How we got to having to rely on GoFundMe campaigns to keep Baltimore students from freezing

The Right's push to make everyone afraid of higher taxes has drained public budgets, which strangles public goods and services.

January 2018

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

California School Accountability Report: More charter school fraud

Northern California charter school administrator found using public money to buy firearms, how a handful of billionaires are bankrolling Oakland's education elections, and more.

December 2017

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Statement on California State Board of Education’s closure of Celerity charter schools

OAKLAND—In the Public Interest Executive Director Donald Cohen issued the following statement on the California State Board of Education’s unanimous decision last week to close two Los Angeles charter schools managed [...]

May 2017

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Report: The Failure of Policy Planning in California’s Charter School Facility Funding April 2017

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

What a Victory Against Wall Street in Nashville Means for Students in Massachusetts

A win against pro-charter school organizations in Nashville means good things for public education advocates in Massachusetts.

August 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Without Planning and Oversight, Charter Schools Hurt Neighborhood Schools

Allowing charter schools to open with little consideration for other public schools and the surrounding community is fueling a crisis in American public education.

July 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

“School Choice” Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

All of the rhetoric from charter school advocates about “school choice” only obscures the real choice.

July 2016

Charter Schools Education Home Publications What We Focus On

Academica’s Florida Real Estate Operations

"Academica's Florida Real Estate Operations" provides analysis of for-profit charter school operator Academica’s role as a landlord to schools in Florida.

June 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

California’s Latest Gold Rush is Public Education

Billionaires and investors are doubling down on charter school expansion, even as evidence mounts that the schools destabilize public school districts.

June 2016

Charter Schools Education Publications Tools and Guides What We Focus On

Policy Brief: The Cost of Charter Schools for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)

A research brief proposing equitable solutions to mitigate the negative fiscal impact of charter schools on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

May 2016

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Cashing in on Student Failure

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s taxpayers, California Virtual Academies (CAVA), owned by publicly traded K12 Inc., is failing key tests used to measure educational success.

May 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Chicago’s Teachers Just Stood Up for Children Everywhere

Friday’s teacher strike in Chicago was also a protest against a growing national problem, the privatization of our public education system.

April 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Charter Schools Suspend Black Students and Kids with Disabilities More

New data shows that black students are four times as likely to be suspended from charter schools as white students. [...]

March 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

How Competition Hurts Children in Detroit’s Schools

If charter school growth continues unchecked and Detroit's traditional schools lose more students, it will be even harder for the public school system to pay down its debt and afford fixed costs

February 2016

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

The Public Pays Twice for Some Schools

Many current policies allow new actors into public education who skim profits from the system, pocketing money that might otherwise be spent on direct services for children.

December 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Yes, ‘Virtual’ Charter Schools Exist–and They’re Growing

While high quality virtual charter schools can be useful for certain students, the majority of kids need teachers to interact with and classmates to socialize and study with.

November 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Billionaires Can’t Teach Our Kids

Billionaire Eli Broad plans to raise and spend $490 million to create enough privately operated charter schools to house half of the city’s public school students. [...]

October 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Charter Schools Have Failed More than Traditional Public Schools

According to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), since 2000, charter schools have failed at a much higher rate than traditional public schools.

October 2015

Blog Education What We Focus On

The Market Shouldn’t Decide Who Gets Educated, We Should

Rather than the public good it should be, higher education has become a market product accessible to those who can afford it, harming America in the process.

September 2015

Blog Education What We Focus On

Who Can Live on $8.50 an Hour?

When contractors aim to maximize profit, students often face dirty classrooms, unreliable bus routes, and strained, underpaid workers.

September 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education What We Focus On

Tell Walton Family to Hold Charter Schools Accountable

For over 20 years the foundation operated by Wal-Mart heirs has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the growth of charter schools and prioritized quantity over quality and ideology over good public policy.

June 2015

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The Public School Accountability Agenda March 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education School Support Services

Introducing the Charter School Accountability Agenda

The Charter School Accountability Agenda is an 11-point program for reform that will ensure charter schools are fulfilling their role in education as lawmakers intended. [...]

March 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education

Why I’m in Sacramento

It’s too easy for kids to fall through the cracks in CAVA’s current online schooling system so we are calling on California to immediately increase oversight of online education. Despite the state having passed some of [...]

February 2015

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Virtual Public Education in California: A Study of Student Performance, Management Practices and Oversight Mechanisms at [...] February 2015

Charter Schools Education Home

Charter School Reform Poll Memo

Click here for full PDF of Poll Memo A new survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly favor a series of proposals to reform charter schools. Proposals garnering broad support include initiatives to strengthen charter school [...]

February 2015

Blog Education Municipal Services

Privatizing Chicago

It didn't start with the parking meters. It didn't even start on Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's watch. But the privatization of public services and assets in the city of Chicago is reaching a fevered pitch and more people than ever [...]

January 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education

Front Page News

Recently the Washington Post published a front-page story about Jeb, FEE, and how the organization pushed privatization-oriented education policies that benefited their big corporate donors. The article was based on [...]

