Frontier Virtual Charter High School Fires Entire Teaching Staff

Layoffs may be on the wane, but they haven't stopped entirely. Just ask the teachers at Philadelphia's Frontier Virtual Charter High School.

On March 9, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, the Frontier school laid off its entire teaching staff. For the past month, the PDN reports, classes have been suspended and Frontier's 85 students have been hanging around at home, unsure of what the future holds.

News of the faculty implosion at Frontier comes within hours of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest monthly jobs report -- a document that seems encouraging until you look past the headline.

The unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent in March, according to the report issued Friday -- a continuation of the very gradual decline it's been on since September. But analysts believe that number is dwindling because more and more job seekers are getting frustrated and abandoning their search, thereby falling out of the ranks of the officially "unemployed."

And many of the new jobs added in March were low-paying positions in the food services industry -- not the kind of work that will drive a broader economic recovery.

Layoffs, meanwhile, fell to their lowest level in nearly a year in March, according to a report issued this week from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But job cuts are still taking place en masse every day, from Best Buy, which is closing 50 stores and cutting 400 jobs, to American Eagle, an airline letting about 600 people go, to Yahoo, which recently announced it would be jettisoning some 2,000 employees.

Further job cuts are expected in the coming months, especially in the public sector, as states and towns continue to grapple with shrinking tax revenues and difficult budget trade-offs. In Iowa, some 1,500 educators are facing the prospect of layoffs thanks to an upcoming state spending freeze, while Illinois is considering a budget that would eliminate 2,700 jobs. At the federal level, the Department of the Interior could cut as many as 5,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2013, according to the Challenger, Gray report.

Comments

[Jhony Son]

06:09 AM on 06/01/2012

This site provides details about Frontier charter school that lay off its entire teaching staff. On the basis of past month, the PDN reports, classes have been suspended and due to that 85 students have been hanging around at home, unsure of what the future holds. It is a great effort done by this academy who gives more preference to the education of their student. It helps the parents who are confused and not able to decide the charter academies is good for their kids or not.
http://www.charterhighschool.net/

[theobserver4]

08:01 PM on 04/20/2012

I'm disappointed that these were not public workers. I had a big rant ready for how they deserved it and then I noticed it was a Charter School.

Oh well I think I'll go kick some puppies and then watch Greta. Maybe after that I'll donate to Crossroads GPS; since I'm on social secuirty I found I have a little extra scratch to give to right wing causes.

[Michael Meldon]

02:43 PM on 04/21/2012

^_^

[katieandtom]

11:27 AM on 04/10/2012

sounds like this charter is in trouble.

[MiddleMolly]

12:54 AM on 04/11/2012

They've tried to connect the problems of this charter school to the economy as a whole, but it's unclear if there is any connection... or if this school has just had the "usual" problems of bad management, lack of organization, and other such things that cause businesses to fail.

[besatisfied5]

09:12 AM on 04/10/2012

Teachers work about 3 minutes a day and bitch the rest...."wait, save my lounge chair at the pool, I'll be there for the summer while I am not working and the kids are out of school!"

[Tim VanDeHey]

12:33 PM on 04/10/2012

What planet are you from, stop eating up what the GOP tells you. I have several friends that are teachers and during the school year many put in 60+ hour work weeks. Writing lesson plans, correcting and keeping up with continuing education requirements for themselves.

[MiddleMolly]

12:55 AM on 04/11/2012

You've never been a teacher, have you? Look, I managed fixed fee IT projects as a consultant and I've taught little kids. Teaching little kids is harder. And I made a fraction of what I made as an IT project manager consultant.

[MiddleMolly]

01:25 AM on 04/10/2012

There is no evidence that people are still SO discouraged that they are leaving the labor force in large numbers. The BLS also produces monthly numbers of people who "want a job" and of people who did not look for work in the past month because they are so "discouraged". These numbers are both generally going down.

If so many people are "leaving the labor force" because they are soooo discouraged, why aren't the numbers of people who are "discouraged" going up as fast as the numbers of people in the labor force are going down?

There are more discouraged workers and more workers who "want a job" than there were in 2007 before the crash, but those numbers reached a peak after the Census 2010 and they have gradually gone down since.

The main reason that people are leaving the work force is because the "civilian non-institutional labor force 16+" is getting older. The fastest growing age groups are the 55-69 age groups as Baby Boomers hit those ages. (The oldest Baby Boomers, born in 1946, turn 66 this year and are eligible for full Social Security.)

This is the main reason why people are leaving the labor force: They are retiring. Many of them will work longer than they want to, but many are able to retire and that's what they are doing. Expect the unemployment rate to shrink this year as another big chunk of the 1946 babies applies for social security.

[knotsofast]

11:44 PM on 04/09/2012

Read about the government "unemployment rate" con job:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/9/obamas-cooked-jobs-books/

[MiddleMolly]

01:28 AM on 04/10/2012

You do realize that neither Obama nor the department of labor can just change the way they count people? That people who haven't looked for work in the past month have NEVER been counted as unemployed? Never? Not during ANY administration?

You can argue as to whether or not somebody should have to look for work in the prior month to be counted as officially unemployed, but that's the way it has been FOREVER. Obama has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.

You should stop reading that newspaper if you want to be an informed citizen. They are l y ing to you.

[MiddleMolly]

01:29 AM on 04/10/2012

And the link to the supposed source, some study by the Bank of America, doesn't work! Where's the source, Washington Times?

