Update: Charter Schools and the Future of Public Education
• Buffalo: School Board Passes 1-year Moratorium
• Washington State: Parents, Students, Teachers and Workers Stand Against Monopoly Dictate
• Chicago: Private Operators Strive to Grab More of the Public Treasury

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Buffalo District-Wide Charter Schools
School Board Passes 1-year Moratorium

On Wednesday, October 27, the Buffalo Board of Education passed a 1-year moratorium on charter schools and established a task force to study the issue. The vote followed an earlier vote for a 3-year moratorium, which did not pass. The new one, for one year, garnered enough support, particularly given the widespread concern expressed by parents and teachers alike over the development of a district-wide charter school system in Buffalo. The aim of the district-wide system is to make all district schools charter schools. Buffalo already has more charter schools per square mile than any other region of the state. It also has faced massive cuts to education, to the point where even the Board had to admit funding was not sufficient to meet even the minimal requirements of a “basic” education. The call for a district-wide charter system is taking place in this context. Teachers, parents and students are concerned that charters could well play a role in further wrecking education. The Board finally conceded to the many important concerns about the impact of charter schools on the district and pledged to investigate the matter in the coming year. Teachers Forum calls on the Board to organize public meetings concerning charter schools and offers its expertise and that of area professors knowledgeable about the issues.

The moratorium was supported by West District board member Ralph Hernandez, who has done considerable work on the issue and sponsored the 3-year moratorium, Ferry District board member Betty Jean Grant, East District board member Vivian Evans, at-large member Catherine Collins, and Central District member Janique Curry, who had abstained on the 3-year vote.

The two most recent charter schools approved, ASPIRE and Bison Academy Charter School, will not be affected by the decision. In fact, charter applicants technically have until January 1 to get their proposals approved. Based on the available information, the Greater Buffalo Academy Charter School is currently the only charter school seeking board approval.

During the moratorium, potential charters can still be approved. This can be done by approval from the state Board of Regents or the State University of New York.

Currently, there are about 11,000 students statewide in charter schools, most of them poor and minority youth. Almost 3/4 of these youth qualify for subsidized lunches, compared with 51 percent statewide. Eighty-five percent of charter school students are minorities, compared with 45 percent statewide.

The Board also approved direct interference by M&T bank in the search for a new school superintendent. Bank president and Control Board member Robert G. Wilmers will be funding the national search for the superintendent and will also supplement the superintendent’s salary. It seems the School Board has forgotten the well-known standard that “he who pays the piper calls the tune.”

In addition, Wilmers chose three members for the seven-member committee doing the search. Wilmers also made clear the aim to change public school governance, in the name of “doing the right thing for our children.” He said that the School Board’s support of the direct role of M&T in deciding the superintendent was an example that “the public and private sector are able to work together to achieve a common goal.” That the goal is further wrecking of education and elimination of the role of the public in governance, including elected officials, is clear from the role of the Control Board in education to date. It is also the case that if the bank actually wanted to “do the right thing for the children,” it could join teachers, youth and parents in demanding a moratorium on all debt payments to the banks.

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Washington State Charter Schools Referendum
Parents, Students, Teachers and Workers Stand Against Monopoly Dictate

For the third time in 10 years, on Tuesday, November 2, parents, teachers, students, and workers in Washington state defeated efforts by the monopolies to impose their dictate on public schools. For Washington State, one of the main forms this has taken have been repeated efforts to legalize charter schools. These effort have been spearheaded by Microsoft’s Bill Gates. The government, including State school chief, Terry Bergeson, also organized for legalization of charter.

A broad coalition of parents, youth, educators, unions and many others organized to defeat the most recent measure. Despite massive efforts by Gates and the government to secure a “yes” vote, nearly 60 percent of voters rejected this monopoly dictate.

Despite the clear stand of voters, evidenced by the two earlier defeats, charter schools were approved by the legislature and governor [Gary Locke] last spring. However, a petition drive, spearheaded by the state teachers’ union, collected 99,000 signatures to force the referendum.

