#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
1 out of 4 Duval County charter schools get D or F grades from state
Ten of Duval County’s 40 charter schools are now working to improve their operations after receiving “D” or “F” grades from the state. When charter schools get low grades, state law dictates that they turn in a plan to their sponsor, – in this case Duval County Public Schools, – with a roadmap of how to get the school preforming well again.
Washington Heights Church Puts A Stop To Charter School Possibility
The Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights sent a letter to its community recently saying that it had voted against a partnership that would lead to a charter school getting opened at the site.
The vote and email comes after a petition was signed by more than 600 people in an effort to stop the church located at 729 W. 181st St. from partnering with Civic Builders and opening the school.
Report: Decline in teachers with traditional education degrees linked to growth in charter schools
As charter schools proliferate across America, there has been a corresponding decline in the number of new teachers earning bachelor’s degrees in education from traditional preparation programs, according to a new study from the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH).
Hallelujah’: Kidnapping victims of former CT charter schools leader praise jury’s quick verdict
Thirty-eight years after he broke into four women’s homes, sexually assaulted them and held them against their will, a jury on Wednesday convicted former Connecticut charter schools leader Michael Sharpe on all eight counts of first-degree kidnapping
Charter school improperly charging fees despite state law, taxpayer funding, audit says
Outside auditors are recommending the immediate closure of a charter school in Plaquemine for, among other things, charging parents thousands of dollars “in tuition and fees” to educate their children at remote locations across the state — even though the school received between $14,000 to $16,000 a year in public education funding for each of those kids.
Indianapolis charter school announces intent to acquire IPS school building if it closes
The district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan — an attempt to address declining enrollment amid charter school growth — would leave multiple school buildings open for charter schools to potentially occupy. Victory College Prep is the first to publicly announce its intentions to acquire such a building.
State law allows charter schools to lease or acquire empty school buildings for $1.
Judge sentences Broward charter school operator president for embezzling public funds
A federal judge sentenced Jimika Williams on Thursday to 40 months in prison after she was convicted of embezzling federal public education funds that were meant to help children in need in Broward County.
While she was the president of Advancement of Education in Scholars Corporation, a non-profit organization that operated Paramount Charter School, Williams embezzled $389,857, according to prosecutors.
Chicago school board moves to take over once-lauded charter serving Black boys
Chicago’s school board moved Wednesday to take over two South Side charter campuses that specialize in serving Black boys — an unprecedented step to pull the school’s charter but preserve an academic model officials acknowledged has delivered for many students.
School board members voted unanimously to revoke the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men’s charter. They forcefully rejected the school’s arguments for more time to prove they are on the right track, and voicing dismay at the school’s response to a sexual misconduct investigation involving the school’s founder.
2 Hillsborough charter schools pledge improvements after dismal results
Students are chronically absent. The vast majority cannot pass state reading tests. And they’re often taught by substitute teachers.
For an hour on Tuesday, the Hillsborough County School Board heard detailed descriptions of Village of Excellence Academy and Village of Excellence Middle School, two publicly funded yet independently managed charter schools with a combined enrollment of 267 students.
Harpswell charter school hunts for ways to reopen even as it plans its closure
The leaders of Harpswell Coastal Academy are searching for ways to keep the school open, even as they begin the complex, untried process of shutting down at the end of the academic year, according to Interim Head of School Mel Christensen Fletcher.
“We know that we’re closing as one of Maine’s 10 charter schools, but we are looking at whether we have any other options to reform as something else,” Christensen Fletcher said. “If we can find something else that will work for us, we want to see if we can make that happen.”
Ex-principal of Lincoln Charter admits he took money for fake Ph.D. classes
The former principal of Lincoln Charter School lied about pursuing a doctoral degree while collecting funds for tuition over about two years, federal prosecutors said.
Leonard Hart, 50, of Mount Wolf, pleaded guilty to counts of fraud and misapplication of funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Harrisburg announced Thursday.
Community members protest charter school on baldwin hills elementary school campus
Staff, parents and community members voiced growing concerns about the co-habitation of Baldwin Hills Elementary School with the New LA Elementary charter school. They said it’s a drain on resources and are demanding the charter school be relocated.
“This isn’t a new charter school, but you want to go the easy route. ‘Oh, we’ll just come over here,’ because they think we’re just a neighborhood school. Our kids deserve the same rights as any other school and we should have that,” said Rita Richard, a parent and alum of Baldwin Hills Elementary.
Some teachers move to Hillsborough charters after facing discipline elsewhere
Teachers at Florida charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently managed, must hold state credentials in most cases. But when they have a disciplinary history at the organizations they left, it’s unclear how extensively charter schools review them.
New Orleans College Prep to surrender charter for Walter L. Cohen High School
Citing dwindling enrollment, New Orleans College Prep said it will hand over the charter to the historic Walter L. Cohen High School at the end of the school year, the school announced on Tuesday.
The New Orleans College Prep, which runs the school that has 160 students in 9th-12th grades, said in a news release that its board agreed unanimously to surrender Cohen’s charter.
As charter schools spread across Ohio Valley, a controversial curriculum begins to take hold
A small private school in Michigan with ties to former President Donald Trump is shaping how thousands of students are educated in publicly funded charter schools across the country, including right here in the Ohio Valley.
Cincinnati Classical Academy is one of the newest charter schools in Ohio. With 450 students, it is the largest charter to date in the region. It utilizes the 1776 Curriculum, an educational model created by Hillsdale College, a small conservative liberal arts college in Michigan. The program has been criticized for whitewashing U.S. history and undermining the civil rights movement.