Is Push For Charter Schools Increasing Murder Rates?

According to The Poorest, Most Charter-Rich Cities in the U.S. 04/17/2014 the sixteen cities with the most Charter Schools, in addition to being among the poorest cities, all are above average for murder rates (rates for these states not included in article, but are listed below); nine of them are between four and ten times the national average murder rates; and the two with the lowest rates are still twenty percent above average.

There are plenty of studies showing that poverty is a major contributing cause to crime and violence, including one that I did myself a few years ago which linked to peer reviewed studies, listed below. There is also an enormous amount of evidence to show that large portions of the Charter School movement is heavily controlled by economists and Wall Street insiders, that are often far more concerned with increasing their profit, than educating children. One of the most blatant examples is Michael Milken, who spent time in jail for a junk bond scandal in the eighties, and now invests in a for profit online school which is a scam as shown below and many other fraudulent for-profit scams being promoted under the guise of school reform and experiments with Charter Schools.

There are also plenty of studies that show that poorer education is also correlated with higher rates of violence including murder, and problems with quality of Charter Schools would inevitably contribute to that as well. Since many Charter Schools are involved in many financial scandals and endangering quality of education they're inevitably increasing poverty and reducing education which will indirectly increase violence and crime, including murder.

One possible explanation for the large correlation between higher murder rates and higher concentration of Charter Schools might be that they specifically targeted troubled areas, as part of an experiment to solve their high violence problems; however evidence showing this has failed has been available for years if not decades,and there's also evidence to indicate they never acted in good faith in the first place. The best research may be readily available to those that keep up with education news but it's not widely reported in the mass media where a large percentage of the public gets their news. Cable news almost always provides an enormous amount of coverage for promoters of Charter Schools like Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee among many others; but the more in depth coverage that exposes epidemic levels of fraud are rarely ever covered, although those checking alternative media outlets focusing on education are well aware of it.

The majority of those involved in the education debate seem to fall into two clear categories, people with educational background concerned with the best interests of children, and those with political connections to the reform movement led by economists and corporate advocates, with the help of propagandists and the media trying to convince the public to go along with their reform agenda, which has overwhelmingly failed years ago. I've provided a significant number of sources rarely reported in the mainstream media below, although as those involved in education media know it's only a fraction of the best research.

There are numerous other reports exposing poor quality of Charters Schools, but few of them show a direct connection to increased violence as well as the following article about higher problems with violence in New York City Charters Schools than other schools, although it isn't among the sixteen cities with the most Charters:

Why Has Charter School Violence Spiked at Double the Rate of Public Schools? 03/09/2016

A few weeks after The New York Times released a controversial video of a Success Academy Charter School teacher lashing out at a student, New York City’s deep-pocketed charter school advocates are looking to shift the public narrative on who is committing violence in city schools.

Over the last few weeks, Families for Excellent Schools, a charter school lobbying and advocacy group with close ties to Success Academy, has placed TV ads, held a press conference, and taken to social media, claiming New York City public schools are in a violent “state of emergency.” The charter school campaign appears to be a response to the public backlash that Success Academy has received for its controversial disciplinary approach.



Taking state data, which includes “violent” incidents not involving the police, Families for Excellent Schools asserts that between 2014 and 2015 schools suffered a 23 percent uptick in violence. The public action was meant to undermine New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently claimed school violence has gone down, thanks to his administration’s softer disciplinary approach.

A Nation analysis of the charter school group’s data, however, suggests the move may backfire, since the numbers also show that charter schools themselves reported a far higher spike in incidents of school violence, 54 percent, more than double that of the public school average between the 2014 and 2015 school years.

Breaking the data down further, The Nation also found that while NYC public schools, perhaps responding to the district’s disciplinary reforms, actually dropped in nonviolent offenses like “criminal mischief” and “other disruptive incidents” at -6 percent and -23 percent, respectively, charter schools had a 65 percent surge in reported incidents of “criminal mischief” and a 33 percent surge in “other disruptive incidents.” Notably, charter schools also had far higher reported surges in drug and weapons possession incidents, at 53 percent and 27 percent respectively, whereas public schools only had 5 percent and 9 percent jumps for the same categories.



