Welcome to Cashing in on Kids, a weekly email newsletter for people fed up with the privatization of America’s public schools—produced by In the Public Interest.
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What’s the matter with for-profit charter school management? One line in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s 198-page health, labor, and education spending bill is causing an uproar in the charter school industry. Forbes
Industry lobbying firm rushes to defend charter schools. Journalist Jeff Bryant reports: “The top lobbying group for the charter school industry (the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools) is rushing to preserve millions in funds from the federal government that flow to charter operators that have turned their K-12 schools into profit-making enterprises, often in low-income communities of color.” BuzzFlash
How elites profit from “nonprofit” charter schools. Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education (NPE), talks to Jacobin about how charter schools funnel money from the public sector into the private sector using nonprofit organizations as intermediaries. Jacobin
Fraud accusations prompt lawsuit against virtual charters in Indiana. A group of virtual charter schools accused of defrauding the state of Indiana out of millions of dollars are now being sued, as state officials seek to recoup more than $150 million they say was either wrongly obtained or misspent by the schools. Education Week
How we’re fighting back
How students, parents, and teachers in Los Angeles are using an innovative policy to transform their public schools. Reclaim Our Schools LA, a Los Angeles coalition of community groups, students, and teachers, has produced a policy brief telling the story of how they organized and won funding for community schools.
“Unlike top-down education models, the Los Angeles Unified School District Community Schools Initiative (LAUSD-CSI) exists because of the work of grassroots leaders and stakeholders who coalesced around a shared vision of public education centered on restorative justice and community self-determination.” Reclaim Our Schools LA