Mary G. of Connecticut offers the following insight into the charter mutual support network. Jennifer Alexander of ConnCAN was quoted in this post extolling the superior performance of charters as compared to public schools. In this post, Jennifer Alexander said that the scandal surrounding Jumoke and FUSE should provide an opportunity to discuss not only accountability and transparency but funding and flexibility.
Jennifer Alexander, CEO of ConnCAN wrote a letter of support for the Booker T. Washington/FUSE charter school in which she said that one of the 2 key factors in her support was that the Booker T. Washington charter school was collaborating “with a proven high-quality provider, FUSE… FUSE has a track record of success.”
Alexander forgot to mention that ConnCAN has a track record of success in receiving grant money, not least from the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck (Subway sandwich vendors) Foundation ($500K commitment in the past and promised for the next two years)–this Buck foundation provided $100K (approximately) for the writing of the Booker T. charter school application, and it also promised $250K to Jumoke; in addition, this Subway foundation gave $360K to the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, whose director, William W. Ginsberg, also wrote a letter of support for the Booker T. application; not to mention the millions the Buck/Subway group has donated to Achievement First, the charter management organization co-founded by CT commissioner of ed. Stefan Pryor and Dacia Toll, wife of Jeffrey Klaus–he, too wrote a letter of support for the Booker T./FUSE charter. In Hartford, a new Achievement First High School opened in 2012–with a pipeline of students directly from Jumoke.
Here’s the PCL Buck most recent tax filing; see pages 108-117 for most of these donations, plus myriad others to TFA and Northeast Charter Schools, etc., etc.: http://www.pclbfoundation.org/docs/2012-990PF-PCLB.pdf
Starting on page 273 you can read the letters of recommendation
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1099724-booker-t-washington-academy-charter-school.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Alexander is on p. 281 and Mr. Achievement First is on page 286. Notice he writes as a concerned citizen and banker but never mentions his wife’s charter chain (co-created with Stefan Pryor).
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In other charter school news in Florida, have you seen this:
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/07/former_plainfield_superintendent_banned_from_new_jersey_schools_finds_new_work_in_florida_report_say.html
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It’s amazing, but nothing will happen. The part I wonder about is the federal role. The money. We all know Florida is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Charter Inc, (as is OH, and MI and PA) but where are the feds?
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Amazing, isn’t it? I am still waiting to get some proof–or, as the reformers say, DATA–on the proven track record of Jumoke–including student numbers, attrition, curriculum, teacher turnover, TFA, etc.
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Thanks. I didn’t know Subway was on the bandwagon.
Connecticut surprises me, because I would think northeastern states would have a better regulatory regime than the midwestern or southern ed reform states. I’m really surprised Connecticut didn’t even conduct an ordinary criminal background check.
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Ct used to. In fact, in a 2005 study by charter expert Gary Miron (commissioned by ConnCAN!) CT was praised for its strict limits on charter expansion. Then, I suppose, the money was too much for politicians to turn down and CT joined in the charter explosion
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Wendy, do you mean Race to the Top money, which included lifting the caps on charters? What money?
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No- I mean money from deep-pocket charter-promoters like the Sacklers of Purdue Pharma
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Can Stefan Pryor really be in charge of investigating this fiasco, given his involvement? can the State Board of Education, which has demonstrated a severe dereliction of duty? Who investigates the State Board of Ed and the Commissioner? Not some downtown Hartford lawyer, surely.
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A. Duncan is silent on all of these ripoffs. Perhaps a detailed accounting of ALL this thievery in every state where charters are should be provided to Duncan, Obama, Rhee. Crickets.
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Perhaps I’ve just gotten cynical, but all of these relationships somehow seem incestuous.
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I’ll bet when Governor Malloy was peddling his Ed Reform bill, which helped ease the way for charters such as Booker T. Washington and for the takeover of Milner by Jumoke, the Buck bucks were going to “Students for Education Reform”–who got a free bus ride to Hartford plus “Subway sandwiches”–hmmmm…. Remember that story? http://articles.courant.com/2012-04-19/news/hc-college-students-rally-0420-20120419_1_education-reform-college-students-reform-package
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The charter scandal that just keeps exploding…drip, drip, drip:
A community outreach coordinator for a Bridgeport school run by FUSE, the embattled charter school group, has a criminal conviction background that includes drug offenses and a listing on the Texas sex offender registry.
The record of Mack Allen, 49, of Bridgeport, surfaced in a confidential background check that FUSE had a law firm perform in January after he had begun working. But the organization didn’t inform Bridgeport schools Supt. Frances Rabinowitz about it until Tuesday night, after she requested background information on several FUSE employees as part of an audit.
Read it all. The Bridgeport Mayor, Bill Finch, put this guy on the city’s ethic commission.
It’s official. Connecticut is the laughing stock of the country.
http://touch.courant.com/#section/2224/article/p2p-80707083/
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and yet I don’t hear a lot of “we don’t want to be like Connecticut” going on.
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Word is this is the tip of the iceberg so it’s coming. And read these pearls of wisdom from our state BOE chair. So many criminals, what can we do? He should be told to resign immediately:
State Board of Education Chairman Allan Taylor said criminal records should not be an absolute bar to work at Hartford charter schools.
At Monday’s board meeting, he said: “Background checks, it’s pretty obvious we need to do those, but coming from a city where an awful lot of people have criminal records that have very little to do with their ability to do whatever it is they are doing, I just don’t want us to go overboard – not on the background checks, but on what disqualifies somebody from a particular thing.”