January 2015

Blog Charter Schools Education

Fighting Back Against Charter School Fraud

Inadequate audit techniques, insufficient oversight staff, and a lack of basic transparency have created a charter system that is ripe for abuse in the Keystone state. But there is hope. A new report provides a detailed [...]

October 2014

Blog Charter Schools Education

New Standards for a Changing Education System

When charter schools first appeared in the 90’s, they aimed to experiment with innovative educational strategies to later implement in all public schools. Fast forward to today, charters have grown into a national [...]

September 2014

Charter Schools Education Home

Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

This report echos the warning issued by the OIG and to inform the public and lawmakers of the mounting risk that an inadequately regulated charter industry presents to our communities and taxpayers.

May 2014

Charter Schools Education Home

Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization [...]

This report evaluates the “blended learning” model of education exemplified by Rocketship and seeks to understand how the “school accountability” legislation debated during the most recent legislative session would [...]

April 2014

Education Home School Support Services

More Dangerous, More Costly: An Analysis of Transportation Outsourcing

By analyzing safety inspection and financial data gathered by Minnesota state agencies, this report finds that outsourcing transportation services leads, on average, to higher safety inspection failure rates and higher [...]

March 2014

Blog Charter Schools Education

Cashing in on Kids

In today’s new education environment, it is important that public schools put the students’ interest above corporate interests. This is exactly the goal of Cashing in on Kids, a new project from In the Public Interest in [...]

February 2014

Blog Education School Support Services

The Latest Hot Topic in Schools

School privatization is a hot topic these days. Unfortunately many of the debates about public education ignore the important role of school support services and the people who do the work—the bus drivers, cafeteria [...]

November 2013

Blog Charter Schools Education

America’s Highest Paid Government Workers

Corporations that take over public services often slash wages and benefits for their workers to save money. But the CEOs of these companies are making millions from taxpayer-funded contracts, making them the highest paid [...]

November 2013

Blog Education School Support Services

For Our Kids

If your school district is considering outsourcing, it's up to us to make sure the best interests of our kids is the top priority. [...]

November 2013

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Making the Grade? Questions to Ask About School Services Privatization September 2013

Blog Charter Schools Education

Exposing Corporate Influence on Education Policy

Colin Woodward of the Maine Sunday Telegram was awarded the prestigious 2012 George Polk Award for Education Reporting for his special report on the profit motive behind virtual schools in Maine.

March 2013

Charter Schools Education Home

Is Administration Leaner in Charter Schools? Resource Allocation in Charter and Traditional Public [...]

The study, which examines school spending in Michigan, found that charter schools spend nearly $800 more per pupil on administration and $1,100 less on instruction, said David Arsen, MSU professor of education and lead [...]

April 2012

Education Home School Support Services

Pushing Working Families into Poverty: Assessing the New Haven Plan to Privatize the Public [...]

This report assesses the major cuts in wage and benefits that the city of New Haven's proposal to privatize public school custodial services will impose currently employed custodians, including the impact on the families of [...]

March 2011

Charter Schools Education Home

Public Good vs. Private Profit: Imagine Schools, Inc. in Ohio

This report examines Imagine Schools, Inc., the nation's largest for-profit charter school management company and found that it has a poor record of performance in Ohio and a business model that includes elaborate school [...]

May 2010

Education Home School Support Services

Hard to Swallow: Do Private Food Service Contractors Shortchange New Jersey Schools?

This report covers school nutrition programs at ten New Jersey public school districts that retain food service management companies (FSMCs), identifying and commenting upon the processes the districts used to select FSMCs, [...]

April 2010

Education Home School Support Services

AAPS and the Privatization of School Support Functions

This report describes how a policy decision to extend a management-only service contract to include staffing responsibilities affected the Ann Arbor Public Schools food service budget and operations.

March 2010

Education Home School Support Services

Serving Students: A Survey of Contracted Food Service Work in New Jersey’s K-12 Public [...]

This report uses government data and focus groups to provide a unique look at contracted food service workers in public schools in New Jersey and nationally.

May 2009

Education Home School Support Services

A Guide to Contracting Out School Support Services: Good for the School? Good for the Community?

This paper reviews critical considerations for school officials considering contracting out. These include hidden costs, quality control. impact on administrative time, social costs, and loss of control and restricted [...]

March 2008

Education Home School Support Services

Privatized School Food Service and Student Performance in Michigan: A Preliminary Report

This report analyzes Michigan school district data for the 2005-2006 school year to assess the association between private school food service management and the cost of meals, the level of classroom resources, and student [...]

February 2008

Education Home School Support Services

All Costs Considered: A NEW Analysis on the Contracting Out of School Support Services in Oregon

This follow-up study focuses on three Oregon school districts that contracted out school support services in 2003.

February 2008

Education Home School Support Services

Schools for Sale: The Privatization of Non-Instructional School Services

This report discusses the problems associated with contracting out non-instructional school services, such as pupil transportation, custodial services and food preparation

January 2000

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