posted on October 24, 2005 05:56:12 AM new
So, this is what's happening to education now. This is just a small part of a rather long article on a charter school here in Cleveland. Following is a link to the full article and then a link to an article about the parents who are fighting to have the school reopened. What is happening at this school should outrage everyone - conservative and liberal alike!!! A long, but good read! I would be interested in comments on the first article.
Dream Killer
It could be the worst school in Northeast Ohio. And you're paying for it.
Shantell Stevenson thinks she would have learned more by skipping 10th grade.
She started the year at Shaw High in East Cleveland. "Which was terrible," she says. "I wasn't learning anything." Friends told her about The International Preparatory School (TIPS), a privately run charter school.
When she met with school officials, they boasted of rigorous classes. She could study Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew. She'd have computers to work on, digital cameras to use. She could also travel to Egypt, Senegal, or China as part of an international study program. And they said that the high school campus in Warrensville Heights was beautiful.
Stevenson was smitten. Her enchantment, however, didn't survive the first week. "Everything they told us was a lie," she says.
She transferred to International Prep just after Christmas break, only to discover teachers covering subjects she had studied two or three years before. "My classes are super-easy," she says. "I came here to get a better education, but I'm not learning a thing."
Most students in her honors-level algebra class failed the state's ninth-grade math proficiency test, she says. In her honors English class, the teacher's handouts usually included spelling mistakes. Students turned in papers that made no sense. It didn't seem to matter.
"As long as you wrote one and a half pages about anything at all, you got an A," Stevenson says. "Half the students cheat off my tests, because I already learned all this stuff. And I came from Shaw High School! I mean, c'mon now!"
International Prep was founded in 1999 as a taxpayer-funded charter school, part of a movement to give parents an alternative to the state's floundering public institutions. Charters, the thinking went, would force public schools to improve, and kids would benefit from the competition.
But if legislators had good intentions, they were also stunningly naive. The plan allowed nearly anyone to start a school, regardless of qualifications. Ohio would be handing out millions of dollars, with scant oversight and almost no strings attached. It was a near-perfect recipe for disaster.
Seven years later, that calamity has arrived. About 48,000 children attended Ohio's 213 charter schools last year, costing the state $425 million. Those students failed proficiency tests at more than double the rate of public-school students. Over 70 percent of the charters are on academic watch or academic emergency -- compared to only 10 percent of public schools.
Yet even by these low standards, International Prep is in a class by itself.
Though its mission is to "provide a world-class education to children combining traditional teaching methods with advanced technology," test scores show TIPS isn't even keeping up with Northeast Ohio's worst public-school systems, including those of Cleveland and East Cleveland.
The chaos isn't limited to the classroom. The last time the state performed a full audit of International Prep, it found evidence of gross financial mismanagement. The school was more than $1 million in debt. Administrators paid themselves hundreds of thousands a year in consulting fees and regularly overcharged the state by inflating attendance. The school is required by law to send financial records to the state every year, yet TIPS hasn't complied since 2001.
In most states, such problems would set alarm bells ringing. But despite repeated warnings, the Ohio Department of Education has never conducted a full investigation of the school. Nor has state Auditor Betty Montgomery ever conducted a follow-up audit to see whether the problems were fixed.
But whenever the school is scrutinized, its officials are quick to play the race and religion cards.
"Let's be honest," says Da'ud A. Shabazz, director of pupil services and son of school founder Da'ud Abdul Malik Shabazz. "We're African American owned and Muslim on top of that. We're bringing in a lot of money. You know damn well there's a lot of people who don't want this."
Shantell Stevenson doesn't care about any of that. She wants to learn, and she's transferring to another school while there's still time to save her education. "This entire school is a hoax," she says.
Finding students displeased with TIPS isn't hard. On the last day of final exams, they gather inside a dimly lit sports complex next door to TIPS high school on South Miles Road. Some students play basketball; others eat French fries at the snack bar.
The school has been shut down and here's the article about parents fighting to keep it open. I guess their childrens' education doesn't mean much to them:
Parents Prepared To Fight After Charter School Closes
The state of Ohio moved in Friday and took control of the former International Preparatory School's property.
The charter school was forced to close after the state auditor uncovered financial problems, but angry parents say they are prepared to fight for their children's education, reported 5 On Your Side's Debora Lee.
The state attorney general seized the school's assets and padlocked the buildings. Documents show the state is trying to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars from the charter school, which went out of business on Monday.
The closing angers parents and faculty.
"This is not about money anymore. This is about our children being denied an education," said school employee Rodney Young.
Parent Damira Hawthorne said, "It's a slap in the face for you to come in and say that an organization that has served my children wonderfully needs to be shut down."
Hawthorne said another problem is that the children's records are locked inside the building, making enrolling them in others schools more difficult.
The Ohio Department of Education told NewsChannel5 that students can enroll in other schools with just proof of residence for now.
But frustrated parents say they've already lost too much time.
"What do we do as parents when we start getting truancy letters about our children not being in school?" said Hawthorne. "What do we do as parents when they've missed out on time to study for proficiencies and the Ohio Achievement Test? That's not fair."
