Ohio is the for-profit Capitol of US education. Here is one of the profiteers’ secrets: They collect tax dollars for no-show students.
This is from Bill Phillis of the Ohio coalition for education and adequacy.
Ghost schools
8/30/13
About five years ago, Scripps Howard News Service published, Ghost Schools-A special investigative report by Scripps Howard News Service finds taxpayers paying millions for students who never show up for class. For-profit “ghost schools” collect money even when students are absent.
Although the Scripps Howard investigations of charter schools took place in several states, one of the Ohio for-profit charter school operations is featured in the report. A Salem, MA for-profit company owner is quoted in the report as saying, “Ohio is the profit-making EMO capital of America.”
Investigators learned that during the 2006-2007 school year, Ohio, by extracting money from school districts, paid $29.9 million for absent students who were enrolled in 47 dropout recovery schools. In one such charter school, 64 percent of the enrolled students were not in class on a daily basis during the 2004-2005 school year.
A former principal of a Life Skills Center is quoted in the report as saying “It’s a cash cow. I spend less than $1 million on a $3 million operation. What in the h*&$ are they (executives at his former company) doing with the other $2 million?”
Anyone interested in receiving this Scripps Howard News Service report may contact this office.
When this report was published, those responsible for the documented fraud should have been held accountable. Where was the outrage from the public or education community? At least the state should have followed up on the findings reported. Scripps Howard reporter Thomas Hargrove, a member of the investigative team, indicated in a recent telephone conversation that he was shocked that such fraud in Ohio could exist without somebody going to jail.
Is this type of fraud still practiced in Ohio? Who would know? The charter school lobby is so powerful, primarily due to campaign contributions, that the political environment thwarts any attempt to hold for-profit charter schools accountable. A few years ago the governor attempted to right this wrong but was blocked by powerful political forces.
The money paid for the phantom students comes right out of school districts’ budgets. Hence, educational opportunities for students enrolled in the public common school system are diminished due to that “cash cow” approach that Ohio political leadership has established and maintained.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
This email was sent by ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net |
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Where is the outrage? This is happening all while local levies face resistance and students and teachers suffer. My district has cut art, music and P.E. for elementary students because of budget cuts. Libraries are closed, bussing has been cut and classes are beyond full. It breaks my heart. Public funds for PUBLIC SCHOOLS!! Where is the accountability here???
The lack of comments when there are posts about Ohio is sadly indicative of the attitudes in my area. I teach in a K-2 building, and not one teacher has spoken out about the inappropriateness of Common Core, the A-F grading, or seems to be the least bit outraged about charters. When I press my colleagues about CCCS they usually say how they are going to be better teachers because of it. Sheeple!
Surely there were federal dollars stolen too. Where is the federal government? We all pay taxes and are fed up with thieves and cronyism. This country is so corrupt. Why hasn’t anyone gone to jail? But, look at Chicago. Didn’t we see some of this cronyism in Chicago yet I haven’t seen any arrests. Yet, if someone steals a pack of potato chips from Wal Mart they will be arrested, jailed, fired, and a full write up will appear in the paper. The leadership in this country is worthless.
You’re giving too much credit to those in charge even by suggesting that they are “leaders”. Thieves, crooks, con artists, etc. . . would be better.
Here is an example of corruption in the very nature of how illl-regulated these institutions are. Did you read this, bernie1815?
who is this guy? is this part of the racket? Charter schools, including those operated by White Hat Management, by necessity have learned to do more with less. According to the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Columbus charter-school per-pupil funding is $6,116 less per student than Columbus City Schools’ funding. And of course, charter per-pupil funding must be stretched to cover building costs, since charters have not received facilities funding, which is not the case with traditional public schools.
Despite these funding gaps, charter schools are held to a higher level of accountability. In fact, Ohio has the toughest automatic-closure laws in the country, which don’t apply to traditional public schools.
Further, the recently passed state budget bill provided a guarantee to traditional public school districts that their funding levels would not be reduced from the previous school year. Unfortunately, that same guarantee was not provided to public charter schools.
Like other dynamic organizations, White Hat Management engages in self-assessment and implements changes aimed at continuous improvement. We will continue to advocate on behalf of our more than 12,000 students and will remain fully committed to their success.
