Count Me In. I Believe that Charter Schools -- By and Large -- Are a Bust (as in Should Be Busted).

Have you ever noticed how many charter-school proponents are fiercely anti-union? Could charter schools be a vehicle for chasing out unions? Methinks so.

Michelle Rhee came and went. Then we discovered fraud followed close behind.

Let's let Charles P. Pierce do the heavy lifting:

There is a never-ending stream of charter scandals coming from California. For example, a report released recently (by the ACLU SoCal and Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy group) found that more than 20 percent of all California charter schools have enrollment policies that violate state and federal law. A Mercury News investigation published in April revealed how the state's online charter schools run by Virginia-based K12 Inc., the largest for-profit charter operator in the country, have "a dismal record of academic achievement" but has won more than $310 million in state funding over the past dozen years.

Roll that number around in your head, especially if your kids go to a public school where they have to pass the hat for art supplies. That's $310 million in public money for lousy results. If the corporations and oligarchs financing education "reform" want to spend $310 million to run schools, they should spend their own damn money to do so.

But hey, school reform! As Atrios has said repeatedly, grifters gotta grift.

There's now a bill before Governor Jerry Brown that would tighten the public accountability standards for charter operators within the state. The evidence is now abundantly clear in a number of states: As it is presently constituted, the charter school movement is far better as an entry vehicle for fraud and corruption than it is for educating children. The fact that the charter industry is fighting to maintain its independent control over taxpayer funds is proof that the industry knows it, too.

Me hopes too.