Halfway through National Charter School Week

In a poll conducted this past January, the majority of participants supported better oversight and accountability of the Flim Flam Scam that many charter schools, such as the Formerly Earned an F, but now Falsely awarded a C Windsor Prep Academy, and it's sister school East Windsor Middle Academy have become.

This article cites the results of this poll conducted by GBA Strategies on behalf of In the Public Interest and the Center for Popular Democracy.

Here are some of the poll’s findings:

• 92% support requiring companies and organizations that manage charter schools to open board meetings to parents and the public, similar to public school board meetings;
• 90% support requiring companies and organizations that manage charter schools to release to parents and the public how they spend taxpayer money, including their annual budgets and contracts;
• 78% support ensuring that neighborhood public schools do not lose funding when new charter schools open in their area;
• 88% support requiring state officials to conduct regular audits of charter schools’ finances to detect fraud, waste of abuse of public funds;
• 80% support requiring charter schools to return taxpayer money to the school district for any student that leaves the charter school to return to a neighborhood public school during the school year; and
• 89% support requiring all teachers who work in taxpayer funded schools, including neighborhood public schools and charter schools, to meet the same training and qualification requirements.

In this article on educationvotes.nea.org, Lisa Grave, CEO of the Center for Media and Democracy states:
" The bottom-line is taxpayers know far too little about how much their federal tax dollars are being used to fund charters, and there is far too little information provided by states about how tax monies are being spent by charters or by for-profit firms they are tied to. Neither the federal government nor the states require charters to publish that information on their websites, and neither the federal or state governments we examined publish that information themselves. Even aside from serious questions about academic performance by charters — especially online charters — the lack of real accountability remains a real problem for kids and families, as more and more people and corporations have sought to get a piece of pie, a revenue stream from taxpayer money, to operate or assist charters."

Here is link to the Sun-Sentinal's series of articles on charter schools.

Now the parents whose kids attend the cesspools known as Windsor Prep, and East Windsor Middle are taking over. All hail the conquering heroes...Hope For Windsor...and all that.

 Oh they must be savoring the glorious feeling of borderline martyrdom and as they navigate the sewer pipes laid by Newpoint Education and try to salvage the schools. But, how long will this camaraderie last? It sure will be interesting to see it all play out. (insert smiley face)

Further, the public decries the lack of disclosure and public vetting of the management companies...wouldn't it be prudent to vet the board members too, now that they will be responsible for millions of tax payer dollars?