For-profit CSUSA spends how much to advertise an unneeded school?

Channel 9 in Orlando wonders why CSUSA is spending $148,725 on cable television ads. This is your tax money that these charters are spending. Orange County schools have no say about it. It is time they did. These schools can open anywhere, needed or not. There are three schools within five miles of the new Renaissance school that is about to open. These are all high performing schools.

Unregulated growth of charters hurts everyone.

Tampa Bay Times Editorial Says It All

Take a look at this editorial. It cites HB 7069 as ‘gross audaciousness’ by the legislature. Heading the list are the provisions to expand charter schools, ‘religious liberty provision’, text book review, and most of all: USURPING LOCAL CONTROL OF OUR SCHOOLS.

Memorize these talking points. Say them loudly and often. Take back our schools.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-floridas-micromanaging-of-public-schools/2330479

Paramount Charter In Miami Closed: Obscene

How do you get the message out to parents about the lack of charter school regulation? Some charters are run well. Others have obscenities on the walls that no one washes off. When the district froze funding as an investigation by the DOE was launched at Paramount Charter, the principal took the money. The district can only do so much. Charters are privately owned and managed. It could be different. Districts could grant charter contracts and allow flexibility. They would oversee the management if the state legislature would allow it.

Read the story here:

https://www.local10.com/news/local-10-investigates/first-look-inside-nightmare-charter-school

The PACT IS UP AND RUNNING

We have gone into action here in Alachua County. We are not happy about the CSUSA proposal to open a 1100 student school in Gainesville. So, several of us formed a political action group called PACT. It’s spreading the word about for-profit charter school chains. We just don’t want a link in that chain.

You can help us. Go to our webpage: https://www.parentsagainstcorporatetakeovers.com . Like us on FaceBook. If people like the PACT, find it useful, and donate to help us do pamphlets, videos, newspaper ads and such, we will move out to other counties. We are excited about the PACT. We are asking people to sign our petition to oppose the CSUSA school. You can contact the school board and the legislative delegation.

We are non-partisan, but we will let legislators know when they fail to vote against for-profit charters. We think charters should fill a need in a county school district, not just come in to make money and take money away from other schools.

Help Us and help all of Florida’s communities to protect our schools.

Citizens for Strong Schools Appeal on Tuesday: Watch!

Southern Legal Counsel will be arguing for a high quality education for all children before the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee on July 18 at 9:00 am. Last year, in Citizens for Strong Schools v. Fla. State Board of Education, after a four-week trial, the trial court found many problems in Florida’s education system, but ruled against the plaintiffs. The court believed that he could not order a remedy without violating separation of powers. You can watch the argument live streamed at:  http://www.1dca.org/ustream.html

Listen to the Voice from Our Schools

We went to visit some of our ‘low performing’ schools in Gainesville that aren’t low performing this year. We asked: What made the difference? We wrote up what our principals told us. The Gainesville Sun published our article today. The principals know what is needed. We don’t need the State to takeover our schools; we need the State to support our schools! We ask everyone to listen!

Read the article here: http://www.gainesville.com/opinion/20170707/carole-fernandez-listen-to-voices-from-our-schools

Charter Advocates Attack Trump Education Budget

According to Ed Source, even with big increases for charter schools, leaders of the National Alliance for Charter Schools and major charter chains strongly opposed President Trumps’ education budget. The $168 million increase raises the federal charter support to about one-half billion dollars. Most of this money goes, however, to support new charter start ups.

The problem is that once started, most charters have to survive on existing funding. The proposed budget for all schools would increase Title I funding for low income student support, but it decreases federal education funding by over nine billion dollars. Starting charters that can’t be supported makes no sense.

To compound the problem, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attacked charter schools at a National Alliance for Charter Schools conference. She was quoted as saying charters were ‘playing it safe’ and had become bureaucratic. They had lost some of the creativity and innovative spirit of its founders. She went on to say charters were blocking our choice alternatives to fund private schools. Ms. DeVos’ priorities are clear.

All of this goes to show that the pot of money to support our schools is limited. Some politicians argue that it should get smaller yet. As less money is divided among public, charter, and private schools, the greater the dissension. This is not a winning strategy for children.

Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding create friction in charter school community

Districts to Sue the State over Charters

The Broward School Board voted to sue the State of Florida over HB 7069’s requirement to share local capital outlay funding with charter schools. As reported in the blog earlier, this new law has a massive impact on districts. The new law violates the provision that local school boards, not the State are responsible for the oversight and operation of schools. The Schools of Hope would essentially seize schools in low income areas who have low performing students.

Sharing local property taxes with charters is also unconstitutional.

Miami-Dade, Pinellas, and Orange County are also considering joining the lawsuit.

This ‘anything goes’ legislature may find that ‘not everything goes’ especially our public schools.

See today’s Sun Sentinel

NEA Has New Charter School Position

“Charter schools were started by educators who dreamed they could innovate unfettered by bureaucratic obstacles”, said NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia. “Handing over students’ education to privately managed, unaccountable charters jeopardizes students success, undermines public education and harms communities.”

There are ways to provide flexibility to ensure charters have a positive role in meeting the needs of children. NEA lays out three criteria:

  1. Charter schools must be authorized by and held accountable to democratically elected local school boards. Locally elected school boards are the only way to ensure charters actually meet student needs in ways that the district cannot.

  2. A charter must demonstrate that it is necessary to meet student needs in the district and that it meets the needs in a manner that improves the local public school system.

  3. The charter must comply with the same basic safeguards as other public schools. This includes open meetings and public records laws, prohibitions against for-profit operations and profiteering, civil rights, labor, employment, health and safety laws, staff qualifications and certification requirements as other public schools.

There is a growing consensus that charters are overextended and inadequately supervised. This is a result of the reluctance of school reformers who are not willing to apply common sense policies to control the excesses that go along with the unbridled competition where no one wins.