Category: Charter patronage network

Board Rigs Meeting for Special Interests

Board of Education Action Meeting: May 29, 2025

by Lisa Haver

Legal Notice on page B2 in May 28,2025 Philadelphia Inquirer

In this era of authoritarianism, the will of the people is too often subverted to the will of the wealthy and powerful. Despite polls that show a majority of Americans do not support the privatization of public schools, and the overwhelming defeat of voucher proposal referenda in several states, politicians have found a way to overrule the voters and impose anti-public school measures. And despite the growing evidence that an increasing number of the city’s parents are rejecting charter schools, including under–enrollment at over half of the city’s charters, Philadelphia’s Board of Education voted to approve a new application, one they had previously voted to deny. Their convoluted and dishonest justifications served only to underscore how much they had betrayed their constituents for the benefit of the politically connected special interests. That reason, among others, is why APPS members called on Mayor Cherelle Parker to ask for the resignations of the members of the board. 

Continue reading here.

Charter Schools Have Built a Profitable Patronage Network in Philadelphia

by Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools and Philly Power Research

The privatization of public schools has never been about improving education. The goal was to create opportunities for businesses while diminishing the political power of parents, educators and the community.  In that respect, the expansion of charter schools in Philadelphia has been an undeniable success. 

The privatization of public schools, though a reform agenda funded by wealthy corporations, individuals, and foundations, has been devastating to school districts across the country. The school privatization movement has been funded by right-wing billionaires including Jeffrey Yass, the richest person in Pennsylvania; it is a major plank in the Republican party platform. The strategies and methods of the corporate reform agenda have been incorporated into both the curricula and pedagogy of both public and charter schools, including standardized testing of children in every grade after third and the requisite test prep classes that edges out creative teaching and learning.  Students are judged on how well they can take a standardized multiple-choice test, not on creative thinking and problem-solving. Schools whose students score lower, for a number of reasons including poverty, inadequate resources and understaffing, are labeled “failing”. Schools in underserved neighborhoods have found themselves on the chopping block, either handed over to a charter company in a hostile takeover or closed for good. 

Charter schools were sold as the answer to struggling schools. They promised to improve student achievement. Some investors even contended that more charter schools would lead to the elimination of poverty and violence.

None of that has come to pass. By every measure, including those instituted to justify the creation of charter schools—data-driven education—charter schools have failed to keep the promises they made. The median Philadelphia  charter school in 2022-2023 had a lower percentage of students who scored at least proficient in PSSA math than the median Philadelphia public school. (1) Charter schools excuse their failure to meet standards by saying they are educating children in underserved neighborhoods, despite the fact that they sold themselves as a means to educate those very children. 

To read more about how charter companies have profited, continue here.