Fulfilling the Promise of Brown v. Board: Organizing for Educational Justice for All May 13-17, 2014
PRESS PACKET
ENCLOSED:
1. Program for May 13th rally and march
2. Press release
3. List of spokespeople
4. List of nationwide events on May 17th
5. Education Voter Pledge Card
6. Introduction from “Death by a Thousand Cuts: Voices from America’s Affected Communities of Color – Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage” (Available online at: http://bit.ly/deathby1000cuts)
7. Introduction from “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse” (Available online at www.populardemocracy.org)
The Title VI complaints filed on May 13th will be available at 12:30 p.m. here: http://bit.ly/titleVI
Further information available at: www.reclaimourschools.org
Fulfilling the Promise of Brown v. Board: Organizing for Educational Justice for All
May 13th National Mobilization at the Supreme Court MC’s – Ocynthia Williams, Journey for Justice/Coalition for Educational Justice and Jessica Morillo, Alliance for Educational Justice/Urban Youth Collaborative
Program 12:30 Open and Welcome- MCs
12:40 Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools Introduction and Demands Jacqueline Edwards, Journey for Justice/Parents Unified for Local School Education & Sharron Snyder, Alliance for Educational Justice/Philadelphia Student Union
12:50 United Labor Presentation Pres. Randi Weingarten, AFT Pres. Dennis Van Roekel, NEA Exec. Vice Pres. Valerie A. Long, SEIU
1:00 Remarks from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
1:05 Impact of Separate and Unequal Education Testimony from Youth leader Diamond McCullough, Journey for Justice/Alliance for Educational Justice Testimony from leader Deborah Jones, Journey for Justice/C-6
1:15 Remarks from Lucinda Talbert, Granddaughter of Brown v. Board Plaintiff
1:20 Release of study: “Death by A Thousand Cuts” Jitu Brown, Journey for Justice
1:25 Remarks from Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director, Co-Director Advancement Project
1:30 Announcement of Week of Action Kia Philpot, Center for Popular Democracy
1:40 Remarks from Ramon Garibaldo, United We Dream
1:45 Close & Assemble for March to the Department of Justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2014 ALLIANCE TO RECLAIM OUR SCHOOLS Contact: Jay Travis, Phone: (773)301-7827 Email [email protected] Contact: Julia Daniel, Phone (786)253-3538 Email [email protected]
ALLIANCE TO RECLAIM OUR SCHOOLS CALLS FOR RACIAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION
STUDENTS, PARENTS AND EDUCATORS RALLY AND HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO HONOR THE 1954 BROWN V. BOARD DECISION AND RENEW THE CALL FOR EQUITABLE EDUCATION
WHO: Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools
WHAT: Rally to honor the landmark Brown v. Board decision and to renew the call for equitable education
WHEN: Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 12:30 EST
WHERE: The steps of the United States Supreme Court, Washington, D.C.
Washington, DC- Students, parents and educators are together building a movement for justice, rallying on May 13th to reaffirm the promise of racial justice in public schools as declared in the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools is a national community labor alliance that represents over 7 million parents, teachers and youth who are standing up in the face of unprecedented attacks on their public schools, jobs and civil rights. Among those speaking at the press conference will be Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, and Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director of the Advancement Project.
For the last 20 years, a market-based approach to education reform has undermined the promise of equitable access to great schools for all students and pitted teachers and parents against each other. But that tide is changing as parents, students and teachers are coming together to reclaim the promise of public education as the nation's gateway to a strong democracy and racial and economic justice.
The rally kicks off a national week of action organized by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, fighting the dismantling and privatizing of public education and demanding excellent sustainable schools for all children. Leaders and members of the American Federation of Teachers, the National Educators Association and the Service Employees International Union will be joining the members of grassroots community organizations. They are demanding full funding and support for neighborhood-based community schools; a de-emphasis on high-stakes standardized testing; positive school discipline policies and an end to zero- tolerance; quality and affordable education from early childhood through college for all, including undocumented students; and a living wage that lifts people out of poverty.
The rally will take place on the steps of the Supreme Court and will be led by parent and student advocates. They will highlight the fact that six decades after the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the nation’s public schools are still separate and still unequal. The current, market-based approach to education reform has exacerbated racial and economic inequities in access to educational resources and opportunities. By focusing on the "achievement gap" the US has neglected to address the "opportunity gap" that disadvantages communities of color and low-income communities. To mark the 60th anniversary, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools is calling for policymakers to recommit to the vision of equity and opportunity embodied in that U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Myron Miller, a youth leader at VAYLA New Orleans, says "I told my little sisters that I want to try to get the school re-opened so they can go there when they're ready for high school." Miller is attending the rally because he believes that every neighborhood deserves a high quality community high school that is within reach of students and their families. The neighborhood high school that Myron graduated from in 2013 is being shut down after this semester.
At the rally, Alliance member organization Journey for Justice will release a report detailing the harm done to communities of color and low-income communities by corporate intervention policies such as mass school closings, charter expansion, over-testing and harsh discipline. The report calls for a moratorium on school closures and charter expansions and details recommendations for alternative, sustainable school transformation models.
After the rally participants will then march to the Department of Justice to call on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to meet with parents, students and educators who are hurt by current education reform. The groups will file 3 Title VI civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and with the Department of Justice detailing how students of color from Newark, NJ, Chicago, IL, and New Orleans, LA, are disproportionately impacted by school closures and charter expansions. The Alliance will also ask the Attorney General to improve charter oversight due to the excessive amount of charter fraud and the current weak system of oversight that costs taxpayers millions of dollars.
Irene Robinson, a grandparent of 8 children impacted by school closings and member of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization in Chicago says “Closing schools and displacing students is separate and unequal. Stuffing my grandbaby in a class with 54 other kindergarteners is separate and unequal. My grandchildren having to eat lunch in the gym room packed with students is separate and unequal. This is not reform, it’s repression.” Robinson is part of the Chicago civil rights complaint.
AFT President Randi Weingarten says "Sixty years ago, Brown v Board created access, yet today, we still struggle with true equity. In Philadelphia and Chicago, school closings have a disproportionate impact on students of color. In Newark, reforms being forced through have enraged the entire community and will excessively harm teachers of color. School closings, privatization, zero-tolerance approaches to school discipline, austerity, high-stakes testing all threaten to undercut communities of color. Today, change is being brought about not in a courtroom, but in our communities. There is a groundswell movement of teachers, parents, students and community members pushing for solutions that we know bring about equity – promoting early childhood education, expanding professional development opportunities, recruiting and retaining a diverse teacher corps, boosting parental involvement, shifting our discipline policies, curbing privatization and fixing, not closing, schools. Together, we are working to reclaim the promise of public education."
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry says “Today we mark the anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision by continuing the fight to realize its promise: expanding opportunity for students of all backgrounds.”
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel says “Sixty years after the Brown v. Board of Education landmark decision, we still see dramatic inequities and disparities in resources, programs, and opportunities for students across America. If ‘separate is inherently unequal,’ then why have lawmakers at every level—local, state, and federal—failed to fix these inequities? The Supreme Court has failed to recognize that disparities in what America's students receive is just as much of a constitutional affront as racial segregation was and is today. We have systems that continue to perpetuate inequality based upon zip code and family income. Lawmakers and the judiciary across America should view this anniversary as a wake-up call that the promise of Brown seems to be more elusive now than ever before.”
The Alliance previously mobilized for a National Day of Action on December 9, 2013 with rallies, protests, walkouts and other actions taking place in over 60 cities nationwide.
National organizations in the Alliance include Alliance for Educational Justice, American Federation of Teachers, Annenberg, Institute for School Reform, Center for Popular Democracy, Network, Journey for Justice Alliance, Gamaliel Network, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Education Association, National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, Service Employees International Union.
Media Spokespeople
Youth
Jessica Morillo, Student, bilingual English and Spanish Urban Youth Collaborative/ Alliance for Educational Justice Can be reached through Maria Fernandez: [email protected] 646-623-9905
Jessica Morillo, 17, is a student at Bronx International High School. Jessica immigrated to the United Stated form the Dominican Republic at the beginning of her freshman year in high school, in 2011. Over the past year, Jessica has been a powerful youth leader with Sistas and Brothas United (SBU) in the Bronx, part of the Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC), organizing the Morris Student Leadership Council at the Morris Campus, a youth led restorative justice program that is working on shifting the school climate in her campus, ending the criminalization of NYC students through meaningful citywide policy change, advocating on the state level for equitable funding for NYC schools, and pushing for a pathway to college and careers for all young people. She has been a powerful force in building campus unity amongst the 4 schools on her campus, and engaging students, teachers, administrators, parents, and School Safety Officer’s, in redefining what schools safety means. She is very excited to continue to build a restorative culture in her school, and in all schools in NYC.
Sharron Snyder, Student Alliance for Educational Justice/ Philadelphia Student Union Can be reached through Hiram Rivera: [email protected] 646.599.2647
Sharron Snyder is a Senior at Benjamin Franklin High School and a leader at the Philadelphia Student Union. After her school was closed, Sharron joined PSU's Benjamin Franklin chapter to fight against school closures and further cuts to her education. Sharron was one of the many student organizers of the student walkout in 2013, she's traveled to Chicago twice where she fought to stop school closures in that city and has appeared on both the Melissa Harris Perry Show and Huffington Post Live with Marc Lamont Hill to discuss the education crisis in Philadelphia. In the fall Sharron will go on to college where she plans to continue organizing students.
