Charter Schools Grow

Charter Schools Grow Amid Questions

By Seth Sandronsky

Traditional public school students and their teachers are facing a

shortfall of tax support across the US. But things are brighter for

tuition-free public charter schools, which operate with a contract

(charter) from a public entity.

There were over 2 million students enrolled in about 5,600 public

charter schools around the US in 2011, according to the National

Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a Washington, DC-based,

non-profit advocacy group. A recent NAPCS statement said that total

student enrollment represents a 13% increase in one year.

According to the federal Department of Education, 4% of US public

school students, pre-kindergarten through grade 12, attend public

charter schools. In 2010, California led the nation in public charter

schools with 983, according to the NAPCS, serving over 412,000

students (7% of the over-all enrollment of 6 million pupils

statewide).

Asked why California has the most public charter schools, NAPCS

spokesperson Sephanie Grisham noted the state’s 1992 law establishing

public charter schools with 31 in 1993, biggest state populace

nationwide and a “great” California Charter Schools Association (a

private firm). “CCSA actively advocates for the promotion and access

of public charter schools, academic achievement, and increased

accountability,” according to its website (calcharters.org).

Kathy Carroll, an attorney for the California Commission on Teacher

Credentialing from October 2006 to November 2010, is a whistleblower

who claims that her employer fired her for speaking out on misconduct

such as violations of statutory mandates (providing for fair and

impartial decision-making).

Carroll also has a critical view of public charter schools, education

policy and policy-makers. She has appealed her firing to the

California state personnel board and expects a decision in June.

For her, officials who serve the public interest and a private

enterprise at the same time create a situation that fosters the

potential for financial and political conflicts of interest.

In her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System:

How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, education scholar

Diane Ravitch unravels the sometimes hazy role of private money in

public education policy, and follows a trail that brings her to “The

Billionaire Boys’ Club.”

This club includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the

Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart Inc.).

Both foundations fund the CCSA and the NAPCS.

In Sacramento, funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in

2003 helped the non-profit St. Hope Foundation under current city

mayor Kevin Johnson, a Democrat and past NBA all-star guard for the

Phoenix Suns, to obtain a charter permission to operate the formerly

public Sacramento High School.

The Gates Foundation is also a donor to Capitol Impact, LLC, a

“Sacramento-based consulting firm dedicated to improving policy and

practice in California, with a particular emphasis on public

education,” according to its website (capitolimpact.org).

Asked what what’s next for the US public charter schools movement in

2012, Grisham said the NAPCS will work to change the law in states

where there are no or weak public school charter laws to continue the

movement’s growth.

Seth Sandronsky lives and writes in Sacramento.  Published with permission, From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2012

Manchaca TX 78652

http://www.populist.com