Schooling Alone

Curtis J. Cardine has served as a teacher, principal, corporate officer, and superintendent in New Hampshire public schools and Arizona charter schools. He is currently a research fellow for the Grand Canyon Institute, author and a nationally recognized expert on charter and public school finances and governance.

• PrefaceChapter 1: Chartering SchoolsChapter 2: An Entitlement MentalityStudents as Business AssetsChapter 3: Something HappenedSelling the Charter School ConceptChapter 4: De-professionalizing American Public EducationRepealing Labor LawsTake Care of BusinessChapter 5: What about the Sermon on the Mount?Chapter 6: The Good Old DaysChapter 7: Public or PrivateChapter 8: A Contracted ServiceChapter 9: “All Politics is Local”Chapter 10: Deregulating a Public GoodChapter 11: The Myth of Self-Correcting Free MarketsChapter 12: Financial “Tells”Comparing Market Sectors’ DebtChapter 13: Espoused Theories vs Theories in UseConsumer Choice without Consumer Responsibility for that ChoiceChapter 14: Retirement HeistChapter 15: Investing in the General WelfarePrivatization CreepChapter 16: Market MeltdownThe Issue with Long Term Leases with a Related PartyChapter 17: Controlling the Nation’s Educational AgendaChapter 18: The Economics of School ChoiceChapter 19: False AnalogiesChapter 20: Capitalism and DemocracyAn Economic versus a Political Theory of ActionHistorical ContextPersonal Financial Responsibility is an American ValueThe “Greatest Generation” got it RightScientific ManagementChapter 21: A Corporate CultureA Financial House of CardsReal Estate Acquisition CompaniesExacerbating the Debt ProblemLong Term Leasing Commitments with Related PartiesUnderwater Real Estate HoldingsOverleveraged Long Term Debt and CommitmentsChapter 22: Is this Any Way to Run a Business?Double Standards for Fiscal AccountabilityThere are No Fail Safes Built into the ModelDefining Unsustainable Losses in a Growing “Free Market”Theoretical SafeguardThreatened Educational Capital SourcesBackpacks full of Debt guaranteed by Students’ Backpacks full of CashChapter 23: Lost Political CapitalChapter 24: The Role of the Federal Government in Public EducationPrecedents for Federal Involvement in EducationOrigins of the Federal, State, and Local Control DebatesChapter 25: The Goals of an American Public EducationCommunities MatterCelebrate all of our SuccessesChapter 26: Cashing In - Greed is “Good”The Profit Motive: A Case in PointThe Theory of the FirmNew RulesChapter 27: An Educational Vision versus an Economic Theory of ActionChapter 28: Philosophical DissonanceThe Fight for Equalized Opportunity FundingChapter 29: Enough Already

Cardine, an educator and research practitioner, builds on ideas of public education chartering developed by the late Ray Budde of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to critique the financial models that support the development of US charter schools. The title and focus is analogous to Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone (CH, Dec'00, 38-2454), representing a decline in societal cohesion. Accordingly, Cardine views the rise of over 7,000 publicly supported charter schools with over 3,000,000 students as a phenomenon primarily serving school districts that already excel, causing a loss in the common political and social capital formed by community public schools. Cardine describes how charter schools treat teachers as contractors with salary and benefits below the level of neighboring schools, are a tool for deprofessionalizing public education, and fit into the current political movement for deregulation of public goods and services. Charter schools are thus often profit-oriented businesses, with 10 charter groups controlling three-quarters of enrollments, and only 23 percent have local governing boards. As the author concludes, charter providers should “run their charters as a vital part of their communities’ educational choices in a democratic republic in partnership with our publicly governed public schools.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.