Comments on: Q&A: James Merriman, head of charter school center http://insideschools.org/blog/2009/05/19/qa-james-merriman-head-of-charter-school-center/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:14:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: KitchenSink http://insideschools.org/blog/2009/05/19/qa-james-merriman-head-of-charter-school-center/#comment-7438 KitchenSink Thu, 21 May 2009 19:55:11 +0000 http://insideschools.org/blog/2009/05/19/qa-james-merriman-head-of-charter-school-center/#comment-7438 Desideria, I desire that you read James's comments. It is up the authorizers--publicly accountable officials--to close failing charter schools. And the DOE has far, far more resources per child than do charters collectively; aside from tax levy facility bond payments, what do you think Caroline Kennedy has been doing for the past five years or so? Where do you think Bloomberg's wealthy friends have been putting their high-profile consulting dollars? Not into my kids' charter school! Into the DOE and its endless reorganizing. Desideria,

I desire that you read James’s comments. It is up the authorizers–publicly accountable officials–to close failing charter schools.

And the DOE has far, far more resources per child than do charters collectively; aside from tax levy facility bond payments, what do you think Caroline Kennedy has been doing for the past five years or so? Where do you think Bloomberg’s wealthy friends have been putting their high-profile consulting dollars? Not into my kids’ charter school! Into the DOE and its endless reorganizing.

]]> By: Desideria http://insideschools.org/blog/2009/05/19/qa-james-merriman-head-of-charter-school-center/#comment-7397 Desideria Wed, 20 May 2009 20:27:50 +0000 http://insideschools.org/blog/2009/05/19/qa-james-merriman-head-of-charter-school-center/#comment-7397 I read that Charter Schools must provide measures. "Such measures shall include, but not limited to, graduation rates, dropout rates, performance of students on standardized tests, college entry rates, total spending per pupil and administrative spending per pupil. Such measures shall be presented in a format that is easily comparable to similiar public schools. In addition, the charter school shall ensure that such information is easily accessible to the community." So, how does one get access to such information? More importantly, does this "spending per pupil" include the fact that these schools sometimes have wealthy benefactors that contribute to the extras, such as perhaps, sleepaway out of state trips, that the regular public schools cannot provide for their students. I wonder what kind of magic some of our large failing schools could work if they had access to funds from benefactors who believed that they could be successful? And is anyone monitoring the turn over of teachers in Charter schools? And is anyone closing down the failing ones? I read that Charter Schools must provide measures. “Such measures shall include, but not limited to, graduation rates, dropout rates, performance of students on standardized tests, college entry rates, total spending per pupil and administrative spending per pupil. Such measures shall be presented in a format that is easily comparable to similiar public schools. In addition, the charter school shall ensure that such information is easily accessible to the community.”
So, how does one get access to such information? More importantly, does this “spending per pupil” include the fact that these schools sometimes have wealthy benefactors that contribute to the extras, such as perhaps, sleepaway out of state trips, that the regular public schools cannot provide for their students.
I wonder what kind of magic some of our large failing schools could work if they had access to funds from benefactors who believed that they could be successful?
And is anyone monitoring the turn over of teachers in Charter schools?
And is anyone closing down the failing ones?

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