Juan Rangel, head of the UNO charter chain, resigned his position as CEO.
UNO is the largest charter chain in Illinois.
Rangel’s departure “by mutual agreement” with the board of the not-for-profit group is effective immediately, UNO officials said Friday.
Rangel had three family members on the UNO payroll. Sources said two of the relatives quit recently, including deputy chief of staff Carlos Jaramillo, Rangel’s nephew.
Reached by phone, Rangel hung up on a reporter.
Rangel has close ties to politicians including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose 2011 campaign Rangel co-chaired, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who sponsored a $98 million state school-construction grant to UNO in 2009 that has fueled its rapid growth as a charter-school operator.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Kudos to Dan Mihalopoulos of the Sun Times for exposing the corruption.
Scoundrels all!! let’s hope the housecleaning continues across the country.
For a change, something smells out of Chicago….
Why am I not surprised about this corruption in another charter school chain.
If more reporters were to investigate and report the dirty laundries of these charter schools, then and only then will the public see that most charter school chain are out to make money, not educate children.
I agree with Sharon. Kudos to Dan Mihalopoulos.
“reporter”? What’s that? Some of you commenters keep using these words I don’t understand. The other day someone used the word “democracy”. I think I may have heard these words a long time ago, but I’m not sure. Sorry, I’m so confused.
Indeed, if you look these words up in the dictionary, you’ll see them identified as “archaic.”
The FBI should go after the scoundrel. They cleaned house down here in El Paso.
Who’s watching the hen house? I have yet to read where the State has uncovered misuse of funds but have read many articles where newspaper reporters have uncovered misuse. Are the few unbiased newspapers the overseers of the Charters? Is anyone protecting students from the waste of the taxpayers money?
What’s the status of Chicago public schools since the (newest) reformer took over?
Are the existing public schools in that city stronger or weaker due to reform?
The charter industry drama, political machinations and celebrity-CEO travails are interesting, but there’s a lot of students in public schools there who have probably been completely abandoned- the vast majority of kids are public school kids, actually. I hope Chicago media don’t forget about them like the Mayor and his school CEO has.
Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel was a darling of the fringe-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In addition to their loving his stuffing of public money into his private pockets, AEI gushed about Rangel and UNO’s systematic program of right-wing indoctrination. http://www.aei.org/files/2013/01/29/-making-americans-uno-charter-schools-and-civic-education_14345377582.pdf
Have to love how Rangel attacks public schools through the entire piece.
Public schools are not as… patriotic as charter schools, seems to be his main point. No wonder the far Right eat this ed reform stuff up. Ed reformers are busy feeding them red meat on how awful public schools are.
Something is very wrong with the statistics that are being provided to the public for the “UNO Charter Schools” report cards. On every page that reports school test scores, from the Tribune to the NIU database to ISBE (the state board of ed), only ONE score is being reported for all of the UNO schools, so that’s a combined score for their schools –which now amounts to 16 schools.
Every other charter chain in the state is required to report the scores of each individual school separately. One has to wonder if this combined score is permitted due to cronyism…
Also, since when do schools in Chicago with 95% Hispanic enrollment have only 30% English language learners, as reported in that AEI document??
Here’s an example of how “UNO Charter Schools” report cards are being posted as if that is just one school and not the 13 or so schools that UNO had at the time, from the NIU database:
http://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/School.aspx?schoolId=15016299025205C
Though I can’t remember where I read it now, I do recall reading that charter chains were supposed to report scores for each of their schools separately in IL, but I see that not all of them do, such as Nobel Street Charters, while KIPP and others do. What’s up with that? How misleading!
Wow. Thanks, Robert, for posting that article from AEI. This is some of the most powerful evidence of the strong alliances that exist between free market neoliberal profiteers from both political parties.
I’ve never fully understood how “New Democrats” are capable of playing both sides of the fence. I just don’t get how they can go to sleep with a clear conscience, when they claim to represent ideology that promotes the common good, but their policies and practices involve selling out those very principles, including representative democracy. This demonstrates how one of them was able to rationalize all of that in exchange for personal gain.
I can’t imagine Rangel giving all that up unless the SEC accumulated a lot of evidence against him.
“I just don’t get how they can go to sleep with a clear conscience,”
Easy, they don’t have one or pharmaceuticals!
Thanks Robert.
