CHARTER SCHOOLS: No Accountability, Suck up Taxpayer Dollars, THEY PAY NO TAXES

http://www.alternet.org/education/exposed-cmd-kipps-efforts-keep-public-dark-while-seeking-millions-taxpayer-subsidies?akid=14214.294211.vQYgFi&rd=1&src=newsletter1055659&t=10

Charter schools are big business, even when they are run by "non-profits" that pay no taxes on the revenue they receive from public taxes or other sources.

Take KIPP, which describes itself as a "national network of public schools."

KIPP (an acronym for the phrase "knowledge is power program") operates like a franchise with the KIPP Foundation as the franchisor and the individual charters as franchisees that are all separate non-profits that describe themselves as "public schools."

But how public are KIPP public schools?

Not as public as real or traditional public schools.

New documents discovered on the U.S. Department of Education's website reveal that KIPP has claimed that information about its revenues and other significant matters is "proprietary" and should be redacted from materials it provides to that agency to justify the expenditure of federal tax dollars, before its application is made publicly available.

So what does a so-called public school like KIPP want to keep the public from knowing?

1. Graduation and College Matriculation Rates

KIPP touts itself as particularly successful at preparing students to succeed in school and college.

Yet, it insisted that the U.S. Department of Education keep secret from the public the statistics about the percentage of its eighth graders who completed high school, entered college, and/or who completed a two-year or four-year degree.

2. Projected Uses of Federal Taxpayer Dollars (and Disney World?)

Even as KIPP was seeking more than $22 million from the federal government to expand its charter school network, it insisted that the U.S. Department of Education redact from its application a chart about how much money would be spent on personnel, facilities, transportation, and "other uses" under the proposed grant. KIPP also sought to redact the amount of private funding it was projecting.

The agency's compliant Office of Innovation and Improvement obliged KIPP.

3. Full Disclosure of Attrition and Performance Results

Not only did KIPP seek to keep the public in the dark about how it spends tax-exempt funding and how many KIPP students make it to high school graduation or college, it also sought to redact information "KIPP Student Attrition" by region and "by subgroup" and "KIPP Student Performance" on state exams on "Math and Reading."

The Office of Innovation and Improvement did as KIPP requested.

4. The CEO Foundations Pushing School "Choice" and Subsidizing KIPP

KIPP also asked the Office of Innovation and Improvement to redact the amounts of funding provided to KIPP by foundations that wrote letters of support for KIPP to receive federal taxpayer money under the grant.

The grant documents the Center for Media and Democracy has examined reveal that these are the names and amounts that KIPP sought to keep the public from knowing and that the Department of Education blacked out at KIPP's request:

• Robertson Foundation: $20M
• Atlantic Trust/ Kendeda Fund: $15 million
• Marcus Foundation: $4.5M
• Zeist: $1.7M
• Lowe Foundation: $357,000
• Webber Family Foundation: $351,780
• Sooch Foundation: $675,000
• Tipping Point Community: $2M
• Schwab Foundation: $2.5M
• Koret Foundation: $2,135,000
• SAP: $297,389
• Kobacker: $100,000
• Todd Wagner Foundation: $1,000,000
• El Paso, $1,000,000
• Charles T. Bauer Foundation: $1,242,000
• Karsh: $8M
• Charter Schools Growth Fund: $2 million
• Formanek: $526,000
• Goldring Family Foundation: $1,000,000
• Charles Hayden Foundation: $1.393 million
• Victoria Foundation: $626,000
• CityBridge Foundation: $2.9M"

Almost all of these donors are foundations that have to annually disclose to the IRS and make available to the public the names of their grantees and the amounts granted. So this information is not privileged, confidential or proprietary.

A Closer Look at KIPP

It appears that all the redactions were in response to "proprietary" instructions KIPP dictated to DOE through a four-page document titled, "Proprietary Information."

The Education Department complied with almost all of KIPP's instructions, despite how contrary they are to public policy and even to publicly available information.

These black marks come at a time when cracks are starting to show in KIPP's once beyond-reproach veneer.

KIPP is the largest and most lauded charter school chain in the United States and the recipient of many millions of dollars in taxpayer grants, foundation gifts and handouts from billionaire charter school enthusiasts.

A new book by Jim Horn, Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through ‘No Excuses' Teaching, focuses on the experiences and perspectives of dozens of former KIPP teachers who have become critics of the chain and many of the principles it is based on, including the Teach for America program that supplies KIPP with many of its teachers.