BASIS charter expansion is up for public comment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the for profit school gives my child a better education than the non profit school then that for profit school definitely has a place in education. For profit does not equal bad. We accept for profit in so many other spheres of life so why not in education? Or are we happy to condemn our children to suffer the failure of not for profit education because it aligns with our values that profit has no place in education?

i'd also submit that allowing for-profit to take over ALL the other parts of our lives isn't going so great either.

Communism doesn’t have a great track record.

Okay? Is anyone suggesting communism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

+1. BASIS DC is non-profit as is Basis Charter Schools. Basis Charter Schools used a for-profit education management organization (that pays salaries similar to what non-profits pay). Lots of charters use for-profit entities to support their work (e.g., management, accounting, food, maintenance, etc.).

And it obviously works for BASIS--they have many of the top ranked public schools in the whole country.

Given how dismal public education is in DC, other charter networks with schools in DC should consider outsourcing tasks to more competent entities.

Contracting out to Sodexo for lunch is not the same as skimming $2 million off to send to shareholders in Arizona.

A non-profit is given X amount of money and told to do the most with it as possible. The more they get out of it the more successful they are. If they waste the money too egregiously, and fail to deliver the product and instead just funnel the money to the people who run the program, it's literally a federal crime.

BASIS is given X amount of money and told to take as much for themselves while providing the minimum amount of service they can get away with. Maybe that's still a high level of service—certainly some people who go through BASIS are happy—but the incentive is to NOT spend extra money that is not required to be spent. That's how a business works. If the people who run BASIS send the money to the people who run the program, it's not a federal crime, it's not even a bad thing, it's the point of the system.

Non-profits and public school education can be flawed, and when they are flawed they can be fixed and should be fixed—and we DO have SOME good public and non-profit charter schools in DC. But whether they're good or bad, flawed or not, wasteful or efficient, with a non-profit or a public school, you know that the INTENDED purpose of the institution is only to educated children. At BASIS the INTENDED purpose of the institution is to turn a profit, and to the degree that educating some children helps achieve that, they will do it. But that's not the point of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

+1. BASIS DC is non-profit as is Basis Charter Schools. Basis Charter Schools used a for-profit education management organization (that pays salaries similar to what non-profits pay). Lots of charters use for-profit entities to support their work (e.g., management, accounting, food, maintenance, etc.).

And it obviously works for BASIS--they have many of the top ranked public schools in the whole country.

Given how dismal public education is in DC, other charter networks with schools in DC should consider outsourcing tasks to more competent entities.

Contracting out to Sodexo for lunch is not the same as skimming $2 million off to send to shareholders in Arizona.

A non-profit is given X amount of money and told to do the most with it as possible. The more they get out of it the more successful they are. If they waste the money too egregiously, and fail to deliver the product and instead just funnel the money to the people who run the program, it's literally a federal crime.

BASIS is given X amount of money and told to take as much for themselves while providing the minimum amount of service they can get away with. Maybe that's still a high level of service—certainly some people who go through BASIS are happy—but the incentive is to NOT spend extra money that is not required to be spent. That's how a business works. If the people who run BASIS send the money to the people who run the program, it's not a federal crime, it's not even a bad thing, it's the point of the system.

Non-profits and public school education can be flawed, and when they are flawed they can be fixed and should be fixed—and we DO have SOME good public and non-profit charter schools in DC. But whether they're good or bad, flawed or not, wasteful or efficient, with a non-profit or a public school, you know that the INTENDED purpose of the institution is only to educated children. At BASIS the INTENDED purpose of the institution is to turn a profit, and to the degree that educating some children helps achieve that, they will do it. But that's not the point of the school.

Provide a source for that.

Oh, right, you are just making stuff up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the for profit school gives my child a better education than the non profit school then that for profit school definitely has a place in education. For profit does not equal bad. We accept for profit in so many other spheres of life so why not in education? Or are we happy to condemn our children to suffer the failure of not for profit education because it aligns with our values that profit has no place in education?

i'd also submit that allowing for-profit to take over ALL the other parts of our lives isn't going so great either.

Communism doesn’t have a great track record.

Okay? Is anyone suggesting communism?

Apparently you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

So, your stance is it's okay to have waste in education as long as some guy in Arizona can buy a new car with that wasted money?

I don't give a shit about Sidwell, because my kids and my money don't go to Sidwell. I'm very interested in wasted money at DCPS because some of my kids and my money DO go there, and you don't need to sell me on how DCPS wastes money. But the fact DCPS wastes money is not a reason to give some guy in Arizona our tax dollars so he can buy a new car.

LOL.

Do you even had kids in public school in DC?

You are just an aggrieved DC taxpayer?

Take your crocodile tears elsewhere.

You should care more about the fact that DCPS spend well over a billion dollars a year but most kids in DCPS can’t read or do math at grade level.

Now that is a crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

+1. BASIS DC is non-profit as is Basis Charter Schools. Basis Charter Schools used a for-profit education management organization (that pays salaries similar to what non-profits pay). Lots of charters use for-profit entities to support their work (e.g., management, accounting, food, maintenance, etc.).

And it obviously works for BASIS--they have many of the top ranked public schools in the whole country.

Given how dismal public education is in DC, other charter networks with schools in DC should consider outsourcing tasks to more competent entities.

Contracting out to Sodexo for lunch is not the same as skimming $2 million off to send to shareholders in Arizona.

A non-profit is given X amount of money and told to do the most with it as possible. The more they get out of it the more successful they are. If they waste the money too egregiously, and fail to deliver the product and instead just funnel the money to the people who run the program, it's literally a federal crime.