Relying heavily on television advertisements, Bill Gates and other “prominent entrepreneurs” reportedly spent $3.9 million to advocate for the referendum. Some of the “prominent entrepreneurs” included Don Fisher, a co-founder of the Gap, Inc., and John Walton, of the family that started Wal-Mart. Each contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Washington Roundtable, an organization made up of top CEOs from many of the state’s largest companies, supported charter schools as well.

If passed, the law would have allowed nonprofit groups to create up to 45 charter schools over six years and also convert some public schools to charters. It would also allow an unlimited number of ‘conversion’ charters, where existing public schools are converted to charters, irrespective of whether the students, teachers and youth at the schools support such a conversion. If existing charters elsewhere are any indication, development of the charters would significantly impact school governance as well as worsening working and teaching conditions.

According to the Seattle Times, “Catherine Ahl, education chair of the League of Women Voters of Washington, said she hoped this vote will be the last. ‘Hopefully, this time the Legislature will understand this is the will of the people, and knock it off’, Ahl said.”

Concern about the broad attacks on education nationwide and what role charter schools play in this continues in other cities and states around the country. In Buffalo recently, school board members passed a one-year moratorium on charter schools. In Chicago, the mayor’s so-called “Renaissance 2010” plan has provoked many public demonstrations by teachers, parents, students, workers, and residents. In Michigan the teachers’ union and parents blocked a proposal by a wealthy businessman to donate $200 million to create 15 charter schools. In Florida and California, thousands were left stranded after charter operators declared bankruptcy after having received millions in state funding.

Forty states currently have laws permitting charter schools. About 750,000 students are enrolled in roughly 3,000 charter schools operating nationwide.

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Chicago’s “Renaissance 2010” Schools Plan
Private Operators Strive to Grab More of the Public Treasury

Chicago’s “Renaissance 2010” plan, launched on June 24 by the city’s mayor, seeks to close about 60 public schools—10 percent of the city’s schools. The schools would then be reopened within six years as 100 or more smaller schools, generally controlled and run by private, for-profit groups, while being funded from the public treasury.

Already, “More than 50 people or groups have submitted letters of intent to apply for the Chicago school board’s permission to run 18 schools in the fall of 2005…. They must submit full applications by Nov. 22, with a school board decision expected in late January,” reports Education Week.

Chicago’s Mayor Daley has been in charge of the nation’s third-largest school system since 1995, when a state law handed him control. Some 430,000 students attend the city’s schools. This is part of a trend nationwide to remove elected school boards and concentrate power in the hands of executives. New York City’s schools are also now controlled by the mayor of the city. The Renaissance plan is an indication that these changes in governance are in part a means to insure that private monopolies can get their hands on more of the public treasury, while eliminating public governance and public schools organized to serve society as a whole.

In Chicago, current and potential charter school operators are now demanding that city and school officials provide their schools with more public funding. Specifically, they want changes in the state’s funding formulas and categories to favor them more, especially when it comes to special education funding. This is being demanded despite the fact that charter and contract schools in general serve a disproportionately smaller number of special education students than do existing public schools.

One of the problems facing the charter schools is start-up costs, for facilities, buildings, and a variety of other services. If instead existing buildings are turned over to these private companies and public funds are used to fund the start-up costs, those running the schools take no risks and are guaranteed the public per pupil funds as well.

As part of securing a greater portion of the public treasury for their own interests, a large number of businesses and business organizations are strongly pushing the Renaissance plan. For example, R. Eden Martin, the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a coalition of business leaders, “is spearheading the raising of $50 million for Renaissance 2010 to help with schools’ start-up costs,” according to Education Week.

Education Week adds that after meetings with top district administrators in recent weeks, representatives from private school-management companies, current local charter school operators, and nonprofit groups, “expressed strong optimism that the funding problems would be ironed out soon. They said district leaders appear committed to making revisions that ensure the new schools will have the resources they need.”

In related news, both New York state and Texas are under pressure from business groups to increase the number of charters allowed by state law as well as the amount of public funds directed to these schools.