New study - Charters cut costs to make money

Seems obvious that charter school teachers work longer hours and are less experienced. How else can charter school management companies make a profit?

Charter school teachers tend to have fewer years of experience, and work longer hours than their counterparts in public, non-charter schools, a new analysis suggests.

Yet by another measure—the hiring of teachers from "highly selective" colleges—both charters and traditional public schools lag well behind the private school norm.

Many of those findings are consistent with past research, notes the author of the paper, Marisa Cannata of Vanderbilt University, whose work is included as part of a newly published book, Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations. But the analysis provides fresh insights into who goes to work in public and private sector schools, and what kinds of conditions they encounter when they get there.

Some are even going to crazy lengths to maximize profits, as Stephen Dyer discovers

There is an amazing story out of Florida now posted here and here that delineates just how outrageously high K-12, Inc. schools' student-teacher ratios are. K-12, Inc. runs Ohio Virtual Academy, with educates about 10,000 Ohio students.

Just a few tidbits. The heads of schools are told that they should have the following ratios in the following grades:

K-8: 60-72:1
9-12: 225-275:1

That's right. K-12, Inc. thinks it's a good idea to have kindergartners in classes as high as 72:1 and high school kids in 275:1 classes.

We really don't need research anymore, just look at any of these companies 10k financial filings.

Anger over reckless budget runs red

In 2010 John Kasich defeated Ted Strickland 36,407 to 23,761 in Medina county. Speaker Batchelder defeated his opponent even more convincingly 32,406 to 13,666. Clearly, Medina county runs a deep shade of red. With that in mind, this isn't the kind of response Republicans would expect on their home turf

Concerned Medina County residents came looking for answers Thursday night about school funding and pending state budget cuts from the top-ranking Republican in the Ohio House.

Instead, some said they felt that House Speaker William G. Batchelder and State Sen. Larry Obhof, whose districts include Medina County, left them hanging.
[...]
The two state legislators, Obhof in particular, a first-term Republican from Montville Township, took some heat from angry audience members when discussions wandered from educational areas into political, and what happened while former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland was in office the past four years.

"Talk about what Kasich is doing to education up here," one angry man yelled out while Obhof was speaking. "Keep politics out of this talk . . . we're here to see what's happening to education."

The outburst brought applause and cheers from the crowd in the reliably Republican county.