Report: U.S. government wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools

[Starry Messenger]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/03/25/report-us-government-wasted-up-billion-charter-schools-still-fails-adequately-monitor-grants/?utm_term=.bec06dfa8faf

The U.S. government has wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools that never opened, or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons, according to a report from an education advocacy group. The study also says the U.S. Education Department does not adequately monitor how its grant money is spent.

The report, titled “Asleep at the Wheel” and issued by the nonprofit advocacy group Network for Public Education, says:

More than 1,000 grants were given to schools that never opened, or later closed because of mismanagement, poor performance, lack of enrollment or fraud. “Of the schools awarded grants directly from the department between 2009 and 2016, nearly one in four either never opened or shut its doors,” it says.

Some grants in the 25-year-old federal Charter School Program (CSP) have been awarded to charters that set barriers to enrollment of certain students. Thirty-four California charter schools that received grants appear on an American Civil Liberties Union list of charters “that discriminate — in some cases illegally — in admissions.”

[obamanut2012]

1. k & R

[Phoenix61]

2. Yet one more reason to hate charter schools.

Of course, the fact DeVos loves them is another reason.

[zipplewrath]

3. The Original Bush Admin Advocate

The original Bush Administration advocate for vouchers has subsequently opposed them. Her intent was for them to be experimental laboratories for improvements in education, not replacements for public schools, much less profit centers for fly by night corporations.