The court order is in effect for 14 days, but neither the state nor the school expect the case to end there.
Some of the parents and other supporters of the charter school said they would be meeting with an NAACP attorney to discuss their next move.
Cheryl
[ edited by cblev65252 on Oct 24, 2005 05:57 AM ]
posted on October 24, 2005 05:04:34 PM newInternational Prep was founded in 1999 as a taxpayer-funded charter school, part of a movement to give parents an alternative to the state's floundering public institutions. Charters, the thinking went, would force public schools to improve, and kids would benefit from the competition.
Same thing here, sadly. We lost some of our good students a few years back when charter schools were started in this state. Now they're slowly coming back to us, and guess what? They're behind. Some as much as 2 years in reading and math levels. There are a few good charter schools, but not many, as the oversight of them is not nearly as rigorous as what we're subjected to. In addition, many have failed financially, leaving their students high and dry.
While it has a few merits, and I might consider sending my own kid to a charter school under the right circumstances, the movement was in general ill-conceived and jumped on by those who wanted nothing more than to punish public schools. It's evening out now, and the good ones will survive. It's the kids who'll suffer of course...always is.
Anybody who's thinking of enrolling their child in a charter had better do their homework first.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
posted on October 24, 2005 05:46:23 PM new
Can anyone explain the differences between a charter school and a private school? I assume it has to do with where the funding comes from, but a definite explanation would be nice.
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on October 24, 2005 05:54:13 PM new
Can anyone explain the differences between a charter school and a private school?
Yes I can. A charter school is a joke. We have several failing charter schools in upstate New York. They are supported with tax payers money, taking money away from the public schools. They are usually started and or run by minorities who have delusions of grandeur and half assed educations. I believe most of these people were pushed through with affirmative action. The good thing, at least here, is the educated from both the minority and majority are speaking out on this dismal failure.
posted on October 24, 2005 06:59:46 PM new
They do take a lot of money away from public schools! Because of its deficit, Cleveland public schools had to give up providing buses for its students. Who is using those public school buses now? The charter schools are all thanks to taxpayer and state monies.
The concept of charter schools started out as a good idea, but it went sour. There have been too many scams, too much waste of taxpayer money and too little attention paid to quality education.
Unfortuntately, Colin is right about minitories being the ones who started most of the charter schools. Most of the students attending these schools are minority students and it is those students who are being left behind because of it. It's just too bad that most parents with children in these schools fail to see what is really behind them. Again, the children suffer the consequences with inferior educations.
Minority and majority parents are speaking out here as well. Scene magazine brought a lot of it into the light.
posted on October 24, 2005 07:56:38 PM new
The way to win over parents is to hand out A's on report cards. If a student was getting C's in public school and starts getting A's in a charter school, the parents are going to be thrilled and loyal to the new system. Whether the child is challenged or actually learning something useful is irrelevant.
"Mamma! Mamma! I be gettin' an 'A' in Ebonics!"
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on October 24, 2005 08:47:03 PM new
You're exactly right Colin. Charter schools were started to give parents a "choice" in the education of their children. Sounds good to me, and to you, too. In my state, and in most, they are funded the same as regular public schools. In fact, they are public schools. They can't charge tuition. Anyone can apply to send their kid there at no cost. They recieve the same ADM monies from their state gov'ts that regular public schools recieve. There are, however, some key differences. The differences I list are from my state, but most states are similar:
The are not required, as are regular public schools, to provide education for all: They don't have to provide for all students. Special Ed kid with special needs? Tough, go somewhere else.
They are not required to accept every kid who enrolls, as are ALL regular public schools. Behavior problem? Kicked out of another school? Sorry, go somewhere else.
They are not required, as are regular public schools, to accept all comers, regardless of class size, student numbers, etc. "Sorry, our classes are full, would you like to get on our waiting list?"
Their teachers are not required to follow state certification requirements. They can put anyone into a position of dealing directly with kids they deem qualified, according to their own guidelines.
Charter schools as set up in most states are a goldmine for educational "entrepeneurs", and grossly unfair to those who have pursued advanced education degrees.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
I'm sure the idea's are the same but I'll have to guess there is even more corruption in good old New York state then where you are.
I was all for the original concept when I first heard about it but as time went on and I heard just what these people were doing I became disenchanted.
One started with a marine theme. They were going to teach the young’ins about sea creatures. When asked about Reading, math and all, they said the children would learn them through the program. This is not a joke!!
Well that never happened. The school didn't last a full year. Then there was a lot of finger pointing and the school directors and some others got on camera...and I realized..These people are boarder line morons. They may have a certificate but they are not educated in any way shape or form.
We’ve had a couple other that are in and out of the news on a weekly basis. (never for anything good) Then they were trying to get money for yet another but that “Ain’t Happening”
posted on October 26, 2005 05:37:12 AM new
I was all for it too originally Colin..but not anymore. Charters schools have helped precious few kids and hurt a pile of public schools.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
