Duval schools losing about $7.4 million because of charter schools
Instead of a projected $10.9 million loss from more students leaving Duval’s traditional, district-run schools for charter schools next year, Vitti said the loss may be about $7.4 million.That difference is mostly from Acclaim Academy’s closure.
The military theme charter school abruptly closed its doors and fired teachers last week, causing 229 middle school and high school students to scramble to find new schools to finish out the school year and take final exams.
After Duval charter school closes, many ask: Where's the money? Acclaim’s teachers were shocked to find out that their last paycheck, issued late April or early May, was to be their last. Some teachers, who had arranged for the school to save parts of their paycheck to repay them over the summer, were told not to expect it.But, upon closer inspection, the district noted other irregularities in the school’s operations and finances:
Some teachers listed as heading classes left the school and others have become assistant principals and deans. Too many substitutes were teaching classes.
School reading teachers weren’t qualified for the subject, the county said, possibly violating federal Title 1 poverty funding rules.
The school did not employ the required instructors to serve its students with disabilities.
Also the records of one student who had missed 51 days were altered to make it look like she had attended and passed the courses.Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald told more about this school.
The Florida Times-Union described how classes had come to an abrupt and unexpected end, no matter that the 250 students were in the midst of end-of-school year testing. The children came to class to discover school employees were packing up supplies. The school website was down. There were no buses to transport pupils home that afternoon.Another ignoble experiment in Florida’s barely regulated charter school education had gone kaput, leaving 250 students in the lurch. Apparently the charter operator didn’t have enough money budgeted to finish out the school year. To hell with the kids.
One day later, the same operator shut down another Acclaim Academy, this one housed in a former Target store outside Orlando, leaving 181 kids on the outs with just three weeks left in the school year.
Both schools were run by Corey Alston, the former city manager of South Bay in Palm Beach County, who just happened to plead guilty to grand theft last year for running up personal charges on his city-issued credit card (Alton received six years probation). His criminal record has no bearing on whether he can run a charter school operation. Not in Florida.
The education "reformers" used the theme they cared more about the students than public school classroom teachers. They have painted teachers as the bad guys in all this.That's a shame. Sounds to me like they were putting profit above the needs of the students and trying to shame good teachers while they were at it.
Sounds to me like Florida needs to pay attention to and regulate the charter schools that are getting taxpayer money, then closing and leaving students on their own.
