Lynne M Taylor (aka Common Core Diva)
March 2024
Author’s note: This is the first in a series about the state of education for our county. Iredell County will, by default, connect to our state government in Raleigh, as well as at a federal level (based in DC). However, Iredell County doesn’t stop there in its connection. It extends all the way to global entities like the United Nations.
It’s my goal, by the end of the series for you, as a parent, taxpayer and American to be able to not only identify the underlying problems all this heaps upon us in our County, but how we can unite together to effect changes needed to, indeed have Iredell County become truly local in curriculum, testing and all that goes with it.
LMT
The Good: Brief History of Charters in case you weren’t aware:
Back in 2014, before I began my own blog to publish my education research, I wrote a guest post for Lady Liberty 1885’s blog. In that article I detailed how ALL types of education were Common Core State Standards aligned. This included homeschooling, charters and more. Due to the fact that all these types of education were fully aligned to Common Core or somewhat aligned renders true ‘school choice’ as mute! Now, 10 years later, we’ve not seen a removal of Common Core in NC (or anywhere in the US), we’ve seen a REBRANDING of it. We’ve seen the increase of not only charter schools, but ‘specialized schools’ claiming to somehow be better than all the rest. We’ve also seen our General Assembly continue to throw millions of dollars into education, yet the results are dismissal. Across the nation, this type of mindset is rendering our students undereducated, and families overtaxed.
The Good: Parents Seeking Answers:
Recently, I met with some key local citizens who had many questions for me, based on my extensive research into education. Since those of us who met all live in NC, I was asked to look specifically into NC Charter Schools. While that request has been granted, a second request to dive into WHAT or WHOM is really behind Iredell County NC Charters was stated.
Before I dive into the local area, let me state that charter schools EVERYWHERE are a huge deception. Follow along and you will see this pattern emerge.
The Good: Defining What Charters Are:
Here in NC, the Dept of Public Instruction defines a charter school as “Charter schools are public schools of choice that are authorized by the State Board of Education and operated by independent non-profit boards of directors. State and local tax dollars are the primary funding sources for charter schools, which have open enrollment and cannot discriminate in admissions, associate with any religion or religious group, or charge-tuition.”
If you visit the NC DPI’s Charter website page (embedded above), you’ll see the FAQs, go there and look at global education, then factor in that the State says you can have ‘autonomy’ in your charter. Yet, look at the links to federal funds tied to Title 9 and other NON-autonomous chokeholds.
Some groups define charter schools as ‘innovative public schools’, the US federal government defines them as ‘above public schools’. I point you back to the beginning of this article, when aligned to the SAME education standards, charters are neither innovative OR above! They are the SAME in their nature!
The Good and Bad:
Iredell County, North Carolina USA:
In this county of roughly 200,000 residents. Iredell County was incorporated in 1788 from land that was in neighboring Rowan County. While the county has some rich history, the shift to more government control is reaching alarming rates. Among the shifts is taxpayer misrepresentation. Especially where education is concerned.
The Bad: Parents Fleeced and Taxpayers Abused:
1) Charter schools are a prime example of the misuse of our tax dollars. This issue is NOT exclusive to Iredell County, it’s an issue of national importance.
2) In 2018, Education Writers Association published a report that debated if charter schools saved money or cost us more in taxation. While that can be debated, it’s really not much of one when you consider that regardless of researcher, one truth stands out: Charters are a public-private partnership, thus a basic form of fascism. Where the public tax money pays for an entity to be privately managed (in the case of charters). This totally denies the public’s voice in how the entity (in this case, schools) is carried out in its activities.
3) Referenced in the Education Writers Association was a study conducted by Duke University: The Fiscal Externalities of Charter Schools: Evidence from North Carolina on the true cost of charter schools in NC. The study revealed that charters actually cost us MORE than traditional public school attendance!