Parents
Zakiyah Ansari, Parent NYC Coalition for Educational Justice 917-309-5742 [email protected]
Zakiyah Ansari is the Advocacy Director of the New York State Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the leading statewide organization that has been fighting for educational equity for the last decade. Zakiyah was one of the few parent advocates appointed to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Transition Committee. Zakiyah resides in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. She is also the mother of eight children and grandmother of 3. Zakiyah has been invited to speak before parents, educators, elected officials, and administrators all across the country about the importance of organizing parents and communities in schools. She is one of the parent voices in the film, Parent Power, produced by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Zakiyah is one of the co-initiators on a recently formed national grassroots movement, “Journey for Justice,” an emerging alliance currently composed of grassroots community-based organizations from over 20 cities across the United States representing constituencies of youth, parents, and inter-generational organizations who have been impacted by the closing, turnaround, and charter expansion of schools in communities of color. Zakiyah was interviewed in an article in the February 2013 edition of American Prospect, “Pushing Arne Duncan Fast Forward.” She also appeared in January 2013 on MSNBC’s weekly national program, Melissa Harris-Perry, and was a panelist on the City & State and Schoolbook panel, “On Education,” in November 2012.
Jeanette Taylor, Parent Journey for Justice/KOCO (773)620.9055
Ocynthia Williams, Parent NYC Coalition for Educational Justice 347-231-7177 [email protected]
Ocynthia Williams is a founding member and parent leader of NYC Coalition for Educational Justice and a founding member of the United Parents of Highbridge, where she now works as an education organizer. She is a recent recipient of the Alliance for Quality Education’s “Education Champion Award.” Ocynthia is a founding member of the first middle school in the Highbridge section of the Bronx that opened its doors for the first time in September of 2013. Ocynthia is a community activist, public speaker, and a published author, with a recent article in the spring/summer issue of Brown University’s Journal, Voices in Urban Education (VUE). She is also founding member of Taqwa Community Farm, a world renowned garden featured in County Living Magazine, National Geographic, and in countless news articles and film documentaries. She has presented on education panels nationwide, and her work has been captured through media at rallies and press conferences. Ocynthia is one of the featured parents in the film documentary Parent Power, and she is an Ambassador for the Opportunity to Learn Campaign.
Teachers
Mary Cathryn Ricker American Federation of Teachers Vice President [email protected] 651-491-1778
Mary Cathryn D. Ricker has been president of the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 28, since 2005 and has been a member of the AFT K-12 program and policy council since 2006. She has previously represented the American Federation of Teachers internationally in Finland and the Middle East; and she has represented the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers on Mayoral Sister City delegations to Germany and Mexico. Ricker is a National Board Certified middle school English teacher who has taught in classrooms in St. Cloud, Minn.; Camas, Wash.; Seoul, South Korea; and St. Paul, Minn. Ricker’s teaching was featured by the Annenberg Foundation in the professional development series “Write in the Middle,” and she was a semifinalist for the NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Ricker serves on the Education Minnesota governing board and is president of the Education Minnesota Foundation for Teaching and Learning. Ricker also is a member TakeAction Minnesota, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the St. Paul Public Schools Foundation and the Twin Cities Strive Leadership Group, which is a community group assembled to find strategies to improve education. In 2012, Ricker was selected to co-chair the State of Minnesota Teacher Evaluation Work Group and has served on the Minnesota Department of Education School Finance Working Group since 2011. Ricker’s husband is a teacher of English language learners, and her children are students in the St. Paul public schools.
Amy Mizialko National Education Association 414-915-0843
Amy Mizialko is a 22-year Milwaukee Public Schools special education K-8 teacher and former mentor for new teachers.
Speakers
Dennis Van Roekel, President, National Education Assoiation
Dennis Van Roekel is president of the National Education Association, which represents more than 3 million public school employees. As NEA president, he leads the nation’s largest labor union and advocate for quality public schools. A longtime activist for children and public education, Van Roekel taught high school mathematics in Phoenix for 23 years. Van Roekel is guided by NEA’s mission: to fulfill the promise of public education and ensure that every child in America, regardless of family income or place of residence, receives a quality education. He is a member of the US Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission. He served two terms as NEA Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer. He also serves on leading boards, including the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Executive Committee and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education Executive Board. He has discussed education issues with leading publications and networks, including C-Span, MSNBC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Education Week, and TIME.
Randi Weingartern, President, American Federation of Teachers
Randi Weingarten is president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, which represents teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators. The AFT champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for students, their families and communities. The Prior to her election as AFT president in 2008, Weingarten served for 12 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system. In 2013, the New York Observer named Weingarten one of the most influential New Yorkers of the past 25 years. Weingarten’s column “What Matters Most” appears in the New York Times’ Sunday Review the third Sunday of each month. The AFT and a broad array of parent and community partners have collaborated on events across the country to advance a community- and educator-driven agenda for public school reform. She also served on the US Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission.
Diamond McCullough, Journey for Justice/AEJ
Diamond McCullough is a senior at Walter Dyett High School on the south side of Chicago. Since her freshman year she has been a consistent youth leader with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, active in Voices of Youth in Chicago Education and KOCO’s successful campaign that brought over 8000 summer jobs to Chicago youth. She was one of the student leaders that organized 35 Dyett students to file Title VI Civil rights complaints in 2012. She is a powerful youth leader, who will be attending Parkland College in the fall.
Lucinda Noches Talbert 1-785-608-5479 Granddaughter of Brown v. Board Plaintiff
Lucinda Noches Talbert is the daughter of Ramon and Nancy Noches and the granddaughter of Lucinda and Alvin Todd of Topeka, Kansas. Lucinda Todd was the first of 13 plaintiffs who signed on to the Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case to desegregate schools. From 2007 to 2010, Lucinda was part of the team that successfully raised $25 million for the new Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center building in northeast Kansas City. Lucinda currently serves as the Vice President of Programs at KC Healthy Kids.
Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director, Advancement Project
Judith Browne Dianis has an extensive background in civil rights litigation and advocacy in the areas of voting, education, housing, and employment. She has protected the rights of people of color in the midst of some of the greatest civil rights crises of our modern times, including in Florida after the 2000 election and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Dianis is also a pioneer in the movement to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline in school districts. Dianis has authored groundbreaking reports on the issue including: Opportunities Suspended (2000) and Derailed: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track, detailing the unnecessary criminalization of students by their schools. Working closely with grassroots organizations, Advancement Project’s work has significantly decreased student suspensions and arrests in Denver, Baltimore and Florida.
Executive Vice President Valerie Long, SEIU
Activist. Organizer. Leader. Valarie Long is the International Executive Vice President of the Property Services Division of the Service Employees International Union which unites 2.1 million workers in healthcare, public and property services across North America. Valarie brings nearly 30 years of experience developing leaders to her role as the International Executive Vice President of SEIU's Leaders in Action for Justice, the leadership programs for members, staff and elected leaders that are designed to prepare the scale of talented and inclusive leaders we need to win our campaigns now and lead the movement for social and economic justice for generations to come.
Jacqueline Edwards, PULSE
Jacqueline Edwards is a parent/ grandparent of Darius and Devahan Edwards who attends Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School. She also have grandchildren who attends Madison Avenue School, which will be converted into a charter school this school year. Ms., Edwards is an active parent at Hawthorne and helped stop the closing of children's school. As an active member of PULSE, she is deeply concerned about the safety of her children and the dismantling of our neighborhood schools, and destroying our communities
Debra Jonesm C-6
Debra B Jones is a mother, grandmother, educator, former government worker, and social advocate.
I am the mother of six adults, three by birth and three by love and they’ve blessed me with 11 grandchildren. I am a graduate of a New Orleans Public School. I began teaching high school in 2000 after running from my calling for over ten years. In 2003, I received my Masters of Art degree in Urban Education. In 2004, I began instructing “teachers to become teachers” at Southern University at New Orleans as an Assistant Professor. My major duty was to prepare teachers for the Praxis Exam. After hurricane Katrina, I returned to my city to teach in the Recovery School District. I also taught at Lake Area New Tech Early College Charter High School. At present, I teach with Jefferson Parish as a sixth grade World History teacher. As a result of working for the Recovery School District and teaching at a Charter School, I watched what was being done to students and fellow co-workers that either looked like me or co-workers that were my age or older and said, “I had to do something to make a change” so I became a member of C-6. C-6 is a grassroots organizing group in New Orleans made up of parents, teachers, youth and community members. We believe in local control and on of our goals is to run the charter industry out of New Orleans. Schools are community institutions. I’ve participated in protests, boycotts, retreats, and parent advisory committees. Enough is more than enough! We need our school back in our communities run by people who look like me for students that look like me and they MUST be in our neighborhoods!!!
Kia Hinton, Center for Popular Democracy Kia Hinton is a mother of four, three of which attend Philadelphia's public schools. She's a parent leader, co- chair of the education committee, and chairwoman of the state board at Action United. She believes that public education is the key to fighting off poverty and maintaining a strong democratic society. "If we do nothing, our communities fall apart, but if we stand together, organized, we build up our communities."
Ramon Garibaldo, United We Dream United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, a powerful nonpartisan network made up of 52 affiliate organizations in 25 states. They organize and advocate for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status. United We Dream seeks to address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and believe that by empowering immigrant youth, we can advance the cause of the entire community—justice for all immigrants.
