Here is an alarming story about a chain of high-performing charter schools in Minnesota.
These are truly no-excuses charter schools.
They focus relentlessly on getting those highly prized test scores.
And they do it.
They boast of “drill and kill.”
The children study the tests, get ready for the questions, and they get high scores.
The problem is that they get low scores on tests that they have not prepped for.
Is this good education?
And there are some pesky financial problems.
I report, you decide.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
According to the article referenced: “The worst thing in the world is to teach to something other than what the students are going to be assessed on.”
Yes, Mahmoud had it completely backwards. A test or any assessment should be driven by what is taught not what is tested driving curriculum. Non-professional educators should please leave the job of teaching and learning to us professional teachers (18+ years for me).
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There is no limit to which the charter industry will go to support the
Miracle School narrative. Eric Mahmoud may be the only felon in the
Natl Alliance for Public Charter Schools Hall of Fame but I admit I
haven’t looked at the criminal records of all their inductees. The MN
Business Partnership just gave him an award for his “academic results”
– notwithstanding the evidence presented by Rob Levine and the series
of articles on the schools financial mismanagement and potential loss
of its charter for insider dealings.
The Star Tribune ran a wholly selfserving and dishonest op-ed
submitted by an anonymous group of “Board of Directors.” But Mahmoud
himself is rarely available for interviews and seemingly replies to
questions he doesn’t like by email.
The only group who seems to get straight answers are the bondholders
who are directly profiting off his schools. The “top 10 certified
public accounting and consulting firm” overseeing Mahmoud’s finances
was imposed on him by the bondholders after SEED’s second default on
bond obligations – a fact conveniently left out of the Board’s recent
op-ed.
The details of the bond default are public documents on EMMA at
http://emma.msrb.org/IssueView/IssueDetails.aspx?id=MS136389
Look at the “continuing disclosure.”
Among all the documents showing how bad Mahmoud is at managing the
schools money, among all the Hennepin County court cases against him
by various vendors of all kinds of products and services, there is
this: “McGraw-Hill Obligation. The Borrower previously incurred
indebtedness with McGraw Hill for
the purpose of financing textbooks for Harvest Prep. The Borrower did
not promptly pay its obligations due and owing to McGraw Hill. On June
23, 2003, McGraw Hill turned over collection of this debt obligation
to a collection agency and the outstanding indebtedness on this date
was $71,681.46. As of December 1,2005, the Borrower had made payments
to McGraw Hill so that approximately $19,943 is still due to McGraw
Hill. On or about the date of issuance of the Series 2006 Bonds, the
Borrower will make a final payment (from Borrower funds) to McGraw
Hill, or its collection agent, to extinguish the remainder of this
debt.”
For anyone who wants to hear what the bondholders hear, there are
monthly public conference calls hosted by Wells Fargo where the
consultants from Clifton Larson Allen do all the talking and Mahmoud
is there for legal reasons. From the EMMA posted announcement on
9/4/2012:
This notice is to inform the holders of the Bonds that the Trustee has
scheduled a public conference call with [Mahmoud] and its financial
consultant to discuss the status of its operations. The call will be
held at 9:00 A.M. Central time (10:00 AM Eastern time, 7:00 AM Pacific
time) on Wednesday, September 26, 2012.
You may participate in the call and have the opportunity to hear the
report and update, or ask questions about the financial condition of
the Borrower by dialing
into the call. The call in information is as follows:
TELEPHONE NUMBER: 888-549-3557
PASSCODE: 6677337
You may reach the Trustee to obtain additional information at the
following address:
Virginia Anne Housum, Vice President
Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee
MAC N9311-115
625 Marquette Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55479
Telephone: (612) 667-7337
Fax: (612) 667-5047
Email: Virginia.A.Housum@wellsfargo.com
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Insider profiteering aside, charter schools do not exist to educate children, but to train them.
They are there to train them for the majority of 21st century jobs that – ed deform rhetoric notwithstanding – demand passivity, compliance, and a high tolerance for tedium, irrelevance and ever-increasing hours.
They are there to train children to accept constant surveillance, and their reduction to data sets that can be monetized.
They are there to train them In “rigor,” i.e. rigidity and harshness, as per the definition of the word, and to accept aggressive, condescending and racist policing of their behavior.
They are there to train them to accept the false distinction between the Worthy Poor and the Unworthy Poor, who are increasingly relegated to public schools that face shrinking budgets, impossible demands, libelous falsehoods and eventual closing.
They are there to increase the wealth and power of those who already possess too much of both.
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You know another difference between public schools and charters? If this were a public school, the Principal would be reading this, if he had computer access from a media room or 8×12 cell.
It’s refreshing to see at least one journalist in Minnesota applying some critical and analytical thinking skills. Unfortunately with each passing day, I ‘m starting to believe that both the mainstream and alternative media journalists are just glorified press agents for whomever the subject of the story is.
Now, this story is troubling and I’m not a lawyer, but it appears that these revelations might be providing some work for members of the bar on both sides of the legal aisle in the near future.
Now, regarding your question: Is this a good education? No. Absolutely not! I don’t even think you could make an argument for even a tangential connection to education. I’m not sure what it is. I do know that if I was a parent and my child was enrolled at that school, I’d…- I‘ll leave it at that.
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Let’s not forget the fact that the tests, themselves, are faulty, as is the scoring of written portions of the tests.
So, why are we rating ANY schools at all on the basis of “standardized” tests?!
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