OSPI Gets Ed Grant for Charter School Expansion

Nearly $7M which is a nice chunk of change.

What's more stunning is what Superintendent Dorn says in his press release:
Washington state was awarded a grant to help support the growth of its charter schools, the U.S. Department of Education announced today. 
The Department’s Charter Schools Program (CSP), which provides funding for high-quality public charter schools, awarded the grant. It will total $6,973,684 during the next three school years, starting in 2016-17. 
“We know from the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision that schools aren’t being funded equitably by the state,” said Randy Dorn, superintendent of public instruction. “And that includes our charter schools. They are relatively new for us and they need support and guidance to meet their goals. If the state is going to have charter schools, we need to make sure they are given the resources they need to keep providing high-quality education to their students. The grant will help that happen.” 
The grant’s purpose is to support the growth of new, high-quality public school options, including charter schools, across the state. That will be done through additional professional development and for curricula and classroom materials, as well as for financial assistance to planning, design, and initially implement new charter schools in Washington. 
“The law doesn’t allow for the spending of local levies on charter schools,” said Joshua Halsey, executive director of the Washington state Charter School Commission. “This money will help those schools increase student achievement of students attending charter schools, especially educationally disadvantaged students who have historically struggled in traditional public school settings.”
The grant will be administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the Charter School Commission and Spokane Public Schools.
Charters aren't being fully funded because of McCleary?  Yes, I think ALL the other districts and schools in this state are well-aware of under-funding by the State.  

And, we all know that not a single charter school or charter group - not a single time during the last legislative session - raised their voice in support of McCleary.  They will benefit once McCleary is (finally) funded but could not stand once in support for McCleary with the other public school parents who were down there with their groups, doing the heavy lifting.  

No, they don't get local levy money because 1) that got taken out of the last law (and I am unaware of other states that even have that in their charter law and 2) why would charters get local levy money from levy elections that they don't financially support and that are themselves their own districts in order to have the autonomy they have a charter for?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am now more convinced than ever that the US Dept of Education should be eliminated.

-- Dan Dempsey
I will be calling the DOE tomorrow as I do not believe this money HAS to be used for charter schools but that OPSI is making that choice. I'll let you know.
Anonymous said…
Privatized charter schools shouldn't be needing any state money then. They've got Fed dollars and billionaires, and apparently a bunch of charter lovers in OSPI who assist with money laundering operations. That's more support than many of our underfunded public schools have. OSPI does more sanctioning than supporting of public schools, and spends way too much money on their crappy CCSS & SBAC propaganda.

CT
NO 1240 said…
Question: Who wrote the grant? OSPI? Washington Charters?

Similar to I 1240, SB 6194 does not have a local and elected school board. AS well, I'm not convinced SB 6194 provides for appropriate amount of SPI oversight.

SB 6194 is in the court and it does not make sense to to open new schools.

Charter schools will probably reserve some funding to load children into busses and bring them to Olympia- day after day.

Anonymous said…
Hurray for charters

EOMO
Anonymous said…
The Grant application can be found here - and yes, OSPI appears to be the requesting agency - the name on the application is Dierk Meierbachtol


Washington State Charter Schools Program Grant

reader47
Anonymous said…
Does this mean that Dierk Meierbachtol will be actually working at the Gates Foundation in the future?

Really time to eliminate US Dept of Education.
( Morphing into a branch of billionaires are us. )

-- Dan Dempsey
NO 1240 said…
Thanks for the information reader47. The office of SPI is enormously important to those that seek to privatize our education system and we have already watched Dorn divert public funding to charter schools after 1240 was declared unconstitutional


I have noticed that Erin Jones has begun to receive large individual donations in the amount $2K. These donations come from extremely wealthy individuals that have contributed enormous amounts of dollars to campaigns. They also have connections to Stand On Children and DFER. Here are two examples:

