VOUCHERS NOT CHARTER SCHOOLS

VOUCHERS NOT CHARTER SCHOOLS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

When a parent visits a charter school often the facility looks like a start-up private school. The building is usually small and not the imposing modern public school building. It could be housed in a strip mall, converted house or office building. This is confusing enough for parents seeking an alternative to public school education but adding to this confusion charter schools often call themselves private/public schools. This purposeful mixed message is a branding technique to appeal to a broader audience. This private/public statement does not do anything to clarify the charter school’s actual status.

There is one feature that is a dead give-away that a charter school is not a private school. When examining the application of the school literature a family learns there is no tuition schedule included. This is not feasible for a private business. They have to charge tuition to pay for their expenses including teachers, facilities, taxes and to make it profitable enough to remain in business.

Charter schools have more flexibility than public schools but not as much as private schools. The curriculum of a charter school has more leeway in what they do in the classroom and more flexibility that can lead to innovation in the curriculum to teach more effectively.  The downside is their less transparency and accountability, which leads to possible shady practices, mismanagement and possible closure of the charter school. The employment compensation package is not as extensive as those unionized teachers in the regular public schools.  This allows them more flexibility to allocate more funds to better meet the educational needs of the students. As any other public school, charter schools have a form of accountability to local or state education bureaucracy. They have to have a normative based national test to show the academic achievement of the students although they are exempt from many other bureaucratic benchmarks.

Private school owners have their own financial investment in the building, material and supplies. They have all the financial responsibility and risk in any costs associated with any business venture. They have “skin in the game” while charter school administrators do not. Since the parents have to dip into their income and savings private school parents have more motivation to know their child’s daily progress. They want to insure they are getting their money’s worth.  These parents expect instant responses to their inquiries and personal in-depth information concerning their child’s behavior, academic skills in all areas and character development. Private schools can only be successful by convincing the parents their students are receiving a quality education for the tuition they are paying. The private school owners in essence have as many bosses as they have parents of students, not just a distant school board or a foundation member that is sponsoring the charter school.

Private schools and homeschoolers receive no school tax money given by the state. The entire risk and cost falls on the shoulders of the owners and parents not on the public taxpayers. Besides, these parents of private and homeschooled students are still responsible for public school taxes on top of their child’s private school tuition and home school expenses. These parents present a great plus for the average taxpayer. The more children are in private and home school settings the less the taxpayer has to shell out for school taxes. It relieves public schools of vast numbers of students that are overwhelming the public schools.

A much more effective and fair system to improve education is to give tuition vouchers to all parents with children to determine the school of their choice rather than allowing only charter schools to receive public funding. This voucher could be used in public, charter, private or homeschool situations. Home school parents are sacrificing their time, energy and income to educate their children and should receive compensation for their dedication to their child’s education. The voucher system would increase the parents’ options to select the best school for the needs of their children.

The powerful political teacher’s union and other organizations that promote only public schools should not be allowed to influence what type of school options should receive funding. The education of our future leaders should be decided on what is good for students not on political considerations of winning the favor of a large block of “voters,” who only consider a “public school” education.

Instead let the citizens directly decide by giving them a voucher to vote with their own tax money to choose what is best for their children. Competition will improve all the educational venues through fair competition without strings attached.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING- In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

"PRIVATE CHARTER SCHOOLS" ARE NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS

 “PRIVATE CHARTER SCHOOLS” ARE NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

Many charter schools advertise themselves as “Private, Public Schools.”  This branding is at best misleading or an outright deception. All of the money they use to finance these charter schools comes from public school tax money.  The amount of funding they receive differs from state to state.  They are publicly funded but privately run.

“School privatization is another confusing term that refers to establishing public charter schools through state legislation in the United States. The use of public money to hire private companies is the language of outsourcing government responsibilities. Again these often-large speculative companies are not using their own money to operate rather the tax money of the people.

Charter schools were founded in 1992 in Minneapolis and have expanded throughout the USA. Most of these schools are smaller than current public schools.

They can be brick and mortar schools or virtual schools. There are great variations in effectiveness. Some are high performing and others are mired in horror stories of providing inflated grades but producing poor standardized test results, college admission and retention.

The public school establishment argues that charter schools are siphoning off school funds that negatively affect the quality of public schools. They fail to state the charter schools are given approximately 80% of what an average public school student receives, which means 20% of the funds remain with the district. They say the unsavory relationship between state legislators and private companies has led to waste, corruption and fraud.  The public school proponents note that thousands of dollars are donated to state representative’s campaigns from these private companies seeking favorable laws for charter schools. They point to a lack of oversight and regulations leading to millions of dollars being embezzled from taxpayers.

The CEOs of some of these private companies refuse to release their exorbitant salaries.  Dollars are taken for services that are not provided by the charter school. These companies often transfer public money that was given in one state to use in another state to start a different enterprise. The disbursement of public funds for personal use has been another recurring issue. Government has a poor record of monitoring and regulating its public services and charter schools seem to be more readily falling through the cracks.