[JoeBlough]

06:21 PM on 04/09/2012

Didn’t the GOP say if you have a medical or education problem, you should just depend on your neighbors? Send your kids next door to learn.

[ct02]

06:13 PM on 04/09/2012

Now what exactly makes lower income jobs less stimulating to the economy? In fact, because those on lower incomes cannot afford to save the money they make almost 100% of it goes back into the economy. They buy clothes, food, coffee and make car payments that benefit companies with both white collar and blue collar jobs.

[theobserver4]

11:36 PM on 04/20/2012

How bout the vast majority of them are also on food stamps because you know.......they're still poor.

[SWEETSPOT]

05:35 PM on 04/09/2012

Just tax the rich.

[katieandtom]

11:28 AM on 04/10/2012

and blame bush (sarcasm)

[SWEETSPOT]

11:39 AM on 04/10/2012

Good one, forgot about that.

[Grannysue]

02:33 PM on 04/09/2012

If these people spent the money needed to clean up and update our public schools for the 21st century and put into place some rules that Teachers must meet to stay qualified you'd solve 1/2 the problems in this country, but the GOPERS would love nothing more then to send our kids to charter school classrooms, so how'd that work out for them in this case.

[theobserver4]

11:38 PM on 04/20/2012

Teachers are more highly qualified than probably 60-70% of the rest of the workforce combined. That's not the problem. The problem is we've shifted the criteria in the last 20 years to accomodate all the changes but haven't lengthened the day, shortened the summer or done anything to try and make the extra required info anything other than homework.

[Kristopher Leang]

04:35 PM on 04/22/2012

i wouldnt exactly say US education is "up to date" or world renown. once you get to the university level certainly there are many great institutions. but as it stands education in the US is outdated and underfunded.

[elamatt]

01:43 PM on 04/09/2012

This isn't the first Charter School--the very ones so highly touted by republicans--that has abruptly closed, locked the doors, sent everyone home, with Not. One. Bit. Of. Notice. in advance. Is this what the future of "education" looks like if more penny-pinching, dollar-foolish people are put in charge of everything?? This retired, old educator fears for the future of our children, and loss of potentially excellent people who would become teachers, to other "safer" and less-stressful careers. "Business people" running schools makes about as much sense as "business people" running the country--none.

[Sergeant]

03:21 PM on 04/09/2012

Children who leave public education needing remediation in colleges is the norm, not the exception. I too fear for the education of the young. And it has not been helped by teachers unions who protect the incompetent. You know the problem and those who have sat by as members of these unions are part of it. Charters may not be perfect but they offer an alternative to the taxpayer that did not exist before if you were trapped in a failing public school system. And you know they exist.

[elamatt]

05:40 PM on 04/09/2012

I guess my main belief after all the years I taught would be that if teachers had more mentoring and leadership "power", input, call it what you like, that we'd get rid of the incompetent colleagues. I've personally told an Asst. Principal that during my several "observations" during a semester I never actually saw teachers A & B Lead. Any. Instruction., none, nada, zip, BUT the kids were "busy"! I was told "Yes, I know", but not one iota of "spine" was used to do the tough job that needed to be done. When incompetents are protected, the children suffer. Somehow, charter schools need more funding, protection, "something", because they are important.

[theobserver4]

11:44 PM on 04/20/2012

You are such a clown.....trying to bring the Union boogieman to an article where a school was abruptly shut down and the kids sent home....a place without Unions.

Charters are not the answer either.....our approach to education is now so out of whack with what we need to succeed that it just doesn't matter if it's public or charter schools doing the educating. We're still geared toward the whistle of the industrial revolution, not creating critical thinkers.

Also children from the public education system needing remediation in college IS NOT the norm. You might claim that it is but there's nothing statistical to back up that outrageous claim. When you BS you ought to keep it within the realm of reason.

[Russ1960]

01:26 PM on 04/09/2012

This is a badly written article. The headline talks about a school laying off the entire teaching staff, but there is nothing in the article that delves into that. The lede is simply used to give unemployment numbers available elsewhere. So, why did this charter school lay off its entire staff? And what are the consequences for the children?

[elamatt]

01:45 PM on 04/09/2012

Money!!? Back to public school..?.

[Dolphinfan65]

12:31 PM on 04/09/2012

I'm for fixing what we have or destroying it all and rebuilding a better system.This duel system of school can't last because we can barely afford one!!! let along TWO. I know there are bad school systems and bad teacher, and some kids will be lost, But I say cut our loses concentrate on what works and pour money into it. Also curb ADMINISTRATION PAY, not Teachers!!!

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

03:43 AM on 04/09/2012

Darn! Why didn't any of the schools I went to ever go bankrupt when I was in school. Start summer vacation 2 months early? That would have been the Cat's Pajamas!!

[elamatt]

01:46 PM on 04/09/2012

Sarcasm, I surmise?

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

07:20 PM on 04/09/2012

Not in this case---I HATED school! I used to count the days till the end of school -- and I did that the first week.

Chancellor Bismark of Germany invented the K-12 system of schooling in order to produce obedient workers and soldiers for the Reich and his system is designed to crush the spirits of children and force them into mindless obedience. That is why they are trained to respond to bells and whistles like a dog. Anyone with a brain hates school and rightly so.

[mangez merde]

03:37 AM on 04/09/2012

"Teachers, leave our kids alone" - Pink Floyd

[elamatt]

01:46 PM on 04/09/2012

And, SO they are, it seems.