John Curry's letter in the Columbus Dispatch: Charter schools need to be held accountable

Saturday, December 03, 2005

A reality concerning charter schools is that they are primarily in business to make a profit for their investors and chief executive officers. These schools tend to pop up in areas where poverty is commonplace.

The students and their families suffer from high crime rates, high unemployment and a general atmosphere of hopelessness. Many of these students can’t or don’t survive in the public schools because of poor attendance, poor parenting skills and run-ins with the juvenile court system.

They feel helpless. These students and their families are looking for a better way of life. It’s very understandable.

Sure, there are some success stories of students growing up under these conditions, and I admire them, but there aren’t many. The students in the Los Alamos Public Schools in New Mexico have some of the highest test results in the United States; they also have a high per-capita rate of doctorate degrees and a high standard of living.

Many of the people living in Ohio’s Rust Belt inner cities, where many charter schools are blossoming, aren’t so fortunate. However in these same Rust Belt inner cities, the public schools religiously test all of their students, unlike their neighboring charter schools.

These students are a prime target for a snake-oil-salesman pitch of individualized attention, a computer at the hands of every student and excellent grades. What these charterschool students, their parents and the state have discovered is that when it comes time to take the state proficiency tests, many don’t.

This is no accident. The people in charge know that these students will, for the most part, not be able to produce results equal to or better than their peers in the same neighborhoods who attend public schools. Up to now, they weren’t forced on the issue.

Thanks to a few courageous investigative reporters from a handful of Ohio newspapers, the public finally has begun to understand what a false bill of goods has been sold to them by a handful of 21 st century carpetbaggers with visions of government dollar signs in their eyes and a good sales pitch.

The people finally are beginning to realize that their tax dollars (109 million of them last year) have gone to corporations over which they have little or no control. It has gotten so bad that even the ethically challenged governor of this state has had his hand forced to speak out against these abuses of public tax money. Even some in the legislature are beginning to become vocal about the abuses charters have imposed upon the taxpaying public.

This situation has degraded to the point where legislative action forcing charters to be more accountable has finally been realized.

Charter schools have formed because the people who started them have found an easy way to fool the public by sidestepping accountability while lining their wallets at the same time. Of course, although many people aren’t aware, the "sponsor" of the charter school gets 3 percent of the charter’s state-funding money.

The Lucas County Board of Education has sponsored more than 100 charter schools in Ohio. Methinks the term carpetbagger also applies to any public school board that participates in the profiteering on the taxpayers’ backs by diverting public money to private enterprise.

This charter-school fleecing party is about to end. Charters either will become accountable or they’ll become history.

JOHN CURRY

Member

Concerned Ohio Retired Educators

Wapakoneta

Addendum:

Thanks to Tom Mooney's figures as published in the Cincinnati Enquirer -- Ohio's charter schools received $429 million dollars last year, not $109 million dollars as was in my editorial that appeared in the Dispatch yesterday. The $109 million dollar figure was just the monies received by White Hat Charter Schools!! Thank you, Duane Tron, for finding the error. The Cincy data is printed below:

"Statewide, charter schools were paid $429 million last year and expect to get a projected $444 million this year." Mooney said that nearly half that total goes to for-profit management companies. 'These are not common or public schools,' he said."

John - a Proud CORE member

12/04/05