$1 billion in wasted federal funds on bad charter schools may have underestimated the problem -Valerie Strauss

Updates on the March report on the federal Charter Schools Program  provides new details: now we know that the amount of money wasted was about $1 billion over several years; the extent of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal CSP is appalling, as is the ED department’s failure to pay attention to where the money goes .In March  “Asleep at the Wheel,” found that about a third of the charters that received federal grants in the $440 million program either never opened or closed soon after opening. The Department of Education failed to monitor where the money was going and how it was spent . In the states Carol Burris reviewed, 40% of the charters were failures. Some had no name. Some were not even charters. The CSP,  is a slush fund for Friends of Betsy and a ready supplier of millions to big corporate charter chains"