Another day, another fishy charter school

[n2doc]

This may have happened in Pittsburgh...but if you're a Pennsylvania taxpayer, then you're paying for this:

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Tens of thousands of dollars spent at Pittsburgh’s finest restaurants, top-flight catering at every staff and school meeting, administration and board retreats to exclusive resorts and spas.


That’s just for starters.


Your tax dollars went to cell phones for board member spouses, and even to develop another school out of state.

Now the feds are investigating spending practices at the Pittsburgh Urban Pathways Charter Schools. Some of the initial reports looks pretty fishy:

Meanwhile, DePasquale blasted the school’s annual retreats by board members and administrators to resorts like Bedford Springs or two-week stays in places like Sea Isle City, N.J.


“If people want to go to a resort, they have every right to do that with their own money,” he said.

Instead, they spent yours...because they could. Am I saying that all charter schools are evil? No. It's important to understand what charter schools were supposed to be, and what they weren't. A couple of decades ago, the idea was that charter schools would be small, nimble learning labs...improved teaching techniques and work rules could be transferred to public schools (where most students would still be educated) to the benefit of all.


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Charter-schools-are-the-future-of-education-except-when-they-steal-your-tax-dollars.html

[TBF]

1. Education for profit -

cheap recent grads for labor ... what could possibly go wrong?

[Orrex]

2. kick

For every bad charter school, there are five bad charter schools.

[roody]

6. At least. nt

[marble falls]

3. They are out to steal the commons from us - land, minerals, water, education, the airwaves.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Any parent who thinks adding profit is good for their child's education

Is a frickin' idiot!

And whenever I hear a parent railing against their child's teacher it usually is that their special snowflake is not getting special attention. They forget that when a teacher has 30+ students in the room, at widely varying academic and language levels, all sorts of major behavior problems, and no more teacher aides because that budget was cut long ago or parent volunteers because they're all at work, then it's pretty damn hard to give special attention to anyone. I've seen very very few bad teachers and it's usually when they are forced to teach a class they are ill-suited for such as a coach teaching math because no one else would.

[duffyduff]

5. Charter schools ARE evil and they are unnecessary

They were the stupidest concept ever to come down the pike and merely gave the plutocrats a license to steal. And yes, I know the late AFT president Al Shanker came up with the nutball idea and later ditched it.