Taylor added: “Now someone who has misapplied, stolen public money, is not someone you want to be in charge, I think, especially if it’s fairly recent, of applying public money … We just need to be careful with that.”
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Linda,
Would a teacher be hired in Connecticut if she or he had a criminal record?
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Absolutely NOT.
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Oh my goodness.
Actually, I do believe in rehabilitation and all that… but it is unbelievable that FUSE seems to be the only one agency hiring ex-cons.
But I think someone who wants to turn their life around, as Mr. Allen seems to wish, can do a lot better than work for an operation like FUSE.
It is a very hard job market out there, and charter schools remove decent jobs from communities, replacing them with low-paid contingent labor (like TFA). In charter schools, skilled jobs such as teacher and office worker go to family members and a revolving door of opportunists.
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“Careful” as in selectively determining which white collar felony convictions can be downplayed? Which ones would that be in Sharpe’s case, embezzling public funds and conspiracy to commit fraud or the two forgery convictions? I don’t think the federal government permits any of those to be overlooked. The guy can’t even vote now!
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I don’t understand where equity comes in with charters.
NC’s state constitution, Article IX says “free and uniform public school system.” Where do charters fit in with that?
??????????????????????????? I simply do not know where we go from here. I know I believe in support for public school and upholding state constitutions, but now what?
I guess it will take someone suing a charter and some Supreme Court ruling to count for anything.
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Allen Taylor of the CT State Board of Education may be empathizing with the many unfortunates who have a criminal past, especially youthful offenses committed while living under harsh conditions. However, it is not as if everyone in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven and other urban areas has this background. It is also not the case that the West Hartfords and Westports are free of ex-cons (or criminals who have never been caught). Taylor should have higher standards for the officials at charter schools, first and foremost, as it seems that running a huge nepotistic gravy train is par for the course at a charter. Then there are numerous other “cheats” that reformers do, such as manipulate who takes what standardized test (Hartford is a prime example of that); depleting schools of needed resources which are diverted to top administrative salaries pegged at private sector levels and then sneaking into the teacher’s pension system (see Jonathan Pelto’s expose on Steven Adamowski); watering down requirements and creating empty credit recovery programs to bump up graduation rates while simultaneously cheating students out of a real education. I consider those crimes a lot more serious than a past episode of shop-lifting or vandalism….
I also think privatizing public education under the guise of the “civil rights issue of our time” is felonious.
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If this had happened in a regular public school, Campbell Brown would have ridden that teacher out on a rail. Why isn’t she wringing her hands over this mess?
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CT received no Race to top money. We were turned down more than once. They got us though through waiver to NCLB. HOWEVER I believe Wendy was referring to the money of corruption in profits for friends with vested interests in Charters as well as some deep pockets who are funding campaigns as well as setting themselves up for either higher level political posts with deform friendly administrations or promises of lucrative jobs in deform industries.. It’s all the rage. Also the description as “incestuous” is not at all off the mark.
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exactly
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Thank you for clarifying.
So RttT does not necessarily make a state worse off than another in these aspects (charters and the corruption therein).
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Where is Campbell Brown on this? Oh, there are no unions to bust in the charters, right?
Where is Michelle Rhee? Oh, she’s married to a suspected pedophile, right?
Where is Wendy Kopp? Mo money, mo money, mo money. Well, at least we haven’t had to hear about her sex life.
This nonsense needs to go NATIONWIDE. It can’t just be found amongst the Davids who are fighting the GOLIATH that is the Rhees, Kopps, Broads, Gates, Kochs, Dfers, etc. THEY KNOW this is going on, but they all get paid, so they don’t want to look into it. Effectively, the Emperor that is the Charter Monster is naked, and someone needs to get the Emperor’s attention. We have to vote the politicians out of office. We have to get Governors to stop appointing school boards and superintendents from the Broad Jiffy Lube Supe school. We have to stop TFA’s money train, especially when it is coming from our tax dollars as an add-on during the government shutdown. Amazing how these soulless succubi have no bouts of conscience.
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I don’t get how any of this is considered to be legal. In my state, the last TWO governors went to jail for their involvement in “pay to play” schemes. How is this any different? Does corruption get white washed now because of the “Supreme Corporation”, ahem “Court”, of these United States (SCOTUS)? I wonder how much they’ve been getting paid under the table, too.
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BTW, this had better be investigated by the feds because they have strict regulations about federal money not being allowed to go to convicted felons.
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I think that’s applicable if the schools under Sharpe received any kind of federal money, whether specifically for charters, or for the food program, or Special Ed etc.
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Maybe it already is being investigated. I know they are slow because they have to be very careful to get it right. It took several years to get a few bankers and developers into prison after the real estate bubble—four or five years even.
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where is an old fashioned reporter like Geraldo Rivera when you need him? His expose of Willowbrook in the early 1970s was the catalyst for the extensive set of laws protecting the rights of people with developmental disabilities, ensuring humane treatment and education — a lot of special education law and the way in which IEPs are constructed also flowed from those laws as a secondary consequence/benefit. Public education needs a champion like that — somebody to expose all of it: charter school debacles around the country, the costs and corruption of testing being handed over to corporations, etc. Across the nation. Somebody with a national reputation who has the public trust. Do we have any reporters like that left? Or is it all partisan?
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