Nierenberg contributed $2K t0 Jones campaign and he has a history of contributing $40K to Stand On Children:

http://web.pdc.wa.gov/MvcQuerySystem/AdvancedSearch/ContributionsData?contributee=ALL&electionYear=ALL&dateFrom&dateThru&amountFrom&amountThru&committeeType=IGNORE&election=ALL&city&state&zip&contributor=nierenberg%20david&employer&occupation&description

Brainiard make a $2K contribution and has made large contributions to Jones:
http://web.pdc.wa.gov/MvcQuerySystem/AdvancedSearch/ContributionsData?contributee=ALL&electionYear=ALL&committeeType=IGNORE&election=ALL&contributor=brainerd%20paul&page=5

Reykdal is a strong defender of public education and he is the best person in this office to protect our public education system- hands down.

Dan, Both Meierbachtol and Joylyn Berge were instrumental in helping Dorn with his Mary Walker/ charter school scheme.
Anonymous said…
Here is a piece from Jay Greene on top down data driven decisions. The type of damaging decisions that infect rational thought.

Failure of Technocracy

-- Dan Dempsey
WS parent said…
I am wondering if the potential opening of the Summit Charter School in West Seattle would help with the coming WS middle school/ high school capacity crisis. Would SPS be quietly supportive of that charter school to help them get out of a pickle in West Seattle? I am not supportive of charter schools in general, but it sure would be nice to have another middle school/high school in the neighborhood given the latest projections for Madison MS and Denny MS in 2020 (which will overflow to the high schools later). I wonder if SPS is basing its projections only on the assumption the charter school doesn't open. Does it have a different projection number if it does open? (It is scheduled to open in 2017, I have no idea if it is on target to open then.)
WS Parent, what do you mean by "quietly supportive?" I think Sealth is full but WSHS isn't.

I don't think SPS considered charters because the situation is so fluid. If the newest charter law gets overturned, that school is probably not happening.

It could help SPS but I think only temporarily. Because if the law remains (or yet another one comes along), Seattle will see a lot more of them and then the problems start.
WS parent said…
Hi Melissa--I know WSHS isn't full now, but it will be over capacity in 6+ years. Two schools have opened in West Seattle in the last few years that have kids who are not yet old enough to go to high school(Fairmount Park and STEM). Genesee Hill has 700 kids, the equivalent of two Schmitz Park elementary schools. So West Seattle High school has effectively added three elementary schools to its feeder pattern. Those kids will be coming through the system in the next six years. We are seeing the tsunami coming. Under current projections, I think Madison Middle School is going to be over capacity in three years (which does not include STEM students because STEM is K-8). I think STEM is technically in the Sealth feeder pattern, but many of the kids live in the WSHS neighborhood and go to STEM as an option school. Most of those kids will likely be going to WSHS as their neighborhood school.

I guess I don't know what I mean by "quietly supportive." All I know is that the district doesn't seem interested in adding capacity in West Seattle, and in a few years we will be out of room. There is no room for 20 portables at Madison or WSHS, like there was at Schmitz Park. I wonder if they are hoping that Summit opens just to give them some relief. Or it may not even be on their radar, which is more likely given how SPS is run.
Lynn said…
I expect many students from the Highline district will want to attend - particularly those whose parents have read the recent articles on discipline and safety in Highline schools. I don't think we can count on Summit Atlas to provide capacity for Seattle students.
Lynn brings up a good point and a thread I have been meaning to get to, namely, what is happening in Highline. Susan Enfield has been quite busy and it's interesting to see those outcomes.
Anonymous said…
There has been a huge influx of former Highline teachers at my kids' schools. I have been wondering what was going on there.

-sleeper
Watching said…

-sleeper, These articles may answer your question"

http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/highline-struggles-with-fallout-of-limiting-student-suspensions/

http://seatacblog.com/2016/08/17/former-highline-teacher-says-school-suspension-policy-wrong-needs-changing/
Anonymous said…
Bring Summit up north while we're at it! Maybe on the Sicley (sp?) properties near Roosevelt....

Relief Plz
dorainseattle said…
I agree with you Dan.

The USDOE is swayed by big money and has become a behemoth of a bureaucracy.

Dora

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