The Charter Schools Division of the Los Angeles Unified School District informed two charter schools that they would be closed for reasons of fiscal insolvency, despite the fact that the schools have high scores.
The schools, Magnolia Science Academy 6 and Magnolia Science Academy, are part of the extensive Turkish Gulen charter network.
This letter from the district explains why the charters were not renewed. They are appealing the district’s decision.
In addition to insolvency, the district found numerous other reasons to close down the charters.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All charter schools will soon have to face strict financial accountability. Because if there is one thing true in America, if there is a system to be gamed, there is an unending line of people eager to game it.
Strangely, this doesn’t necessarily mean they will close. I am studying L.A. charter schools (independents) and find that one may be sent such a letter but continue to exist. There are more Gulen charters in L.A. than are actually listed on the website of the Board of Ed. Charters manage to find loopholes so that they continue to exist. Others that should be closed aren’t because of personal patronage by the likes of Monica Garcia and Tamar Galatzan, the latter having encouraged most of the schools in her district to become charters.
Board members pick and choose what schools come up for “improvement” plans. There isn’t a flow chart so parents, community, staff, students, can understand the logic for “reorganization” or a move to open the school up for charter bids. It seems that new construction is a factor along with personal relationships between board members and charters. More oversight between charters and the school board is much needed.
Who knew a board member would only report on closures as opposed to offering discussion on how LAUSD is providing meaningful education opportunities to their students.
Shouldn’t this blog be highlighting successes within LAUSD? Not glorifying the demise of charters?
Grossly ineffective financial management violates students civil rights. It’s a big issue. Ask Deasy.
Got any successes you want Diane to highlight? Like, maybe, Ipads?
Anyway, if you’d rather not know about the corruption involved with charter schools, I’d suggest you not read this blog. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.
Too bad. They have so many problems by letting ‘Char-tars’ indulge to fat ‘billion dollar charcoals’ and get burned up in the grill stand.
I’m confused. I was told there were liberal ed reformers and conservative ed reformers.
Which group is promoting completely opaque publicly-funded private contractors?
Is the sole regulation of these charter school finances the FBI or private litigants? Does that strike anyone else as a little risky? Talk about closing the barn door after the horse ran off. This is public money. Who is accounting for it?
And, not that it matters, because the public has absolutely zero input into this, but I don’t agree with this constant churn and chaos whether they’re closing public schools or closing charter schools:
“Mehmet Argin, Chief Executive Officer of MPS says the decision by LAUSD to rescind their charters came with no warning, leaving families with few options. “Shocked. I was just shocked and surprised,” he told LA School Report.
In the letter, the district outlined the results of its recent audit that found ‘significant’ problems including what it said was a state of financial insolvency, accounting and reporting irregularities, and governance issues. In all, the district says the schools were “unlikely to successfully implement program[s]” and therefore did not meet the bar for their conditional renewal.”
Is there some reason ed reformers believe that constant chaos is good for communities? Did I miss a “disruption” seminar or something? They close the schools in Ohio without any warning either, which just means they’re creating chaos in BOTH the charter schools and the public schools who will take the kids thrown out of these schools. They’re harming both groups.
Is anyone in charge of this, or are markets just working their magic? 🙂
“A group led by one of the conservative Koch brothers, increasingly scorned by liberals nationally as they extend their influence, is hosting an education forum in Nashville next week focused on school choice and opportunities for parents.
The Charles Koch Institute, a nonprofit founded and named after the CEO and board chair of Koch Industries, has billed the event — “Education Opportunities: A Path Forward for Students in Tennessee” — as an “in-depth policy discussion” that’s part of a series of nationwide events to improve quality of life as part of the institute’s Well-Being Initiative.”
I’m sure this will be a very lively and broad debate! Conservative think tanks, lobbyists and people selling charter schools.
How do you think Tennessee public schools will fare in that room? Not well, I bet!
This must be the collaborative and “agnostic” environment I’ve heard so much about.
No Chiara, one minor correction, it may be a Broad debate on which new names to give the old reform failure. They need new names to obfuscate, and new ways to market their vision. They are agnostic…about everything other than profit, that they believe in.
I know this is off topic, but I hope to see a response to the recent NY Magazine hatchet job by Jonathan Chait:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/ravitch-campbell-brown-too-pretty-to-be-smart.html
Chait’s wife is a rephormer. Nothing will get through his thick skull. His commenters have already done a great job of ripping him to shreds.
If internet sources are correct, Chait’s wife works at Center City Charter Schools and was associated with Fordham. Disclosure would be consistent with the journalistic integrity one expects of a Wasserstein Family Trust magazine, that prides itself on the receipt of awards.
Jane Mayer’s seminal article on the Koch’s, in 2010, proved the New Yorker, New York Magazine’s competitor, is the publication worthy of awards.
Three other Magnolia Science Academy charters were audited in 2012. The audits are available on the district’s Inspector General website. All that happened as a result was that the schools were asked to “fix” the problems. However, as with the 2012 audits and the one that was just completed as referred to in the district letter, the schools are run by a management group. Someone needs to look at all of their charters within LAUSD and see if similar issues are happening at each one. It seems that LAUSD only takes a close look at charter finances just prior to their renewals. Even at the March, 2014 board meeting when the renewals were on the agenda, the head of the charter division claimed that he didn’t expect there to be any violations coming from the audit. So, that means he and/or members of his staff didn’t see anything amiss. If it takes a serious audit to uncover the level of fiscal mismanagement listed in the letter, it seems to indicate that LAUSD is either completely unaware of charters’ finances on an ongoing basis, doesn’t have the staff to do the work, or purposely fails to do the proper oversight in the first place.
They can’t see anything amiss because, mainly, there’s no transparency at Gulen charters. What might be happening is that the Gulen Movement is siphoning off all the funds and sending them from our taxpayers to a political movement in Turkey. I only wonder if we can sue to get the money back, since the executive and legislative branches of our governments seem to have missed this boat.
Educator – remember this was not just a standard “audit” it was a forensic audit, which could be over 2,000 page of extensive findings. The letter above is merely a summary of what the findings are and many are criminal in nature like the money laundering to the Accord Institute and MERF. Not to mention illegally paying for immigration fees of relatives.
This is serious, I would be surprised if the judge allows the injunction, especially when the Office of the Inspector General,(OIG) member from the prestige auditing firm, someone from the LAUSD charter dept and probably their legal counsel. There is very likely a lot more that the general public is not being told. But Magnolia is well aware of the ongoing issues, but are acting shocked and dismayed.
The financial malfaesance at these schools has been know for years, as there’s been an audit revealing the problems. John Deasy and Monica Garcia, the latter who has taken many campaign donations, gifts, and speaking engagements from the Gulenists, covered this up for as long as they could. They have some help from the State Board of Education, whose Yvonne Chan is also on the Gulen take. Here’s an essay from two years ago discussing the Los Angeles reformers’ close relationship with the Gulenist cult. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/08/monica-garcia-champions-gulenist.html