Failing Charter Schools Turned into Voucher Schools, and ALEC's One-Size-Fits-All State Board to Take Local Education Control Away

The following from historian Dianne Ravich’s education blog is just one of many sites shining a light on all the schemes and cons already a part of the private schools system. Just think what it’ll be like 10 years from now.

ALEC advances the destruction of local school boards:

Julie Underwood, dean of the school of education at the University of Wisconsin, has been watching ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and warns that their agenda includes the elimination of local school boards.

School boards are a basic democratic institution. Some 95% are elected. They hire and fire superintendents and set each district’s policy goals. Most people would see them as an expression of local control, a place where citizens may voice their views.

But ALEC has a radical agenda of privatization, and the school boards get in the way. ALEC would like to see more vouchers and charters, and the creation of unelected state boards that can override local decision-making.

Parents know best? Did they know that failed Charter Schools are now great voucher schools? Come on parents, keep up:

Two low-performing for-profit Imagine charter schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana, were supposed to close because of their poor academic records. But instead of closing, they are merging with Horizon Christian Academy, where students will be encouraged to apply for vouchers.

Karen Francisco, the editorial page editor of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, says that we now know that school “reform” has nothing to do with accountability as this move enables failing charters to evade any accountability for their performance.

Meanwhile, some public schools in Indiana are closing because of budget cuts.