Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA/ESSA Re-Write, Part 1 - Jim Horn

this corporate welfare bill will send billions in federal grants to segregated “no excuses” charter school companies, venture philanthropists, and real estate developers over the next six years. ...Schools Matter, Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA Re-Write, Part 1

Why would our union leaders support a bill that will end up costing thousands of jobs for union teachers nationwide? My guess is that they know we are in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire stage and are managing the dismantling as they lead teachers into the fire.

There was a time when some of the very same people and organizations (ahem, the UFT/AFT/NYSUT) supported NCLB. Some of the very same people are backing this ESEA rewrite which is not about local control but handing things over to increasingly rightwing, pro-privatization forces at the state level. Will these same people one day (soon?) lament their support as public education gets buried further under the charter onslaught?

federal funding favorability will go to states that do not “impose any limitation on the number or percentage of charter schools that may exist or the number or percentage of students that may attend charter schools in the State”... With a continuing federal mandate to fix the bottom five percent of schools, the ESEA rewrite will provide at least a billion dollars each year to fund charter school expansion, thus further weakening public education.  The new grant programs will be fashioned to provide minimal oversight and maximum autonomy to charter companies and their corporate support organizations, and for the first time, private non-profit corporations will be classified as “state entities,” thus eligible to apply directly for federal grant programs....grants will be funneled to states that have established infrastructure to help charter companies in facilities acquisition and/or the handing over of public properties at rock bottom prices.  Federal help in corporate real estate acquisition signals the full maturation of a charter industry that will be worth hundreds of billions

Jim Horn reports at Schools Matter:

Massive Charter Giveaways in ESEA Re-Write, Part 1