How?! Here’s a quote from page 5 of the Duke University study, “Each charter school in NC receives funding directly from the State at the same average PPR (per pupil rate) as the school district in which the charter school student lives AND also local revenue (taxes) at the same PPR regular public schools in the same district. Thus, for each student who LEAVES a public school to attend a charter school, the school district the student lives in MUST share local taxes with the charter on a PPR level.”
The example given was clear in how the misuse of taxes happens. In an urban school district there’s a $500 loss per EVERY student who leaves a public school to attend a charter. Once in the charter school, that SAME student costs the district $3500.00! What does this mean for taxpayers? That your traditional public school has LESS money to educate those students left.
While some charters claim ‘tuition free’ for those families applying and attending, the amount of government money (meaning your tax dollars and sometimes corporate dollars) it costs every one of us is NOT FREE, it’s more taxation!
Case in point, your property tax is the largest portion of local funding each school district receives. You would feel great about ‘local control’ of education if that’s where the money stays, but it doesn’t. Those tax dollars go to support nationally normed assessments, curricula, etc. Nationally normed, or even globally aligned is NOT local control! In the case of charters, the government funds are added to by excessive fees paid for by the families for all kinds of items OUT of their CONTROL!
Another way to think of this is in the form of grocery store coupons. Why? Think about the way in which coupons work. Companies offer discounts in order to grab your attention. Once they’ve succeeded in grabbing your attention, you do one of two things. 1) Use the coupon as soon as possible. 2) You put the coupon with the others you are saving until you go shopping again.
It’s the ‘get something for almost nothing’ mindset. Face it, we love to save money. We love to THINK we are saving money while getting that ‘must have’ item or service. This mindset is used to sway you and your family!
The Bad News: Charters Ruin Public Education Policy:
From the National Education Policy Center, the fact that charter schools ruin good public education was raised in 2022 in a detailed paper by Helen Ladd. In this paper she pointed out that unlike public schools, teachers of charters are often contracted to the managing entity overseeing the school.
Yet, as we saw above, charters receive government funds, no matter if the teacher is a public employee or a private contractor with a non-profit managing entity or a for-profit entity.
Ladd goes on to express concern that charter schools are bringing more segregation back locally.
Now deceased, long time legendary education whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt was among the first to expose the fascist nature of charter schools in America. Her research was well respected across the globe, as well. In 2012, she gave an eye-opening interview on HOW charters have been inserted into our education system, not to help it, but to harm it. The link to her interview is included in my interview in 2022 on the topic. Listen to hers first, then mine. The two will explain much that space here will not allow. I can share that what she uncovered, I’ve been able to confirm:
Both Republicans and Democrats support this Soviet system of education. How is a charter part of the Soviet system? Simple: Pay for success scheme using councils appointed not elected.
The Global:
Almost every charter in Iredell County can be traced back to Charter Schools USA. I first wrote about this for-profit school management company in 2017 when I exposed Iredell Charter* School’s ties to a Common Core State Standards entity named AdvancED.
AdvancED micromanages several types of school boards across NC and America and has global partnerships which influence curriculum and testing heavily.
Charters Schools USA also partners with a group called Cognia. Cognia describes themselves as “We are a global network of enthusiastic educators here to help you strengthen your schools.”
If you dig deeper into Cognia (based in the state of Georgia, USA) you’ll find that Cognia is, in fact AdvancED!
So why is AdvancEd, Cognia and Charter Schools USA using global curriculum and testing a problem? Because using international standards ALIGNS to international attitudes, values and beliefs which, by their very nature are anti-family, anti-America, and anti-God.
By the same entity controlling almost everything in education at charter schools, it’s very easy to see that an agenda you probably don’t want to support is quickly becoming the ‘status quo’ in education. By being incorporated, that means no ‘sunshine laws’ apply, so seeking information is difficult.
In no particular order, here are the other Iredell County (NC) Charters and their global ties.