These private companies use public money as their cash cow.  They can purchase  privately owned buildings, and charge the state an outrageous price.  Some pay family members huge salaries for questionable services, which is forcing many charter schools to run at a loss. These financially questionable practices are causing some to even close their doors leaving the students and parents in disarray. 

The academic inadequacies or the fiscally mismanaged charter school’s demise does not usually devastate the private company. They use public school money, not their own.  Unless they are prosecuted for breaking a law they can walk away without losing a dime of their own money.  Often they can reapply and obtain another charter school in the same community or move to another state to start this process over again.

For profit private school owners are totally different from charter school CEOs since their investment in their private school business belongs only to them. Their money is generated by tuition paid by parents, not taken from the public coffers. They are self-sufficient business people that pay taxes to the local community. These schools have the autonomy and flexibility to provide unique educational opportunities for many students.

The students and their parents are the customers. Parents and thus their children are invested in the school as they have “skin in the game.” When a significant number of dissatisfied families leave, the school makes necessary changes or goes out of business.  When their constituents love the school, it thrives. 

Private schools do not cost but instead save the public money.  They provide educational services that are free to the state and require no public money. According to studies, most provide quality education.

The state and federal government tax any revenue and financial transactions of the private school. Any loss incurred by the business directly affects the owner’s assets not anyone else’s. These entrepreneurs are willing to compete with “free” public education, which indicates a mission of caring rather than one of money.

Private schools are a win-win for the state and its citizens because they take students off the public school roll plus provide taxes for the state without draining any public funds. 

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS NEED FREEDOM TO FULFILL THEIR MISSION

PRIVATE SCHOOLS NEED FREEDOM TO FULFILL THEIR MISSION

By Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, private school students do not primarily come from high socio-economic backgrounds. The image from the past of elitist private schools has been altered by the progressively dismal results of public education.

Using vouchers in the school choice movement has enabled many families with children who have significant academic and emotional difficulties to attend private schools.

Private education has had positive results with educating all types of students.  When private schools have been given the freedom and flexibility to run their own programs to meet the individual needs of children they do a significantly better job.

Hollywood star, Matt Damon who is a strong proponent of public schools, reluctantly admitted to the decline of public education. "The private school that I send my kids to is the thing closest to the public school that I went to that I could find. And that’s why I send my kids to private school. "

Common Core is being introduced to our school districts throughout the United States to reverse the academic slide. This decision will continue the decline of public school students. A segment of highly motivated, high socially-economic students will prosper but the majority of students will not be given sufficient time to mature before being stamped as failures. They are going to be seen as unfortunate casualties of the numbers game.

All students arrive at school with specific strengths and weaknesses. In private schools the administration can tailor-make the instruction for each student by creatively tweaking staff assignments and facility resources to be more efficient and effective in meeting the student’s unique needs.

These adjustments are done not for political advancement but for practical reasons to provide quality education to each student within the boundaries of the budget.. The hiring of additional staff and firing those who do not fit in is based on realistic and specific needs to meet the educational goal of increasing student performance.

Private schools do not want or cannot afford to change the entire program every few years to market the latest educational fad. The financial implications of the cost of new materials, equipment and training are prohibitive. They realize that a consistent structured environment provides a more encouraging and conducive environment for learning.

Most importantly, the owners of these schools have a strong mission that required them to put everything on the line to enter the business of education while competing with “free” taxpayer education.  Their philosophy of educating children gradually altered to meet the needs of a changing population.  In a real academic situation they learn what works for improving the performance of the students.

Private education will be devastated if they are forced to accept Common Core testing protocol to measure success. This in essence will cause private schools to abandon their freedom to be creative that produces high student performance. Private schools will become high priced carbon copies of the Common Core cookie cutter approach to education.

Parents have been disenfranchised in public/government school systems. They are powerless pawns in their child’s education.  They witness their child’s academic work primarily being directed towards a normative test with no recourse to change it. This is reversed in private school.  The private school, like any business, realizes the consumer has to be treated with respect and provided with a quality product or it will be fired by the parents. The decentralization of power into the hands of parents and students empowers them to become committed members of the school community they have chosen.

The uniting of parents with administration and teachers is the key element to providing an educational environment of excellence. The child knows there is no room to “play one against another.” Everyone stays on the same page, which focuses the child’s education on striving to be the best he can be.

The school community can produce miracles when everyone is working toward the same goals. The school head should have the freedom to make subtle or even more definitive adjustments on the steering wheel to keep on course. Students need a steady wind behind them to guide them toward the desired destination.

The freedom and power being in the hands of the person at the helm of the school, not in Washington, D.C., is essential for a private school to fulfill its mission of providing an optimal learning situation for each student.