Colocation Fightback: Charter company not welcome at CATSKILL elementary

We are united to protect our students’ learning.
You won’t take our school without a fight!

Save the date

Tuesday, April 16 at 6 pm.

We are attending Carson City Hall Council Meeting.

They will give support to the fight against GANAS in Carson.

The Harbor community showed up to make sure Ganas charter company understands that they are not welcome at CATSKILL elementary. The charter company is trying to co-locate their campus. A process that would take away much needed resources from the local student community.

Catskill parents and teachers are united against co-location. Why should a charter corporation be able to take our computer lab, our parent center, our library? Co-location hurts kids! Don’t sacrifice our students’ education just so a charter business can expand.

Co-locating in a school is a CHOICE that charter corporations make—a choice that HURTS STUDENTS in our local public schools. Co-location is a tactic of the California Charter Schools Association and its billionaire benefactors whose agenda is to push 1 million students into charter schools. They don’t care if a local school is harmed as long as charter corporations get more classroom seats.

How co-location plays into privatization: The loss of art and music rooms, computer labs, and other great programs makes the local school less attractive to parents. If a school then struggles, the privatizers can label it as failing, shut it down, and turn it over to a private operator. For too long, questions have gone answered about how CCSA and the billionaire privatizers are threatening the stability of public schools through co-location and unregulated charter expansion. Currently, charter operators drain more than $600 million from LAUSD schools every year.

Gallery:

In the heart of the city of Carson in Southern California, a fight is brewing to save much-needed resources for students and the community. Catskill elementary classrooms and resources are being threatened by the charter company Ganas, Inc., which has initiated the process to co-locate onto the Catskill campus against the wishes of the community.

In order for Ganas Inc. to survive on the Catskill campus, it has been aggressively recruiting students from Catskill and the surrounding community. Catskill students could lose their library, computer lab, parent center, and rooms for counseling and be forced to lose popular areas like playgrounds, the cafeteria, and the auditorium.

What is colocation?

Under a flawed state law known as Prop. 39, neighborhood public schools can be forced to give away “unused” space to charter operators. In reality, that “unused” space is not unused at all—it houses arts and music classrooms, science centers, parent centers, and other resources that contribute to a rich, vibrant educational program. And just because a charter operator can co-locate does not mean that they have to. This invasion is a choice that charter operators make—a choice that hurts students in neighborhood public schools.

This divide-and-conquer strategy is pushed by the corporate lobby group California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). CCSA and local charter companies are funded by billionaire privatizers like the Walmart family, Eli Broad, and Reed Hastings and politically supported by Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump. Their agenda is to drain our schools of resources, say they are failing, and then privatize them. Privatization creates a two-tiered education system that does not benefit all students. Co-location is a threat to our children’s right to free and quality public education.

Co-locations like Catskill’s are happening all over California. In Los Angeles, there are more than 70 public schools that are co-located by unregulated charter companies, which destabilizes the public school and the surrounding communities. Parents and educators are fighting back against billionaire privatizers and the destructive tactic of co-location.