New York City charter school students represent a relatively small amount of the city’s overall population, and therefore make up only 4 percent of total violent incidents in New York City schools, but these drastic disparities raise questions about how charter schools’ controversial disciplinary cultures relate to the dramatic increase in reported school violence. Complete article

It is difficult to find conclusive statistical evidence, proving Charter Schools contribute to more violence, and some of them, if handled well, might not do so; however when a major objective is to increase profits for corporations and transfer control of the education system to bureaucrats in corporate board rooms there's good reason to suspect that this is virtually guaranteed, especially when looking at an enormous amount of additional evidence showing corruption and that the political establishment isn't even acting in good faith. Almost six years ago Julie Woestehoff pointed out some of the obvious problems in Are Charter Schools the Answer to - or One Reason for - Chicago’s Violence? 09/16/2012 where she points out that large amounts of school closings and forcing children to travel long distances, in some cases through neighborhoods controlled by gangs are inevitably more likely to contribute to more violence than they are to prevent it. Another major problem is that the School Reform movement almost always faces an enormous amount of opposition at the local level, while the decisions are made by politicians routinely against the wishes of parents and educators.

Chicago also demonstrated how these reform policies are clearly trying to target poor people as indicated by charging some of the poorest students fees for punishment purposes for things as trivial as not tying shoes, or tucking in shirts as reported in Some Students Really Pay for Breaking the Rules 02/17/2012; which also mentions Newt Gingrich's suggestion that students work as paid school janitors, which is something that students in wealthy cities would never be asked to do, showing the enormous amount of bad faith a large portion of the Charter reform supporters have.

Mitt Romney also demonstrated an incredibly obvious double standard during the 2012 election when he repeatedly said class sizes don't matter. On at least some occasions he supposedly said parent involvement, motivated teachers and quality administrators were better drivers of success, which is, of course also true, however these characteristics are all much more likely to be present when class size isn't to large, as any rational person especially teachers know. However according to Does Ed Secretary Duncan agree with Romney on class size? 05/27/2012 many other supporters of the school reform movement including Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and more wealthy people like Mitt Romney claim that class size doesn't matter, although they don't apply that belief to their own kids. Apparently this included Arne Duncan, Obama's former Education Secretary who recommends improving efficiency by making “smartly targeted increases in class size” and spend their funds instead on “online learning, virtual schools, and other smart uses of technology.” Duncan also recommended “shifting away from class-sized based reduction that is not evidence-based,” despite the fact that if he's not aware of evidence to support the belief that class size matter, it's because he doesn't want to know about it, and this is in the midst of budget cuts that had already forced class sizes upwards in many districts across the nation to thirty children per class or more.

Barack Obama apparently took advantage of Mitt Romney's embarrassing statements about class size and used them in an ad even though his own Secretary of Education agreed with him, which ads to previous evidence to show that leading politicians from both political parties are trying to push epidemic levels of cuts to education and reform that parents and teachers don't want down people throats!



I usually try to avoid extreme statements, but there have been so many stories about extreme policies from corrupt politicians that are only reported briefly before going on to the next scandal du jour that sometimes extreme statements are justified!

Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney apparently hailed New Orleans Charter Schools as a success, even though there were already some doubts about how well it was working and more problems have come out since then including several cheating scandals.

The “online learning and virtual schools" that Arne Duncan recommended also turned into a major disaster that was clearly turned into a scam by one of the greatest hedge fund thief's to steal school funds to enrich corporate investors while proving to be a disaster for students. In all fairness some degree of online learning may work well, but this is almost certainly already taking place in traditional schools where teachers and parents are available to help tech children how to use the internet in person, which isn't at all what "virtual schools" like K12 did.



K12 should have been recognized as an obvious scam right from the begining, especially since according to many sources including, From Junk Bonds to Junk Schools: Cyber Schools Fleece Taxpayers for Phantom Students and Failing Grades 10/02/2013 it was started with an investment from Michael Milken, the infamous junk bond king who went to jail for his scams in the eighties, with the help Ron Packard, also involved in financial scams, began this school and apparently used their political connections to get contracts which turned into a fortune for them, with Michael Milken now worth $3.7 billion (how much of this is from education scams is uncertain) and Ron Packard raking in over $16 million and a disaster for students as indicated in the following Wikipedia Excerpt and NYT article:

