The following is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on the Chicago Tribune on December 17, 2019.
Click to read the full article online.
Commentary: Millions wasted on charter schools
BY JEFF BRYANT | TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE | DEC 17, 2019
Between 2006 and 2014, the federal government gave the state of Iowa millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants to open 11 new charter schools. Ten of them promptly failed, after burning through more than $3.66 million of taxpayers’ money.
During the same period, Kansas received $8.9 million in federal grants to finance 29 new charter schools. Twenty-two of those schools 76% closed or never opened for even a day, wasting almost $6.4 million.
Georgia received 140 federal grants for charter schools, with more than half the schools closing, at a cost of $23 million. Delaware’s federally funded charter schools had a nearly equal attrition rate eight out of 14, a loss of $3.6 million.
These are just a few of the jaw-dropping findings in a new report from the Network for Public Education, an advocacy group started by Diane Ravitch and other educators to support public schools and oppose efforts to privatize education.
The above is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on the Chicago Tribune on December 17, 2019.
Click to read the full article online.