Jitu Brown, Journey for Justice Jitu Brown is the national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, a national network of 36 grassroots community organizations in 21 different cities, fighting for community driven school improvement. J4J has lead the fight pushing for community driven school improvement and recently moved the U.S. Dept. of Education to add “whole, community-driven school improvement” as the 5th option for struggling schools in the federal School Improvement Grants. Jitu has over 20 years’ experience bringing community voice to the table to improve education outcomes for our children. As the education organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization JItu organized the first group of parents certified as local school council trainers and built the Mid-South Education Association, made up of parents and community residents who organize to address issues in neighborhood schools. He has trained public school teachers on classroom management and infusing African American history in the students’ curriculum.
Fulfilling the Promise of Brown v. Board: Organizing for Educational Justice for All May 13-17, 2014
For the most up to date version of events, please visit: http://www.reclaimourschools.org/nationwide-actions
Baltimore, MD
On May 15th, parents, students, teachers and community members will hold a book drive and voter registration event for the community at a historic community school.
Boston, MA
On May 17th, a coalition of community organizations, parents, teachers, students and community members will hold a rally, Fulfilling the Promise of Brown v. Board: Organizing for Racial, Educational & Economic Justice. This will be followed by a community canvass to collect signatures for a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage.
Chicago, IL
May 17: A coalition of more than 40 community, faith and labor organizations will join including parents, students and community leaders to rally at Pope Elementary school, one of the 50 schools closed last year in a draconian act by “Mayor 1 Percent” Rahm Emmanuel. The rally will commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board and include a full program of speeches and cultural performances. Coalition members will then conduct door-to-door canvassing in four neighborhoods to register new voters and get residents to sign a voter “pledge card” committing them to supporting candidates who embrace educational justice and reject corporate education reforms.
Cincinnati, OH
May 19: Community, labor and faith groups, will join parents, students, and teachers for a rally at the Cincinnati Public Schools offices to mark the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board. They will demand a speedy and equitable contract settlement, a commitment to racial equity in school funding, full funding for neighborhood-based community schools, the expansion of Community Learning Centers, more teaching, less testing, quality early childhood education, and a living wage.
Cleveland Heights, OH
On Thursday May 15th, the new Heights Coalition for Public Education will show the movie "Standardized; Lies, Money, and Civil Rights: How Testing is Ruining Public Education" at 7 pm at Grace Church: 13001 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, OH. Daly City, CA
On May 14th, a coalition of educators, students, parents, and community members will present how they have come together to reclaim the promise of public education through Family Education Nights. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, they are going to present at a school board meeting.
On May 17th, the Jefferson Elementary Federation of Teachers, will share and present their vision to reclaim the promise of public education at the Woodrow Wilson Community Fair.
Dallas, TX
On May 13th, the American Federation of Teachers and the Our Community, Our Schools Coalition, a group of parents, students and community members, will hold a Community Conversation to discuss and share their vision for ensuring a high quality public education for all Dallas communities. This Community Conversation is the first of three in Dallas and will bring together parents, students, community members and educators to reclaim the promise of public education in the face of billionaire John Arnold’s efforts to privatize Dallas public education through the Home Rule Charter School District legislation.
Detroit, MI
Information coming soon!
Houston, TX
On May 8th at 10 a.m., the Houston Federation of Teachers Local 2416, supported by their community partners, will hold a press conference to release the results of a survey gauging teacher reaction to the Houston Independent School District's proposal to tie teacher compensation to test scores.
At 4:30pm at the Houston School District Administration Building, educators will rally and hold a "Pack the Board" action where school staff, parents and community members will speak at the school board meeting against proposed changes in teacher compensation citing the negative effect it will have on schools, teachers and students.
Jackson, MS
Information coming soon!
Kansas City
On May 17th, the Kansas City Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel and their community partners will travel in a “Reclaim the Promise Caravan” to Topeka to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. In Topeka they will join AFT Kansas and other union and community partners at the historic Brown v. Board site for a rally followed by a march to the capitol. The rally and march will protest continued attacks on public education by the Kansas Legislature, Governor Brownback, the Koch brothers and ALEC. Los Angeles, CA
On May 16th at 11 a.m., community college students from the entire Los Angeles Community College District, along with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, AFT Local 1521 and the California Federation of Teachers, will hold a march and rally from the Twin Towers Correctional Facility to City Hall to illustrate obstacles and solutions to supporting the resources needed to help public schools succeed.
Miami, FL
On May 7th, the Dade Coalition for Education and Economic Justice, a group of parents, teachers, students and community members testified about its platform in front of the Miami Dade County school board and Superintendent. DCEEJ demanded adequate and equitable funding, a rich curriculum, well- supported educators and a respectful and nurturing school environment.
On May 14th, the Dade Coalition for Education and Economic Justice will hold a rally at Pepper Park in support of their platform. Parents, students and community members will share their vision for quality public education and sign up community members to become Education Voters.
Milwaukee, WI
On May 17th, community organizations, parents, students, community members and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association will hold a "unity parade," working lunch and organizing sessions. The featured keynote speaker will be Donna Brazile.
New Orleans, LA
Information coming soon!
New York City, NY
On May 17th, the Save our Schools Coalition will hold a march and rally at City Hall Park. Parents, teachers, students, civil rights leaders and community members will demand equitable, community-based education for every child.
On May 21st, the Coalition for Educational Justice, the Urban Youth Collaborative, and the UFT will rally at the NYC Department of Education and march to City Hall where they will unveil their vision for community schools and call for equity, equality and racial justice in the school system.
Newark, NJ
On May 17th, parents, students, educators, community leaders and elected officials will hold a large community convention at Lincoln Park, where they will unveil a community-driven vision for Newark’s public schools.
Philadelphia, PA
On May 17th, students, parents, labor leaders, community leaders and activists will hold a press conference and public rally at Bryant Elementary School, where they will distribute voter pledge cards and rally the people around reclaiming the promise of public education.
Pittsburgh, PA
On May 13th, the Great Public Schools - Pittsburgh coalition will come together with parents, students, educators, community members and labor leaders to rally at Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to introduce an education-based agenda that will drive a grassroots voter outreach and mobilization effort through the November elections. Speakers will include elected officials, religious leaders, students and parents, all calling on candidates for office to commit to fighting for equitable, fully-funded, high quality public schools for all Pittsburgh students.
San Francisco, CA
On May 1st, the Close the Gap coalition and the United Educators of San Francisco held a press conference and spoke out at the Federal building, followed by a march to the San Francisco Unified School District where they held a rally and spoke to the San Francisco School Board.
On May 13th, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, the California Federation of Teachers and a coalition of community organizations, parents, teachers and students will hold a press conference at the Federal building, followed by a march to the San Francisco Unified School District offices.
St. Louis, MO
On May 17th at 10:00 A.M. on the steps of city hall in downtown St Louis, a coalition of community organizations, people of faith, parents, educators, students and community members will hold a rally commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. They will come together for racial and educational justice and to call upon elected officials to join them in using community learning centers as a strategy to improve struggling schools and neighborhoods in the most impoverished communities.
St. Paul & Minneapolis, MN
May 16: Leaders from the NAACP and St. Paul Federation of Teachers (SPFT), along with students and parents, will hold a press conference at Obama Elementary to announce plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board, which will feature several days of activities, including:
• A luncheon hosted by the NAACP and SPFT at Hallie Q. Brown Community Center. Students, parents, teachers, elected officials and others will be in attendance. Mahmoud El-Kati, Professor Emeritus at Macalester College will deliver the keynote speech on the famous Supreme Court decision. • SPFT teachers will include the Brown decision in their lesson plans for the day May 17: SPFT and NAACP will call on families to share thoughts on the Brown decision, how much progress has been made, and how much work remains. Parents will be asked to discuss the cultural composition of their students’ classrooms and to engage grandparents and others about what it was like before Brown in St. Paul and in other parts of the country.
May 18: Preachers at eight St. Paul churches will reflect on the Brown decision as part of their Sunday services. This will be followed by listening sessions in which union members will hear congregants and community members share thoughts on that historic decision and their vision for strengthening and improving public education. Union members will also shed more light on the recent contract campaign, during which SPFT fought for an inclusive and transparent process that emphasized community input, and how the new contract further sanctions community engagement in school issues.
Topeka, KS
On May 17th, community organizations along with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers will hold a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The community will come together to reclaim the promise of public education, which is under attack from the Kansas Legislature and Governor Brownback. There will be a march to the capitol building and a rally with special keynote speakers including AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, followed by a large picnic on the capitol lawn.
Washington, D.C.
On May 17th, a coalition of parents, students, teachers, community organizations and labor leaders will hold a town hall where they discuss their vision for a public education system driven by parents, student, teachers and community members. Following the town hall, the coalition will canvass the community with voter pledge cards to sign up Education Voters.
Education Voter Pledge Cards
On May 17th, the 60th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, many Alliance members across the country will use pledge cards to begin a drive to register “Education Voters” ahead of the November 2014 midterm election. An online version of the pledge card is also available: http://www.reclaimourschools.org/take-action/pledge
I pledge to vote for candidates who support: I pledge to vote for legislation that supports:
1. Full funding and support for neighborhood-‐based community 1. Full funding and support for neighborhood-‐based community schools: don't close or privatize them schools: don't close or privatize them 2. More teaching, less testing 2. More teaching, less testing 3. Positive discipline policies and an end to zero tolerance 3. Positive discipline policies and an end to zero tolerance 4. Quality affordable education from early childhood through college, 4. Quality affordable education from early childhood through college, including for undocumented students including for undocumented students 5. A living wage that lifts people out of poverty 5. A living wage that lifts people out of poverty Be sure to vote in your primary Be sure to vote in your primary on _____ and in the general election on November 4! and in the general election on November 4!