Wikipedia: K12 (company) "In 2005, the Philadelphia Board of Education called for the termination of a $3M science curriculum contract with K12 after the company's co-founder William Bennett, a former U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, said, "if you wanted to reduce crime ... you could abort every black baby in the country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."[8] Bennett subsequently resigned from the K12 board and his part-time position with K12. The contract was not revoked, but was not renewed at the end of the contract term. The New York Times wrote that company profits are used to pay for advertising and lobbying state officials. K12 spent $26.5M on advertising in 2010 and the company and its employees contributed nearly $500,000 to state political candidates from 2004 to 2010.[3] K12 has contributed money to organizations like Pennsylvania Families for Public Cyber Schools, which lobbied for online schools.[3] In Ohio, an organization founded by a K12 official hired temp agency workers to demonstrate with signs against state representative Steven Dryer, who challenged their funding."

Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools 12/12/2011

By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing.

Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.

By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.

.....

Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million.

..... a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.

.... with some high school teachers managing more than 250 students ....

“It’s extremely unfair for the taxpayer to be paying for additional expenses, such as advertising,” Mr. Wagner said. Much of the public money also goes toward lobbying state officials, an activity that Ronald J. Packard, chief executive of K12, has called a “core competency” of the company.

..... But Mr. Dyer said that his wife questioned the people carrying the signs and found out they were paid temp agency workers. (Bloggers input: The temp workers were paid for by a K12 official, which means that directly or indirectly tax payer money was being used for fraudulent political activities to promote this scam!) Complete article

Bennett's suggestion that we should consider aborting "every black baby in the country" while he's involved in this incredibly obvious scam, and the fact that he was chosen to be Reagan's Secretary of Education, is a clear sign of the contempt that he, and the entire political establishment has for improving education despite an enormous amount of propaganda designed to convince the public they want to fix the problems.

Most, if not all, choices for secretary of Education since then haven't been much better, although a couple may have done a slightly better job pretending to support improvements for education. Rod Paige famously referred to teachers unions as a "terrorist organization," which is a common attitude from many high profile politicians, including William Bennett and Betsy DeVos, who both had high profile arguments with teachers unions. These unions are of course made up of teachers, and contrary to the propaganda the political establishment provides the vast majority of them aren't incredibly corrupt or greedy unlike many of the people constantly pushing funding cuts or increased class size that often have hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

Betsy DeVos recently said that teachers should "serve the students" when they went on strike; however she didn't volunteer to accept increased taxes, even though she and her family are worth billions of dollars.

It truly is amazing to see billionaires line up and accuse teachers working for incredibly low wages of being "greedy," while they lobby for one tax cut after another and fight any and all union activity tooth and nail. Betsy DeVos has no educational background, and was clearly a political appointee who previously claimed that "Many, if not most, of the economic problems in Michigan are a result of high wages and a tax and regulatory structure that makes this state uncompetitive," fourteen years ago. (Betsy DeVos: Michigan workers paid too much 04/28/2004) She also has investments in debt collection firms that profit off the student debt crisis, which is made worse by laws preventing people from resolving student debt in bankruptcy; hse has a financial incentive that clearly contradicts her job. She has also openly admitted to bribery, although the political establishment doesn't like to use that word when, in 1997, she wrote, “My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Committee, I have decided to stop taking offense, at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment.”

"People like us,” she added archly, “must surely be stopped.”

Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Big-Donor Education Secretary "We do expect something in return. ... We expect a return on our investment.” 11/23/2016



She had that part right; clearly the School Reform movement being pushed from the entire political establishment has little or no support at the grassroots, although in many cases they managed to use propaganda and deception, including many cheating scandals to cover up their failures to convince many to believe other wise; but a growing number of people are seeing through this. Philadelphia, which is one of the schools with both the highest number of Charter Schools and, among the ten biggest cities with more than a million people it has the highest murder rates with an average, over fifteen years of four times the national average, declined to renew the K12 over ten years ago following a controversy over Bennett's comments; and more schools are finally abandoning them according to recent reports, indicating they may not be around much longer. However, little or no effort has been made to recoup the money, essentially stolen, through fraud, although lawyers would refute that if they had a chance.

