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:
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
-- Dan Dempsey
CT
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.
EOMO
Washington State Charter Schools Program Grant
reader47
Really time to eliminate US Dept of Education.
( Morphing into a branch of billionaires are us. )
-- Dan Dempsey
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.
Failure of Technocracy
-- Dan Dempsey
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.
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.
-sleeper
-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/
Relief Plz
The USDOE is swayed by big money and has become a behemoth of a bureaucracy.
Dora