The Big Business of Charter Schools

CNBC, from k12newsnetwork.com :

Why Special Education Should be Cold to Charter Schools

From the AP this morning, "Special Needs Students Staying in Traditional Schools":

"The high cost of educating students with special needs is disproportionately falling on traditional public schools as other students increasingly opt for alternatives that aren't always readily open to those requiring special education."

Highlights:

- In Cleveland, the district has lost 41 percent of its students since 1996 while its proportion of students with special needs rose from 13.4 percent to 22.9 percent last year. In Milwaukee, enrollment has dropped by nearly 19 percent over the past decade, but the percentage of students with disabilities has risen from 15.8 percent in 2002 to 19.7 percent in 2012.

- The U.S. Department of Education's office of civil rights is investigating charter school practices relating to students with disabilities in five districts around the country.

- While the number of students with special needs has not increased, the rising proportion has driven up costs for cash-strapped schools.

- Public Schools of Philadelphia, for example, spent $9,100 per regular education pupil in 2009, $14,560 per pupil with milder disabilities and $39,130 for more severe disabilities

- As districts increasingly offer other options, kids with disabilities are not enrolling in the alternatives at the same rate. (NB: This seems poorly worded, as if the students are the ones making the decision NOT to enroll.  When politicians support "school choice," we should ask them "who's choice?" - JW)

- Many charters have been reluctant to tackle special education because they lack expertise, but that is starting to change.


There may be a place for charter schools in the public education system.  But what is trending right now across the country is that public money is being transferred from public schools to private schools that do not have either the capacity or the cash incentive to provide appropriate education to students with disabilities.   Therefore, the per pupil financial burdens on urban public schools is increasing rapidly while their funds are being depleted. 

Even charter schools that do educate students with disabilities are not held to the same standards as public schools.  Their teachers often do not have the necessary training or experience as public (read: unionized) teachers, and their schools do not have to operate under the same "zero reject" principles that public schools have to.  (Although federal law prohibits charter schools from rejecting a student because of a disability, many of them have certain stated student minimum requirements that prevents many students with disabilities from enrolling.) 

I believe the appropriate phrase for this is "resegregation." 

Charter School Shut Downs Abandon Thousands of Students

It is a cool and breezy August afternoon here in east central Illinois.  Robyn and I have been taking it easy.  We watched the "Hunger Games," and I was like, "Holy crap!  This is PG-13?" Then we watched "Zombieland," because I wanted to watch something uplifting, and I guess I was into having a "Woody Harrelson Drunkenly Stars in Post-Apocalyptic Films" Festival.  That should be an entire genre in itself. 

So that's what I did instead of blogging.  I do have a lot of things to share though:

Kansas City Public Schools are expecting a huge increase in enrollment this year after several area charter schools were closed down for failing to provide their students with a curriculum aligned with state standards.  Via the AP:

Enrollment has swelled in unaccredited St. Louis and Kansas City public schools as about 5,000 students from shuttered charter schools find a new place to get an education.
Years of declining enrollment, spurred by families moving to the suburbs or enrolling child in private, parochial or charter schools, meant the two districts saw less money from the state, which forced deep budget cuts. The Kansas City district had to close nearly half of its buildings before the 2010-11 academic year to avoid bankruptcy.

Of course, because of these budget cuts - partially caused by the loss of revenue as students left the district for these same charter schools, run by the Imagine Schools management company - means that KC is not able to accommodate all of these new students.  There was a plan to move some of these students to neighboring districts, such as Independence, Lee's Summit, and North Kansas City.  According to EdWeek, "Missouri law allows students in Kansas City to transfer to nearby accredited school districts, at the expense of the Kansas City district."  However:

A Missouri circuit court judge sided Thursday with three school districts that said they would suffer financial harm if students from the unaccredited Kansas City, Mo. school system were allowed to transfer in to their smaller, accredited districts.... The judgment was a victory for three Kansas City-area districts—Independence, Lee's Summit and North Kansas City—which were able to demonstrate to the court that the cost of educating transfer students from Kansas City would impose a financial burden.

 This is the danger of the public-private charter school system: Public funds went to Imagine Schools, which are not held to the same state standards, and eventually leave town.  This leaves their students, who are predominantly minorities, and have high levels of students with disabilities who have a federal guarantee to an education back in a system that has been robbed over the previous years.  And there is no incentive for the suburban districts - which are both whiter and wealthier - to take in those urban students.  I have no idea what Kansas City is going to do.

Paging Professor Harold Hill: