Saturday, March 31, 2007

Teacher fired for questioning enrollment at charter school. Sounds like its time for an audit.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Examiner)

Gerald Norde, 60, was hired last fall to teach high school Spanish to the students at Young America Works Public Charter School, one of Washington’s newest charter schools. Day after day, he noticed the attendance sheets in his classes listed students he’d never seen — or who had long since dropped out.


“I’ve asked my students, ‘Who are these people?’ No one knows,” Norde said. “I talked to other teachers and they said they have the same problem.”


Earlier this month, Norde asked Young America’s registrar what was happening. Two weeks later, he was fired.

Like all other charter schools in the District of Columbia, Young America is paid per pupil. Norde’s discovery raises questions about the integrity of a system that sends $300 million in public dollars to the 55 charter schools in the city.

This from Examiner.com.

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