Channel One which I wrote about previously has been losing contracts for years thanks to grassroots pressure and more recently some schools Schools continue to disrespect Channel One News 05/09/2016 by airing their shows and commercials before school starts when children aren't forced to watch their propaganda. The grassroots movements that are successfully standing up to the school reform movement aren't making the traditional news anymore than the problems that show how disastrous it has been but local communities that have learned from more reliable alternative media ahve shown that they can stand up to corporate efforts to suppress education and turn it into an indoctrination process controlled by multinational corporations.



The School Reform movement promoted by the media and political establishment is controlled by a small percentage of the public using their political clout and public relations people to convince the public to support it in a manner that, starts with political manipulation tactics advised by Machiavelli who routinely recommended keeping the masses poor so they can be controlled. The political establishment has known that controlling the education process so that the masses don't recognize their manipulation tactics since they first introduced public education for purpose that were only intended to teach them how to become more productive workers, as described in Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States."

Machiavelli also recommended that leaders should always support religious beliefs, even if they don't believe them to better enable them to control the masses since the masses have been taught by their religious to trust leaders without question from their own faith but to be highly skeptical of those from other faiths. This is almost certainly why a large portion of politicians from the political establishment routinely claim to have strong religious beliefs, but only act on them when it suits the objective of their donors. Donald Trump may be among the most obvious pretenders when it comes to supporting religious beliefs, before he began preparing to run for office he never even made an effort to pretend to be religious; and even when he did start doing so it should have been incredibly easy to see through; however, for one reason or another, perhaps because of his demagoguery skills or the endorsements of religious pastors that are more concerned with manipulating the masses and collecting donations for their Megachurches, than teaching moral values, an enormous number of evangelicals seem to believe him.

Before he chose Betsy DeVos to be his Secretary of Education he offered the job to Jerry Falwell Jr., who apparently endorsed him just before the primaries began, despite major doubts about Trump's religious beliefs. Trump's alleged beliefs have no more credibility than the vast majority of his incredibly bad lies yet regardless of why he's pretending to support religeous control of schools either with the help of Falwell or Betsy DeVos, as I explained in Growing Evidence Of Mega-Church Fraud Violence & Support For War? there's an enormous amount of evidence showing that the most religious areas, including the Bible Belt or the areas that have the most Megachurches are also in the areas with the highest murder rates.

This doesn't fit the definition of what the media would describe as a "fringe conspiracy theory," since the vast majority of evidence available to support this conclusion isn't completely secret, although the traditional media doesn't report most of it. However there are alternative media outlets that most people have never heard of like Diane Ravitch, who previously worked for the first Bush administration supporting reform, before realizing how corrupt and incompetent it is and now scours a variety of media outlets to educate her followers and The National Education Policy Center which is controlled by educators, far more informed about the subject than politicians or pundits, and concerned about the best interests of children and they routinely expose an enormous amount of the propaganda put out by the commercial media and corporate School Reform advocates.

These far more credible outlets get much less media coverage than the reformers thanks, regrettably, to the fact that the traditional media is controlled primarily by six for-profit oligarchies that cater overwhelmingly to the interests of the same billionaires that profit off our economic system. These same billionaires also promote payday lenders, insurance scams, outsourcing and even wars based on lies, that are also exposed much more relatively on alternative media outlets, although they often have different media outlets focusing on each subject.

The Result is that the contributing causes of violence in low income areas is routinely ignored, on one subject after another when it interferes with corporate profits, and poor education in abandoned inner cities where these Charter Schools are being pushed is one of the most important contributing factors, if not the most important contributing factors. The same people in wealthy communities that are controlling the school reform movement also control the propaganda about elections so the only candidates that get any media coverage enabling them to get the name recognition they need to get elected are the ones they approve of.



The decisions are all made in wealthy communities and the people living in middle class and especially lower income communities pay the price.

A for-profit Charter School in Akron Ohio has been exposed for covering up violence corruption, and mismanagement; another religious Charter School in Florida closed after receiving $540,000 from the state; and there are perhaps dozens more across the state that have also closed down without providing much for the money they received from the state. Florida paid Charter Schools more than $760 million and a large portion of that has been wasted, although they still can't figure out how much. In some cases the Churches or for-profit schools that took the money are still there and could be forced to repay it if the political establishment was willing to hold them accountable; however, they keep pushing more fraud, and in some cases like one example there were "after-hours parties in the cafeteria, $4,500 in equipment went missing."



