The LEAP charter school in Camden, New Jersey, is now caught up in allegations of incompetence, cronyism, and abuse, reports Jersey Jazzman.
The finances of the school are a mess, its academic performance is poor, yet State Commissioner of Education showers it with praise. It’s problems are long-standing, but the department close to ignore them. Just last fall, Cerf joined LEAP leaders in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its $12.5 million new school.
The school lost its tax-exempt status in 2010, and it failed to make AYP for the past two years.
Why are Jersey politicians so eager to expand a sector that is still unproven? Why he favorable treatment of a low-performing school?
Where is the accountability?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What do these people want? What is there agenda? This is just one example out of many that proove it is not for the children.
The corporate agenda is clear–privatize and plunder the public sector with its vast assets, break the 2 large teacher unions, impose cheap labor on the profession via TFA, turn the nation’s vast public assets into private sources of revenue.
Also, the woman “leading” the charter in question, just gave the chef at her school a $25,000 raise. He now makes $95,000.
But don’t worry about oversight, Ms. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, the chater “leader” can personally vouch for the chef. She lives with him.
NJ BROADIES strike again.
Here’s an update on this story:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/02/leap-update.html
What a bunch of crooks. Sickening. These people should go to prison.
I agree these people should go in prison.A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.. I personally worked in 2 different charter school and the worst thng happens there, cheating laying off proffesioanal with masters degrees and hiring uneffective teachers with falsifying degrees.I hope Chris Christi will do some thing about these childrens education and not opening more doors for them. Take a look at Passaic and Bergen county charter school. Its a mess.That’s all I can say.I was forced to pass children and not fell the, The administartors told me, work with your mind and not with your heart, becaue I said these kids need help, academically they are very poor. Anyways.Its always cheating in this country .
Nj charter schools are 80-90%, scams. I speak from experience of working in them as well as founding one. The truth is there are a few people behind the scenes in the department of education that are running things, there pushing through some applications to make it look like a legitimate process but in reality they are stringing many applicants along only to deny them; the majority that are denied and keep reapplying are the true ones trying to make charter schools that are quality. A majority of the schools approved offer behind the scenes monetary rewards in exchange for approval. In the inner cities such as Camden many of the CEO’s of schools are paying themselves and are not truly worried about the students progress instead they serve as a holding cell for students providing a safe place which is top on parents list, especially in Camden schools. The lack of parental education about what schools should do gives schools in inner cities the upper hand allowing for them to enroll many students at thousands of dollars per head but rarely does the money come back to the kids. Please feel free to reach out to me if you want the real deal.