More public schools to be given to charters
More Philadelphia public schools will be given to charter organizations in September, the district's fourth go-round in its "Renaissance Schools" process.
More public schools to be given to charters
Kristen Graham
More Philadelphia public schools will be given to charter organizations in September, the district's fourth go-round in its "Renaissance Schools" process.
The district on Friday released a request for proposals for 2013-14 charter operators, no big surprise since officials have been saying for months that while they won't be authorizing any new standalone charters for next year, they like the Renaissance charter model and will continue to use it as a way to improve failing schools.
Officials said they would release the details of this year's crop of Renaissance schools on Feb. 11. A spokeswoman declined to say how many schools will be given to charters this year.
Since 2010, 17 struggling district schools have been handed to charters to run. The district has been pleased with the schools' progress, officials say, citing improvements in academics, attendance, violence and percentage of neighborhood students enrolling.
Schools are deemed "Renaissance eligible" on the basis of academics, school climate and neighborhood attendance rate. Only firms with a track record of turning around low-performing schools will be considered, officials said. Winning bidders will be awarded a five-year charter to run the schools.
Teachers in the affected schools will be considered force transfers who are eligible for jobs in other district schools.
Raven Hill, the spokeswoman, said that she could not speak to whether Promise Academies - district-run Renaissance Schools - will be designated.
The Renaissance timeline is tight - charter operators have until Feb. 8 to submit a letter of intent to submit RFP responses, which are due March 5. Meanwhile, community meetings for the designated schools will be held in February, and the School Advisory Councils that will make recommendations about which charter operators to pick will be recruited by early March. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. will make his recommendations about charter-school matches by April 19, with a School Reform Commission vote on the matches to be held by early May.
Copies of the Renaissance RFP are available on the district's website.
The district's use of Renaissance schools has led to continued enrollment drops in the city's traditional public schools. This year, there are about 146,000 students in the system.
Comments (90)
These are the people and ideas we're up against;
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/01/apple-education-jobs/— Filly5- That's just the point Kilgore Trout,when the money and resources are cut to the bone the schools fail and voila they are handed over to charters. All of this has been years in the making and Hite was brought in to finish it off. If buildinga are underutilized to you combiine a few here and there instead of gutting the entire system, but then again you know "he have serious money problems and we have to do this RIGHT AWAY." GMAB with this nonsense the privatizers are so transparent. Does anyone hear the President or mayor stopping this travesty? Heck no.— Filly5
- Schools supported by taxpayer dollars - why 2 different rules? When charter schools are mandated by the same rules as public schools, then compare results. Since they already do not exceed public school students in learning, imagine how much further they would lag were they obligated to take all students. Sure,we all want safe schools and charter's perogative of refusing to accept all students (mentally challenged not to be confused with mental illness), disruptive students, etc) same as public schools then and only then should money be spent on charters. So Mayor-let's fix public schools first before creating elitest schools that do not have to abide by the rules and should not be considered "public" and supported by the taxpayers' money. Find solutions to fix "unsafe" public schools. Level the playing ground between charters (which cost more money to educate than public schools. Or are you going to do what you usually do raise taxes?— hilite98
Hey lets call them all charters and then all our children can at least think they have the same chance as real charter schools.— lathe- How is it that the public and the staff do not the names of the schools to be handed over and yet the charter operators know since they have to bid. Hite lies like every other administrator at 440 when he talks about transparency. His motto is listen to stuff I say not what I do.— poogie
- comparing charters to public schools is comparing apples to oranges. charters have the ability to remove problematic students. public schools are not able to just remove problem students, we have to solve the problem. and our scores are going up even after closing the discipline schools and concentrating all the disruptive students into the public schools. this is just another attack on the middle class that our sold out politicians are imposing on society.— high water
- "Despite a growing number of studies showing that charter schools are generally no better — and often are worse — than their traditional counterparts"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/opinion/more-lessons-about-charter-schools.html?hp&_r=0— Cuddles - The energy used for the creation of Charter Schools could have and should have gone to Public Schools.
