Panelists on this episode argue that inadequate and inequitable funding of our public schools pose a dire threat to American democracy. That’s because students in under-resourced schools, those who tend to be poor and people of color, are less able to participate in the democratic process. The full panel includes: Derek Black, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina School of Law; Preston Green, Professor of Educational Leadership and Law, University of Connecticut; Joshua Starr, Chief Executive Officer, PDK International; and Sanaa Kahloon, student, Harvard University.

“The problem that we may have is that, even if we spend the money wisely and do things that need to be done, you may not get the turnaround in two or three years,” says Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education. “What I’m calling for is more patience.”

“I think there was a failure to anticipate private entities taking advantage,” said Preston Green, a professor of education leadership and law at the University of Connecticut.  “The lack of guidelines for those companies opened the way to potential abuses — drawing a comparison to the lax regulation of financial markets that led to the subprime mortgage crisis a decade ago. ”

“The authors describe how a “bubble” happens, how certain populations are targeted, how they clamor to get in to what appears to be a good deal, then stampede out when the bubble bursts. This may be happening now in urban African American communities,” writes Ravitch. “This article is worth your time.”

The lack of basic safeguards has opened up the charter school sector to “educational entrepreneurs,” says Preston C. Green, professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Connecticut. “These actors may also run businesses whose interests conflict with the charter schools that they are operating.”

In 2001, Enron rocked the financial world by declaring bankruptcy in the wake of a now infamous accounting scandal. Within months, shares in the energy and commodities giant – the seventh-largest corporation in the country at the time – plunged to penny stock levels. Thousands of employees lost their jobs. Investors lost billions. The same type of fraud and mismanagement is happening in the charter school sector, says Professor Preston Green.

Alarmed by President Trump’s increasingly hostile stances, several local school departments have sought to reassure parents, students, and teachers that protections remain in place for immigrant and transgender students.

Business Insider (Neag School’s Preston Green is interviewed in this article relating charter schools to the subprime-mortgage crisis)

The Day (Neag School’s Preston Green weighs in on the recent Connecticut school funding decision)

A Connecticut judge calls unequal education unconstitutional, and raises national questions about the American way of schooling.