• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has a digital education division called Amplify. The Bloomberg News article “News Corp.’s $1 Billion Plan to Overhaul Education Is Riddled With Failures” outlines the company’s efforts to cash in on education without positive results. Read more here.
• In New York, Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy is under scrutiny for polarizing tactics. Parents and students are coming out and telling stories of harsh punishment and the schools’ inability to work with children with special needs. Read more here and here.
• In Florida, a charter school operated by Imagine Schools was sold for $6.6 million to a New York communications company. Now, the school will lease from the new owner, which is expected to “get a 10-percent annual return on investment with the school as a tenant.” Earlier this year Imagine Schools was ordered to pay $1 million in self dealing related to real estate schemes. Read more here and here.
• A new report details “fraud and waste totaling more than $200 million” of taxpayer funds in the charter school sector. However, “the total is impossible to know because there is not sufficient oversight of these schools.” Read more here.
• A Chicago based documentary series examines the expansion of charter schools in the fifth episode. The School Project examines a variety of public education topics and the growing trend toward privatization of public schools. Read more here.
ICYMI – more news:
o Are charter schools being held accountable?
o Bill would strip power from charter school panel
o Public Schools Are a Public Good. The rapid growth of market-driven charter schools erodes a cornerstone of American democracy
o Delaware charter school audits under scrutiny
o Disclosure differs for charter schools run by for-profit firms
o Why Don’t We Have Real Data on Charter Schools? Charters were supposed to be laboratories for innovation. Instead, they are stunningly opaque
o Charter Schools: For-profit companies stir legal trouble state bill doesn’t address
• In New York, Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy is under scrutiny for polarizing tactics. Parents and students are coming out and telling stories of harsh punishment and the schools’ inability to work with children with special needs. Read more here and here.
• In Florida, a charter school operated by Imagine Schools was sold for $6.6 million to a New York communications company. Now, the school will lease from the new owner, which is expected to “get a 10-percent annual return on investment with the school as a tenant.” Earlier this year Imagine Schools was ordered to pay $1 million in self dealing related to real estate schemes. Read more here and here.
• A new report details “fraud and waste totaling more than $200 million” of taxpayer funds in the charter school sector. However, “the total is impossible to know because there is not sufficient oversight of these schools.” Read more here.
• A Chicago based documentary series examines the expansion of charter schools in the fifth episode. The School Project examines a variety of public education topics and the growing trend toward privatization of public schools. Read more here.
ICYMI – more news:
o Are charter schools being held accountable?
o Bill would strip power from charter school panel
o Public Schools Are a Public Good. The rapid growth of market-driven charter schools erodes a cornerstone of American democracy
o Delaware charter school audits under scrutiny
o Disclosure differs for charter schools run by for-profit firms
o Why Don’t We Have Real Data on Charter Schools? Charters were supposed to be laboratories for innovation. Instead, they are stunningly opaque
o Charter Schools: For-profit companies stir legal trouble state bill doesn’t address