Betsy DeVos Ethics Report Reveals Ties to Student Debt Collection Firm 01/25/2017

These are just a handful of the stories about corruption and epidemic levels of fraud surrounding the Charter School Reform movement, which are often reported as isolated incidents, before letting them drop down the memory hole in the traditional media. The following are additional stories about more corruption or sources for some of the conclusions in this article, including a few from advocates of Charter Schools, which is why it helps to recognize the source and learn to recognize the propaganda:

Akron charter school closes, details emerge on unreported violence, mismanagement; students are cut adrift 09/18/2015

Florida gave about $70 million to charter schools that later closed; state recouped little 12/13/2015 So what did get taxpayers get back? Not much. Some televisions, computers and other surplus supplies deemed unusable by the Leon County school district. In contrast, when Balere Language Academy shut down amid allegations it threw raunchy after-hours parties in the cafeteria, $4,500 in equipment went missing. The school reported the items were stolen, according to Miami-Dade officials.

Yes, Betsy: Spending Does Matter 04/2/2018

Betsy DeVos, an Heiress, Bashes Tuition-Free College: ‘There’s Nothing in Life That’s Truly Free’ 04/17/2017

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stumbles during pointed ‘60 Minutes’ interview 03/12/2017

Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America’s Schools to Build “God’s Kingdom” March/April 2017

Betsy DeVos Is Making It Easier for Schools to Send Black Kids—Like This 13-Year-Old Girl—to Jail 04/23/2018

DeVos rips Oklahoma teachers over strike: ‘Serve the students’ 04/09/2018

Trump Seeks to Cut Education Budget by 5 Percent, Expand School Choice Push 02/12/2018

How Many D.C. Charter Schools Have Closed? Take a Guess. 04/23/2018 Matt Barnum: Part 2, Waltons’ Secret Memo: Why Charter Expansion Lost in Massachusetts

What New Orleans Can Teach Betsy DeVos About Charter Schools 01/09/2017

Six Districts Where 40 Percent or More of Students Attend Charter Schools 11/10/2015

Indiana: Students Who Transfer from Public Schools to Charters Lose Ground Academically 04/20/2018

Teacher Pay So Low That Districts Are Hiring Foreign Teachers 05/03/2018

Chicago: Charter Chain Does Not Permit Girls to Go to Bathroom for Menstrual Emergency 05/03/2018

Virginia: University Admits Koch Foundation Bought Control of Key Decisions 05/03/2018

New Orleans Charter School Problems Exposed At NAACP Hearing 04/25/2017

Big money to New Orleans charter school execs 04/28/2016

State charter school applications feature for-profits, New Orleans expansion 04/02/2014 New Orleans alone has 77 charter schools, and nine more are sought there under the latest state applications. Only 40 charters are in the rest of the state, mostly in East Baton Rouge.

Charter school leaders are complicit with segregation, and it’s hurting their movement 12/11/2017

10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ All-Charter School System Has Proven a Failure 08/28/2015

Romney and Obama hail New Orleans' charter schools as a model for America 10/26/2012 After Katrina, New Orleans rolled out a scheme to allow public money to follow kids into private education. It's won favour all round – but Romney wants to push its market ethos even further

Report: For-profit run charter schools perform worse 06/17/2018

A Sea of Charter Schools in Detroit Leaves Students Adrift 06/28/2016

A Huge For-Profit Charter Network Uses the Same Approaches as High-Performing Nonprofits. The Results Are Impressive 04/02/2018 One of the largest for-profit charter school networks in the country, National Heritage Academies, produces substantial gains in student achievement compared to traditional public schools in Michigan, according to a major new study circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Unlike most research on charters, which have focused on urban schools serving largely minority and low-income student populations, it finds that improvements were mostly enjoyed by female, non-poor, and white or Asian students.

How Washington Winks at Violent Discipline of Special Needs Kids 11/29/2017

Does DC have for-profit charters? Yes and no 03/25/2014

Other states stricter than Michigan on charters, some ban for-profits 06/22/2014

Report: Michigan leads nation in number of for-profit charter school operators 11/28/2013 Overall, the number of for-profit companies running charter schools has grown from five in 1996 to 97 in 2012, and enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year topped 460,000.

