Charter Schools Exempt From 65% Rule

Today we find out from the Statesman that the governor's ideological fix for our public schools will not apply to the previous ideological fix for our public schools, New spending rule skips charter schools, Despite academic and financial woes, 65 percent standard won't apply

Charter schools, home in recent years to some of the best-documented cases of financial mismanagement in Texas public education, will not have to comply with a statewide rule requiring school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their operating funds on instruction.

The schools will not be included, at least initially, because the new 65 percent requirement was added to the state's overall financial rating system for schools, Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said.

Sen. Shapiro had this to say:

"I don't see a reason for them not to be included," said Senate Education Committee Chair- woman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who has pushed for more oversight of charter schools.

I do, and his name is Rick Perry:

"Charter schools, as a matter of law, have always been exempted from the accountability system, and the 65 percent requirement is part of the financial accountability system," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "We don't know that there is an administrative way around it, but certainly if there is a way that Governor Perry administratively can achieve that, he certainly will do that."

There is no administrative way around it!? Just have Gov. Perry issue another edict making charter schools part of the 65% rule. The charter school scam has been a tremendous bust:

The state recently gave 2 percent of the noncharter school districts in Texas an "academically unacceptable" rating, the lowest mark possible in a system based largely on test scores. Yet 22 percent of charter school operators were hit with the "unacceptable" tag.

The schools' defenders often point out that they raise less money per student than traditional schools and often take in students who have failed elsewhere.

The Austin American-States- man reported last year that at Austin's now-closed Texas Academy of Excellence charter school, about $57,000 in taxpayer money was used to buy a Lincoln Navigator that was parked at former Superintendent Dolores Hillyer's home two months after the school shut down, according to the school's former accountant. A school bank card was used to pay for hotel rooms overseas.

The newspaper also found that the Eagle Academies, a statewide network of charter schools, had paid nearly $4 million to private school-management and curriculum companies founded by former school executives.

That is the future of public education if these people left in charge, the Enronization of our public schools.