgets have forced administrators to cut corners. The cash-strapped Balere Language Academy in South Miami Heights taught its seventh-grade students in a toolshed, records show.
There are no details here. What does “taught its 7th grade students in a tool shed” even mean? Some schools make use of trailers for classes. Colleges even do it. Is a “tool shed” qualitatively different from a trailer? How long did this go on? A week perhaps? A few weeks? Years? See how the knowledge of that matters?
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• The Academy of Arts & Minds in Coconut Grove went weeks without textbooks.
Yeah, stuff like that NEVER happens in public schools.
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• Schools have also been accused of using illegal tactics to bring in more money — charging students illegal fees for standard classes, or faking attendance records to earn more tax dollars, court records show.
How many schools out of how many? Nah, that doesn’t matter does it? And as I mentioned above, then the marketplace works and those schools will go out of business.
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• Charter schools in Miami-Dade take a disproportionately lower share of black, poor and disabled children, records show. One in three students in Miami-Dade traditional public schools are black, while one in five charter school students are black.
And that means what exactly?
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• School district officials also suspect some charter schools have deliberately sought out high-performing students — contrary to the schools’ contracts.
Okay, that’s a humdinger given the bullet point immediately above it.
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• This year, several South Florida charter schools made headlines for violating local rules or state laws, including Arts & Minds, which was accused of charging illegal fees to students,
“accused” but not convicted I see.
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• and Balere, which the school district said turned into an after-hours nightclub on weekends.
Another so what? Any reason why the building cannot be put to whatever use the owners want?
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• In Miami-Dade and Broward, about two in three charter schools are run by management companies, which charge fees ranging from 5 to 18 percent of a school’s income. These fees can exceed $1 million a year at a large charter school.
I wonder if im going to get tired of having to say “so what?” The idea of the marketplace is to sell a product for profit. How is a “management company” essentially any different than the people who run public schools?
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• Statewide, about one in four charter schools have shut down since 1996, either voluntarily or at the command of local school districts — double the national average. Most schools close for financial rather than academic reasons. A Miami Herald review found 19 schools in Miami-Dade and Broward with rents exceeding 20 percent of their income in 2010 — about one in seven South Florida charter schools renting property that year. One Miami Gardens school spent 43 percent of its income on rent, according to audit reports.
So on the surface, it sounds like some schools failed because of bad business practices. There’s a good chance then of those that failed, many of them deserved to. So? That’s the nature of competition.
on another hand, how many of those schools would have "failed financially" is the state helped them in the exact same way as the public schools?
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• Many of the highest rents are charged by landlords with ties to the management companies running the schools, The Miami Herald found. At least 56 charter schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties sit on land whose owners are tied to management companies, property records show.
Sigh…so what?? Okay, im just going to skip over the last few because its all more of the same. All im reading so far is “we don’t like schools for profit” or “we don’t like capitalism.” Ive not seen one thing in any of the above that is consistent with the journalists’ charge of these things being in conflict with the mission of the schools educating kids.
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Research Comparing Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools. Information Capsule.
• Most studies have found that charter schools produce achievement gains that are about the same or lower than those found in traditional public schools, although a few studies have concluded that charter schools have a positive effect on student achievement. These inconsistent findings have led some researchers to conclude that the rapid growth of the charter school movement has significantly outpaced the evidence supporting its impact on student achievement. ….
• there may never be a single definitive study that determines if charter or traditional public schools provide students with better learning opportunities
Without looking at the research myself, its hard to judge the veracity of the statement, but lets take it at face value as it doesn’t seem too unreasonable---so according to you then, this is evidence of charter schools being a scam?
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• This Information Capsule also reviews research comparing the qualifications of teachers at charter schools and traditional public schools and student segregation in charter schools. Most studies have found that charter school teachers have less teaching experience than teachers at traditional public schools
No duh and so what (yet again); experience doesn’t necessarily equate to quality and the teachers are likely younger in their careers and looking for opportunities.
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• In addition, charter schools appear to intensify racial and economic segregation.
The journalists just say it, so it must be true right?
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Charter Schools and Student Achievement in Florida
• by their fifth year of operation new charter schools reach a par with the average traditional public school in math and produce higher reading achievement scores than their traditional public school counterparts
Again, without data, hard to critique and why should I trust any writer who doesn’t provide that? but that said, note the higher reading scores?
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• Among charters, those targeting at-risk and special education students demonstrate lower student achievement,
Do you even know what that is saying? did you read this? its comparing charter schools with other charter schools and saying that those who target at risk and special ed students aren’t doing as well as other charters schools who have normal population. Well duh!
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• Controlling for preexisting traditional public school quality, competition from charter schools is associated with modest increases in math scores and unchanged reading scores in nearby traditional public schools.
This gets pretty tiresome---so now the charter schools are doing better at math too and that’s bad?
After so many bullet points of “pretty much nothing to see here” im going to stop here again and skip over the rest…
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I went to university and earned the equivalent of a PhD without dissertation…
How many graduate credit hours past a masters’ degree and in what subject?
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I will be happy to read your weak-ass reply to the picture I presented of a corrupt and ineffectual charter school movement.
You didn’t really present anything. You copy/pasted a newspaper article that you hoped presented a “corrupt and ineffectual charter school movement” but in my view, it didn’t succeed and what’s more your newspaper article conveniently ignored charter school successes.
If you truly were a teacher, and I believe you on that, I trust you would expect better and more thorough writing from your students.
Some of the schools seemingly did shady things, some of the schools closed---that is the nature of the free market. And to you that’s an indictment on the whole system?
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What a con job. For profit, private sector waste is just as rampant as public institutional waste.
You have not shown that in the least. Rent is waste? Paying management companies is waste? you've provided absolutely no comparisons or even real numbers to look at.
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School choice? snark!
Right, because freedom is a bad thing…
< Message edited by bounty44 -- 1/23/2016 3:25:08 PM >
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