Detroit, Flint among cities with highest proportion of charter school students 10/25/2017 Queen Creek Arizona just to the south east of Phoenix; Natomas Unified School District, Sacramento CA: 33%

Best Schools In Michigan Would Vanish If For-Profit Charters Were Banned 09/14/2017 Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source for Michigan residents who want an alternative to “bigger government” remedies in policy debates. CapCon reports with a free-market news perspective about the public officials who seek to limit government, those who do not, and those whose votes are at odds with what they say.

Teacher settles lawsuit with charter school; money going to domestic violence prevention 03/14/2018

The Charter vs. Public School Fight 02/21/2017

Are charter schools safer than traditional public schools? 09/06/2017 Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a Charter School advocate

2016’s Cities with the Most & Least Efficient Spending on Education 04/04/2016

Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts

Per Pupil Spending Varies Heavily Across the United States 06/02/2015

Financial Forecast for K12 Inc. Looking Bleak 04/27/2018

Steven Singer on “Democrats” for High-Stakes Testing and Privatization of Public Schools 04/30/2018

Politico: Why Some States Can’t Raise Taxes to Pay for Schools 05/01/2018

Obama ad says class sizes 'don't matter' to Romney 08/23/2012

The D.C. ‘School Reform’ Fiasco: A Complete History 11/11/2017

FOX 8 Investigates: New Orleans schools flagged for cheating 06/16/2013

Singleton charter CEO to resign after standardized test cheating scandal: report 01/26/2018

Law and Order in School and Society: How Discipline and Policing Policies Harm Students of Color, and What We Can Do About It 06/08/2017



Hall County Georgia is the only one among the top sixteen listed that wasn't a major city, or an exceptionally high murder rate. This is a very rural area with Gainesville Georgia as the anchor city which is very small and only has a murder rate slightly above average. The surrounding small towns don't have complete records; however a search of the internet quickly turns up a handful of murders in that areas which is enough to prevent it from being much if any lower than average in the other small town. They actually have a much larger number of Charters in Atlanta nearby and the suburbs surrounding it, which has a much higher murder rate. The reason it didn't make the top sixteen is almost certainly because they have a much higher population, but they must be close. According to one article above Queen Creek, Arizona, comes close to being in the top, as well, which would be the only one below average for murder rates. a few of the other ones that are close including Sacramento and Baton Rouge are also above average.

The following are the murder rates for the cities with the top sixteen highest percentage of Charter Schools:

New Orleans Louisiana above average murder rate from 2002-16: 54.02 population 384,000 This rate does not calculate the years 2005-6 in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina which contributed to a major increase that continued to 2007 which is calculated before dropping back down. according to Murder Rates in New Orleans, La, 2004–2006 it was 96.6 in 2006 485 more than 2005 69% more than 2006. population dropped significantly as a result of the hurricane. Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist 10,000; Greater Saint Stephen Full Gospel Baptist 8,000; Life Center Ministries 6,500; Franklin Avenue Baptist Church 4,000

Detroit Michigan above average murder rate from 2002-16: 42.98 population 680,000 Triumph Church 11,600; Greater Grace Temple 8,000 or 5,000; Second Ebenezer Church 5,000 or 2,000; total of eight megachurches in Michigan with other five ranging from 5,000 to 2,000

Washington District of Columbia, 659,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 27.07 Temple of Praise 18,000 or lower estimate of only 4,000; Metropolitan Baptist Church 6,000; Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church 7,000 or 3,500; Bible Way Temple 3,500; Rhema Christian Center Church 2,000; Shiloh Baptist Church 2,000; Saint Columba's Episcopal Church 1,800; International Ethiopian Evangelical Church 1,800; National Presbyterian Church Unk; Union Temple AME Unk; Total of 10 Megachurches

Kansas City Missouri, 470,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 22.22 Sheffield Family Life Center 5,100; Colonial Presbyterian Church 2,200; Vineyard Christian Fellowship 2,000; Forerunner Christian Fellowship 2,000

Flint Michigan, 97,380, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 38.83 median household income in 2016: $25,896

Gary Indiana, 74,200, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 56.05 median household income in 2016: $29,522

Cleveland Ohio, 385,800, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 19.84 median household income in 2016: $27,551 The Word Church 7,000; Cleveland Baptist Church 2,010; Olivet Institutional Baptist Church 2,000

Dayton Ohio, 140,500, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 21.22 median household income in 2016: $28,894 Christian Life Center 2,700; Shiloh Baptist Church 2,500; Far Hills Community Church 2,000

