Up North Progressive

Addicts are a sad tragic reality of our society. They get used to using and want more, and want more, until they are caught for making a mess of themselves, their families, and their lives. The addict who insists they can stop using and turn their lives around on their own aren’t only lying to everyone else, they’re mostly lying to themselves.

Such is the case of the Michigan Council of Charter School Authorizers. They’ve had twenty years of access to taxpayers’ money and they have been flying high ever since. In 2011 the state allowed charter school authorizers even more tax dollars by lifting the cap on charter schools in the state. The floodgates opened and soon the state was spending one billion dollars a year on the charter school authorizer’s habit. No chance of intervention, no way to stop the destruction of Michigan’s public schools. Until this summer, when the Detroit Free Press spoke up and spent a week explaining to the state that for-profit charter schools had a serious problem, and it was having a devastating effect on the state. The Michigan Department of Education decided it was time to for an intervention, and chose 11 charter school authorizers to sit down for their first abusers group therapy.

Addicts don’t like it when someone points out they’re an addict. They really don’t like it when they have to face the truth that their habit and destructive behavior affects themselves and others. There’s denial, anger, trying to shift blame onto others, and finally, the bargaining begins. Like any other addict, the Michigan Council of Charter School Authorizers must accept that they are abusing our education system at the expense of taxpayers and at the detriment of the education of our children. We have charter schools millions of dollars in debt because management companies mismanaged or outright stole money to feed their habit. Many for-profit charter schools are not meeting academic expectations of the state. The time of bargaining is over. Charter schools had twenty years to prove they could handle this on their own, and they failed.

If the DeVos yesmen want for-profit charter schools to be treated the same as public schools, then they need to submit to the same transparency and regulations as real public schools. Any time a corporate body claims they can regulate themselves it means they know they’re in trouble and want to hide the truth from the tax payers making them rich. The Michigan Department of Education needs to protect our school children and tell charter school authorizers NO.

The first stage of healing and recovery is admit you have a problem. We’re trying to help you, really.