If you are thinking of sending your son/daughter to a charter/community school, please think again. You need to ask lots of questions and do some research. Here is what I would ask before I would enroll my child in a charter program:
What is your graduation rate?
Are the teachers certified in the subjects they teach?
How many teachers have master's degrees, reading certifications, and math certificates?
How many children are in a classroom?
What books or reading materials are provided?
Who is the publisher of the learning materials?
Are children seated at desks, or folding tables and chairs?
Does your school have a library and a certified librarian on staff?
How many hours per day do teachers work in the classroom?
Does each child have a computer? If not, how many children must share one?
Is the principal certified in school administration with a background in teaching?
How many children are reading at or above their grade level?
If the school has an excess of funds, what happens to that money?
Ask for results and reports, and do not go on the word of the 'administrator' in the building.
Please note: I would
not send my child to a charter/community school. I would move to a better public school district and give my child the full advantages of a well-funded, public education. Remember that charter/community schools answer to owners/CEO's while public schools respond to taxpayers.
> Recent information about the attendance records of Ohio's charter (aka '
community schools')
schools have made taxpayers upset. It appears that some of these
schools are receiving money for invisible students. Following an
investigation by the office of the Ohio Auditor, attendance records were
released from some charters. Here is part of what was discovered-----
The Columbus Dispatch:
....A report released yesterday by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost found
significantly lower attendance at half of the 30 charter schools where
auditors conducted unannounced head counts this past fall....
....Among those with the widest gap was Capital High School, 640 Harrisburg
Pike, Columbus. The school reported 298 students; auditors counted 142,
fewer than half.....
....Gateway
Academy on Kimberly Parkway North in Columbus reported 100 students but
auditors counted 52, with 20 students absent....
Dayton Daily News:
Just 43 of the 153 students listed in attendance records at Dayton
Technology Design High School were present when investigators from the
state Auditor’s office conducted a surprise, random head count at 30
charter schools across the state, according to a report issued Thursday....
.....Auditors showed up at 8:35 a.m. Oct. 1 at Dayton Technology Design
H.S. and found just 43 students in school — well below the 172 estimated
enrollment given in July 2014 and below the 153 students reported to
Ohio Department of Education by the school to be in attendance on Oct.
1. School Director Karl Perkins told auditors that the headcount would
be low because tardy students tend to arrive closer to 9 a.m. and some
log onto the computer from home, the report said.
Yost’s team
showed up again — unannounced — at 8:55 a.m. on Nov. 12 and counted 60
students at Dayton Technology Design H.S. The audit also noted that the
school didn’t notify ODE that it would offer “blended” learning where
students take classes in person and online.....
Cincinnati.com:
Two Hamilton County charter schools had fewer than 25 percent of
registered students in the classrooms when investigators from the Ohio
Auditor's Office stopped by for a surprise head count, according to a
state report released Thursday.....
....The local schools – Life Skills Center of Hamilton County and Life
Skills Center of Cincinnati, which share an administrator and some
teachers – are among seven schools whose surprise checks found far fewer
students in the seats than the estimates provided.
Reported
registration tallies were 64 at Life Skills Hamilton and 127 at Life
Skills Cincinnati. But the headcounts, conducted Oct. 1, found 18 at
Hamilton and 22 on the Cincinnati campus....
Read
Plunderbund's post on the charter school mess
here.
You can download the entire report from the State Auditor's Office
here.
If
you are concerned about wasted money and corporations getting richer
off of your tax money, call your state representative's office and
demand an investigation. I'd like to see a full report on charter
school attendance, money received, and graduation rates side by side. It
is time to stop wasting our tax dollars on these failing charter
schools!!!!
FYI: Those online charter school ads you see on TV are the same ads shown in other states. It is fair to conclude that results are not the same for every student in every state.
