The Unholy Alliance of Charters And Common Core- By Rochester Teacher Teddi Urriola

Dr. Cala, interim superintendent of Fairport Schools up here near Rochester spoke last night at a forum on many topics, one of them was Charters. Here is how this works. Hedge Funds and other billionaires. are allowed to invest in Charters. (Hedge Funds are people too...) they get a 39% tax credit for their investment so in 7 years they double their investment. That's guaranteed $$. Not a risky investment in stocks, guaranteed tax credit. Courtesy of our government. There is also a Federal law that allows foreign investors to put $500K into charter schools and with that investment they are purchasing their Green Cards, buying legal immigration status into the US. Now none of this works if they simply invest in public schools because that is not the law. The law is exclusive for Charters. These laws are passed by politicians who receive huge donations to their campaigns for providing these opportunities to the rich. I want a sure thing investment... (I get 1.4% investing in something not risky and secure.) So to continue the story. The increase on the Charter cap must occur so that they have more opportunity to double their money in 7 years. Now how does this go with CC? Well, these developmentally inappropriate standards are the basis of the tests that are used to test the children and fail the teachers and close the schools to open more charter schools. So they have the right to make money any way they can, right? remember they are people too. wink emoticon Well to sweeten the pot and make the deal even better the governor is decreasing funding to public education, closing schools and failing and firing teachers while increasing funding (not just raising the cap on the number of charters) by 20+% for Charters with NO Strings attached. Not tied to improved test scores! Nada! They get the tax payers money (that's you) while the rest of our kids are struggling to fail on tests that were created to fail them so the cycle could continue. Wonder why Charters are the darlings of Hedge Funds and the Billionaire Boys clubs?