The state of Illinois has cut off funding to the politically powerful UNO charter chain because of conflicts of interest, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The head of UNO, Juan Rangel, was co-chair of Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in 2011.
According to the story, millions of dollars of a $98 million construction grant went to contracts with two brothers of a high-ranking UNO official.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dan Mihalopoulos needs to be commended for his investigation into UNO. He’s the one who uncovered the corruption. I commend the paper, too, because it allowed him to do his work!
Yes, Mihalopoulos and the Sun-Times definitely deserve to be commended for superb investigative journalism. Not only were d’Escoto’s no-bid contracts awarded to family members uncovered, but also those of COO Mullins and CEO Rangel himself (When the story about d’Escoto broke, didn’t you just know in your bones that nepotism was going to be found all the way at the top with Rangel, too?) http://www.suntimes.com/19711841-761/state-cuts-off-money-to-uno-charter-schools-over-insider-deals.html
Where else can you become a millionaire working as a janitor but by getting a no-bid contract at a Chicago CMO with $98M in state grant money? And don’t those $8.5M windows sound rather over priced –not to mention improper planning? Someone needs to tell these non-educators that, as aesthetically pleasing as it may seem, the last thing teachers need in their classrooms are floor to ceiling windows, with no blinds, compelling students to be distracted by views into the hallways and beyond: http://www.archello.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/header_detail_large/story/media/01_332.jpg
Sorry, included link to wrong article. Here’s the one about Rangel’s and Mullins’ nepotism: http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/18966110-452/embattled-boss-of-top-chicago-charter-school-operator-uno-has-three-relatives-on-his-payroll.html
Sadly when there is substantial $ available, there sometimes is corruption. Just heard from a long time award winning ed journalist who ran for and won a seat on his local NJ District board. He has helped others win seats with the platform being in part getting rid of people on the board with financial conflicts of interest.
Corruption should be opposed and challenged where-ever it occurs.
As soon as you find enough public school scandals to match this list, we’ll talk: http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/
Dienne, most of my work involves with with schools, families, students and community groups to help youngsters achieve their potential, and help educators create the kinds of public schools they think make sense. Here are two items from a local paper this week that describe how we helped a group of 4 district & 2 charters work together.
Over the last year, they have been able to increase by 56% the enrollments in Dual (HIgh school/college) credit courses.
The story covered about 70% of page 3A on Monday – indicating that the paper thought it was an important story
http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_23076316/homeroom-collaborative-effort-gives-high-school-students-better
Here’s a link to an editorial appearing on today that also comments on this:
http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_23108307/friday-opinuendo-st-paul-legacy-sequestration-manipulation-and
Deflection is his defense…pretty pathetic.
Anything you see in fraud in Chicago is chicken feed in LAUSD. LAUSD has $27 billion in school construction. They construct for 2-3 times the going rate according to the State of California and no one does anything no matter how many times since 2003 I have produced the facts. Now do you see why there is so much money coming into the last undecided board race Sanchez v. Ratliff. Big stakes along with the most charter schools of any school district, more than 260 now and counting.
And I have only been hearing about the no bid contracts in the past few months. LAUSD, like the banks which call themselves “too big to fail'” is too big to manage. Many of us are coming to the realization that the District must be split in order to have it be manageable.
900,000 students, Deasy’s count, cannot have the oversight that is vital. If parents and charter promoters put the same energy into fighting FOR our public schools as they do in diminishing them, and if the profiteers were put aside, we could have the success that LA had years ago.
Our energy is depleted with all the adjunct infighting.
Ratliff is still not getting enough funding in donations…Sanchez has turned into an open thug, not a sub rosa greed merchant. He now openly brags in his flyers that his campaign is funded by Broad, Rhee, Bloomberg, et al. If he is elected, he now admits he owes his soul to the privatizers.
They are wearing us down with exhaustion trying to counter the oligarchs.
Many thanks to Dan Mihalopoulos and the Sun Times. Hoping for a Pulitzer prize here. The $98 mln grant is thought to be the largest of any state to a charter chain. And special thanks to Julie Woesthof of PURE for her advocacy on this issue as well.
Agreed! And–for all her work both nationally (Parents Across America Co-founder) and locally, Julie Woestehoff is deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, if there is one in Education.
This is a really big deal because:
1.) $98M is the largest grant of public funds ever given to ONE charter management corporation (CMO)
2.) Juan Rangel, the CEO of that CMO, was the campaign manager for Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, even though it was illegal for him to assume that role given his status as CEO of a 501(c)3, and folks just looked the other way when that happened
3.) It was a Democratic governor who cut off the funds to UNO even though Chicago’s Democratic mayor would like for everyone to just keep looking the other way
Way to go Governor Quinn! We might actually have our first governor out of the last three governors who will not be going to jail due to corruption.
Chi-Town Res–Hope your last paragraph is true, but let’s see how this all pans out. After all, Madigan & Burke (for those of you nationally, they are the two heaviest–& having the most longevity– Dem hitters in Illinois & Chicago) are involved. On the other hand, since Quinn beat the hornet’s nest that is organized labor (who voted for him, endorsed him, donated heavily to his campaigns)
–and they are no longer friends (and THAT’s putting it mildly!),he has little or nothing left to lose, so, if he decides to go all out, he could gain back some favor with the public by pursuing this to its
end. Word is that he’ll be running against Madigan’s daughter in the Dem primary for the next gubernatorial election.
Therefore, I’d advise holding off on your congratulations.
Illinois + Chicago Politics=One hot mess!
Amen! Having been born, spending several years, working as an intern for a liberal independent alderman and having a relative who worked in CPS for his whole career, I’ve seen regularly the corruption level that is common in Chicago. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
When do the prison terms begin?? Conspiracy to commit fraud, collusion, theft of public tax dollars, … It sounds like the House Speaker should be brought up on charges. “Don’t forget about the children in our schools”. Uh, since when do they care about school children’s schools being shut down? Oh, that’s right, they care when their cash cow is about to be sent out to pasture. The whole movement is corrupt and needs to be shut down or heavily regulated.
The higher the pedestal the more spectacular the fall. Rahm must be sick to see his investment turn out to be a money pit.