Yes, I’m an education voter! Yes, I’m an education voter!
Name: Name:
Phone: Phone:
Address: Address:
Email: Email:
Thanks for signing the Education Voter Pledge! Thanks for signing the Education Voter Pledge!
Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage
Voices from America’s Affected Communities of Color Journey For Justice Alliance May 2014 ABOUT US Journey for Justice (J4J) is an alliance of 36 grassroots community, youth, and parent-led organizations in 21 cities across the country. Our members are grassroots, base-building organizations working for community-driven school improvement as an alternative to the privatization and dismantling of public school systems. Coordinating Committee Empower DC Washington, DC Kenwood Oakland Community Organization Chicago, IL Parents Unifed for Local School Education Newark, NJ Keep the Vote, No Takeover Detroit, Michigan Black Parents for Quality Education Detroit, Michigan New York City Coalition for Educational Justice New York, NY Urban Youth Collaborative New York, NY Baltimore Algebra Project Washington, DC & Baltimore, MD Philadelphia Student Union Philadelphia, PA Alliance for Educational Justice National General Membership Action Now Chicago, IL Action United Philadelphia, PA Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change Eupora, MS Project South Atlanta, GA Detroit LIFE Coalition Detroit, MI Oakland Public Education Network Oakland, CA Labor Community Strategy Center Los Angeles, CA Boston Youth Organizing Project Boston, MA Boston Parent Organizing Network Boston, MA Action United Pittsburg, PA Parent Power Hartford, CT Kansas Justice Advocates Wichita, KS Coalition for Community Schools New Orleans, LA Concerned Conscious Citizens Controlling Community Changes New Orleans, LA Youth United for Change Philadelphia, PA Parent Advocates for Children’s Education Jersey City, NJ Concerned Citizens Coalition Jersey City, NJ Paterson Education Organizing Committee Paterson, NJ Camden Education Association Camden, NJ Citizens for Public Education Englewood, NJ Center for Popular Democracy National Make the Road New York New York, NY Alliance for Quality Education New York, NY Neighborhoods Organizing for Change Minneapolis, MN VAYLA New Orleans, LA League of Black and Latino Voters Jersey City, NJ We are organizing in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and nationally, for an equitable and just education system, based on a be- lief that quality education is a civil and human right and that all children regardless of race or economic status deserve to receive a world-class education in their own neighborhood.
In an efort to “document the harm” inficted upon our communities by corporate education interventions, we conducted Grass- roots Voices Listening Projects in the following cities: Boston, Caguas (Puerto Rico), Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City (NJ), New Orleans, New York, Newark, Paterson (NJ), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, and Washington DC. We would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Journey for Justice Alliance members and the national coalition IDEA for lifing up the voices of the people directly afected. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Overview 1 2. Summary of Research on, and Lived Experience with, School Closures and the Expansion of Charter Schools 10 3. Necessary Action Steps 25 4. Appendix: Sustainable School Success in Action 29 5. Endnotes 33 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage OVERVIEW “What kind of nation is this that doesn’t support its children?” Rose, Chicago mother
We, the members of Journey for Justice, are comprised of thousands of youth, parents, and other concerned citizens from com- munities of color across the United States. We write this report because we need the American people to know that the public education systems in our communities are dying. More accurately, they are being killed by an alliance of misguided, paternalistic “reformers,” education profteers, and those who seek to dismantle the institution of public education. Some are being killed quickly; others are still in the early stages. But it is, at this point, quite clear that there will soon be little to nothing lef of our public school systems – and many more like ours – unless current trends are disrupted.
As can be seen in Figure 1, America’s predominantly Black and Latino communities are experiencing an epidemic of public school closures.1 For example:
• In New Orleans, beginning in the Fall of 2014, there will only be fve public schools lef in the entire city. • Detroit, New York, and Chicago have all had more than 100 public schools closed in recent years. • Columbus (OH), Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Baltimore have all had more than 25 public schools closed in recent years. • Many other urban districts – including numerous districts not pictured in Figure 1 – have also experienced multiple school closures, particularly within the last few years. And there are many others in the works.
Figure 1: Examples of Recent School Closures
Sources: News Reports (see endnote 1) 1 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
Even one school closure can be devastating for a neighbor- privatization agenda.4 In many cases, “reformers” (as they hood; closures at this scale are usually catastrophic. Of course, like to call themselves) simply capitalized on the disillusion- the story behind them has varied from community to commu- ment with public schools caused by the longstanding lack of nity, as each has its own distinguishing characteristics, with commitment – by both policymakers and the broader public its own particular cast of characters, politics, demographics, – to the education of students of color. But perhaps the most and history. However, they have typically been justifed with signifcant development in this realignment of forces was the one or more of the following three reasons: (1) that they are election of President Obama and the “reformers” successful- necessary because of shrinking budgets; (2) that the schools ly convincing him to not only embrace this viewpoint, but to are “under-utilized” and need to be closed to “right-size” the greatly accelerate its implementation.5 district; and (3) that the schools are “failing” and closure will enable students to get a higher-quality education. But those Te Obama Administration has been outspoken in its promo- explanations are largely superfcial. tion of charter schools, demonstrating a strong preference for the dramatic expansion of this sector.6 Secretary of Education Te real, underlying cause for these school closures is that Arne Duncan even said, “Hurricane Katrina was the best thing there has been a realignment of political forces. Right-wing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.”7 And conservatives have long sought to eliminate public goods such through the School Improvement Grants program, the Race as public education, and dismantle organized labor, especially to the Top grant program, and the Elementary and Secondary teachers’ unions. Tus, for decades they have advocated – of- Education Act waiver process, the U.S. Department of Educa- ten successfully – for cutting spending to public schools. Tey tion went beyond even President George W. Bush’s “No Child have also long pursued the replacement of public schools with Lef Behind Act” in directly encouraging the shif from public non-unionized, privately managed schools that receive public schools to charter schools. All of these programs required, or funds, either through a voucher system or a system of charter at least strongly encouraged, states and districts to adopt the schools. Teir privatization proposals received little support Administration’s “school turnaround” models, one of which until they were joined by billionaires willing to invest heavi- was to close public schools and turn over control to private ly in education reform such as Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and the management. Additionally, Race to the Top gave priority to Walton family; members of the business community, espe- states that removed any limitations on the number of char- cially Wall Street and large corporations, who realized there ter schools. Because of the desperation of cash-strapped states is considerable proft to be made by outsourcing education and localities for additional federal funds, and to be relieved to private management; and Democratic policymakers who of the impossible mandates of the No Child Lef Behind Act, bought into (or were at least willing to promote) the unproven many of them were essentially coerced into adopting the Ad- assertion that privatization and “school choice” would create ministration’s agenda for school reform. Combined with the improved educational opportunities for students. As a result massive advocacy, lobbying, and public relations eforts of the of this political shif, there emerged a well-organized and other proponents of these policies, within a very short amount extraordinarily well-funded group of individuals and orga- of time this powerful alliance has been able to convince much nizations that has exploited any political opening they could of the public that privately managed charter schools are pref- fnd to destabilize neighborhood public schools – almost ex- erable to public schools. clusively within communities of color – and instead promote the expansion of charter schools. (Troughout this report, we As a result, public schools are being closed in droves as an in- will distinguish between public schools and charters, because tentional result of these “reformers’” actions, and urban dis- 8 while charter schools ofen claim to be public schools, they are tricts in particular are shrinking rapidly (see Figure 2). For privately managed and as a legal matter they typically insist example: they are not public schools.2) • Numerous urban districts have lost between 10% and 20% Tose openings varied from city to city, ranging from natural of their public school enrollment in just seven years. disasters (New Orleans), to economic calamities (Detroit), to • Others, such as Camden (NJ) (-20%), Philadelphia (-21%), sharp rightward shifs in leadership and the de-prioritization San Antonio (-22%), Los Angeles (-23%), Washington DC of education in the state budget (Pennsylvania).3 Certainly, (-23%), St. Louis (-25%), Indianapolis (-27%), and Cleve- the recession beginning in 2009 and the resulting cuts to state land (-32%) have lost between one-ffh and one-third of and local budgets played a major role, as many policymakers their students. saw economic hardship as an opportunity to promote their • Gary (IN) has lost almost half of its students (-47%), while
2 Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage
Detroit has lost an incredible 63% of its public school en- • Among the 20 districts listed in Figure 2, which represent rollment in just seven years. many of the districts serving the most students of color in Meanwhile, there has been a massive shif in resources from the country, every single one had at least a 35% increase in public entities to private organizations, especially within student enrollment at charter schools during the sev- low-income communities of color. Nationally, the number of en-year period from 2005-06 to 2012-13. students enrolled within charter schools has nearly doubled • Charter school enrollment was more than doubled in 13 of just within the last six years.9 At the local level, many educa- the 20 districts. tion systems are being reshaped in an unprecedented fashion: • Tere was at least a tripling in charter school enrollment • In New Orleans, which was targeted by “reformers” afer in Chicago (+219%), Los Angeles (+243%), Indianapolis Hurricane Katrina for the dramatic expansion of charter (+287%), Baltimore (+366%), Memphis (+377%), San An- schools, the 2014-15 school year will bring the nation’s frst tonio (+483%), and Pinellas County, FL (601%). Not listed 100% charter school district in the country, the Recovery is New York City, which had a 428% increase in charter School District.10 school enrollment.
