In depth Phil Inquirer article on PA's largest charter school (and Corbett's largest contributor)

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120318_Inside_Chester_Community_Charter__Drawing_praise__money__criticism.html

These are the Chester Community Charter Schools in Chester PA. Meanwhile, the Chester public schools recently did not have enough cash flow to pay their teachers.

The tone of the article is that the schools are generally well-managed but at an extraordinary cost to the taxpayers. The head of the company that runs the charter schools in Chester is Corbett's largest contributor. The question is: if public schools received the same money per student and the same flexibility, would they be able to improve their results??

Teachers are paid much less at these charters than in public schools. The article describes how students who do well on the mandatory PSSA standardized tests are given $100 to $125 gift certificates. Teachers can earn bonuses of $1,000 to $3,000 depending upon how well their students do on these tests.

Excerpts:

"others see it as a financial drain that's sinking the district. Chester Upland this year is paying the charter $36 million, more than a third of its budget. Critics also challenge its academic achievements, especially in light of an ongoing state investigation into possible state test score cheating, and question how much the owner's management company is getting to run the school.

Special-education students make up an unusually large percentage of school enrollment - 26.7 percent last school year, well over the state average of 15.2 percent and Chester Upland's 21.3 percent. About 40 percent of special-needs students are identified with "speech or language impairments" - generally a mild disability; the state average is 16.2 percent.

The charter gets $25,528 for every special-education student from Chester Upland - more than 2.5 times the amount it gets for district regular education children. Critics question whether the school overidentifies special-needs students to get more money.

The charter school pays CSMI L.L.C., the management company Gureghian heads, a fee of about $5,600 per student, according to a recent state report. That totals $16.7 million this school year - more than 41 percent of the charter school's budget."

[PA Democrat]

1. Great article. There are a LOT of unanswered questions WRT to these charter schools.

I would like to know how many students they expel or refuse to admit, that end up in the public school system. It looks like the special needs students that they DO accept tend to be statistically less expensive than average in terms of their needed supports.

I wonder if there is an overselection of kids with more involved parents and how much that is a contributing factor to the kids' success.

I wonder how much of our tax dollars are spent on actual education as opposed to profits. As a taxpayer, I find it disturbing that this school has SUED to keep that informatiuon private.

The school has gone to court to block release of documents on how the money is spent and how much profit Gureghian's company makes.

[blue neen]

2. Love this quote:

"Before running the school, Gureghian, a Delaware County native and lawyer, was best known for owning a billboard company. He helped the school open, then took over the management a short time later."

Excellent article.

[JPZenger]

3. A very very carefully written article

I'm sure this article was reviewed by a platoon of fact-checkers and lawyers. That is because the Inquirer is still being sued for defamation over a previous article they wrote about this charter school.