Now more and more of our doctors, nurses, engineers and spelling bee champions are born overseas.— Cuddles - "A bird in hand is worth far more than a bird in the bush"...George Bush
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/camden_flow/189500341.html— Cuddles - http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/National_Release.pdf— atibamanii
- It's obvious the PSD isn't working, so why not give Charters, etc a chance. Throwing more money at a failing school district isn't going to fix things. I'd rather give parents vouchers to use at a private school if they wanted to.— NoRoger_NoRerun_NoRent
- Because a full frontal lobotomy might work for a headache too, but that doesn't mean you should try it. We have far too much to lose to sit back and watch our children's education be sold to the lowest bidder.
- A "Charter" is a license for someone to PROFIT(ize) the system.
In five years, if not today, the Charter School will be the back room in the corner store.
Stripped of Art
Stripped of Gym
Stripped of Care
Stripped of Music
Stripped of Nurses
Stripped of Community
Remember when they PROMISED that Cable TV was commercail free....Remember?
Remember that as funding for PUBLIC TV went down
The billing for Cable TV went up.
Be careful what you wish for...— Cuddles - School choice continues to grow. Charters are increasing enrollment in the suburbs too. Can't stop freedom...— MGuyW
- Public schools in the suburbs outperform the charters much more than the inner city, because parents don't worry about dangerous students the way inner city parents have to. Also the state hasn't taken over and ruined their public schools yet. There is no freedom here, this is wholesale fascism. Once your school is taken over, you have no control over it as a parent, community member, or taxpayer. The only parents that can guarantee a quality education for their kids will be those who can pay top dollar for it. Otherwise they'll be forced to choose between these glorified babysitters or their dumping grounds.
- Remember when Cable TV was 15 bucks a month and then they offered us "choice"?
How'd that turn out?— Cuddles - Turned out to be a lot more channels to choose from. You made my point...
Thanks— MGuyW - My Kilgore... You have some nice spare time on your hands today... You libs are all the same as you're so generous with other people's money... You say " throw more money into public schools, that will fix it".... Well, we've been doing that for the past 50 years and look where it's gotten us... Bankrupt with lousy results... Like I said, abolish the NEA and get you libs out of the system... Problem solved over night if this were the case...— Soul child2013
- Yes, thanks to unions, most of us have our weekends off, but what does that have to do with the state of our schools? It's not other people's money, it's THE people's money. I pay taxes just like everyone else. The difference is that I want that money to go for the public good. I am a student of history, and know that when we all work together, anything is possible. It's the principal on which this country was founded, and public education was a product of that notion. In case you haven't noticed, it's worked out pretty well for us. Haven't you noticed that most people can read? There is vast room for improvement with respect to public schools, but charters have been proven over and over a failure at replacing good neighborhood public schools. The SRC and governor Corbett don't care about improving education. If they did, they would never open another charter. Hite lied and promised he wouldn't. He admitted they were frauds and cost too much money. Still he's opening nearly twenty more? Look around and see the facts! These people see dollar signs when they see our children. Why not force the charters to take the continuously disruptive, disrespectful, and dangerous children the public schools are forced to keep? Because the traditional public schools would thrive, and these rotten crooks know it!
- In five years, if not today, Charter Schools will be the back room of the corner store.
Remember when Cable TV was new at only 15 bucks a month.— Cuddles - Did you pay that bill, as opposed to your real estate taxes? — b,ill at,kins
- If kilgore fish was teaching my kid, I'd be begging for more charters too. You've failed, fish. You'll never admit it publicly, but I think deep down, you know it.— b,ill at,kins
- Since you wouldn't last ten minutes in a classroom, I'll take your nonsense as a complement. But then again, bill, having absolutely no idea what you're talking about never stopped you before. — Kilgore Trout 76
- Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. I have no desire to be you, fish. I wouldn't last ten minutes as a goonion stooge because I prefer to think for myself. Look at you; you spend all this time here whining for other people to pay you. I mean, what's that like? I just can't relate to that. You're a failure, and I think you know it. — b,ill at,kins
- those who think for themselves don't continue to repeat inaccurate, moronic cliches. James Joyce, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee- three off the top of my head who taught and did. bill, who can't do either, still posting hoping the Koch boys notice him and put him on the payroll.
now await some vile comments from bile atkins. - Me no think for meself. Me say Koch boys like union god and Democrat party boss tell me. Me teach, gib me you money. — b,ill at,kins
- You've never had an opinion that wasn't pre-approved by a goonion stooge or an elected Democrat party baboon. An original thought would die of loneliness in your pointy head. The Koch brothers...lol, honestly, you probably don't even know who they are or what they do. But you've been told to hate them, so you do. It's a crime that they let you in the same room as children, high water, let alone 'teach' them. God help them all. — b,ill at,kins
- someone needs to tell you that you embarrass yourself constantly on this website, bile.
