Category: Charter Schools
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Do I believe all charters are doing spurious things? Of course not. But, we do know that some charters avoid special education and ELL students. But, we do know that some charters are segregated as a function of their business plan and seek required donations from their families. But, we do know that some charters…
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The common refrain is that charter schools are public schools. Critics, such as Diane Ravitch, have said that charter schools accept public money but act private. I have levied a variety of critiques at charters (Even made Jonathan Alter a little bit mad) despite the fact that I was an instructor at an Aspire charter…
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Unbeknownst to some, current “reform” efforts are interconnected. One example is Teach for America and IDEA charter schools (KIPP is another corporate charter management organization started by former TFAers). IDEA was founded in 2000 by Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama, TFA corps members. How about a little nepotism for TFAers at IDEA? TFA also gave out awards to IDEA’s TFAers. IDEA is often in the…
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Originally posted on A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues: IDEA Charter School markets itself as a college preparatory education organization with goals of enrolling 100% of graduates in four-year universities and have 100% persistence and graduation rates in college.[1] Indeed, in the introduction of the most recent annual report, Dr. Tom Torkelson, CEO…
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With nearly 1,000 hits and counting, my post “Why do hedge fund ADORE charters?” was surprisingly popular. One of the issues raised by commenters on the post was the New Markets Tax Credit. It has been discussed elsewhere (here and here). We thought we would add more hard numbers to the discussion. This post was…
Cloaking Inequity 
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