Charter Schools: Climate of Corruption?

dirt-59785_640In 2012, Florida received an ‘F’ on Ethics Enforcement agencies from the Center for Public Integrity.  On the overall corruption index, Florida received a C-.

Governor Scott issued an executive order to strengthen the process.  The Florida Senate changed the conflict of interest rules for legislators in 2013-14. Bad things keep happening.  Is there a legislative cabal, or are some simply insensitive to the public interest?  There are stories to tell. Continue reading

Charter Schools Unsupervised

door-171984_1280“Charter Schools Unsupervised” by the Sun Sentinel is a great interactive site.  It has maps, charts and videos that explain how laws need to change.  Fifty-six charters have closed in the past five years alone.  Florida can do better.  The Senate education bill does require that charter advisory boards be independent of their management companies.  It also requires background checks for operators. It is about time.  These are steps in the right direction, but much more needs to be done.

Florida League of Women Voters Positions on School Choice

lwv florida logoSome of you have been asking about the Florida League positions on school choice.  The positions were formally adopted at the convention last year.  They will be included in Study and Action when it is updated.  The League strongly opposes tax credit scholarships.  The Florida League  supports Florida’s constitution provision for a uniform, efficient, high quality public school system.  While charter schools are legally public schools, the League supports stronger district management and oversight to make them better conform to constitutional requirements.  Specific principles and positions are listed below.

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Charter School Facilities: Your Money, Their Property

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by Sue Legg, Pat Drago, and Ruth Melton

Charter schools are public schools, right?  Well  yes, but they are owned and managed by private companies.  Most of their facilities are privately owned.  If they close, the private company retains the buildings.

Charter schools should receive the same amount of money as district schools, right?  Seems fair until you think about it.

Let’s think about it.  We need to, there is a bill in the legislature.

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“Togetherness”, the Anti-Community’s Community?

Divided Community

Divided Community

Now television is in the charter fray.  In this review of the series “Togetherness”, Joshua Leibner in Salon magazine describes its charter school subplot.  Are neighborhood schools the “bogeyman for all of society’s ills?, he asks.  He wonders if for white people of their education and class,  all the education reform nonsense might feel right for minority kids–but just not for their children?  The setting for the series is in Eagle Rock in Los Angeles.  This is a real place where both Leibner and the show’s producers actually live.  Is the show fact or fiction? Continue reading

Charters: Public, Private, Both: An Auditor’s View

Dave Yost

Dave Yost

Can you make a cogent argument about which regulations are needed and which inhibit a flexible, innovative school system?  It is not an esoteric topic.  With the plethora of examples of charter school fraud, waste and abuse, we know something is not working right.  What changes should be made?

Ohio’s Auditor of State, Dave Yost, has been doing some serious thinking.  He is concerned about which aspects of charter school operations are subject to public entity law and which relate to laws governing private companies.  It makes a difference in what information is subject to public disclosure.  The criteria for ethical behavior differ as well.  Charters are both public and private.  Which set of rules apply?

This piece is not a polemic.  It is a thoughtful article by a fiscal conservative who believes in small government.  He is concerned about preserving the public interest when contracting with private entities for services like schools and prisons.  It is a thorny problem we all need to ponder.

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LWV Presentation to the Florida Senate Education Committee Workshop on Charter Schools

photoSue close upThe Senate Education Committee held a workshop on March 11th on proposed bills for charter schools. The list of bills was organized by topic. Sue Legg, Chair of the League’s Education Committee, made a presentation to the committee. She focused on three of the Committee’s topics.

Here is an edited version of her remarks.

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Florida Senate Education Committee Workshop on Charters

bill montfordjohn leggIf you want to take the pulse of charter school legislative priorities, watch this video.  It is yesterday’s Florida Senate Education Committee workshop on charters.  They have a long list of proposed bills to consider, and they are looking for ways to combine bills in order to move forward.

The two most comprehensive bills were from Senator Montford and Senator Legg.    Continue reading