I think this will be my first and last BBS post. I’ve always enjoyed the fun (often science related) posts here. The writers seemed a bit insane but if not for BB I would never have made Duradango Balls
And while some sites that I frequent have opposing views I’ve never seen that in BBS. I assume the site leans on the authoritarian side and chooses not to engage or have their ideas challenged. So I’m guessing this post will not see the light of day but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I worked with a private charitable foundation that did a lot of work with charters. I know Corey Doctorow is not a journalist - as BBS is more of fun site - but his lack of accuracy regarding charters is pretty amazing.
First item of business is that charter schools are public schools . I’m not sure if Corey is aware of corporate structure. In the case of the school in the article they are a public school operating under Detroit public schools. As such they are non-profit. I’m not sure if Corey has any familiarity with non-profits but any inurement of benefits or “profits” extracted fall under a host of Federal laws and IRS rules https : // www . irs . gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/inurement-private-benefit-charitable-organizations. It would be hard for the school to do this and illegal.
With the school in question they DO contract the services of a for-profit company which could be a problem. The public charter school [has a board](http : // www . universalpsa . org/about/board/) and this board would have to sign off on the use of the “for-profit” company. As much as some hate for profit companies - if they can provide a better education within the appropriate rules and regulations then the public charter school can hire them. The service company could be ripping off students/parents but no evidence of that is provided in the post or that I can find online. They did fire a bunch of people and it would be interesting to know why. Interestingly they get pretty good reviews from Glassdoor. There are valid reasons to fire people and a for-profit company providing services to a public charter school can do so much easier than the traditional public school system. Without impugning the teachers fired at this school as a consumer I’d much rather my child be in an environment where teachers are accountable for their actions than not.
As a charter school parents have made a choice to send their children. I understand some people are against choice but intuitively the mechanism to fix a dysfunctional organizational structure is better than a traditional public school where physical address determines which school you go to as opposed to choice. I’m not saying that Hamadeh Educational Services (http : // www . hesedu . com/) is not a scam siphoning profits but I am saying they have a board who would have to be negligent or complicit and they have parents who chose the school and can choose to leave if the educational product is unsatisfactory. As a traditional public school your clients are bound by physical address and you have one level of board oversight. As a public charter your clients can leave whenever they want and you have your own board plus the oversight of the county or district public school board.
Anyway if there is one thing I hope Corey understands is that charter schools are public schools. If a distinction needs to be made call one a traditional public school and the other a public charter school.
