I suppose we should all be happy Governor Bill Haslam will not include a 'statewide authorizer' for charter schools in his education package. It is even more heartening that Republican Senators Randy McNally and Becky Duncan Massey recently announced their firm support for local control of all schools. We in Davidson County are already suffering from ham-handed state control, and all the state educational institutional lobbies are against it.
Actually, charter schools can be a bad bargain for any state.
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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}In the latest incident of charter school fraud, the state of Oregon is going after a pair of charter school con men who reportedly scammed the state out of $17 million.
The Oregonian is reporting that Tim King and Norm Donohoe, who ran a chain of taxpayer-funded charter schools under the guise of a nonprofit named EdChoices, "submitted false, incomplete and misleading records about how many students were enrolled in the schools and how they were spending the state's money.
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Evidence suggests this is not the first or last time parents, students and state education boards will be swindled by privatized education. This summer, a renowned Philadelphia charter school mogul was indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. And between 2005 and 2011, the US Department of Education opened 53 investigations into charter school fraud, resulting in 21 indictments and 17 convictions in states including California, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Fraud, however, is not the worst problem we could have with lightly regulated charter schools. A charter school operator in Ohio decided to use student volunteers to gut an old building contaminated with asbestos. The school planned to refurbish and repurpose the former YMCA, but seemed totally unaware of the asbestos danger until an alert neighbor filmed the youngsters surrounded by asbestos dust.
Let me tell you something about asbestos. It's great for resisting fire, but a hazard in repairing or gutting a building. Special, licensed contractors with special equipment are required for the job in Ohio. Their workers' compensation insurance costs more, because ASBESTOS FIBERS CAN BE DEADLY. Breathe them in or swallow them, and 30 or 40 years later you may develop mesothelioma, a deadly cancer for which there is no cure. Not every person exposed develops it, but it is a liability time bomb corporations take steps to avoid.
Nor was this the only charter apparently unaware of the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Three Arizona charter schools were previously fined.
Still think charter schools are great for Tennessee?
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