Newsletter: Charter Report and Grassroots Grow

Published by CarolBurris

September 10, 2016

The Network for Public Education will publish a major report on charter schools in the spring of 2017 entitled, Charters and Consequences. The report will provide an in-depth examination of the problems that have resulted from the rapid expansion of charter schools in the United States. We are working with activists and experts in states including California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois to produce this important report.

Even as we write the report, we will publish stories of what we find. Our first stop was California, a state in which a lack of regulation has produced fraud, corruption, as well as storefront charters in malls, church basements and even former liquor stores.

If you do not live in the Golden State, it is still an important read. The billionaires who are behind the unregulated growth of charters do not limit their reach. Carrie Walton Penner, of the Walmart fortune, is now funding a super PAC in New York.

You can read Part 1 of our California series in Valerie Strauss’ Answersheet:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/09/09/how-messed-up-is-californias-charter-school-sector-you-wont-believe-how-much/

or on our website here:

Please read it and share it on social media.

This month we also published our first Grassroots newsletter

We’re excited to announce the official launch of the Network for Public Education’s Grassroots Education Network! We currently have 6 national organizations and 58 state and local organizations working in 25 states participating in the network, and this is just the beginning. We hope you’ll take some time to check out the organizations that have joined.

If you haven’t joined yet, it’s never too late – click here.

We have also started a closed Facebook group for members of the Grassroots Education Network. We envision it as a place where leaders and members of the organizations in the network can gather to share resources, ask questions and learn from each other.

And finally, don’t miss the first edition of the Grassroots Education Network Report. We have three reports for you this month from network members in Florida, Georgia and New York, and you won’t want to miss them. These groups are doing amazing work that we can all learn from.

You can find a link to all three here.

Thank you for all that you do and have a great school year,

Carol Burris, Executive Director of NPE

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