Ruth Conniff, editor of the Progressive, has gathered here some of the most recent charter scandals, and they just keep coming.
There are some good charter schools but they are increasingly overshadowed by the con artists who sean easy way to cash in on public dollars. For links, open the article. Conniff only scratches the surface. If she looked in Florida, Michigan, or Ohio, she would find a lot more corruption in the charter sector. And then there is the virtual charter industry. Follow the money.
This is my favorite charter malfeasance story. After more than a million dollars went astray, the lawyer for the school asked for leniency because the founder had good intentions but he got greedy when he saw the opportunity for easy money. The judge “said she didn’t see a prison sentence as proper in the case because she felt the state didn’t properly anticipate the mistakes that could be made when citizens or non-lawyer tried to run charter schools.”
Greed, incompetence. Some excuse.
Conniff writes:
“From Pittsburgh to Baton Rouge, from Hartford to Cincinnatti to Albuquerque, FBI agents have been busting into schools, carting off documents and making arrests leading to high-profile indictments.
“The troubled Hartford charter school operator FUSE was dealt another blow Friday when FBI agents served it with subpoenas to a grand jury that is examining the group’s operations. When two Courant reporters arrived at FUSE offices on Asylum Hill on Friday morning, minutes after the FBI’s visit, they saw a woman feeding sheaves of documents into a shredder.”—The Hartford Courant, July 18, 2014
“The FBI has raided an Albuquerque school just months after the state started peering into the school’s finances. KRQE News 13 learned federal agents were there because of allegations that someone may have been taking money that was meant for the classroom at the Southwest Secondary Learning Center on Candelaria, near Morris in northwest Albuquerque … “—KRQE News 13, August 1 2014
“Wednesday evening’s FBI raid on a charter school in East Baton Rouge is the latest item in a list of scandals involving the organization that holds the charter for the Kenilworth Science and Technology School. … Pelican Educational Foundation runs the school and has ties to a family from Turkey. The school receives about $5,000,000 in local, state, and federal tax money. … the FBI raided the school six days after the agency renewed the Baton Rouge school’s charter through the year 2019.”—The Advocate, January 14, 2014
“The state of Pennsylvania is bringing in the FBI to look into accusations that a Pittsburgh charter school [Urban Pathways Charter School] misspent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on luxuries such as fine-dining and retreats at exclusive resorts and spas.”—CBS”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ruth: I have forwarded to my union colleagues across the state and nation and to John Stocks.
John A. Matthews
Executive Director
Madison Teachers Inc.
821 Williamson Street
Madison, WI 53703
608-257-0491
matthewsj@madisonteachers.org
http://www.madisonteachers.org
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The curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark in the night. [Hint: google Sherlock Holmes.]
There should be a great bellow of condemnation from the charter/voucher/privatization crowd* decrying the practices and behaviors touched upon in this posting.
*Aka the “education reform” movement and the “new civil rights movement of our time.”*
Not a chance. Instead of distancing themselves from such words and deeds we see 150 exemptions in Ohio from the “burdensome” rules and regulations governing public schools, and elsewhere rheephormistas allegedly fighting for transparency that make their own funding and support opaque, and then there’s the coverup and deflection when it comes to making the selection/enrollment process of many charters exclusionary, and the list goes on and on.
Setting new standards? Higher standards? A rising tide of eduexcellence that lifts all boats? Insisting on the most “rigor” and “determination” in being the most moral and ethical? That’s not covered by cage busting achievement gap crushing 21st century “education reform.” In fact, apparently it’s antithetical to edupreneurship.
The silence from the leaders of the charter/voucher/privatization movement—and their educrat enablers and edubully enforcers and accountabully underlings—is deafening.
But the self-styled “education reformers” have contributed to ed jargon. For example, the infamous “mid-year dump”—please google this blog if in doubt.
And yes, as the owner of this blog put it: “There are some good charter schools but they are increasingly overshadowed by the con artists who sean [sic] easy way to cash in on public dollars.” [brackets mine]
Dr. Raj Chetty notwithstanding, as long as there’s $tudent $ucce$$ to be made in monetizing school children, the horror stories will keep rolling in. All in mad dog pursuit of that pot of gold at the end of the education rainbow:
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Not an old dead Greek guy, but old dead Romans come in handy once in a while…
😎
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This is one aspect that doesn’t get enough attention, because these kids are dropouts and they’ve been all but abandoned by the state:
“Dropout Recovery Charter Schools in Ohio are a mess. We know how to best prevent dropouts. Among those strategies — early childhood education, family engagement teams (which Ohio paid for in the Evidence Based Model, but not anymore), and tutoring (also paid for in the Evidence-Based Model, but not anymore). Let’s do what we know works.
Let’s stop giving David Brennan $17.5 million, or more than $8,400 per pupil (a greater per pupil sum than the state gives to all but 3 public school districts, and more than double what the state spends — $3,920 — on average in all districts) to graduate 113 of the 1,496 kids in his care last year at all Life Skills Centers. Two of his schools aren’t rated yet by the state, so the graduation rate is probably even worse than that.”
http://10thperiod.blogspot.com/2014/09/ohio-charters-72-grad-rate-meets.html
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Totally agree. The dropout issue is glossed over just about everywhere. One aspect that I find troubling are comments about those high school graduates ready for the workforce, career ready. As an possible example, if the state’s employers need 10,000 new workers following graduation then why not adjust the requirements for graduation to meet that specific need. Implies a 100% success rate. Those who do not meet this artificial cutoff go into that pool of lost non-graduates and are of no concern to those who provided “education services”, no longer a drain on public funds.
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Meanwhile the corruption keeps on proliferating.
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