Indianapolis Indiana, 852,500, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 14.35 median household income in 2016: $44,615 Eastern Star Baptist Church 10,000; total of thirteen megachurches in Indianapolis with rest ranging from 4,532 to 2,000

Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1.56 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 21.13 Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia 14,000 or lower estimate of 10,000; Deliverance Evangelistic Church 11,000 or lower estimate of 4,000; Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church Philadelphia 15,000 or lower estimate of 4,150; Sharon Baptist Church 5,000; The Greater White Rock Baptist Church 3,000; Christian Stronghold Baptist Church 2,500; Bright Hope Baptist Church 2,000; total of 7 Megachurches

Albany New York, 98,100, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 6.36 median household income in 2016: $42,302

Phoenix Arizona, 1.5 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 10.79 Calvary Community Church Phoenix 11,400 or 12,000; Dream City Church aka First Assembly of God 21,000; total of ten megachurches in Phoenix with others ranging from 4,200 to 2,000

Toledo Ohio, 278,500, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 9.11 near Detroit with a rate of 42.98 median household income in 2016: $35,301 Cornerstone Church 4,000

Grand Rapids Michigan, 194,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 6.35 population about 190,000 Calvary Church 4,500; Grand Rapids First Assembly of God 2,400

San Antonio Texas, 1.4 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.43 Community Bible Church 14,000; Cornerstone Church 17,000 or 8,400; a total of twelve megachurches with other ten ranging from 8,700 to 1,800

Gainesville Georgia above average murder rate for the nation but slightly below average for Georgia from 2002-16: 6.05 population 36,000 near Atlanta with a rate of 22.59 Free Chapel Worship Center 13,500 or lower estimate of 11,500

Camden New Jersey, 74,400, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 54.05 bordering Philadelphia with a rate of 21.13 median household income in 2016: $26,783

Sacramento California, 485,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.9 median household income in 2016: $55,187 Natomas Unified School District, CA: 33% for profit Charter Schools; Bethany Slavic Missionary Church 5,700; total of eight megachurches with rest ranging from 5,500 to 2,000

Baton Rouge Louisiana, 229,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 23.67 population 228,900 Family Worship Center Jimmy Swaggart and Donnie Swaggart 15,500, lower estimate of only 4,000; Healing Place Church 7,200; Living Faith Christian Center 4,750

Atlanta Georgia, 456,000, murder rates well above average murder rate from 2002-16: 22.59 First Baptist Church of Atlanta 11,000 or lower estimate of 4,900; Peachtree Presbyterian Church 9,000 or 3,170; Buckhead Church 7,300; Cascade United Methodist 7,000 or lower estimate of 1,800; seventeen megachurches total in Atlanta with other fourteen ranging from 9,400 to 1,800

After checking a handful of states to compare them to see whether the correlation between higher murder rates and a high concentration of Charter Schools is still present when there isn't quite as high a concentration as the top sixteen it's clear that although it's not as big, in most cases, it still exists. Only one out of Tennessee's thirty-four Charter Schools is in a city with below average murder rates, the other thirty three are in three cities with at least twice the national average murder rates; twenty-seven of those are in Memphis, which has four times the national average murder rate. Most other states can't be this bad including Florida and Georgia which both have more than half with above average murder rates and many of them well above average. I haven't done a thorough review of the rest but clearly Michigan and Louisiana both have more than half with above average murder rates as well and many of them are well above. Massachusetts, which doesn't have as high a percentage of Charters or as high a murder rate, still has a lot of their Charters in the most violent cities including Boston, or many of the neighborhoods within Boston, often the most violent and a few other cities like Brockton that also are above average for both the state and the nation.

