Embed from Getty Images In November of 2016, president elect Trump selected Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education. While this appointment seems to have changed her mind about Common Core, DeVos has remained committed to expanding charter schools. Charter …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images In the previous essay on charter schools I considered the monopoly argument in their favor. On this view, charter schools break the state’s harmful monopoly on education and this is a good thing. It is worth …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images In my prior essay on charter schools, I considered the quality argument. The idea is that charter schools provide a higher quality alternative to public schools and should receive public money so that poorer families can …Read more »

While being a charter school is distinct from being a for-profit school, one argument in favor of charter schools is because they, unlike public schools, can operate as for-profit businesses. While some might be tempted to assume a for-profit charter …Read more »

Ohio auditor Dave Yost, a Republican, says that virtual schools should be compensated based on what their students learn.

The state's two virtual charter schools have earned poor marks from the state's accountability system in the few years they've been operating.

Charter schools are playing a notable role in remarks about education from candidates like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Yet it's not clear what if any role they'll have in important states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Minnesota Star Tribune review found that similar to traditional district schools, the highest performing charters generally served wealthier families.

The state's highest court ruled that Washington's charter school law is mostly constitutional, and that charter schools can continue to receive public money.

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed its version of a sweeping education omnibus bill, which would allow the state's first charter schools.

"Authorizer shopping" is a growing threat to charter school quality, according to a report from a national advocacy and research organization.

Many of the laws that regulate charter schools do not go far enough to prevent conflicts of interest, according to a report released by Bruce Baker and Gary Miron of the National Education Policy Center.

When public schools accept an offer to move into a new building on corporate land, they open the door to interference on curriculum and faculty hiring.

Texas charter schools, on average, appear to negatively affect students' future earnings, according to a working paper by two economists.

Charter school principals in South Carolina are overwhelmingly veteran school leaders, but more than half are new to the charter sector, according to a study by the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast.

New Orleans charter schools have increased spending on administrators and reduced spending for teachers in the years since charter schools took over nearly every public school after Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005.

Traditional public schools on average received about 29 percent more funding per student than charter schools in 14 metropolitan areas, finds a new study by the University of Arkansas' education reform department.

Students in charter schools that are run by for-profit companies perform markedly worse than their peers in charters managed by nonprofit groups, according to a study.

A new study finds lasting, positive effects for students who attend KIPP's prekindergarten program and then go on to enroll in one of the charter school network's elementary programs.

Are charter schools public or private? Do they pick and choose who can enroll? Who oversees them? And are they better at educating students than regular public schools? We answer these questions and more about charter schools in this explainer.

States vary widely on how they govern charter schools, new federal data show.

Almost 30 years after the first charter school legislation passed, guest blogger Sarah Tantillo takes a look at how this movement emerged and spread.

A look at the two major political parties' platforms since the first charter school law was passed shows how Democrats' positions on school choice have evolved, including increased calls for accountability.

For the first time, school districts are no longer granting the most new charters, says a new report by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

High-performing urban schools lent moral authority and measurable results to the charter school sector. Why do advocates give them the cold shoulder? Fordham's Robert Pondiscio answers.

By the single most important metric, charter schools are succeeding, argues Bruno V. Manno.

New proposals to open "no excuses" charter schools have dropped sharply over the past five years and so, too, have the number of approvals for such schools, according to a new report from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Dig into what two leading Democratic presidential candidates have to say in their platforms about charter schools with Education Week's detailed analysis.

Dig into what two leading Democratic presidential candidates have to say in their platforms about charter schools with Education Week's detailed analysis.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Office of the Secretary

Los Angeles Unified school board candidates, from left, Andrew Thomas, Ref Rodriguez and Bennett Kayser take a group photo after a debate at Eagle Rock High School on Feb. 5, 2015. ; Credit: Cheryl A. Guerrero for KPCC

Los Angeles Unified school board candidate Ref Rodriguez collected $21,000 in campaign donations from employees of his charter school network, Partnerships to Uplift Communities, in his bid to unseat incumbent Bennett Kayser in East Los Angeles’ District 5.

Most striking, a handful of his workers – a janitor, maintenance worker, tutor — are donating at or near the contribution limit, $1,100.

The contributions are a measure of supporters' high hopes to unseat Kayser in favor of Rodriguez, a candidate friendly to charter schools.

Rodriguez, an charter school administrator at Partnerships to Uplift Communities, received most of his financial support from the California Charter School Association Advocates, which received donations from such wealthy donors as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and philanthropist Eli Broad.

Kayser, a former teacher elected as a board member in 2011, collected his largest donations from labor unions, particularly the United Teachers Los Angeles. 

Most of the money working toward Kayser and Rodriguez's reelection are not funneled into their individual campaigns, but to independent expenditure committees which are not subject to the $1,100 contribution limit.

In her first foray into political giving, Luz Maria Lopez, an office worker, donated $1,000 donation to the Rodriguez campaign, twice the amount of Partnerships to Uplift Communities' CEO, Jacqueline Elliot.

“I really believe in Ref. My kids go to PUC schools,” said Lopez, who has been employed by PUC since it opened 15 years ago.  

