Tomorrow, El Paso AFT will be taking on the pro-privatization charter industry at a Special Meeting of the El Paso ISD School Board. The Board is scheduled to consider a $5 million Texas Education Agency Transformation Zone grant, which would effectively turn over management of eight district schools to one or more private vendors. Currently, the New Tech Network and Engage 2 Learn are the two prime beneficiaries, but there are plenty of offers to sub-contract additional responsibilities for school management to other private firms. Check out the meeting materials here, which to a large extent echo the semantics of the charter industry and its model for expansion in urban areas.
(Or together: thatch@episd.org, bgeske@episd.org, avelarde@episd.org, ddye@episd.org, ctaylor@episd.org, sbyrd@episd.org, mloweree@episd.org)