- no intelligent person is arguing to keep psd schools which never educated anyome.— dreinterests
- Charter schools = Government dependency factories
Public school = Government dependency factories
Private school = Good education
Home school = Best education
— Hobo Floto Voto - Yeah just about any old person can home school and teach Trigonometry, English, Chemistry, Economics all at the college prep level. — mick-of-the-moment
- Does anyone notice how poor the average SAT scores are at most of the Charter Schools?— anti-tax
- Remember when you and the rest of your goonion fraud flunkies insisted that standardized testing wasn't a true measure of educational progress? lol, don't ever change. I love laughing at you desperate, hypocritical clowns. — b,ill at,kins
- william hite doing all the right things so far to correct decades of negligence? will they run him out of town for being legit? most likely— stayoutofphilly
- Regardless of what side of this debate you may fall keep in mind the following: Charter schools will not save tax payer dollars, the price per student actually raises by approx $1k. Charters on average will have lower incidents of violence and have more administrative control over the educational experience. Charters, even with slightly more funds, slightly safer environments with more control have shown no improvement in student academic scores. Essentially it's the same outcome with a shift in revenue from the union teacher employee to the non-union management and administrator of the Charter. That's about it folks.— Independent_1
- Let's accept your statements for argument's sake. If the safer environment is the primary change for students, then what's the problem? Isn't a safer environment going to be more conducive to learning in the long run? Why are the unions demanding that these children be forced back into unsafe war zones? — b,ill at,kins
- the reason why the district can't fix the failing schools is because the unionized labor model is to expensive and unmotivated to tackle big, difficult problems. their singular focus on time and salary is not conducive to the work it takes to turn around a school.— pointguard
- I think they should open more tech/trade schools like Mastbaum and Swenson cause I can't even spell's renaissance.
Promise Academies, renaissance schools, charter schools, or whatever fancy label you want to put on it, they're all just more scams waiting to happen.
— billypencil - 13% of district schools made AYP. This includes magnet schools and special admissions schools. 30% of charter schools made AYP (using the same measurement). Charters get less money and still perform better. The lie about charters costing money is just that, a lie. Charters cost tax payers about 30% less than traditional public schools. That's public money. When people say charters cost money, it's because it costs the School District money, in large part because the district never adjusted to account for lost students. Finally, you have to remember that the district didn't only lose students to charters, but private schools, catholic schools, home schooling, and families leaving the city.— northeastnaysayer
- I think you're right-on, PhillyGuy. This is just a start. Other districts will experience the same thing in the future.— dim-5
- If charters are soooo bad why are parents lining up to get their kids in them?— davebrown777
- If trout was teaching your kid, you'd wait in line forever for an alternative. — b,ill at,kins
- Large sprawling organizations have LESS accountablity the BIGGER they get. THAT is why unions are so sensitive to charters - the accountability goes up and they like to answer to noone but themselves. It is simple, though, the public school unions have nothig but abject failure for a legacy. They should not just be reduced, they should be eliminated. The only SERIOUS interests in the world are private interests and FDR's new deal should be scrapped as the ghetto blight machine that it is (and all it ever has been).— thinkforyourself
- Right on thinkforyoutself...right on! — Soul child2013
- charter schools do one thing well. provide a SAFE EDUCATION without distraction or disruption from students who have no respect for education. Their belief and feelings towards education come from their home and no school will EVER change the mindset of a family, a whole family through one individual in a classroom who does not care about why they are there. What is wrong with providing a SAFE education to kids? Ask any kid at a SAFE charter where they would rather go to school in this city and not one of them would ever utter their neighborhood school. If you had a choice to work at one job where you were harassed on the daily, they had metal detectors at the door, noone listened to the boss, people stole things from your desk, their were fist fights at work, coworkers sold drugs, a police presence was necessary to maintain order, and it was generally a hostile environment where you had to watch your back every second of the day or another job where you came to work, your coworkers did none of the above, and you never had to worry about such things. Ask yourself, why is it wrong to provide a SAFE environment for any child?— snewdog
- Child safety is not important. kilgore trout needs to get paid. That is all that matters. Forward. — b,ill at,kins
- I like ptahan's idea better than charter schools. Move the trouble makers to alternative schools. Put them all together and let the 80% that work to succeed.— misterpond
- No way the celebrity agitators and the union would allow it. No way. — b,ill at,kins
- Privatization Is the only answer... Competition between schools where the best schools survive and the poor ones fail will provide the education and results you all claim you want... It too will reward the best teachers with higher pay and the poor teachers Pink slips... Good old competition... Without it there is no incentive to be the best!— Soul child2013
- Then you must be a fan of competition when one side is allowed to cheat. Charter schools only admit students who meet their benchmarks so they seem better. The sad fact is that once enrolled there, these students don't continue to progress at the rate their highly qualified experienced public school teachers got them to. In a FAIR comparison, charters fail the test every time. So there goes your argument. The losers win out with the SRC and everyone suffers.