Figure 2: Shrinking Public School Districts Sources: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (* indicates that 2012-13 data was not available) Reduction in Increase in % Students of Public School Enrollment Charter School Enrollment School District Color (2011-12) 2005-06 to 2012-13 2005-06 to 2012-13 Detroit Public Schools 98% 63% 53% Gary (IN) Community School Corp. 99% 47% 197% Cleveland Metropolitan SD 85% 32% 71% Indianapolis Public Schools 78% 27% 287% St. Louis Public Schools 87% 25% 88% District of Columbia Public Schools 90% 23% 95% Los Angeles Unified SD 91% 23% 243% San Antonio Independent SD* 98% 22% 483% School District of Philadelphia 86% 21% 105% Camden City Public Schools 99% 20% 88% Memphis City Schools 93% 17% 377% Newark Public Schools 92% 17% 197% Tucson Unified 76% 15% 35% Chicago Public Schools 91% 14% 219% Baltimore City Public Schools 92% 14% 366% Oakland Unified 90% 13% 55% Pinellas County (FL) Public Schools 41% 12% 601% Broward County (FL) Public Schools 74% 12% 119% Miami-Dade County Public Schools 92% 11% 184% Houston Independent SD* 92% 11% 178%
3 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
Te move toward the expansion of charter schools, and away Figure 3: from public schools, in communities of color has been stag- geringly swif, and it is accelerating, creating a grave threat to The Resistance to School Closures the health of public education in our communities. To be clear, In every city in which there have been mass we are not opposed to a small number of community-based school closures, students, parents, educators, charter schools ofering high-quality, innovative services that and other community members have resisted cannot be provided by our local public schools. But we are ad- amantly opposed to the overarching agenda of the “reformers” vigorously, engaging in extensive advocacy, filing pushing these policies, which is to have charter schools replace complaints under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act our public schools. Unfortunately, they have been remarkably of 1964, and holding numerous protests, rallies, successful in recent years. sit-ins and other public actions. Many of these efforts have been led by the students directed The Perversity of “Reformers” affected by these policies. In fact, in many cities – including New York City, Newark, Detroit, and Claiming the Mantle of the Civil Philadelphia – there have been massive student Rights Movement walkouts to protest school closures.
To justify this radical transformation to the public, the pro- nity life. It has been nothing short of devastating to the health ponents of these policies have taken to talking about them as and development of many of our children and youth, has put matters of racial and social justice. In fact, many of the lead a strain on our families, has contributed to the destabilization “reformers” – such as Secretary Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and deterioration of our communities, has undermined many Bill Gates, Rahm Emanuel, and Michael Bloomberg – have good schools and efective school improvement eforts, has repeatedly attempted to justify their actions by claiming that destroyed relationships with quality educators, and has con- school closures and the expansion of charter schools are a tributed to increased community violence.13 It also frequently critical part of the “civil rights movement of our time,” and triggers a downward spiral from which many school systems that they are primarily intended to beneft the students and have yet to escape.14 Indeed, one of the most likely outcomes families within low-income communities of color across the from school closures is that additional ones will soon follow, 11 country. As the residents of the communities most afected to the point that many of our communities no longer have a by school closures and charter school expansion, we must take single public school in them. issue with this rhetorical deception. Meanwhile, the dramatic expansion of charter schools has First, it is appalling that anyone would dare to equate the bil- done nothing to address the root causes of the challenges our lionaire-funded destruction of our most treasured public in- communities face. Tough it has created a whole set of new stitutions with the grassroots-led struggles for racial equality problems, such as the proliferation of highly-regimented and to which many of our elders and ancestors made heroic sac- excessively narrow educational approaches, admissions and rifces. disciplinary practices that exclude students with the greatest educational needs, inexperienced teaching stafs with high Second, we simply cannot tolerate anyone telling us these turnover rates, and limited transparency and public account- policies are for our own good. Because we are the students ability.15 they claim to be doing this for. We are the parents and fam- ily members that they claim to be helping. Te communities Tird, while the proponents of these policies may like to think they’re changing so rapidly are our communities, and our ex- they are implementing them for us or even with us, the reality perience with school closures and charter school expansion is that they have been done to us. All of these changes have confrms what an abundance of research has made quite clear: been implemented despite widespread and passionate opposi- these policies have not produced higher-quality educational tion from the afected communities (see Figure 3). Time and opportunities for our children and youth, but they have been time again, the extraordinary wealth and power behind these 12 hugely destructive. Closing a school is one of the most trau- policies have been used to override the will of our communi- matic things that can happen to a community; it strikes at the ties; to bully our communities into accepting these changes.16 very core of community culture, history, and identity, and (as Why our communities? Largely because it was perceived that is documented below in Section Two) produces far-reaching we lacked the political power to withstand such bullying, and repercussions that negatively afect every aspect of commu-
4 Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage that there would be limited public outcry over such dramatic Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education. Te changes within low-income communities of color. plaintifs in Brown fought and sacrifced for the right to attend public schools, and for all children to have high-quality edu- Fourth, the policies being implemented have unquestionably cational opportunities in public schools. Yet now, similar to been racially discriminatory. Tat is not to say that the individu- the pre-Brown era of “separate and unequal” schools, the chil- als responsible are “racists” who are deliberately closing schools dren and youth in our communities are being treated as sec- in our communities and expanding the use of charter schools ond-class citizens, and our public schools are being treated as because they want to harm our children. What it does mean schools of last resort. Just as in the post-Brown era, when pub- is that within the set of political, economic, and social forces lic schools were closed in some communities and the concept that are producing these changes, there are strong tendencies of “school choice” was created so that southern White families to treat our communities diferently than other communities could avoid school integration,21 “school choice” is being used would be treated. Racism, in this form, has consistently and to justify the unwillingness of our education policymakers to repeatedly manifested itself by the “reformers” being: provide each of our children with a high-quality education in • Less concerned about the harm caused by school closures their neighborhood public schools. to the people in our communities; However, 60 years ago the horrors of Jim Crow segregation • More willing to destabilize the democratic institutions in led the federal government to pass our most important piece our communities; of civil rights legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which – • More concerned about cost savings than the educational among other things – prohibited race-based discrimination in and developmental needs of students with respect to the the public education system. In contrast, our current federal schools in our communities; government has taken the side of those who seek to privatize and dismantle that very institution. • More willing to subject our children and youth to unprov- en education policies; • Less willing to accept that our communities know what is “The bottom line is that, this whole thing, no matter best for our children; how you dissect it, no matter how much jargon the reform movement puts on top of it, this is about race • Less concerned with providing experienced teachers, small and class. No matter how many minority students class sizes, and well-rounded curricula to our children and youth;17 would go up to the microphone at a hearing, and say, weeping, ‘don’t close our school,’ nothing • More willing to subject our children and youth to stan- happened. The reason why this happened is because dardized-test-driven curricula;18 these are minority communities of disenfranchised • Less concerned about the massive number of students be- individuals, whose voices not only aren’t heard, ing pushed out of school within our communities because we’re never going to be heard, ever.” of school closures and charter school expansion;19 and New York City community member • More willing to implement a privatized education system – that is not designed to educate every one of our children and youth – in our communities.20 Tere is simply no way our communities would be losing our The Hypocrisy of the Reformers’ public school systems were it not for the pervasiveness of these “Movement” biases. It is only possible because of how policymakers and the broader public view our communities. As a result, we face a le- To be clear, we are the frst to admit that there is an urgent gitimate crisis in our Nation’s communities of color, as the in- need to improve educational quality in our communities, and stitutions that have long served as sanctuaries, as lifelines, and others like ours around the country. Indeed, nobody has a bet- as our escape route from the oppressive conditions we face, ter understanding of school failure than we do. And nobody is are being taken from us as part of the “civil rights movement more invested in improving our schools than we are. of our time.” But when the so-called “reformers” use our “failing schools” as Te tragic irony of this development is particularly stark now, justifcation for closing them, or privatizing them, they claim as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the landmark that the primary failings exist within those schools. Tey act 5 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
Figure 4: The View from the Ground: Paul Robeson High School (New York, NY) School community perspectives on the “phasing out” of a public high school over the last few years: Assistant Principal: “At our peak we had 1,500 students. As they started closing other large high schools, they started giving us the students from those other schools. We started getting over-age and under-credited students.” Teacher: “The building is built for 1,000 kids and we were up to 1,500 right before they designated us for phase-out. So you can imagine it’s pretty uncomfortable for kids.” Teacher: “There were never gang issues inside the school. But because you were dumping kids from one closing school to the next, you had these gang issues start up.” Teacher: “Letters go out to families that the school is phasing out. You have the option of sending your child elsewhere. But you could only leave if you were a 9th grader that was on track to graduate, or for safety transfer. But if you were already struggling, or having challenges, you couldn’t leave.” Teacher: “We lost chemistry... We lost AP classes. We lost calculus. That hurts the students that stay.” Parent Coordinator: “We don’t have a supply secretary, there are no more school aides, there’s not a guidance counselor, there is not an attendance teacher. I’m doing a little bit of everything. I’m counseling students.” Teacher: “Robeson had an amazing partnership with what was originally Solomon Brothers. It goes back all the way to this school being called Robeson. The school really benefited from this connection. They jumped shipped when the [Department of Education] labeled us a failing school. We have alumni who are still working there that had incredible internships that started when they were in high school.” Teacher: “There were a core group of a dozen faculty members that were trying to save the school. All of us had [Department of Education] investigations opened up against us.” Former student: “Once you hear your school is phasing out, that takes a toll on you. It’s in a bad neighborhood; it’s right across the street from the projects. The name of your school now has a bad name.” Former teacher: “The school had such a stigma on it [from being labeled as ‘failing’] that the parents from students in the other schools didn’t want their kids socializing with Robeson kids.” Former student: “Paul Robeson High School was like a family. Everyone was connected. I’m still in touch with my friends. We feel like Paul Robeson phasing out is ridiculous... We had teachers that we built connections with and they would have to leave because our school is being phased out. Paul Robeson was our family. It hurts us that we have nothing to come back to.” Parent Coordinator: “During the phase-out, parents become disconnected. The environment isn’t welcoming for them. When you take all the resources away from a school, everyone just goes through the motions... It’s an emotional pain; an emotional death – a mental death.”
