Although New Jersey schools
have seen significant positive growth in student outcomes over the past decade, Newark Public Schools within the state is not immune from the powerful grift in U.S. education. According to Owen Davis, of
Truth Out,
"real estate concerns and facilities funding increasingly drive neighborhood school closings and the expansion of privately managed charter schools. By allocating millions of dollars in little-known bonds exclusively to charters while imposing austerity on public facilities, the state has quietly stacked the deck for charters, leaving neighborhood schools to molder in decline."
Owen makes the salient point that while 51% of parents have chosen charters, there are 49% of parents who have not. They have chosen to stay with their public school, but such is choice is largely ignored, especially when there is money to be made.
Several Newark public schools are being closed or turned over to charter operators. While some say it is the performance of the schools, Owen's investigation reveals that school performance has little relationship to the "flipping" of schools.
Given the state funding landscape, NPS (Newark Public Schools) saw moving a charter in as a way to secure pressing building repairs.
Charters' access to bonds allows them to "improve these community assets" - that is, school houses - "and allows the district to continue to operate. And keeps the district viable." This saves the state, which controls Newark schools, from paying to fix the very schools it let fall into disrepair.
As it turns out, a charter school might be more likely to patch those holes than the district. "Charters have access to flexible bond resources that district schools do not," says Ruben Roberts, director of community affairs at NPS, when asked about charter launches. "This allows them to improve community assets in a way the district would not be able to."
Bringing a charter into Hawthorne could allow the state to scrimp on renovation costs. Charters' access to bonds, Roberts says, allows them to "improve these community assets" - that is, school houses - "and allows the district to continue to operate. And keeps the district viable." This saves the state, which controls Newark schools, from paying to fix the very schools it let fall into disrepair.
As Wyatt explains,"The charter launch strategy was about redirecting growth to communities . . . that need strong schools - that need their buildings to be flipped."
When a charter school moves into a new building, it's not unusual to see millions of dollars poured into renovations ranging from structural repairs to slick paint jobs. In the case of a school like Hawthorne, plugging the leaky ceilings and safeguarding against mold would likely be top priorities.
The 2009 federal stimulus authorized states to allocate $22 billion in qualified school construction bonds (QSCBs), which allow cash-strapped schools to secure interest-free bond financing. Banks that finance school construction receive subsidies from the feds equivalent to some benchmark interest rate around 5 percent. Banks can pull in a tidy profit, as can the motley cast of counsels and intermediaries who ink the deals.
Of the $440 million in QSCBs New Jersey received, nearly three-quarters have been approved - and so far, every penny has gone to charters. TEAM Academy alone gobbled up $138 million. This exclusive allocation of QSCBs to charter schools is highly unusual. California and Texas, for comparison, each allocated less than one-fifth of their QSCBs to charter schools.
So, as has become too much the norm in our public schools, money talks regardless of student needs. Community input is noted but not considered. After all, with the new infusion money not only can they repair the schools with bonds that traditional schools don't have access to but also developers are coming in and building "teacher housing." They are, as Owen puts it, "flipping the neighborhood." When a community need such as education is being ruled by big money, there is a serious problem in society. No doubt the effects of the education grift will be felt for decades to come.