BASIS is given X amount of money and told to take as much for themselves while providing the minimum amount of service they can get away with. Maybe that's still a high level of service—certainly some people who go through BASIS are happy—but the incentive is to NOT spend extra money that is not required to be spent. That's how a business works. If the people who run BASIS send the money to the people who run the program, it's not a federal crime, it's not even a bad thing, it's the point of the system.

Non-profits and public school education can be flawed, and when they are flawed they can be fixed and should be fixed—and we DO have SOME good public and non-profit charter schools in DC. But whether they're good or bad, flawed or not, wasteful or efficient, with a non-profit or a public school, you know that the INTENDED purpose of the institution is only to educated children. At BASIS the INTENDED purpose of the institution is to turn a profit, and to the degree that educating some children helps achieve that, they will do it. But that's not the point of the school.

Provide a source for that.

Oh, right, you are just making stuff up.

A source for what? That for-profits are in the business of making profits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

So, your stance is it's okay to have waste in education as long as some guy in Arizona can buy a new car with that wasted money?

I don't give a shit about Sidwell, because my kids and my money don't go to Sidwell. I'm very interested in wasted money at DCPS because some of my kids and my money DO go there, and you don't need to sell me on how DCPS wastes money. But the fact DCPS wastes money is not a reason to give some guy in Arizona our tax dollars so he can buy a new car.

LOL.

Do you even had kids in public school in DC?

You are just an aggrieved DC taxpayer?

Take your crocodile tears elsewhere.

You should care more about the fact that DCPS spend well over a billion dollars a year but most kids in DCPS can’t read or do math at grade level.

Now that is a crime.

So, the solution is to give our money to hucksters in Arizona and have them wash out 60 percent of kids? After taking taxpayer dollars, BASIS walks away from most kids who go there for an education and dumps them back into DCPS. Sorry, not on board with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

So, your stance is it's okay to have waste in education as long as some guy in Arizona can buy a new car with that wasted money?

I don't give a shit about Sidwell, because my kids and my money don't go to Sidwell. I'm very interested in wasted money at DCPS because some of my kids and my money DO go there, and you don't need to sell me on how DCPS wastes money. But the fact DCPS wastes money is not a reason to give some guy in Arizona our tax dollars so he can buy a new car.

LOL.

Do you even had kids in public school in DC?

You are just an aggrieved DC taxpayer?

Take your crocodile tears elsewhere.

You should care more about the fact that DCPS spend well over a billion dollars a year but most kids in DCPS can’t read or do math at grade level.

Now that is a crime.

So, the solution is to give our money to hucksters in Arizona and have them wash out 60 percent of kids? After taking taxpayer dollars, BASIS walks away from most kids who go there for an education and dumps them back into DCPS. Sorry, not on board with that.

This 60 percent number you seem to be screaming about includes many kids who went off happily to other schools and who will continue to succeed elsewhere. They are not “wash outs.” I don’t deny that there are kids who are drowning at BASIS, but let’s not pretend these kids account for all or even most attrition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly a clueless poster....have they ever seen the financials of a private "nonprofit" such as Sidwell? If they did, they would see enormous bloated salaries.

Do they know about the huge salaries of employees at the DCPS central office or the charter school board? That money does not filter down to where it would make a difference: the teachers.

Public, private, non profit or for profit schools all pay hefty compensation to administration....they just differ in their tax structures and methods of payment.....wages or profits or management fees...it does not matter, there is huge "waste" in education. That is part of the reason that throwing more money at school districts has failed over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:. Opposition to for-profit education is not a "weird troll" or "ignorant" position to take—you wouldn't send your kid to a for-profit college, why would you send them to a for-profit high school, middle school or even, and this is truly mind-boggling, an elementary school. Profit has no place in education. End of story.

So, your stance is it's okay to have waste in education as long as some guy in Arizona can buy a new car with that wasted money?

I don't give a shit about Sidwell, because my kids and my money don't go to Sidwell. I'm very interested in wasted money at DCPS because some of my kids and my money DO go there, and you don't need to sell me on how DCPS wastes money. But the fact DCPS wastes money is not a reason to give some guy in Arizona our tax dollars so he can buy a new car.

LOL.

Do you even had kids in public school in DC?

You are just an aggrieved DC taxpayer?

Take your crocodile tears elsewhere.

You should care more about the fact that DCPS spend well over a billion dollars a year but most kids in DCPS can’t read or do math at grade level.

Now that is a crime.

So, the solution is to give our money to hucksters in Arizona and have them wash out 60 percent of kids? After taking taxpayer dollars, BASIS walks away from most kids who go there for an education and dumps them back into DCPS. Sorry, not on board with that.

This 60 percent number you seem to be screaming about includes many kids who went off happily to other schools and who will continue to succeed elsewhere. They are not “wash outs.” I don’t deny that there are kids who are drowning at BASIS, but let’s not pretend these kids account for all or even most attrition.

Call them what you want, if you want to take our money to enrich people in Arizona you should be doing better than that…

[Anonymous]

Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

it is a legitimate question to be discussed when considering whether BASIS should be expanded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

+1.

+$2m, the BASIS markup for shareholders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

it is a legitimate question to be discussed when considering whether BASIS should be expanded.

I'd agree with this if DCPS were offering anything remotely comparable academically at any level, ES, MS, HS. They aren't and aren't planning to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop engaging the "for-profit" troll. He chimes in with the same thing on every BASIS thread. There is no reasoning with him. Just let him be. He will chime in on every page or so and then go away when he doesn't get desired attention.

(And, no, I will not be replying to for-profit troll-boy if he replies to this.)

it is a legitimate question to be discussed when considering whether BASIS should be expanded.

It really isn’t. It is a legitimate question when discussing whether DC should allow for profit charters. But that is a much larger issue than one in particular. Please keep your global anti-charter comments on a non school-specific thread.