6 Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage as if there were no underlying cause for the ofen-unsound there is hardly anyone who supports public school closures educational practices, or frequently uneven teaching capacity, and charter school expansion who does not have a direct f- that exist within our schools. Tey confuse these symptoms of nancial stake in school privatization (though there are, ad- the problem with the problem itself, which is that our public mittedly, individual students and parents who have beneftted schools have been persistently under-resourced, under-sup- from placement in a particular charter school, and the “re- ported, and undermined for decades, including by many of the formers” are quick to use them as spokespeople in defense of same people that now purport to “fx” them. Te harsh reality the much broader systemic changes). And the hypocrisy with- is that the equitable education of our children has never been a in their “movement” is becoming increasingly absurd: priority for education policymakers. Tus, our school budgets have been slashed, our teaching and support stafs have been • Te core premise of charter schools was that they were to depleted, our class sizes have been increased, and our schools be given increased freedom from rules and regulations have been continually slandered in the media. Not surprising- in exchange for improved academic achievement, and ly, our best educators leave for jobs where they are valued and yet we now have over 20 years of data demonstrating that supported. And the families with means also seek out better op- they are no more efective, on average, than public schools tions, whether by leaving the district, going to a private school, (even if we judge them by the extremely-limited, standard- 22 or trying one of the brand-new charter schools that are being ized-test-based metrics they prefer). given preferential treatment in policy, glowing media coverage, • Te original charter schools were designed to be small and the resources that had formerly been in our public schools. “laboratories for innovation” that could generate new instructional strategies for use in public schools, yet afer In other words, when our schools have been closed because all of these years, they have been unable to point to any dis- they are “failing,” it has typically been the result of our fed- tinguishing characteristic of charter schools that produces eral, state, and local policymakers being unwilling to provide improved educational quality. Nor that have identifed a that school with the support required to meet the needs its single education innovation that couldn’t be replicated students. When our schools have been closed because they just as easily in public schools if provided the appropriate are “under-utilized,” it has usually been the result of charter resources. schools being put in direct competition with public schools or families being driven away from the district by the efects of • Te original charter schools were supposed to work with under-funding or previous school closures. When our schools the students that the public schools had the hardest time have been closed because of insufcient resources, the real ex- teaching; now, we have ample evidence that they edu- planation has been federal, state, and local funding cuts, and cate fewer of those students than the surrounding public 23 the lack of political will to save public schools. schools. • Instead of the individual, community-based charter Have the “reformers,” who are supposedly acting on our be- schools that were initially intended, the dominant trend is half, objected when our children and youth sufered as a result toward large corporate franchises of charter schools such as of public school budget cuts? KIPP, Rocketship, and Green Dot. Have they protested the closure of schools that our communi- • “Reformers” view charter schools as inherently superior ties hold dear? to public schools, but that appears to only apply to low-in- come communities of color, because attempts to replace Have they objected to the reality that the expansion of the public schools with charter schools in predominantly charter school sector has come at the expense of students White areas are exceedingly rare. within the public school sector? • “School choice” was supposed to provide parents with a Rarely, if ever. Tey have been largely content to let our public multitude of high-quality options for their children, but schools die while praising the policymakers who killed them afer all these years, our parents still have nothing ap- for being willing to “tighten their belts” and “refusing to accept proaching a meaningful choice. We are still lef fghting failure.” over crumbs in a thoroughly unequal, stratifed system that undervalues the education of our children. Te reality is that while the “reformers” continually talk about their “movement,” it is led by – and largely comprised of – the super-wealthy and privileged class, with very little representa- tion from the communities they claim to be helping. In fact,
7 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
Public Education: Too Big, and public education in our communities. Because if there is any institution that is too big, and too important, to fail, it is public Important, to Fail education. And if there is any group that is in need of a bailout, Despite the incredible amount of damage that has been done it is the children and youth from our communities. to our communities in the last few years by school closures and the expansion of charter schools, and the speed with Figure 5: which these practices are spreading, there is still time to undo The Human Right to Education some of this harm and ensure that it is not inficted upon any more communities. As we describe below in Section Tree, The fundamental human right to education has these are problems that can be fxed. But to do so, we need to been well established under Article 26 of the act now. We need to recognize that behind all of the politics, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and and behind the arguments about test scores, and behind the other widely accepted human rights standards. fght over “school choice,” what this is really about is the fun- It includes: damental human right to a high-quality education (see Figure • Equal access to a quality education adapted 5).24 Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the push to replace public schools with charter schools is the alarming lack of care that to meet students’ individual needs; has been demonstrated for those rights. A child’s right to an • Education that is directed toward the education is far too important to be jeopardized because of development of each child’s personality and proft motive, or political ideology, or a hunch that another full potential; type of management structure might work better. • Respect for the inherent dignity of every For our communities, those most afected by school closures child, the prevention of practices that cause and charter expansion, it comes down to this: what history harm or humiliation to children, and the has shown us repeatedly, and over 20 years of charter schools promotion of children’s self-confidence and have confrmed, is that well-funded public schools represent self-expression; the best option for ensuring that all of our children and youth receive a high-quality education. And so we cannot let our • Equitable distribution of resources across public schools die. And we implore our government to not communities according to need; let it happen. Our education policymakers should be doing • Freedom from discrimination; and everything in their power to save, and strengthen, our public • The right of students, parents and schools. Indeed, our federal government has taken dramatic action to rescue institutions far less important to the national communities to participate in decisions interest. For example, they issued massive bailouts to private that affect their schools and the right to Wall Street banks because they were “too big to fail.” It would education. be the cruelest of ironies to subsequently join forces with those Source: National Economic & Social Rights Initiative. same Wall Street banks and others to aid in the destruction of 8 Racism, School Closures, and Public School Sabotage
Figure 6: Necessary Action Steps As described more fully in Section Three, we are calling on our policymakers to take immediate action in the following six areas: 1. The U.S. Department of Education should replace its four school “turnaround” models with the “Sustainable School Success Model.” 2. President Obama should call for a national moratorium on school closures and charter school expansion and spearhead the creation of a “Public School Bailout and Revitalization Fund.” 3. Congress should revoke all tax credits and other incentives for charter school investment and replace them with equivalent incentives to invest in public schools. 4. All charter schools that fail to both provide an innovative educational model that is unavailable in local public schools and demonstrate superior performance in educating all of their students should not have their charters renewed. 5. The White House Domestic Policy Council, United Nations, and Permanent Court of International Justice (or “World Court”) should participate in a “Grassroots Impact Tour” of the communities affected by mass school closures to hear from students, parents, educators, and community members, and witness the community-wide effects. 6. Due to the harm inflicted on our communities by corporate education interventions, the Journey for Justice Alliance seeks a Senate hearing on the impact of these policies.
9
The Center for Popular Democracy is a nonprofit organization that promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country.
Integrity in Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring integrity in education. Integrity in Education exists to shine a light on the people making a positive difference for children, and to expose and oppose the corporate interest groups standing in their way.
This is report is available at www.integrityineducation.org and www.populardemocracy.org.
he title of this report, Charter School Vulnerabilities To Waste, Fraud, And Abuse, was borrowed from the title of a section of a report that appeared in The Department of T Education’s Office of the Inspector General’s Semiannual Report to Congress, No. 60.1 The report references a memorandum issued by the OIG to the Department. The OIG stated that the purpose of the memorandum was to, “alert you of our concern about vulnerabilities in the oversight of charter schools.” 2 The report went on to state that the OIG had experienced, “a steady increase in the number of charter school complaints” and that state level agencies were failing “to provide adequate oversight needed to ensure that Federal funds [were] properly used and accounted for.”3
The purpose of this report is to echo the warning issued by the OIG and to inform the public and lawmakers of the mounting risk that an inadequately regulated charter industry presents to our communities and taxpayers. Our examination, which focused on 15 large charter markets*, found fraud, waste, and abuse cases totaling over $100 million in losses to taxpayers.† Despite rapid growth in the charter school industry, no agency, federal or state, has been given the resources to properly oversee it. 4 Given this inadequate oversight, we worry that the fraud and mismanagement that has been uncovered thus far might be just the tip of the iceberg. Our hope is that lawmakers will use the information and concrete recommendations that we outline in this report to pass meaningful oversight legislation.