*Iredell Charter information was embedded above
Langtree Charter/Upper Charter Academy:
Governed by the NC Charter Education Foundation, Inc and Charters School USA
Langtree Charter uses project-based learning which breeds collectivism, not bringing out the individual’s gifts and talents. Power School data tracking is also used, which means a school to work tracking of what’s learned and where you work. NC’s Common Follow Up System applies here. THe danger here is that academics are placed on the back burner so skill-based training can be placed ahead of it. Langtree’s student/parent guides aren’t even their own. Those are copied verbatim from Concord Lake STEAM Academy (which is also a CSUSA school)!
Concord STEAM Academy:
This charter has branches which include BOTH Langtree and Iredell Charters. STEAM (which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math) is not only Common Core aligned but is a product of global education from the United Nations. Concord Lake, however, receives Title One federal funding (which means the money goes to test EVERY student for behavior and mental health issues, not those who truly may need it. Interventions like multi-tiered supports include overmedication and under educating students.)
Pine Lake Prep:
This charter is accredited by the NC State Board of Education and serves 6 counties. It receives federal funding for homeless students as well as other federal funding. It uses ‘rigor’ especially for STEM. The 3 Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic) have been upended by the 4Cs (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity). The 4Cs are actually buzz words designed for parents to feel great about choosing schools which offer them. Communication is code for ‘what to say’. Collaboration is code for ‘collectivism needed for compliance’. Critical Thinking is code for ‘what to think, not how to think’ and creativity is code for ‘create what you’re told or assigned’.
Success Charter:
This charter admits to using Common Core Standards. It also receives federal funding for homeless students and those on the school lunch program. It’s under the school lunch program (overseen by the US Dept of Agriculture) that health/wellness of the students is dictated. Meaning the government is setting out a prescribed way in which the student will become.
Success also uses ‘21st Century learning (meaning tons of on-line time).
American Renaissance Charter School:
Wrap around wellness (aka: whole child learning) is one of the top goals of this charter school.
This means tons of mental health interventions. Federal funds for school lunches are also to be found here. STEM and Discovery Ed are in full force.
Academy of Excellence AoE Statesville:
This charter is an extension of a charter system reaching nationwide and based in Wisconsin. Public funds are used in either in person learning or virtual learning. The clue to being aligned to Common Core and global education? “Lifelong learning”. LL is a phrase developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to describe humans in a commodity form for cradle to grave control by the education/labor system. This private Christian charter is accredited by at least 3 groups which have aligned themselves with the Common Core Standards.
The Takeaway:
1) No matter where you live, charters are not what you think, they are the first (but not last) type of school to be stripped of elected local control.
2) Charters are funded by the US Government in some form(s) and largely controlled by unelected, private councils. This quote from Frank Chodorov sums it up:
“The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as ‘free education’ is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned institution. It is socialized education-just as socialized medicine or the socialized post office–and cannot possibly be separated from political control.”
3) Leftists, neoconservatives, Republicans and Democrats all support charters. Each has their own avenue of support. Some support as they have fallen for the belief that charters are superior in some way. Others, because they profit from private control.
4) Parents’ voices are weakened by charter school managing companies.
5) Taxpayer abuse is rampant among our State where education is concerned.
6) Charter schools have been written into State Constitutions everywhere. Check them to see how these Statutes support or negate the original intent when it comes to ‘free state led education’.
7) Common Core alignment (or whatever it has been rebranded as) still violate the 9th and 10th Amendments of the US Constitution as well as 20 US Code Section 1232a (General Education Provisions Act); 20 US Code Section 3403b (Department of Education Organization Act); The ESEA of 1965 (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) as amended by 20 US Code 7907a (No Child Left Behind Act). When the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) was put into federal law (2015) it codified every federal education act preceding it. In 2024, we are still under ESSA’s ‘de facto’ rule, so any federal act connected to education, labor and health care (which are passed down to the States) are also under ESSA.
To Find Out More:
Contact Lynne for questions or to speak to your group on charters (their problems need our solutions): [email protected]
Visit her website: www.commoncorediva.com (type in ‘charters’ in the search bar)