- The SRC is very quickly losing its credibility.— readingspecialist 1
- The School District should first identify which schools need to be improved and then identify the reasons why they need to be improved and the reasons why the school district itself can not improve them.
Then the SRC needs to explain their rationale for privatizing them. Then and only then should a request for proposals be put out.
The way this is all happening is clear evidence that the Agenda of privatization and turning our schools over to private entities for profit is being imposed upon Philadelphians by a group of insiders who want to profit off of our schoolchildren.
If anyone thinks this is about improving schools for our children -- I have farm land in Alaska for you. They are not even creating real charter schools. They are turning our schools over to people who are operating our schools as their private little businesses.
This charade has become a farce.— readingspecialist 1 - hmmm,
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/bush-foundation-staff-acted-to-promote-their-corporate-funders-priorities/
Jeb Bush, Bill Gates, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee---kids are commodities to all of these scammers.— pachysandra - the technology and real estate markets have blasted up and fizzled out in last 10 years. we are MAXED OUT. america is looking for a new "bubble" market. education is it, both literally and figuratively. now kids are commodity.....— hmmm
- Which current charter schools take disabled and mentally challenged children? And which ones take children at any time during the year because they just moved here or are having difficulties at their public schools? And which ones introduce children to the arts and sciences, no matter their specialties? All this is is union busting and getting around educational mandates that are not funded by the governmental level that require them.— gb
- Charter schools' standardized test scores are no better than public schools. Just b/c politicians and their friends make money from the charter school program, is the only reason they're allowed to continue. It's time for the public to stand up to this misuse of taxpayers' dollars. What a scam!— sabelotodo
- Are you f'ing kidding?! Charter Schools don't work. There is more than a little research that shows this. Why do they keep doing this? Follow the money!— fire fighter
- Why are parents in every city where charters exist, entering their kids into a lottery system for the chance to go to a charter then? They must be doing something right, over the traditional public schools. And if you want to follow where the real money is, look at how much teachers unions spend each in year in lobbying and fighting educational reforms that would actually benefit students. — camtheman
- Because they're not! Penn Alexander is a public school with additional funding and support from the University of Pennsylvania. That lottery system you so highly praise only proves what EVERY public school could achieve with the support they need.
- Hooray! Shake it up. My students were arguing w/ me today saying, "This is public school, what do you expect but bad behavior?" I was trying to get them to see that they have as much of a responsibility to get/ receive an education as I have a responsibility to guide & share in the delivery of their education. 8th graders on 5th grade reading levels and even lower writing levels, about 20% of the class. The other 80% is and has been at their mercy for most of their school years. There is no place for trouble makers to go, so everyone suffers. If Hite is keen, he'll discover a niche for serious alternative education to free the majority from a handful of troublers. The troublers will be saved as well, or at least have a chance of becoming something more than nothing, not to mention helping society as a whole.— ptahan
- The next great scam in America is going to be 'privatizing' public education and charter schools in urban cities.— PhillyGuy77
- The greatest scam has been the cycle of failure that city public schools has set in motion and the despair that families have, realizing this is their only option. Why do lots of families put their kids on waiting lists for the opportunity to escape cycle of failure that exists in public schools? Go watch "Waiting for Superman" to see where the real scam in public education exists. — camtheman
- That movie is a pathetic piece of right wing propaganda. Give public schools the resources they sorrowfully need and no charter can compete.
