“If our school’s not good enough, why don’t they just fix our school?”

That pull quote from this blog post is an excellent question that I want to answer.

I think the publicly funded, private sector, secretive and often inferior Charter school Industry doesn’t want to fix our public schools. The reason “they” don’t want to fix whatever is allegedly wrong with out public schools isn’t because of the quality of teaching and it isn’t about our children.

I know the real reason is all about the money that’s making charter CEOs and managers wealthy.

One example:

“Eva Moskowitz, who’s in charge of Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City and nowhere else, pulls down a salary of nearly $1 million a year.” — “Success has 45 schools with 17,000 students from kindergarten through high school.”

How much does a Public School Superintendent make in New York?

“The average School Superintendent salary in New York is $185,639 as of February 27, 2023, but the range typically falls between $151,635 and $223,999.”

New York City’s public school system is by far the largest in the United States. During the 2017-2018 school year, more than 1.1 million students attended approximately 1,800 public schools administered by the New York City Department of Education (DOE).

Eva Moskowitz with 17,000 students in her 45 private sector Charter Schools earns almost $1,000,000 annually from public dollars that should be going to real public school and not into her bank account.

The top paid superintendent that works for New York City’s real public schools serving more than 1,000,000 students is paid less than one-quarter of what Moskowitz pays herself as the CEO of a small, private sector Charter School chain with 17,000 students. The public money that flows to Moskowitz small charter chain should be going to New York City’s public schools and not into Moskowitz’s bank account making her richer than she already is.

The United States now has four K-12 education systems instead of two.

Before war was declared on our public schools in 1983, there were two education systems.

1. The K=12 public school systems that the public pays for.
2. A private sector k-12 school system that wealthy parents paid for.

Today we have four K-12 public school systems. What has changed?

3. Publicly funded, Private Sector charter schools without locally elected community school board.
4. Publicly funded, private-sector k-12 online virtual schools where children do not have to go to school everyday. They learn from home through their mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop.

What is the public getting for its money funding those private sector, very profitable online virtual schools?

“Virtual schools, which offer full-time instruction online and represent a slim 1 percent of all high schools…. The average graduation rate for virtual schools is 40 percent.”

What about the graduation rate for real, brick and mortar public high schools? “As of 2021, the national graduation rate is currently 85.3%, an all-time high.”

The United States also has two sets of rules for its confusing, publicly-funded K-12 education sector.

There are rules for real public schools, but no rules for the publicly funded, secretive private sector charters and online, virtual school, meaning the public has no idea how their money is being spent.