Yet Another Charter School Closes Abruptly
This time, the Delaware Academy Of Public Safety And Security. You know, a school allegedly designed to prepare “…students for careers as first responders, such as law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs.”
Over $500K in debt and disastrous educational results. Which, come to think of it, is what you’d expect from a school preparing students for a career in law enforcement.
My question? How the fuck does a school like this get the go-ahead in the first place? Don’t bother. It’s a rhetorical question. Just another money-suck at the expense of public schools.
“How the fuck does a school like this get the go-ahead in the first place? ”
It’s not a rhetorical question, and it can be answered on the political, financial or bureaucratic levels. It cannot, however, be justified on an educational level.
WTF is a school for “public safety and security,” anyway? What academic courses are ignored for the sake of whatever it is this curriculum is supposedly giving them? In what way do traditional public schools fail to educate people for careers in these professions, or any other? What specialized knowledge is required for these careers? That question should be the first hurdle for all of what Delaware calls charter schools, and most of them would fail to clear it.
Charter schools were supposed to act as laboratories for educational methods, not as magnet schools with specialized curricula. People want a military school? Start one with your own money, because treating students as soldiers-in-training, or cops in training, or EMTs in training, has not a damn thing to do with education. I’m perfectly willing to pay for education, but as far as I can tell a military school is about indoctrination. I don’t want tax money used for that any more than for religious education.
I read about this at Exceptional Delaware earlier today. Kevin Ohlandt reported:
“There has been significant police presence on the campus this year, more than ever. Reports of fighting among students have dramatically increased this year. Teachers have been injured. One long-time teacher has been out over a week due to injuries sustained trying to break up a fight.”
Sounds like they’ll make perfect cops.
“Charter schools were supposed to act as laboratories for educational methods, not as magnet schools with specialized curricula.”
Precisely.
BTW, Kevin’s coverage of the problems at this school is first-rate. Definitely worth checking out.
I didn’t check the demographics but I’m pretty sure this was just another white flight academy. Good riddance. Let the parents put the kids in a regular public school and start attending teacher conferences and PTA meetings.
If it was inended to be white flight, they did a terrible job branding it. One of the public safety career tracks was prison guard.
This one was a two’fer. A bad idea poorly executed.
I thought this sounded familiar…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlk1DgtMGQ
Jee-zus. That guy is pretty much Delaware’s poster boy for Evil Incarnate.
Hahaha! Another Copeland cluster fuck
Charters became specialized tech schools because tech schools became college prep schools.
Not that I support charters, but the TECH should be kept in places like Sussex Tech.
Agreed. But this wasn’t even a tech school. What do they find lacking in a general education that leaves students ill-prepared for such jobs, and why does it require an entirely separate school and curriculum? Why can’t such a program operate within the school district, bypassing the funding chaos charters have created?
The charter law was passed in large part to satisfy disgruntled parents. Political expediency is no reason to ignore the obvious flaws in the system that has evolved to satisfy the law. It needs revisiting before the Christina district collapses into bankruptcy — not that it’s ready to do that, just that it appears to be inevitable unless funding formulas are changed.
Didja see this? Odyssey Charter might pay not, one, not two, but THREE, heads of school over $500K annually. Seems like a lot more than the average principal makes, and there’s only one of those per school:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/education/2018/09/26/odyssey-delays-vote-hire-former-board-director-six-figure-salary/1412978002/
BTW, getting back to that Police & Public Safety charter school story…how can they suddenly just ‘discover’ a $500K shortfall? Things like that don’t just happen, do they?
The $500k shortfall is based on the September 30th enrollment. They were already in the hole due to unpaid invoices but the majority of it is from anticipated losses due to the lower student enrollment.
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/forget-what-youve-read-the-dapss-closure-is-because-of-fraud-plain-and-simple/
Your blog hits the nail on the head Kevin, very well done.