Here’s our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.

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Summit Public Schools appears to be skirting the intention of California’s recently passed charter school regulation. The Bay Area’s Summit Public Schools appears to using a provision of the recently strengthened state charter school transparency regulations to limit the number of people allowed in person at its board meetings. The chain’s CEO said that allowing more of than six members of the public to join in person would “create an inappropriate working environment.” Diane Ravitch

Inspire is struggling to monitor student work. School leaders of the statewide Inspire homeschool charter network—where parents pick their children’s curricula—say they are struggling to ensure students meet statewide learning standards. The San Diego Union-Tribune

$103 million federal dollars wasted in California. A new Network for Public Education report reveals thatat least $504 million of the more than $4.1 billion dollars the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) has spent to fund new charter schools and expand existing charter schools was wasted on defunct schools. Nearly $103 million was awarded to California charter schools that never opened or have shut down. In the Public Interest

Online charter school fraud still in the news. Brian Snyder of the Arizona Republic details the indictment earlier this year of the owners of A3 Education who were charged after the online charter school company had bilked California taxpayers out of $50 million. Arizona Republic

And from beyond state lines… “Go to most impoverished black neighborhoods and you’re bound to find three things in abundance. Liquor stores, payday lenders, and charter schools. It is no accident.” Teacher Steven Singer breaks down how charter school entreprenuers exploit children of color. Gadfly on the Wall