Tim Gladhill authored the agenda item, and I expect many readers are like me, saying, who-dat? Tim is exceptional in his prompt replies to emails, and he noted:
My apologies if the case created any confusion. The Charter School Fund is based in Boise, Idaho and provides assistance to Charter School during the planning and development stages. A detailed background can be found online at
http://www.thecharterschoolfund.com/.
Hopefully this will answer some of your questions. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions you may have.
Thanks, Tim. I think charter schools are a blot on public education, and should never have seen the light of day in Minnesota. Taxes are collected and paid for the government to provide K-12 education, and traditional school board arrangements should never have been tampered with by home-schooling or charter school proponents. Others likely hold different opinions. In my view PACT school is one charter school too many for Ramsey, and adding more would be harming the community. Surely traditional school administrative-heavy situations can be criticized, where class sizes are too large while too many in the system dodge being in classrooms, but that suggests change to the existing system rather than hare-brained stuff that only the prospering insiders can love. Again, yes, opinions differ.
And following Tim's link, that website is nothing but fluff and puff, and that alerts my suspicions that something's being hidden under a hat. It begs for distrust. This:
The Charter School Fund is a social venture that helps top-tier charter schools obtain outstanding facilities. We believe through responsible funding and our experienced focus, we will positively impact children, communities, and education nationwide.
It smells of being some kind of real estate scam plan to me. Boise is the home of chips and fries, Micron for chips, J.R.Simplot for fries. It's an unprepossessing town, one I recall having driven through where the most memorable thing is the speed limit reduction sign on one end, the resume speed sign on the other.
__________UPDATE__________
THIS about us page looks like pure horse crap to me:
Judge it for yourself. Navigate that website and see what you think. It would not surprise me if there were a substantial overlap of this thing with ALEC.
Here. Here. Here. Public education as we know it, as we have experienced it, is under assault, and due suspicion is best whenever dudes from out of state [e.g., Flaherty/Cronk] show up with "good ideas." Surely anyone can find something to criticize in public education, but it's better, so far, than A Clockwork Orange.