- Good point camtheman! Director Guggenheim did 'An Inconvenient Truth'...'right wing'?! Funny.... — MGuyW
- "Pay me pay me pay me pay me." Talk about pathetic. — b,ill at,kins
- I thought the report showed that charters did no better than the Philly district sshools. Yet the charters cost more per pupil tax dollars and are for profit schools. Am I missing somehting???? I don`t see tha plus or the allur of the charters. To me they are just an opportunity for graft and greed.
Why isn`t there a ground swell of parents protesting this type of school. The neighborhood public shchool should be the glue to the community. I think the biggest problem is the parents. Many just don`t care! That is what sets the suburbs apart from city schools. Involved parents. But, I imagine that assumption is politically incorrect. As the city parents chant-keep our kids in public schools . Who are you to say our kids should succeed. We didn`t-why should they???— patty b - @dee: It would be so much easier if we could just exclude the hard to education and expel the behavior problems.
We are creating educational apartheid in Philly. One set of rules for one type of public school, another set of rules for another.— nikki1231 - So true Nikki, so true. — F. Harry Stowe
- A good curriculum, sound fiscal management, and making students actually accountable for their behavior and their school work is a really good start towards "improvement." Perhaps this is why the PSD schools were not getting it done.— dee99999
- And when do you think the politicians and teachers' union will get on board with that? — Don_M
- You're fighting to fatten your own wallet. Period. You could care less about the children. — b,ill at,kins
- Teaching conditions are learning conditions, you fool. Teachers are the only ones in this equation who actually do care about the children. You thin that under qualified part time teachers would be better? Of course you do. You haven't got a clue.
- promise academies cost more than renaissance schools and haven't been as quick to improve. three of the four operators have met the targets assigned for enrolling students within their catchment area. you can't win this argument so you might as well hurl insults.— pointguard
- Another charter provider pleading guilty this week and another comprehensive report from Stanford showing that once a charter gets off to a bad start, they do not improve. Couple this with the recent revision of test scores that sent the charter numbers tumbling and it is easy to see what racket these charters are. But here comes the pointguard advocating for more thievery and more educational BS. — mick-of-the-moment
- Charter schools are allowed to select students who already meet academic benchmarks and expel those who can't keep up. Theres no excellence in education going on there. The only insult here is the one to your intelligence if you expect those facts to speak for themselves.
- charter schools are a scam.— the lopez!
- No, Philly public schools are the real taxpayer scam, when they have consistently proven to be an under performing entity, beholden to the Teacher's Unions — camtheman
- No, charter schools are a scam. What you want are teachers who don't care about their jobs.
- Charters are scams but the SRC is addicted to them because it makes it look like they're doing something.— FixThisCityPlease
- Maybe Hite is listening, but just disagrees. Some schools don't deserve to be saved.— willll
- Not wasting any time, huh? People are going to these meetings in good faith, believing that Hite is really listening to them and their pleas to save their schools. Turns out this is what is happening behind closed doors.
They have absolutely no shame.— pachysandra - And no honor. Mr. Hite is a liar! Hite lied to people when he promised there would be no new charter schools.
- Well, there goes our tax dollars to make a bunch of charter operators rich and to keep a bunch of our school uneducated. Make a note of the names of the new operators of these new charter schools. They'll be on a Federal indictment in the next couple of years.— mike 1717
- Even though they aren't performing as well as public schools the SRC still insist on allocating them more schools with tax money, smh— teachmyway
- And it gets much worse than that. All of the technology and materials are stolen and given to these scam charters for free, leaving the remaining public schools with even fewer resources. It's all part of the plan. One more reason for a parent to enroll their child in a charter, even though the education these kids receive there is sadly lacking. In order for Corbett to make his money he has to keep manipulating people. Hite said parents "choose" to enroll their children in charters. What a bunch of bull. There's no choice when the district makes their kindergartener walk two miles to school, or puts six year olds in the same school with teenagers. When the district dissolves disciplinary supports and makes it difficult to remove dangerous children from the classroom, parents have no choice, and everyone suffers. Close every scam charter! Public schools do it better. Public schools do it cheaper! All they need is the support that Hite and Corbett are so willing to give to private corporations that have no business interfering in public education.
1
Popular Posts
About this blog
Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham writes the Philly School Files blog, where she covers education in Philadelphia, both in and out of the classroom.
Kristen Graham
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
Search this blog:
Blog Roll
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners: