Tell the House Education Committee to help stop the attacks on public education!
Help stop the attacks on public education!
The rapid expansion of for-profit charter schools
is a threat to our public schools.
Tell the House Education Committee to support HB 98 and HB 879.
Louisiana’s public schools are under attack. Thanks to ex-Governor Bobby Jindal, a big-business model which we call “predatory charter schools” allows out-of-state, for-profit operators to raid public education funds and damage local public school systems while enriching charter management executives and hedge fund operators.
The LFT and LAE are supporting Governor John Bel Edwards’ efforts to put the brakes on the unbridled expansion of these schools. They are largely unaccountable to local school boards, voters, taxpayers and parents.
HB 98 by Rep. Patricia Smith guarantees that only local school boards and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education may authorize charter schools.
Current law allows BESE to approve 40 local authorizers, which must create at least 200 charter schools. Each of those, if successful, could open two more without further approval. That means there could be 600 or more charter schools created without proper oversight by local school boards or BESE.
Type 1B charter schools are unaccountable to local school boards, taxpayers, parents and voters. They may be created over the objections of local communities.
Type 1B charter authorizers are not required to demonstrate a need for the schools, to show what they will do that is different, or to innovate in ways that can be copied by public schools.
HB 879 by Rep. Joseph Bouie would prohibit charter schools from being operated by for-profit entities.
The bottom line is that schools should not be in the business of making money on the backs of our children.
Studies show that for-profit charters do not perform as well as non-profit schools. New Orleans is a prime example. Of the five for-profit operators that opened charter schools in New Orleans, all have left the city. Some were fired or left in disgrace.
One of charter schools’ biggest supporters, former BESE member Leslie Jacobs, said of for-profit schools that “Their track record in Louisiana is at best mediocre, and that’s probably being kind.”
The record shows that for-profit charter schools are more interested in winning contracts than in serving communities. Charter schools have a role to play in providing choice and opportunities for parents, but they must be accountable to the public. For-profit charter schools simply don’t fulfill that basic requirement.