TOM BARRETT
Chief executive officer
White Hat Management
Akron
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2013/07/27/charters-educate-kids-society-has-forgotten.html
So joe or Tom or whatever your name is, why should charter schools close in the first place? It does not appear to be a such a great model in education if the institution has a failure clause akin to an educational pre-nup. Isn’t the purpose of education to support communities? Charters set up as conditional experiments disrupt these very communities.
How about this:
Support your local public schools/communities and not spend the money and time (not to mention the upset of the community’s psychological disposition from opening and closing schools over a very short time) opening up a charter school that can automatically close because of a failure to meet some ridiculous “goals” that can never be reached by the entire public population. Support your communities with smaller class sizes, more and well-paid professionally credentialed staff, expanded curricular options, before and after school programs, free child healthcare, and job opportunities for the community’s adults. That is how you help educate kids society has forgotten.
so that came across as an endorsement for whoever that guy is? bad mistake on my part. It happened because there was not much info in the original post….i googled life skill centers and discovered a website….it has a constantly changing list of links to supportive articles…this one was in an ohio paper….it reminded me of what could be coming to missouri….the democratic governor signed a horrible charter bill expanding kc and st. louis rights to establish charters to every district in the state…created a nine member “supervisory” board which will probably be a powerful charter school lobby..the state board of ed has only six members…..my motive was to figure out what is going on now in ohio…not to support it. apparently I did a pp job. sorry.
Bullshit. Charters are NOT held to higher standards in Ohio, and most of them are lagging behind public schools! White Hat is a scam that profits from our kids while providing a second rate education!
Jamie, my new book has some useful information about White Hat and Ohio charters.
What White Hat doesn’t say is that in the last ed budget, the schools that are failing or near failing in Mr. Brennan’s empire received a boost in state funding that the successful charters and public schools didn’t get. Check Ohio.com for the article in the Beacon Journal. Ohio will eventually go under from the weight of all the corruption now taking place between campaign contributors such as Mr. Brennan and the Republican legislature. Mr. Barrett should be ashamed of himself but I’m sure he is blithely proud of the money he rakes in.
I apologize again for giving the wrong impression…the web site had that familiar slickness….when I clicked that link, and it all sounded so rosy….I wanted to know….who is this guy…..we have a similar guy in Missouri….Doug Thaman……..his most enthusiastic spiel comes when a charter has to shut down, after messing up thousands of students school careers…..”isn’t it wonderful how we shut charters down when they fall apart!” he has his own nine man lobbying group now.
How does White Hat still have schools in operation??
White Hat just lost a round at the state supreme court. They’ve asked for “reconsideration” but they won’t win on that.
It’s the highest court. They’re out of stall tactics. They’re going to have to turn over financials.
They have been fighting opening the books for 4 years.
The claim their lawyers make is that they are a private company, which of course they are.
Richard Cordray fought them as OH AG quite aggressively. Unfortunately he lost an election and went to DC, where he is now head of the new fed agency for financial service consumer protection.
It’s simple, teachers don’t speak up about common core, vouchers, bad press about public schools, charter schools, politics and public schools, bad parenting, etc. because they do not want to lose their jobs!
I’ve been wondering about the drop out recovery schools for a while.
They’ve expanded to MI.
It’s important to the larger reform discussions because these are a reform “success” (supposedly).
If they’re a huge scam ( and I think they are) it’s bigger than a taxpayer rip-off. It discredits the reform ideology and claims of success.
¿Dónde está José cuando las fuerzas de las escuelas charteras lo necesitan?
Will the State of Idaho be next? The Governor’s committee has just endorsed a list of recommendations. http://www.idahoednews.org/news/task-force-releases-its-wish-list/
One of the recommendations is enrollment-based funding. According to the recommendations, “Currently, school districts receive state funding based on average daily attendance. This is difficult for districts to calculate, and it discourages districts from providing a mobile, personalized learning experience. “A funding model based on ‘seat time’ impedes the progress of a student toward mastery.” The state could shift to enrollment-based funding by simply changing the funding formula — but some districts would lose money under this equation. An option to fully fund student enrollment carries a $60 million price tag.” Does this open the door to what is happening in Ohio?