Union Hyperbole About Cyber Charter Schools

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 2/20/2012 | Michael Van Beek

[MichCapCon]

The president of the state’s largest government employee union, the Michigan Education Association, recently said the for-profit education management companies that manage online charter public schools here will make “hundreds of millions of Michigan taxpayer dollars” if a bill is passed increasing the arbitrary cap on the number of students allowed to enroll.

This claim is laughable.

Fiscal data from the two current online charters now allowed shows the vast majority of their money is spent on instruction and instructional support to students. Teachers and instructional supplies make up the bulk of this spending. Further, audits show the management companies account for about 22 percent of what these schools spend, which includes “technology services” that don’t amount for much in most brick-and-mortar schools.

Given the amount of spending per student by the two schools, to reach $100 million in management costs they would have to enroll a number of students equivalent to the entire Detroit Public Schools system — around 66,000. They currently enroll about 1,300.

And that would be the companies’ gross revenue, not profits, which is a tiny percentage of the total. For profits to reach the $100 million level, online charters would have to enroll more than half the public school students in Michigan. The MEA ignores the fact that the bill limits enrollment in these online schools to half that of the state's largest conventional school district. And, of course, it’s important to remember that these companies don’t make a dime unless conscientious, taxpaying parents choose to enroll their children in these schools.

It’s interesting that the MEA is so concerned about an educational choice currently available to less than 0.1 percent of all public school students in Michigan. Even if the online-schoolhouse door is unblocked for every one of the 10,000 Michigan students currently on online charter waiting lists, the schools would account for less than 1 percent of statewide public school enrollment.

This is another clear stand-off between the MEA and its public school special interest groups allies against Michigan families. The MEA and the rest would like us to believe that only they possess the knowledge to determine what's best for every child in this state.

[GeronL]

The local news here in Dallas is also bashing Charter schools today.

[achilles2000]

“Cyber” charters are government schools, and, interestingly, based on the data we currently have, achieve the very worst academic results - worse even than brick and mortar government schools.

Government should be nowhere near a child’s education.

[GeronL]

I totally agree. Many “Charter” schools in minority areas have been shown to be outright frauds here in Texas.

[Whenifhow]

CHARTER SCHOOL TRAP
http://www.newswithviews.com/iserbyt/iserbyt107.htm

Excerpt:
The significance of the charter school/school choice issue is NOT related strictly to educational choice. It is related to acceptance of a communist system of governance where decisions are made by appointed, not elected officials. Appointed officials cannot be removed from office by voters/taxpayers.

Widespread acceptance of this aspect of communist governance — as it relates to education (U.S.A. has 17,817 operational school districts [2] that could well come under this non-elective system) — will make it easier to usher in the unelected system across the board at the local level to the county, to the state, to the Congress, to the White House level. That will spell the end of elected representation and our freedoms established under the Constitution of the United States of America. We will be a totalitarian state.

[Eva]

I've been re-reading Jonah Goldberg's, Liberal Fascism He pretty clearly lays out the progressive plan for the public school system. - level the playing field, kill the desire for achievement, and demean the value of parents.

Wilson summarized the progressive attitude perfectly when, as president of Princeton, he told an audience, "Our problem is not merely to help the students to adjust themselves to world life...(but) to make them as unlike their fathers as we can. "

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

——Wilson summarized the progressive attitude perfectly when, as president of Princeton, he told an audience, “Our problem is not merely to help the students to adjust themselves to world life...(but) to make them as unlike their fathers as we can. “-——

Good old Woodrow. I remember ky history teacher being in love with him. I thought he seemed like a jerk.

Now I KNOW he was a jerk.

[PapaBear3625]

“Cyber” charters are government schools, and, interestingly, based on the data we currently have, achieve the very worst academic results - worse even than brick and mortar government schools.

I've had a couple of my kids do cyber-charter for a while.

Results depend on the student. A motivated student can progress at his own pace through the material, which means a smart student is not held back. An unmotivated student is likely to be screwing around or playing games when he's supposed to be doing coursework.