** States examined: AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, HI, IL, LA, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, and WI. † $100 million includes: 1) $51,146,094.65, federal prosecution of charter official/staff completed. 2) $33,400,000, state agency audit finds violation of federal law by charter official/staff. 3) $30,575,143.76, state agency audit finds violation of state law by charter official/staff. 4) $1,161,887.93, state agency audit finds violation of federal and state law by charter official/staff. 5) $19,550,489, charter official/staff is indicted by a federal grand jury. 6) $150,000, charter official/staff criminal prosecution in progress. 7) $20,000, charter official/staff is arrested and admitted to fraud. Total: $136,003,615.34.
innesota passed the first charter school law in 1991.5 Since then, lawmakers in 41 states and the District of Columbia have written their own charter school laws.6 MBy all accounts, the growth of the charter industry has been astronomic. Charter enrollment has doubled three times since 2000; it doubled from 2000 to 2004, and again from 2004 to 2008, and again from 2008 to 2014.7 Just last year, over 600 new charter schools opened and an estimated 288,000 additional students enrolled in charter schools. Today, there are an estimated 6,400 charter schools enrolling over 2.5 million students.8
To understand why there are so many problems in the charter industry, one must understand the original purpose of charter schools. Lawmakers created charter schools to allow educators to explore new methods and models of teaching. To allow this to happen, they exempted the schools from the vast majority of regulations governing the traditional public school system. The goal was to incubate innovations that could then be used to improve public schools. 9 The ability to take calculated risks with small populations of willing teachers, parents, and students was the original design. With so few people and schools involved, the risk to participants and the public was relatively low.
But today, as the charter sector grows far faster than originally envisioned, the risks are high and growing, while the benefits are less clear. Even relatively pro-charter organizations like the Center On Reinventing Public Education recognize that the regulatory foundation upon which the charter industry was built began from a place of insufficiency. In their analysis of charter oversight law, they found that “only minimal attention was paid to the question of how to oversee these new schools; frequently governments delegated charter school authorization as a side task to offices already burdened with other activities.”10 This is not an uncommon occurrence in our nation’s history. In the past — in some cases, our very recent past — industries such as banking have outgrown their regulatory safety nets. Without sufficient regulations to ensure true public accountability, incompetent and/or unethical individuals and firms can (and have) inflict great harm on communities.
This report will bring into focus some of the consequences of having inadequate charter regulations. We focus on just one symptom – the growing problem of fraud, waste, and abuse perpetrated by some charter school operators. The problem is pervasive; our search, despite being limited to fewer than half of the states with charter schools, found over $100 million in public tax funds lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.
ur research reveals that charter operator fraud and mismanagement is endemic to the vast majority of states that have passed a charter school law. Drawing upon O court cases, media investigations, regulatory findings, audits, and other sources, this report contains a significant portion of known fraud and mismanagement cases. We found, as stated in the introduction, that at least $100 million in public tax dollars has been lost
due to fraud, waste, and abuse. These instances of fraud and mismanagement, which are catalogued in appendixes A-F, fall into six basic categories: Charter operators using public funds illegally for personal gain; School revenue used to illegally support other charter operator businesses; Mismanagement that puts children in actual or potential danger; Charters illegally requesting public dollars for services not provided; Charter operators illegally inflating enrollment to boost revenues; and, Charter operators mismanaging public funds and schools.
The most pervasive type of charter fraud and mismanagement that we found in our survey is the illegal practice of charter operators using public funds for personal gain. Examples include: Masai Skiefs, former CEO of the Harambee Institute of Science Technology Charter “The theft of resources from School in Pennsylvania, who pled guilty Michigan’s children will not be to stealing $88,000 for various purposes, tolerated,” said Schuette. “We including a down payment on a house;11 must root out corruption at all William and Shirley Pierce, former levels of government to ensure operators of Right Step Academy Charter the public is served. Nobody will School in Minnesota, who were sentenced get a free pass when they break to 37 and 30 months in federal prison, the law.” respectively, for using public dollars for – Michigan Attorney General Bill a Caribbean cruise vacation, $17,561.87 Schuette, after charging the former to pay off personal credit card debt, and treasurer of the George Washington $11,125.00 to purchase season tickets to Carver Academy Charter School the Minnesota Timberwolves12, among with felony embezzlement. other things; Joel Pourier, former CEO of Oh Day Aki Heart Charter School in Minnesota, who embezzled $1.38 million from 2003 to 2008. He used the money on houses, cars, and trips to strip clubs. Meanwhile, according to an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the school “lacked funds for field trips, supplies, computers and textbooks.”13 A judge sentenced Mr. Pourier to 10 years in prison.14 Given the number of years, and the severity of the fraud, over a million dollars might have been saved had there been adequate charter oversight.
To prevent this type of fraud from occurring, there are a number of steps lawmakers can take. For example, charter school governing boards should be required to include representation from the school’s educators and parents, and relatives of school administrators or anyone associated with a charter management company should be barred from serving on a school’s governing board. Schools should also be required to have internal financial controls that are considered best practices in non-profit management, to
insure internal oversight of expenditures. Local or state charter school authorizers should be funded and required to ensure that these controls are in place.
Appendix A of this report includes excerpts from source documents which detail the various ways charter operators have used charter funds for personal gain.
We found a number of cases where charter operators were caught using public funds to illegally support their own personal businesses. For example, in 2012, the former CEO and founder of the New Media Technology Charter School in Philadelphia was sentenced to prison for stealing $522,000 in taxpayer money to prop up a restaurant, a health food store, and a private school.15 In Florida, the former director of Life Skills Center Charter School, John Wyche, was sentenced in 2011 to serve more than six years in prison for misusing more than $750,000 in state education monies to sustain a failing apartment complex that he owned.16
With increased transparency and tighter regulations governing self-dealing, much of this type of operator fraud can be prevented. Appendix B of this report includes excerpts from source documents which detail the various ways charter operators have used charter school revenue to illegally support their other personal businesses.
Less prevalent, but perhaps more concerning than the other mismanagement we found, were a number of cases where children were put in potential or actual danger due to charter operator mismanagement. Many of the cases involved charter schools neglecting to ensure a safe environment for their students. For example, Ohio’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Richard A. Ross, was forced to shut down two charter schools, The Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Boys Charter School and The Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Girls Charter School, because, according to Ross, “They did not ensure the safety of the students, they did not adequately feed the students, they did not accurately track the students and they were not educating the students well. It is unacceptable and intolerable that a sponsor and school would do such a poor job. It is an educational travesty.”17
Another situation occurred at the Paterson Charter School in New Jersey. An investigation conducted by the Department of Education found that more than 75 percent of the school's employees had not undergone the required criminal background checks.18 Similarly, the Department of Education found that the Mercer Arts Charter High School, also in New Jersey, was not providing a safe and orderly education environment for its students.19
Across the country in California, the San Diego Unified School District found a similar problem. The District cited the A. Phillip Randolph Leadership Academy Charter School for “not adequately supervising students.”20
Charter oversight rules that inoculate against these types of mismanagement cases are sorely needed. As is discussed in the ‘recommendations’ section of this report, we believe there is a need to task and fund a dedicated state-level charter school and charter authorizer oversight office that employs investigators in a ratio of 1 investigator to 10 charter schools. Especially in situations where student safety is concerned, setting up a system of preventive monitoring is key. When investigators are appropriately staffed, they can catch problems before they turn into casualties. Appendix C of this report includes excerpts from source documents which detail the various ways charter operators have put children in real or potential danger.
Where there is little oversight, and lots of public dollars available, there are incentives for ethically challenged charter operators to charge for services that were never provided. A particularly egregious example comes from the operator of the Cato School of Reason Charter School (Cato) in California. According to an investigation conducted by the California State Auditor, Cato registered and collected millions of taxpayer dollars for students who were actually attending private schools.21 Another example comes from New Jersey. State officials shut down the Regional Experiential Academic Charter High School after the state found, according to report in the New York Times, “a wide range of problems, including failure to provide special education students with the services required by state and federal law.”22 In Minnesota, as was reported in the Star Tribune, the superintendent of the Community School of Excellence Charter School “improperly directed staff members to enter or have students enter lunch codes for meals that were not eaten.”23
As is the case with the other types of fraud, this type of fraud could be prevented with increased transparency, monitoring of services and regular public reporting. Appendix D of this report includes excerpts from source documents which detail the various ways charter operators illegally requested public dollars for services that they did not provide.
Tens of millions of dollars have been lost due to charter operators illegally inflating their enrollment figures. For example, an independent auditor's report of Success Academy Charter School in Minnesota found that $608,000 was owed to taxpayers because they overstated their enrollment.24 Another example comes from Florida, where an investigation by school district officials found that Life Skills Center charter school charged the state $101,000 for students it didn't have.25 In California, an audit of the Oak Hills Charter
School by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, a state agency, could not find evidence that a number of students existed.26 In Pennsylvania, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Curtis Andrews, chief executive of the now-defunct Center for Economics and Law Charter School in Southwest Philadelphia, was sentenced in 2006 to 33 months in federal prison for defrauding the school district of $206,554 by devising a scheme to inflate student enrollment. He agreed to make full restitution as part of his guilty plea.”27
Charter schools should be required to submit monthly enrollment numbers, both to prevent this type of inflation, but also to ensure that adequate funding is being provided—or moved if students exit the school. The governing board should approve these enrollment reports and any irregularities should be immediately reported to authorizers. Governing boards should be held accountable for the accuracy of reports. Without regular audits, it is very likely operators will continue to illegally inflate their enrollment. Appendix E of this report includes excerpts from source documents that detail various cases of charter operator’s illegally inflating their enrollment.
Operating a charter school requires sophisticated knowledge of both education pedagogy and “This is a heck of a mess… nonprofit management. Unfortunately, states Closed or not, the leadership have yet to pass laws that would guarantee that of this school must be held charter officers and administrators have the skills responsible, and the money necessary to successfully run such institutions. As must be returned to the people a result, operators who fail to run their schools of Ohio.” successfully have wasted or even lost millions of taxpayer dollars. Various forms of mismanagement –Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost, have led to charters failing, the most common being speaking about nearly $3 million in operators who fail to set sound business practices unsubstantiated expenses amassed or hire trained financial controllers. Examples by the Weems Charter School. include: ABC Charter Middle School in California. An audit by the Los Angeles Unified School District found that “the lack of oversight by both the school’s management and board members led to significant control weaknesses in cash management, payroll, and financial accounting and reporting.”28 Sunshine Academy Charter School in Florida. As reported in the Miami Herald, Broward County prosecutors found that, “the record keeping at the school and oversight of the school by the board of directors was virtually nonexistent…[and that] the school appears to have been poorly run.”29
In order to avoid more losses to taxpayers, lawmakers must pass laws that establish some professional qualifications or standards for charter operators and officers.
Appendix F of this report includes excerpts from source documents that detail various cases where charter operators ran their schools poorly, which resulted in taxpayer money being lost.
urrently, both supporters and detractors of charters agree that something must be done to improve charter oversight. Even the Walton Family Foundation, an avid C charter advocate, launched a $5 million campaign in 2012 to make oversight of charters schools more stringent.30 While most states have failed to act, a few regulators and lawmakers have.
In Minnesota, the birthplace of the charter industry, lawmakers passed a new charter accountability law in 2009. This was a response to a growing consensus, as a recent article in the Twin City Pioneer Press put it, “that Minnesota had too many charter monitors, themselves subject to not enough monitoring. Some were way too eager to sign off on new schools – and too reluctant to close ones that did not deliver.” In 2013, after several charter operators were caught stealing public funds, Hawaii’s state legislature repealed their charter school law and passed a new law that mandated that the state's 33 charter schools sign an annual contract with the charter school commission to hold them accountable in three major areas: finances, organization and academics.31 In April of 2014, Ohio State Senator Schiavoni and House Representative Carney introduced legislation designed to increase transparency and accountability for public records and taxpayer dollars. The bill was in response to an Akron Beacon Journal investigative report which revealed that over 100 charter schools contacted by the paper failed or refused to provide even basic information including school board contact information or board meeting schedules,.32 Similarly, several charter reform bills were introduced in Illinois during the 2014 legislative session.33
The federal judiciary and state regulators are also sounding the alarm for improved charter oversight. In 2009, following the sentencing of a charter school operator to more than three years in prison for plundering its coffers, a federal judge called for more scrupulous government oversight of taxpayer-funded charters so "this type of criminal activity is not allowed to be repeated."34 Five years after the Pennsylvania federal court judge made that point, Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Eugene DePasquale held a series of public meetings to explore ways to improve accountability, effectiveness and transparency of charter schools.35 In 2010, the Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General found lapses in the financial reporting processes of several charter schools and called for better fiscal policies and enforcement by the State Charter School Board.36
The Federal Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has also recognized the need for improved charter oversight, as referenced earlier. In their fiscal year 2014 report on Management Challenges, the Department specifically highlights the problem of “fraud perpetrated by charter school officials, and internal control weaknesses in the Department’s oversight processes.” In other words, the OIG acknowledges that they have yet to come up with an effective mechanism to disrupt the high level of fraud being perpetrated by charter operators.37 Yet even with the few regulatory tools available to them, between January 2005 through September 30, 2013 the OIG opened 62 charter school investigations, resulting in 40 indictments and 26 convictions of charter school officials.38
Still, most states do not have comprehensive laws that can deter charter operators from engaging in fraud and mismanagement before they harm students and taxpayers. Our analysis of these fifteen states suggests that fraud and mismanagement continues, and that adequate regulation and oversight remains elusive.
n order to provide lawmakers with concrete steps they can take to address this problem, we are providing the following recommendations. If implemented, states will I have the resources, structure, and the authority they need to effectively monitor their charter schools and their respective charter authorizers. Until these recommendations are passed into law, state lawmakers should halt the establishment of new charter schools and cap charter enrollment.
Establish an Office Dedicated to Charters: All states should task and fund an Office of Charter Schools (‘Charter Office’ or ‘Office’) to provide oversight of performance and effectiveness of all charter schools and charter authorizers. Authority to Prevent & Catch Bad Actors: The Charter Office should have the statutory responsibility, authority, and resources to investigate fraud, waste, mismanagement and misconduct. This includes the authority to refer findings to the district attorney with jurisdiction or to the Office of the Attorney General or to any other appropriate law enforcement agency for prosecution if the Office discovers or receives information about possible violations of law by any person affiliated with or employed by a charter authorizing entity or charter school entity. Adequate Resources: The Charter Office must have an appropriate level of staffing to fulfill their mission. The ratio of charter schools to full-time investigators employed by the Office should not exceed ten to one. Payment Authority: The Charter Office should have the power to put a hold on the distribution of funds to the charter authorizing entity or charter school entity. Authority to Initiate Corrective Action: The Office should have the power to affirm, reverse or otherwise adjust charter grants, renewal or amend decisions made by charter authorizing entities if charters entities are found to be in violation of state or federal law. The Office should also have the power to revoke the chartering authority of charter authorizers.
Require charter schools to be independently audited on an annual basis, with publication of such audits available online at the charter school’s website;
Amend state charter law to explicitly declare that charter schools are public schools, and are subject to the same non-discrimination and transparency requirements as are other publicly funded schools;
Require that each charter school’s original application and charter agreement be available to the public online, through the websites of both the individual school, and the charter authorizer;
A full list of each charter school’s governing board members, officers, and administrators with affiliation and contact information, should be available on the school’s website, as well as from the authorizer;
Require members of charter school governing boards, charter school administrators, charter school employees, as well as public officials to file full financial disclosure reports, as well as to report on any potential conflicts of interest, relationships with management companies or other business dealings with the school, its management company or other charter schools. These reports should be similar to or the same as the reporting requirements of traditional school district Board members. Make these documents available to the public online through the charter’s authorizer;
Require minutes from charter school governing board meetings, the school’s policies, and information about staff to be made available on the charter school’s website;
Require charter schools to be fully compliant with state open meetings/open records laws, with compliance monitored by authorizers. Failure of schools to release documents pertaining to governing board meetings, school policy and data, or to allow members of the public to file formal freedom of information requests to obtain these documents must be swiftly addressed and corrected by the authorizer;
Charter school financial documents should be made available to the public annually, on the authorizer’s website. These documents should include detailed information about the use of both public and private funds by the school and its management entities. These reports should include full disclosure of the sources of private funds, and the duration of commitments of private funds;
Require disclosure of all vendor or service contracts over $25,000 and prohibit any vendor or service contracts to any entity in which the charter school operator or a member of the governing board has any personal interest.
Require charter school governing boards to be elected, with representation of parents (elected by parents), teachers (elected by teachers) and in the case of high schools, students (elected by students). Non-parent/teacher/student members of the governing board should be required to be residents of the school district in which the school/s operate;
Require charter school governing board members to live in a geography that is close in proximity to the school/s physical location;
Hold members of a charter school governing board—like members of a publicly elected school board—legally liable for fraud or malfeasance occurring at the school or schools that they oversee;
n its aforementioned “Charter School Vulnerabilities” memorandum, the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General stated that, I Charter schools generally operate as independent entities that are subject to oversight by a Local Education Entity (LEA) or authorized chartering agency. Our investigations have found, however, that LEAs or chartering agencies often fail to provide adequate oversight needed to ensure that Federal funds are properly used and accounted for.‡ The type of fraud we identified generally involves embezzlement. The schemes that are used to accomplish this are varied. For example, we have found cases where charter school executives falsely increased their schools’ child count, thus increasing the funding levels from which to embezzle…We have also unraveled schemes where owners or employees of the charter schools created companies to which they diverted school funds and misused school credit cards for personal expenditures...We believe it is vitally important for the Department to take affirmative measures to ensure that State Education Agencies and LEAs provide adequate and appropriate oversight to charter schools that operate within their jurisdictions.”39§
We agree with the OIG’s assessment and believe their point that affirmative measures must be taken is especially important. Whether one uses the OIG’s assessment to support their case for charter oversight reform or the volume and variety of mismanagement and fraud cases that are delineated in this report, it is clear that the laws governing the charter industry are inadequate at preventing fraud and mismanagement. While some argue that the system is working, as evidenced by the large number of convictions, it is clear that the system is not working.
‡ Emphasis added § Emphasis added
We should not have to wait until more students have been harmed, or millions more in taxpayer dollars are stolen or lost, before addressing this problem. Public officials must take a more proactive approach. This is especially urgent given that the fraud and mismanagement uncovered thus far has been the result of an unsystematic, reactive investigatory approach.40 In other words, no agency, federal or state, has been given the resources to fully investigate the true depth of the problem, let alone prevent future problems.
Over 20 years of lax charter oversight, and the resulting fraud and mismanagement that has accompanied it, is all the proof we need that the charter industry is incapable of self-policing. While some authorizers and some charter organizations may be well run and offer strong accountability mechanisms, clearly others are not. The public deserves common-sense laws that protect their children and their tax dollars from incompetent or unscrupulous charter operators. The debate in our legislative halls should not be whether or not to regulate the industry, but how, and how soon.