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Nearly 2,500 Bridges to Nowhere: Congress Considers Expanding Charter Program Despite Millions Wasted on Closed Schools
Submitted by Jonas Persson on July 8, 2015 - 9:17am
As both the House and the Senate consider separate bills that would reauthorize and expand the quarter-billion-dollar-a-year Charter Schools Program (CSP), the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has examined more than a decade of data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as well as documentation from open records requests. The results are troubling.
Between 2001 and 2013, nearly 2,500 charter schools have been forced to shutter, affecting 288,000 American children enrolled in primary and secondary schools.
Furthermore, untold millions out of the $3.3 billion expended by the federal government under CSP have been awarded as planning and implementation grants to schools that never opened to students.
Charters Much More Likely to Close
The failure rate for charter schools is much higher than for traditional public schools. In the 2011-2012 school year, for example, charter school students ran two and half times the risk of having their education disrupted by a school closing and suffering academic setbacks as a result. Dislocated students are less likely to graduate and suffer other harms.
In a 2014 study, Matthew F. Larsen with the Department of Economics at Tulane University looked at high school closures in Milwaukee, almost all of which were charter schools. He concluded that closures decreased high school graduation rates by nearly 10%" The effects persist "even if the students attends a better quality school after closure. ............(more)
- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/07/12875/closed-charters-bridges-nowhere#sthash.FPi6tfhv.dpuf
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)If the public schools aren't good enough, send your child(ren) to private or religious schools...on your own dollar.
If more money were put into public schools, all children could get a better education. A lot of these charter schools were scams. How many "owners" left in the middle of the night because they couldn't manage the school or set it up with the intention of milking what funds they could before they got caught or had to file bankruptcy. How many cheated to meet the state standards?
Charter schools (for the most part) are rackets comparable to private prisons in my book. Both are looking at profit and not quality.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)Xyzse
(8,217 posts)SamKnause
(13,108 posts)are ill equipped to govern.
Many are adverse to facts.
Many have their own agendas and facts
have no place in their decisions.
The majority of U.S. politicians
are corrupt.
The majority of U.S. politicians
are there to pad their bank accounts.
I am so sick and tired of the constant deliberate failures.
The citizens of the U.S. are being bled dry by people
who should have no authority or power.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)are pushing us toward a "Facetime" educational system.
No need for schools, no need for lots of teachers, no variances in curriculum, no need for pesky facts, no need for facilities, no need for anything but a video screen and a bracelet that tracks your status and a slew of investors to grow ever wealthier off growing ignorance.
"Log on Jr, time to learn."
MisterP
(23,730 posts)to make them SUCCEED
craigmatic
(4,510 posts)underclass of prison labor and cannon fodder for the endless wars they are planning.