http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/why_did_17_charter_schools_fai.php
Charter schools are one of America’s major education reform initiatives to take hold across the country in the last 20 years.Charters, which receive public funding but operate independently of local school boards, are supposed to “be creative sources of innovation [and] show what could be accomplished when government got out of the way,”according to Diane Ravitch, who used to like the reform model, and now opposes it. Charter schools should introduce competition and choice into public education, which is supposed to push normal public schools to improve, and test out new ideas for teaching and school organization.But in Columbus, Ohio, something seems to have gone very wrong. The city had 75 charter schools. And last year a quarter of them went under. Several closed without warning. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch
that seems to be the one thing promoters left out, it depends n where they are and whether the support that was there would remain after a political change.
That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented.
In some cases the schools ran out of money. Others health and safety problems. In some cases the school sponsor withdrew support.When they closed, more than 250 students had to find new schools. The state spent more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money to keep the nine schools open only from August through October or November.
How did this happen? Well according to Chad Aldis, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a group that loves charter schools and sponsors 10 of them in Ohio, is has to do with “the power of a couple of players with standards that are not up to par really affecting an overall market.”Well that’s one way to put it. The more serious structural problem, however, might just be that there is virtually no oversight or quality control of charter schools. According to the article,Nonprofit groups, universities, school districts and educational service centers can act as charter-school sponsors or authorizers. They’re supposed to be the gatekeepers; they decide which schools can open and whether they should close if they’re not adequately serving students.
“The way it works right now is, if a school has a sponsor and they sign a contract, that school can open,” said John Charlton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. “We don’t have any approval or denial power.”
the fact that one does or all do will that be the dynamic in 2 years the schools and students that depend on that loyalty to the project are the ones to get hurt first and the most.
to withhold funds implies that there are funds to withhold, which puts the failure maybe not so much on the students or building but those who saw fit to further disadvantage our children it's selfish and mean and though not stated i'm going on a limb right wing influence too. this is why America falls far behind countries politicos call 3rd world in education and such. DENIAL!
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