Those who want a wild west of unregulated charter schools never give up. A right-wing defense firm called the Pacific Legal Foundation has teamed up with the Michigan charter lobby and The Thomas B. Fordham Institute to stop the reasonable Charter School Program rules of the U.S. Department of Education. They want more low-quality schools to get charters and for the money to keep flowing to the many for-profits in their states.
Here are other lawsuits in which Pacific Legal is engaging:
- Fighting minimum wages for those who wish to move up the ladder at Texas Wally Burgers and Dairy Queens.
- Fighting opportunities for businesses of color to get some competitive advantage in obtaining government contracts after years of discrimination.
- Fighting attempts by three competitive Boston schools to expand enrollment opportunities for under-represented students of color by allotting spots by zip code.
The two plaintiffs in the CSP lawsuit, the Michigan Association of Public School Academies and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, have vested financial interests in charter growth. Fordham is an authorizer of charter schools in Ohio, taking a 3% cut of all the taxpayer dollars that the charters receive for providing “oversight.”
At NPE, we wonder why organizations that claim they fight to help low-income kids succeed would run to a law firm that fights minimum wages, disadvantaged kids’ chances of getting into a competitive high school, and opportunities for minority-owned businesses. Their agenda has nothing to do with disadvantaged children at all. They are bullying Secretary Cardona into kowtowing to charters.
And there is more…
Arizona passed a law that would give any family that does not send their child to a public school or a charter school $7,000 a year to be used at a private school or for “educational materials” so that they can learn at home. Proof of learning? None is needed.
This is similar to a law that passed last year in New Hampshire. The state’s Education Commissioner, Frank Edelblut, who homeschools his children, told the legislature it would cost $300,000 the first year. Instead, it cost $9 million as families already comfortable paying tuition cashed in. And homeschoolers now get a payday.
When you couple these laws with watered-down teacher credential requirements that allow young people with a few college credits to teach, it becomes clear that some state legislatures want to wash their hands of their responsibility to make sure that the next generation is educated.
The point of all of this is to destroy public education by draining students and funding from public schools; drive out professional teachers, and place the ill-prepared in front of classrooms so that parents feel they have no option but to leave.
The Network for Public Education will continue to fight this agenda to destroy our public schools. But to do that, we need your support.
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Save the Date for NPE’s Tenth Anniversary Conference
Come help us celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Network for Public Education in Washington D.C. on October 28 and 29, 2023! We will open up registration and a call for panels this fall.
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