If you want to start a private CHARTER SCHOOL, build your own damn school!

[Atman]

I don't get it. Why should taxpayers have to pay one dime for for-profit charter schools? They claim they're non-profit or not-for-profit, but they're entirely for profit once you skim the executive salaries off the top. They cherry pick their students, they use public money for their classroom space...if you want to start a private school get the funding and start a private school and build it from the ground up! Stop this "charter school" bullshit. It is just a mask for the for-profit education industry.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. + 1000

[pnwmom]

2. I think this is different in different states. The ones in WA are true non-profits and they can't

cherry pick their students.

[sulphurdunn]

14. Many non-profit charters

are managed by for profit management companies. Often, the management company owns the land the charter sits on, for which the school pays rent that often accounts for the biggest expense in the school budget. After these exorbitant rents, Wall Street level administrative salaries and fees to the management company, only a fraction of the public funding is left for education. All of this is then overseen by a school board appointed by the management company. It's great work if you can get, and you aren't a teacher or a student.

[LiberalEsto]

3. And they teach all kinds of woo like dinosaurs co-existed with humans.

I don't want my taxes paying to teach crazy stuff.

[bvar22]

4. I agree 100%.

I have nothing against Charter Schools,
as long as they do NOT receive a single penny of Public Funds.

We already have a Public School System.
If it is broken, it is OUR responsibility to FIX IT,
NOT steal the money earmarked for it.

AFIC, "Charter" schools ARE private schools,
and the Charter School movement is just another NeoLiberal privatization SCAM
whose main purpose is to:

*divert Public money to Private pockets

*Bust the Teachers Union
and
*(This one is really ugly) introduce a stealth re-segregation movement
that diverts funds from struggling inner city schools to White Flight Charter Schools in the suburbs,
and gentrified parts of the Urbs.

[Squinch]

5. And yes: if they can afford to pay Eva Moskowitz $500K a year, they are for SOMEONE'S profit.

You are absolutely right.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!! - Did You Catch This ???

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024720437

[SunSeeker]

7. Charter schools are a scam. nt

[bigwillq]

8. K and R

[Phlem]

9. Amen!

They suck money from established brick and mortar and guess who makes up the difference 3, 2, 1, the taxpayer!!!!

Gotta love them school levies, more and more each time.



-p

[longship]

10. But... But... But... We want to teach Creationism!

And the courts have universally held that we cannot do that within the public schools. So we need our own private school infrastructure, funded by the government, so that we can teach our fundamentalist, Protestant theology as science.

And if you don't let us, we will scream religious discrimination.

And don't let us start about our corporate religious rights.

[d_legendary1]

11. And the best part about those little rackets is

that they are not subject to the same academic standards that public schools are. So your kid can grow up to be illiterate and work for minimum wage or worse.

[obxhead]

12. Tax credits for the parents of private school children also need to be ended.

I don't have children, yet I pay taxes that support public schools and receive no credits.

I happily do so.

Why should someone get a tax break because they CHOOSE to opt their children out of the public school system?

[DhhD]

15. It is a doubled loss. The charter school gets tuition from the parent, and then the state sends

the money going to the local school district, to the charter instead. A double gain is why profiteers make so much money on the private charter. The taxpayers having already paid state taxes to fund their neighborhood public schools, sustain a double loss, by also losing from federal revenue tax break, that you mention, that could have gone into something else (like fixing the roads to your workplace).

You can see how privatization and profiteers are investing in what I call, legalized theft. The Sec. of Education wants to privatize schools.

[mountain grammy]

13. +1000. I completely agree!

[Enthusiast]

16. I guess I don't understand this.

Isn't the President in support of these charter schools? Hillary?

What is their position on these for-profit charter schools replacing public schools?

Seems to me this is another stated Republican goal from the 1980s, getting rid of the teacher's union. Other objectives that come to mind are kill the USPS and the social safety net. All they need is complicit Democrats. Oh, wait.


"The further a society drifts from Truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." George Orwell

[Atman]

17. Sadly, it is "popular" because most Americans are stupid.

That is why they're called "Charter Schools" and not "For Profit Private Schools." Charter School sounds touchy-feely and good, and most people don't know WTF that means. They don't realize they're paying tax dollars to fund schools which would never accept their own children. There are no statistics showing that charter schools perform any better than public schools, but as long as we allow the demonization of public school teachers, it must be okay. I am totally dismayed that both Obama and Clinton support this. It is money. The Bush family is behind it, big money is behind it, PROFIT is behind it. There is no manufacturing left in the U.S., no factories to pull us up out of our economic doldrums, so the rich are looking for untapped markets. Intro, the "education factory." A giant, nationwide market for the schoolbooks THEY get to write, teaching their creationist bullshit and further dumbing down the nation. We're in a death spiral.

[Enthusiast]

18. I completely agree with your explanation.

But it is ever so disturbing.

I had not considered the education factory angle. Like social security privatization, for-profit education would provide that untapped market. This is deeply disturbing.

It isn't as if we can just ignore it because a candidate or office holder has a D on their chest.

[Atman]

20. Yes, it is very disturbing.

Again, it's ratings. Fox & friends (lower case f) have succeeded in demonizing public education. Funny thing is, most people on this board -- and in Congress -- grew up with public education. But with nowhere left to invest, the rich are turning to for-profit prisons and for-profit schools. The only "growth industries" left in America. Babies will keep being born and we'll need to either educate them or lock them up...we can't provide jobs for them any longer. The only secure job seems to be a seat in a gerrymandered Congressional district.

[hack89]

19. Why not let the taxpayers decide how their taxes are spent?

it is their money after all.

[octoberlib]

21. All taxpayers should be outraged about this.

Republicans in Congress are trying to pass a bill that would divert 63% of public school funds to charter school vouchers.


On In January 2014 Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a bill to the Senate titled Scholarships for Kids (S. 1968 /H.R. 4000). The bill is a nationwide voucher program that would turn 63 percent of public school education funds into private school vouchers. Now, Alexander’s bill does not touch federal education money for subsidized school lunches, students with disabilities, and students in schools on federally impacted land or military bases, but the Republicans have that covered too. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced his bill, the Opportunity for Individuals and Communities through Education (CHOICE) Act, to expand educational opportunities for children with disabilities, children living on military bases, and children living in impoverished areas.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/26/why_religious_fundamentalists_are_so_excited_about_charter_schools_partner/

[Atman]

22. If only we still had real journalists to cover this.

Instead, they're all in bed with the charter schools. They have them on as guests to tell America how wonderful they are. And they're all part of the profit-taking. Scams. Total scams.