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“For some reason, the parties running the Delaware DOE this year, have decided to ignore 14-17 years of legislation and DOE precedent, and change the rules to force more money to flow to charters.”
“Desperate”, I believe is the word we’re looking for… “Desperate” as in the last days of the Third Reich, as in the last 2 minutes of a NFL playoff game, as in the final day before election day.
They know their time is up! They are using these last four months of this lame duck session to make permanent changes they hope will benefit them later when they get kicked up into the private sector… If they don’t act now, it will be too late… someone else will be controlling the money…..
In case you don’t know what happened, here is a refresher…
The DOE surprised every public school by changing the formula on how charters were to be paid… Pay them more was their decree.. What they are proposing is unconstitutional… For when you ask the taxpayers for taxes, and they first say no, and so you tell them exactly what it gets spent on, and they acquiesce and say….”ok this time, here, but spend it only on those items”.… and THEN you do NOT spend it on those items which are part of the contract,…. you have an illegal use of tax money that cannot stand up in court...
Example: when Brandywine School District passed a referendum to put turf on their field, you can’t send all that money to charters and leave the field in its original condition… Yet that is exactly what rogue elements in the DOE conspired to do…and frankly, almost got away with.
After giving them the benefit of the doubt up to now, today we found out the trickery involved is not accidental…
Today we found that they held onto all notice of the changes affecting public districts right up to the deadline, then sent them bills telling them that they must pay more but refusing to give any reasons as to why. You’d expect that in Communist Russia. Isn’t it odd for somewhere here in the USA?
Today we found that they had meetings with a few select Superintendents, not all, and specifically told them: DO NOT TELL YOUR boards or business managers. You’d expect that in Communist Russia. Isn’t it odd for somewhere in the USA?
Today we found they sent over-inflated charter bills to the districts, threatening they immediately be paid in full. You’d expect that in Communist Russia. Isn’t it odd for somewhere in the USA?
Today (although we suspicioned it) it was proven that certain Charters are really trying to gut all public education in this state and they don’t care about your children. The idea that they just want more money, does not back up the precise use of hurtful tactics used to achieve it. The standard methods to get more money work well enough. Trying purposefully to destroy public education, is the ONLY explanation that can explain their timeline. And the reason they picked on Christina? Because it is full of black people … White people vote.. but kicking blacks again and again has become acceptable to the Delaware Way because Blacks don’t go to the polls in high enough numbers…. This was designed specifically to implode Delaware’s poorest public schools by stealing large amounts of money from them…Again, You’d expect that in Communist Russia. Odd for somewhere in the USA.
“All that stuff you committed to the voters” they told all the school districts…. “Pfffft… voters are just scum. We’re not going to pay attention to any of that crap… That money is not sacrosanct. Pay the extra $3 million to Newark Charter, NOW!!!!! “
An injunction forbidding any payments from Christina or other districts to Charters until this can be sorted out… would be the proper course of action…
Violating public trust to enrich ones own pockets puts people in jail…. Or at least gives them a big fine to pay…. Pursuing this should be step two.
This proposed action by the DOE, if carried out, will hurt 15,000 children… It will help none… Not even the 2000+ students at Newark Charter School! None of the funds stolen from the basic necessities required to teach 15,000 students, will go to assist any of the kids at Newark Charter… All this money, and I mean ALL of it, is to pay for their two new buildings that they royally screwed up and are on the hook for their financing …….
Ron Russo’s argument boggles the mind…
There is no other way to put it: “Come into my house and I’ll give you candy..”
In this case the candy is something called ” innovation” As would any pedophile (no implication being made to Russo here) in making HIS argument, Ron Russo only mentions one side. He does not talk about the …”other”… Which we know is the rape of the public school system that allowing charters will provoke.
How do we know this?
Philadelphia.
Milwaukee.
Chicago.
Cleveland,
Washington DC.
It’s been done… It’s always failed.
Those places went into the Charter House for innovation…. They came out broken and raped…. Sorry, there is just no other way to describe what really happens when you allow Charters to siphon resources away from the public school system…
Imagine if you had riots in Wilmington… And you pulled resources… “All right, all national guard, all policemen, all fireman, all public employed are commanded by the mayor to leave the city… Let them innovate themselves out fo their predicament”…. Would that work?
That is exactly what you do to public schools when you have charters… You take resources direly needed to hold their own against a plethora of problems, and you take them away and give to someone else… someone who really doesn’t need them…
Why does Russo not mention this ugly part of charters? Most likely because he has lived a lily white existence. As head of St. Marks, where one picks and chooses ones students… As head of Wilmington Charter… where one picks and choses ones students…. A charter school, where less than 5.7% are considered low income…. Yet they steal resources away from low income schools that desperately need more money, not less, but get less because of people like Russo who think innovation is good…
However, I must thank Russo for one thing… For bringing to the forefront the mission statement that was hailed to bring charter schools into the mix in the first place….
The purpose of Delaware’s charter schools, as stated in the “Charter School Law of 1995,” is to “… improve public education overall …”
Research in Philadelphia has proven that since Charters were allowed into Philadelphia… the average score of the entire district, including both charters and public schools, as fallen considerably…. That means we were sending kids through the Philadelphia school system with a better shot at a good future before 2004 before charters were allowed, than we currently do today….
That is in direct opposite to Delaware desire….”to improve public education overall…..”
Seriously, if you help 20% and hurt 80%…. how does the entire state perform better when for every 2 going forward, you have 8 going back?
Why does Russo not address this? Because it completely destroys his argument. That is why.
There is one way to do both… And that is to cut the financial cord between charters and their districts… If you want the luxury of allowing charters to flourish, and try new things,… you need to put them as a line item in the state budget and tax the 1% who will have access to these charters sufficiently, to pay for them…
Then you can have your innovation and eat it too…..
kavips 