RealClearEd Today 06/03/2014: RealClearEd Today: Is Testing Hurting Creativity?
Good morning, it's Tuesday June 3. This morning at RealClearEducation we have news, commentary, analysis, and reports from the top of the education world. The Practical Education Law Team's brief this week takes a look at case in Hawaii last year, where the parent of a student with autism was not included in a meeting for the child's Individualized Education Plan. LEGO President Emeritus Stephan Turnipseed also delves into testing and creativity and offers alternative uggestions for assessment. Below you will find a few highlights of what's on the main part of our site this morning. As always there is additional content organized by key issue areas on our sidebars.
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On this date in 1991, Willie Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories. The starkly acoustic double album - it was just Nelson and his guitar - was a blend of old tunes, new songs, and offbeat choices reinterpreted by the legendary outlaw country musician. But at that point, Nelson was something of a genuine outlaw - The IRS Tapes was part of Nelson's efforts to pay off his tax debts to the government. Federal officials said he owed $32 million. As it turned out, his accountants hadn't done him any favors and had dug the hole for him. His lawyers were able to get that sum reduced, but Nelson still had millions to raise to get out of trouble. With its proceeds earmarked for the federal treasury, the album, along with a settlement Nelson reached with Price Waterhouse, allowed him to resolve the debt.
Nelson learned a lesson that some charter school operators are learning now - you really don't want to be in the crosshairs of prosecutors. Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with a Chicago charter school network over conflict of interest allegations related to real estate bonds. Washington, D.C.'s attorney general took action yesterday against a D.C. charter school leader who also owns a management company that contracts with the school.
The Chicago settlement is part of an ongoing SEC investigation of the United Neighborhood Organization in Chicago and is part of a broader crackdown on conflicts of interest in municipal bonding. The schools in question, run by the nonprofit UNO, are nonprofit themselves. But the SEC violation involved a bond issue for school construction and undisclosed conflicts of interest associated with the proceeds from those bonds that could adversely affect investors. So the headlines about charter school investors being defrauded are confusing the issue in today's hothouse charter debate. In fact, the schools have no investors -- at issue is a real estate transaction for school construction. The SEC settlement requires an SEC appointed monitor to review UNO transactions over the next year.
The D.C. situation is also convoluted and involves the use of a private management company to provide various services to a charter school. But in this case, the management company is owned by the school's leader. That arrangement is actually legal but D.C. officials are alleging that there was a shell company involved to divert resources. That question will be settled through the legal process. Regardless, while contracting for services is a common practice for all schools, these type of arrangements understandably raise eyebrows.
Charter school proponents are quick to point out that there is plenty of financial malfeasance, self-dealing, and nepotism in the traditional public school sector. And that's obviously the case. But the promise of charter schools wasn't "graft on par with the status quo" or "same kleptocracy, but now with the educational benefits of decentralization." Rather, it was flexibility in exchange for heightened accountability and results.
So this week's problems should be kept in perspective and the legal process should run its course. But, the specifics of these two episodes aside, charter school advocates are kidding themselves if they don't think there are problems here they should get in front of. The flexibility part of the charter school bargain opens the door for illegality absent sufficient oversight or for ethically dubious practices even within the purview of good oversight. There is too much of that sort of thing going on and it really doesn't matter if people within the traditional public school system do it, too.
None of this is a reason to abandon charter schools, of course. The vast majority operate ethically, the high-fliers are changing how we think about education, and overall the academic performance of the sector is improving. But unless charter advocates want to keep explaining headlines like the ones today and dealing with the political headwinds they generate, it's time for some leadership to clean up this aspect of the sector. It's also the right thing to do. Governance best practices, which funders should insist on, along with some legal and regulatory changes, would help rein in the problems and maintain an appropriate and effective balance between autonomy and accountability.
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