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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe education model that fell apart. Albany charter schools.
The general idea was supposed to be that charter schools could take these students from deprived backgrounds and do much better than the public schools could do. Several years and millions of dollars later, many disruptions and much harm to neighborhoods.....there is a lesson being learned.
That lesson is that there are no easy fixes in situations like this. There are no miracle schools.
The education model that fell apart
A pro-charter rally in Albany. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Once heralded as a new beginning for children living in grinding poverty and stuck in a long-troubled school district, Albanys charter system has so far failed to live up to that promise. Five of the 12 charter schools that opened in the last decade have already closed, and others are being skeptically eyed by state officials.
....In Albany, all of the charter schools currently operating were supported by the Brighter Choice Foundation, created by Pataki-era officials who helped write the states charter laws. Once considered a gold standard of charter operations, two Brighter Choice middle schools were closed by the states Charter Schools Institute after just five years in operation, because 80 percent of the students were not proficient in English and math. Other charter schools in Albany, including an all-girls high school with a graduation rate of 51 percent, could be shuttered in the near future for poor performance.
...We didnt need to spend scores of millions of dollars to find out that the work our teachers and staff do and the staff in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and New York City, and every city in poor communities in America is doing is hard work, he said. There is no quick and easy fix and privatizing education is no answer and thats been proven here.
The failure in Albany has shown the disruption that charters can cause to public school systems and surrounding neighborhoods. The Brighter Choice middle schools set to close were built just a few years ago, near the foundations headquarters. Half of a city block was leveled and residents were displaced from their homes.
Because there is a lack of oversight and regulation over charter schools, there were some very bad decisions made by some.
One of them hired a director who was still on parole from a bank theft.
Financial officer of 10 NY Brighter Choice charter management charged with embezzling $202,837.
The Brighter Choice Charter Middle Schools in Albany Friday Jan. 25, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)
ALBANY The former chief financial officer for the Brighter Choice Foundation, which provides funding and support to 10 public charter schools in Albany, has been charged with embezzling $202,837 from the organization.
The arrest Wednesday of Ronald A. Racela marks the second time in four years that Racela has been charged with grand larceny. Two years ago, Racela admitted stealing $53,931 from KeyBank in Albany, where he was employed as a manager in the Community Development Lending Group, court records show.
..."M. Christian Bender, executive director of Brighter Choice Foundation, said Brighter Choice officials were not aware of Racela's criminal history when he was hired as financial director of Brighter Choice Charter Schools in June 2010. Bender said Racela described his separation from KeyBank as "tense" but did not disclose he had been arrested for embezzlement eight months before he was hired by Brighter Choice.
"I knew that it had not been a smooth separation, but obviously I had no idea that it involved criminal activity on his part," Bender said Friday.
Well, how could Bender not know this when he would be handling all that money??
daleanime
(17,796 posts)DamnYankeeInHouston
(1,365 posts)I hope charter schools go the way of the open classroom.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Finally the experimental pod in our district built walls between the classrooms.
DebJ
(7,699 posts)with this "Emperor's New Clothes" approach to education. It was cheaper to tear it down, just a few years into the horror,
then to attempt to modify the building. Thank God they did before my children arrived at that age!
It was just freaking common sense that that was NOT going to work.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)instead of the dividing walls. It was a real mess.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)Thanks, you!
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Kind words appreciated.
DamnYankeeInHouston
(1,365 posts)Thespian2
(2,741 posts)we have both worked with enough administrators who would be unable to organize and run a playground game of hop-scotch. Too many of these people got degrees, but never understood the concept of childhood education. Vouchers, Charter Schools, etc., were the vacuum cleaners used to suck up public money that should have gone to public schools. Controlling education is a primary tenet for anyone wishing to run a dictatorial system of government.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)And they have gotten away with it since 2009, even earlier. The worst onslaught began with Arne Duncan. He never has an original thought...he talks in memes and has a blank stare. Can't stand him.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)To tell a story on myself, it wasn't until I was in Calc 2 that I realized I had a shitty foundation in math.
I could do the problems, but I didn't really understand the deeper math involved.
I get the sense (having been in a failing school) that even a lot of the students who look like they're keeping up on the surface really aren't getting the deeper stuff because there's a shitty foundation.
Until that's rectified, throwing more money at anything is a waste.
OldRedneck
(1,397 posts). . . it'll be worth it.
I'd like to shoot these sonsabitches.
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)as long as it remains a thought. Progressives must take control of local school boards.
valerief
(53,235 posts)scammers' wallets.
Johonny
(20,917 posts)the state is still paying for it. Fuck that guy.