by Diane Ravitch, from her blog | http://bit.ly/NU5Tdy
June 20, 2012 :: The General Accounting Office, which is the federal government’s watchdog agency, just issued a report concluding that charter schools are failing to enroll a fair share of students with disabilities. Advocates of students with special needs have complained about this for the past few years, and it is now confirmed.
The report showed that special-education students—those with diagnosed disabilities from Down Syndrome to attention-deficit disorder—made up 8.2% of charter school students during the 2009-2010 school year. While that was up from 7.7% the year before, it was below the average at traditional public schools of 11.2% in 2009-2010, and 11.3% the previous year.
“These are differences that cannot remain. They are not acceptable,” said Rep. George Miller (D., Calif), a charter-school proponent who asked the GAO to look into the issue. The House passed a bill last year that would make it easier for charter schools to expand, and “we want to make sure that all children—including those who are special ed—have a chance to participate in this revolutionary education reform,” he said. The Senate hasn’t yet voted on the bill.
Congressman George Miller of California, who requested the study, is the leading Democrat on education in the House of Representatives. Miller is a big proponent of testing (he was one of the prime sponsors of NCLB) and now of charters. He is also a favorite of Democrats for Education Reform, the organization of Wall Street hedge fund managers that promotes charters everywhere. DFER has raised large sums of money for Miller.
Eva Moskowitz, a charter founder in New York City, says in the article that the reason the numbers of special education students are low is because her schools are able to move students out of special education because of her schools’ superior methods. But this claim demonstrates that her schools take students with the mildest disabilities, and leaves those with high needs to the public schools, a complaint often lodged against charters.
The most disturbing comment in the article about the study comes at the very end.
Jim Shelton, who oversees charter school initiatives for the Department of Education, said the enrollment gaps between charters and traditional schools are a “relatively small difference,” and that it was difficult to draw conclusions based on the information provided. But he said his office would takes steps to address the issue.
Shelton, formerly of McKinsey, formerly of the Gates Foundation, formerly part of Race to the Top, formerly in charge of innovation grants, now runs the U.S. Department of Education’s charter school initiatives. He sees only a “relatively small difference” in the data presented by GAO. In other words, no problem here. Move on, look the other way. He finds it difficult to draw conclusions. He sees nothing of importance. But his office will “take steps” to address this unimportant issue.
In a story about this report in Huffington Post, Shelton says, ”The report puts a fine point on issues we were concerned about,” demonstrating his lack of interest in the issue. Expecting Shelton to monitor charter school violations of the rights of students with special needs or of any other wrong committed by these private sector schools is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
4LAKids has posted the full report here
LAUSD SPECIAL ED PARENT ADVOCATE SONJA LUCHINI RESPONDED ON THE RAVITCH BLOG: http://bit.ly/PBH6JC
Sonja Luchini
June 21, 2012 at 12:11 pm (edt)
I’ve collected data on LAUSD Charters for years “Enrollment by Disability TYPE” and “Services Provided”. Guess what? The recent study and other articles related to it do not mention the percentages of special education “disability TYPES”. Just because their percentages are slightly below doesn’t mean they’re also taking the moderate/severely disabled (data shows they’re not), nor are they providing the types of services that a more moderate/severely disabled student would need (another proof these students aren’t being enrolled).
I recently stumbled across a Green Dot “Special Education Handbook” that was written without LAUSD Charter Division Office oversight. For some reason they utilized the “expertise” of a different school district, Southwest SELPA (Special Education Local Planning Area – a CA specific entity that families would love to blow up – LAUSD is so large it is its own SELPA and doesn’t “share” special ed therapists/services as smaller districts do by consolidating what they have to share – thus forming SELPAs).
I’m disturbed by the wording on pdf page numbering 31 (shows in handbook as page 25). The chapter labeled “Special Education Standard Operating Procedures” starts with discussion on what to do at the beginning of the academic school year. I’m bothered by what is titled “By the Second Week”:
“1. Schedule 30-day IEP’s for all students coming from a different district (note: LAUSD, in this case is considered a different district as some of their schools were using Southwest SELPA for services). All incoming 9th graders should have a 30-day IEP except those who are enrolling from another Green Dot School.
2. Contact Special Education Administrator to discuss placement of students whose IEP prescribes a different setting than the one offered at the Ánimo School of attendance. You may not make a recommendation to change SDP placement to RSP placement without consulting with an administrator prior to developing the plan. (note: by law they should not be discussing it AT ALL until an IEP meeting is called – this is against IDEA)
3. Contact your cluster’s Special Education Program Administrator to discuss placement options when your school is not the appropriate placement for the students (same note as before – not to be discussed until the 30 day IEP with parent participation.) and the team will be recommending placement back to an LAUSD school.”
Proper procedure is to call a meeting and have an IEP team decide proper placement. It is NOT to be done BEFORE and IN SECRET among administrators and instructors as outlined in the Green Dot “handbook.”
This is proof, in writing, that Charter Schools and (especially Green Dot) have NO intention of enrolling students with moderate/severe disabilities. These schools receive public funds and as they are violating the rights of students and their families, should be shut down for blatant discrimination policies…but big business has bought our legislators and (with the help of expensive lobbyists that regular families and those who have students with disabilities cannot) force through laws that are charter-friendly without input from academics, educators and those who really care about our public education system.
Business backers of charter orgs create phoney, astro-turf “parent” groups that trick ESL families into signing “petions” in the guise of meeting “sign-in sheets” (this was reported to me at a Special Education Community Advisory Committee meeting when Locke HS was in the process of “take-over”.) Eli Broad’s Administrator Academy has a link to a “toolkit” called “How to Close a School” so it can be “reconverted to a charter. These folks want our public school property – it’s the next big land grab. With all their money and power – they want to steal what the public has for their own personal gain…and those pesky students with moderate/severe disabilities, English Language Learners and Foster youth will be, what?…warehoused in their plan? These students aren’t even INCLUDED in their plans. It’s disgraceful and disgusting.
It’s never been about the kids. It’s a business, plain and simple.
Here’s links to the new world order:
http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/p/parent-guide.html
http://www.dailycensored.com/2009/10/05/say-you-want-a-revolution-parents-revolution-astro-turf-organizations-and-the-privatization-of-public-schools/
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/11/parent-trigger-charlatan-ben-austin.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/jeb-bush-digitial-learning-public-schools
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005059.htmAs I’ve said in another post, “When business gets involved with education, it’s never about the children – it’s about profit and nothing more. If they cared – they’d convince our leadership to fully fund education, teach ALL children and invest in the teachers we have, the schools we have and support education instead of creating “grants” and “races” for only a few to benefit from. We’re starving our once great educational system at the expense of a few greedy business people and it truly stinks that the general public is so ignorant about this.”
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