More analysis on charters from Minnesota

Students in most Minnesota charter schools are failing to hit learning targets and are not achieving adequate academic growth, according to a Star Tribune analysis of school performance data.

The analysis of 128 of the state’s 157 charter schools show that the gulf between the academic success of its white and minority students widened at nearly two-thirds of those schools last year. Slightly more than half of charter schools students were proficient in reading, dramatically worse than traditional public schools, where 72 percent were proficient.

Between 2011 and 2014, 20 charter schools failed every year to meet the state’s expectations for academic growth each year, signaling that some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable students had stagnated academically.

A top official with the Minnesota Department of Education says she is troubled by the data, which runs counter to “the public narrative” that charter schools are generally superior to public schools.

More than half of schools analyzed from 2011 to 2014 were also failing to meet the department’s expectations for academic growth, the gains made from year to year in reading and math.

Of the 20 schools that failed to meet the state goals for improvement every year, Pillsbury United Communities is the authorizer for six of those schools: Dugsi Academy, LoveWorks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, Connections Academy, Learning for Leadership Charter School, and the Minnesota Transitions Charter School’s elementary, Connections Academy and Virtual High School. Those schools also missed annual achievement gap targets.

95% Fees, how to cash in on kids

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/09/the_95_fees_that_charter_schools_pay_white_hat_go_before_the_ohio_supreme_court_today.html

Interesting article on how to convert public funds to private property and profit.  It also makes it very difficult for a school board to act independently from the entity that created it. 

This case is currently in the Ohio Supreme Court.

OHDELA paid 75 percent of its $14 million budget to White Hat as a management fee.

Outside of White Hat, audits for online charter school Ohio Virtual Academy showed a similar pattern. About two-thirds of the $68 million the school spent in 2010-11-- $43 million -- went toward purchasing services from K12 Inc., the company that runs it.

The profit margins are a closely guarded secret.  My understanding, is that the profit margin for Ohio Connections Academy (owned by Pearson) is 30%.  Yet that school hired a part time treasurer.  No need for detailed disclosure.  No need for an elected board.

The money make millionaires out of some.  The money provides many separate districts which then create  high paying principals, superintendants, treasurers and managers. The sponsors take their piece of the action.  Unfortunately the students and teachers are not beneficiaries of this system. 

Better education results are a worthy goal.  Unfortunately, this is a failed billion dollar experiment.  The results speak for themselves.  Check the report cards.  A few individuals profit greatly, obtain fancy titles, money and perks and promise that someday they will produce results.  What a scam.

Charter School Oversight in Florida

Look what is happening in Florida.

Follow the money!

http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/charter-schools-unsupervised/investigation.html

"Management companies, hired by two-thirds of South Florida’s charter schools, further complicate the school districts’ ability to monitor spending and discern who controls the purse strings, the newspaper found. These companies provide services ranging from targeted assignments to wholesale management of schools, and have received anywhere from 10 to 97 percent of a school’s budget, records show.
“They’re public schools in the front door; they’re for-profit closed entities in the back door,” said Kathleen Oropeza, who co-founded FundEducationNow.org, an education advocacy group based in Orlando. “There’s no transparency; the public has no ability to see where the profits are, how the money is spent.”

Great investigation

What could Ohio learn?