The following are a few additional listings of Charter Schools in several states, which will soon be updated to show how many of them are in cities with above average, or well above average murder rates:

Listing of Charter Schools in Georgia 04/2/2018 25 in Atlanta; 2 in Macon; 2 in Columbus; 4 in Savannah; 2 in Stone Mountain; 3 in Lithonia only 2,000 people; 3 in Albany; 1 in Griffin; 2 in Norcross; 1 in Conyers; 1 in College Park; 46 total 5 in Marietta; 5 in Gainesville; 1 in Jonesboro; 1 in Cumming; 12 total 4 in Alpharetta; 1 in Douglasville; 2 in Newnan; 3 in Flowery Branch 6,385 people; 1 in Duluth; 1 in Smyrna; 1 in Decatur; 2 in Augusta; 1 in Kennesaw; 1 in Lawrenceville; 1 in Athens; 1 in Dalton; 19 total 10/13 1 in Baconton; 1 in Nashville 5.09; 1 in Thomasville 1.24; 1 in Carrollton 7.95; 1 in Covington 4.95; 1 in Chamblee 11.54; 1 in Statesboro 4.55; 1 in Cusseta; 3 in Dunwoody rate 2.92; 1 in Senoia 2.36 under 4,000 people; 1 in Ellenwood; 1 in Vienna 10.31 3,823 people; 1 in Fargo; 1 in Rome 6.6; 1 in Clarkston 5.78 7,846 people; 1 in Brunswick 15.61; 2 in Hapeville rate of 12.7; 1 in Mableton; 1 in East Point 17.72; 1 in Greensboro 4.21; 1 in Metropolitan Parkway; 2 in Riverdale rate of 10.89; 1 in Hinesville 7.66; 1 in Garden City 4.72; 4 in Madison only 4,000 people 3 murders in 14 years rate of 5.41; 1 in Blairsville 0 553 people; 1 in Avondale Estates 7.88 2,832 people; 3 in Sandy Springs rate of 4.2; 1 in Edison 22.74 1,477 people; 1 in Talbotton 0 893 people; 1 in Crawfordville; 1 in Tybee Island 0 3,082 people; 1 in Forest Park 8.2; 1 in Monroe 9.02; 1 in Preston; 44 total, 16 below, 4 average for nation, 17 above 10 about double or more national, rest unknown

63 above average; 16 average for nation or more but below state average; 35 below average; 7 unknown; 121 total;

Listing of Charter Schools in Florida over 400? Fort Lauderdale 7; Jacksonville 13; West Palm Beach 7; Miami 46; 56 total? North Miami 1 North Miami Beach 1 South Miami 1 Miami Springs 1 Miami Gardens 3 Miami Shores 1; Orlando 19; Bradenton 7; Clearwater 3; Daytona Beach 4; Fort Myers 11; Hollywood 8; Lakeland 9; Lake Worth 4; Ocala 2; Panama City 7; Pensacola 5; Plant City 4; Pompano Beach 4; St. Augustine 3; Saint Petersburg 4; Sarasota 5; Tallahassee 7; Tampa 21; 206 Opa-Locka 3 48.19; Winter Haven 4 6.35; Boynton Beach 7 6.03; DeLand 3 7.52; Cocoa 1 14.5; Lauderdale Lakes 2 10.17; Homestead 6 8.85; Quincy 1 6.58; Port Richey 1 6.39 Apalachicola 1 0 2,276 people; Dunedin 2; Dade City 1; Coral Gables 3; Crystal River 1; Bartow 2 4.58; Sunrise 4; Alachua 2; Eustis 2 4.31; Aventura 1; Kissimmee 7; Plantation 1; Auburndale 2; Boca Raton 2; North Palm Beach 1; Coral Springs 8; Oak Hill 1; St. Cloud 2; Cape Coral 6; Milton 3; Lantana 2; Pembroke Pines 16 1.61; North Lauderdale 4; Tamarac 3; Longwood 1; Hialeah 7; Hialeah Gardens 4; Stuart 1 4.17; Bell Isle 1; Altoona 1; Easter City 1; Big Pine Key 1; Bonita Springs 2; Century 1; St. Marks 1;

Map: Metro Atlanta charter schools

Listing of Charter Schools in Tennessee

Listing of Charter Schools in Massachusetts

Listing of Charter Schools in Michigan 86 in Detroit; 8 in Flint; 5 in Pontiac; 2 in Battle Creek; 9 in Lansing; 4 in Kalamazoo; 12 in Grand Rapids; 7 in Saginaw; 4 in Benton Harbor; 4 in Jackson; 6 in Highland Park; 6 in Hamtramck; 3 in Inkster;

Woman charged with murder after human remains found near Lake Lanier 09/18/2014 The remains were identified as those of 20-year-old Flowery Branch resident Kayla Jeanne Weil.

Flowery Branch police investigate first murder in almost 5 years 08/07/2016