Check out the following quote:
———————————————-
“It is in this context that UNO forcefully rejects
any suggestion that the Hispanic community’s
challenges represent any systemic inequity in
American life.
” ‘We do not subscribe to the victimization
politics. It doesn’t work. It’s never worked for
any immigration group and it won’t work for
this community,’ Rangel says. Hispanics ‘come
here with very little [and] they understand
the hardship, they understand the challenges.
But they know one thing—that there’s
opportunity to get ahead.’ ” (p. 3-4)
———————————————
Really, Juan? There’s no “systemic inequity”
in the United States? Tell that to middle and
working class straight-A students who were
rejected from Ivy League schools while
George W. Bush and his fellow blue-bloods
got in with C-averages, thanks to their
daddies
This line of thinking goes something like
this: if you’re poor, if your family is poor, if your
parents are poor, it’s all because you deserve
it, due to you being lazy, of low intelligence,
or of low moral character, or whatever.
The hatred of AEI people for working class
people is palpable, as is their hatred for any
attempt to organize collectively for better
wages and living conditions—i.e. form
unions… or their lust to destroy any unions
that currently exist.
I mean, really, the immigrant hispanic
community’s challenges are not a result
of “systemic inequity”?
So what did/does cause those challenges?
What forces or circumstances drives 100
or so immigrants every day to wait on the
sidewalk next to Home Depot, so they
can beg to be one of the few chosen to
jump in the back of a pickup truck to do
8 hours of manual labor for $6/hour?
No, according to Juan, it’s their fault
for being in this situation.
Since only 30% of his students are
Spanish-only, that means his schools are
not teaching most of the offspring of those
day laborers anyway… he’s teaching a
creamed subset of easier-to-teach
kids anyway.
Wow. I am floored by that quote.
Remember that the entire Democratic party of Illinois is tight with this guy. Quinn’s running mate is Paul Vallas and he just signed the Pension theft bill. It will be open season on teachers in Illinois with Quinn or Rahm’s other Republican buddy, Rauner, who is leading the Republican field. Illinois progressive Democrats and all union rank and file, teacher, cops, firemen, public employees need an insurgent candidate. This state party is beholden to DEFER and Wall Street money. It does not matter that this is the world that Citizen’s United created. It is time to stand up or get busted.
Paul AFT Local 2063
Absolutely! Disenfranchised working and poor people (all non-1%ers) must vote 3rd party from here on out. I voted Green Party in the last election, but we really need a Working Families Party affiliate in IL. They have been successful recently in local elections in states like NY and CT: http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/
More reason to worry, especially in the wake of the decision on Detroit’s pensions:
http://edushyster.com/?p=3671
Don’t miss the comments section for the Vallas connection:
“And then there’s the connection to school-closer Rahm Emanuel, who has invited Raimondo to advise them in Chicago on how to cut pensions (soon they will have Paul Vallas to help–that’s one of his tasks running as Lieutenant Governor with Quinn–raid the pension funds).”
Good piece on how ed reformers just bought the Atlanta Public School system.
I guess Atlanta can look forward to the huge ed reform successes Chicago and Philadelphia are enjoying. Are Philadelphia public schools even open yet? Last I heard the Dell family were buying them, and Arne Duncan was mumbling something about what a shame it all was.
http://www.alternet.org/education/how-wall-street-power-brokers-are-designing-future-public-education-money-making-machine?paging=off¤t_page=1&utm_content=buffer4d2a2&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer#bookmark
While it’s nice to see Rangel step down, Chicago is a small town. If anyone thinks Rangel’s going away, dream on. The only thing I know is that UNO is heading for a financial catastrophe, no matter who is at the helm. It’s the business model. Borrow, bond, refinance– and hope to god you can grow quickly enough to become “too big to fail.”
We’re going to keep exposing UNO until there’s sunlight on this charter and every other charter.
It’s great that you’re going after Rangel. However, please don’t characterize. Chicago as “a small town”. It is a very big, sophisticated city, with a rather small, inner political circle. But, due to neoliberal alliances, big business, the wealthy and conservatives from both parties are represented here quite well –a lot better than working class people and the poor are today.
“The only thing I know is that UNO is heading for a financial catastrophe, no matter who is at the helm. It’s the business model. Borrow, bond, refinance– and hope to god you can grow quickly enough to become “too big to fail.”
Yep.
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
Rangel resigns. Aw come on. We can’t let people like that off the hook that easiily for cowardly acts?