The employee contributions weren't coerced and will not be reimbursed, Rodriguez said. Many of them can be traced back to a holiday break fundraiser at Rodriguez’s sister’s home in La Puente.

“I know for many of them this is a tremendous sacrifice,” he said. “It’s just been sort of an outpouring of folks belief in me and what we are trying to do for the city.”

Charter school groups major funders

Direct campaign donations from individual contributors, such as Rodriguez’ employees, make up 18 percent of the money spent in the LAUSD’s District 5 school board race. 

The biggest donor is charter school advocacy groups, such as the California Charter School Association Advocates.

Donations have also come from self-described education reform groups that support charter school expansion and firing teachers deemed ineffective, among other issues.

All told, the advocacy groups contributed more than $700,000 to activities in support of Rodriguez and working against Kayser.

On the other side, UTLA funneled $330,000 of members’ contributions to activities supporting Kayser and working against Rodriguez.

While UTLA has turned up its political spending in the board race to stay competitive, it is routinely outspent, said Oraiu Amoni, the union’s political director.

“We never are going to be able to match [reformers] dollar for dollar,” Amoni said. “So our biggest thing is making sure our members are educated, are engaged, are aware — and vote.”

So far, campaigns and committees have spent more than $2 million on the 13 Los Angeles Unified school board candidates, according to filings with the L.A. City Ethics Commission. The contributions have paid for mailing of glossy ads, phone banks, billboards, robocalls and commercials on Spanish-language radio. 

Total contributions are expected to increase in the few days remaining before the primary and swell again in any May runoff. 

Even in major races, aggressive campaigns fueled by growing contributions from special interest groups make it difficult for candidates not affiliated with interest groups to stay competitive.

Limitless independent expenditures are "playing a major role in smaller and local elections,” said Ryan Brinkerhoff, campaign manager for Andrew Thomas, the unaffiliated candidate in the District 5 race.

Thomas, a professor at Walden University, donated $51,000 to his campaign, making him his own biggest contributor. He’s also attracted sizable local support: about 70 percent of his campaign donations come from residents who live in District 5.

Thomas has received no contributions from political action committees or advocacy groups.

Can he win?

“I think so, but it’s getting harder and harder,” Brinkerhoff said. “The results of this election are going to be very telling.”

Outside contributors, local concerns

When public schools were created in the United States, local communities were given control over their governance. Outside money “undermines the relationship between community members and their local public institutions,” according to John Rogers, an education professor at UCLA. 

“It undermines their sense that they own those institutions, and those institutions are theirs to be shaped,” he said.

Without the funds from Broad, Bloomberg and other large donors, Rodriguez’s employees’ contributions would have made up more than 30 percent of his campaign support. Instead, it’s 4 percent.

Kayser has also received support from outside the district, including donations from the American Federation of Teachers and the California Teachers Association.

"The voters have an interest in open and transparent elections in which outside dollars don't have too large an influence," Rogers said. 

To read more about the school board election and City Council races, visit the KPCC 2015 voter guide.

Clarification: This article has been updated to make clear that the California Charter Schools Association does not support or advocate for teacher firing policies. Support for incumbent Kayser from outside the district has also been noted.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Embed from Getty Images In November of 2016, president elect Trump selected Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education. While this appointment seems to have changed her mind about Common Core, DeVos has remained committed to expanding charter schools. Charter …

Embed from Getty Images In the previous essay on charter schools I considered the monopoly argument in their favor. On this view, charter schools break the state’s harmful monopoly on education and this is a good thing. It is worth …

Embed from Getty Images In my prior essay on charter schools, I considered the quality argument. The idea is that charter schools provide a higher quality alternative to public schools and should receive public money so that poorer families can …

While being a charter school is distinct from being a for-profit school, one argument in favor of charter schools is because they, unlike public schools, can operate as for-profit businesses. While some might be tempted to assume a for-profit charter …

Success Academy Charter Schools, which teaches 18,000 students across 45 schools in the city, will move to online learning starting Mar. 19, though officials didn’t specify how long the shutdown will last.

Citing the circumstances of the coronavirus crisis, United Teachers Los Angeles on Thursday called for a moratorium on new charter school approvals and a halt to new campus-sharing arrangements with charters.

The state's two virtual charter schools have earned poor marks from the state's accountability system in the few years they've been operating.

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed its version of a sweeping education omnibus bill, which would allow the state's first charter schools.

Officials in Illinois, Nevada, and Pennsylvania are proposing to close online charter schools over concerns that they're producing subpar academic results for students.

Officials in Illinois, Nevada, and Pennsylvania are proposing to close online charter schools over concerns that they're producing subpar academic results for students.

The West Virginia House of Delegates passed its version of a sweeping education omnibus bill, which would allow the state's first charter schools.

Charter school principals in South Carolina are overwhelmingly veteran school leaders, but more than half are new to the charter sector, according to a study by the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast.

New Orleans charter schools have increased spending on administrators and reduced spending for teachers in the years since charter schools took over nearly every public school after Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005.

When public schools accept an offer to move into a new building on corporate land, they open the door to interference on curriculum and faculty hiring.