A community outreach for a Bridgeport charter school organization managed by FUSE has a criminal record.
“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.
“Rabinowitz said Wednesday that she’s “incredibly concerned” about the revelation and that FUSE’s failure to disclose it until now adds to her doubts about whether the organization should continue running Dunbar School under a year-old arrangement approved by the state Department of Education.”
The chairman of the State Board of Education Allan Taylor said that a criminal record should not be a barrier to employment in charter schools in certain districts.
“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.”
Will he apply the same standard to educators? Is it okay if a teacher or a principal has a criminal record so long as he or she is in a charter school in an urban district?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The chairman of the State Board of Education Allan Taylor said that a criminal record should not be a barrier to employment in charter schools in certain districts.”
Wow.
That statement caught my attention.
Guess kids don’t matter much…just platitudes, perks, and $$$$$.
Change that to black, brown, poor, and ELL kids don’t matter. Hemwouldn’t try that bs in Darien or Any of the other wealthy white enclaves.
Chris in Florida: thank you for the English-to-English translation.
When edupreneurs and their educrat enablers and edubully enforcers and accountabully underlings speak, a lot gets ‘lost in translation’—a feature, not a bug, of their business plan for $tudent $ucce$$.
That’s why we need folks like you to wring the real—not Rheeal—words out of them.
😎
It’s an incredibly frightening statement by someone who is in power. Teachers in regular public schools are held to impossible standards, even being fired for posting a picture of themselves holding an alcoholic beverage on their private Facebook page. YET, charter school teachers and leaders can have criminal records?
And Campbell Brown is coming after teachers?! Sheesh!
Curious as to what they deem inconsequential. No details are mentioned…axe-murderer or just your run- of- the-mill DUI…you know, the potential murderer.
The law firm that completed the back ground check is the same legal firm that represents the “Most Twisted Educator in America,” Dr. Steve Perry. This same law firm also represents Kenneth Moales Jr., the former chair of the Bridgeport Board of Education and a an appointed Board member for Dr. Perry’s new charter school which is scheduled to open in Bridgeport next year. The tangled web they weave.
This convicted sex offender was recently appointed by Mayor Finch to Bridgeport’s Ethics Commission. Elder Henry Allen is a member of a church where the leadership is tied to Kenneth Moales Jr. and is a staunch supporter of charter schools. Until recently, Kenneth Moales Jr. was Mayor Finch’s campaign treasurer. Here is the outrageous video where Mayor Finch swears in this convicted sex offender who will rule on whether other residents have violated ethics??? Please, Please watch this pure insanity.
http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/ethics-commission-member-latest-revelation-in-charter-group-managing-dunbar-school/#more-60615
How interesting. 36 years ago, a fellow classmate in my Master’s of Special Education program could not get a city special education license because as a teenager she was arrested on a drug charge. Because of this one mistake, she was never able to become a public school teacher although she did become successful in another career. There is quite a difference when you make a mistake as a teenager (possession of marijuana in the 1960s) and someone who engaged in criminal activity as an adult. As was said so well by George Orwell, “Some people are more equal than others.”
The statement, “The chairman of the State Board of Education Allan Taylor said that a criminal record should not be a barrier to employment in charter schools in certain districts.” was appalling. As a former teacher who taught in the Philadelphia School System, I believe that urban schools need teachers and administrators that are exemplary as the home and community support systems, in most cases, are absent. Charter schools are draining the public school system of resources as can be evidenced in Pennsylvania and NJ due to non-regulation, oversight, and accountability of their administration.
We can’t even send an undergraduate student into a school unless they pass a background check!
Maybe we need background checks on Taylor, Pryor, Malloy, and the rest of the reformy gang. Perry, Moales……the list is endless.
So it’s ok in certain districts that serve certain children from certain families. Gosh, I wonder if Greenwich or Darien or Westport are included?
Alan Taylor…..really? Have you lost your mind? There are so many criminals around here; we really don’t have a choice and it’s just kids from Hartford and Bridgeport after all. You can’t even make this 💩 up anymore.
He should be told to resign immediately. As if that statement would fly in Avon, Darien, Westport, Wilton, or many of the other suburbs of CT.
How embarrassed we all are.
A criminal record is not an impediment to employment in a charter school? Lots of residents of my district have criminal records. Would you want them working with your children?
I might. It depends on the type of crime, how long ago it occurred, and what kind of person they’ve demonstrated themselves to be since then.
Seriously? When teachers across America who’ve taught for years in their own communities are fingerprinted regularly? Seriously?
Every five years in my state, teachers must redo their fingerprints and background check. Because our fingerprints change every five years. But great money for police departments and school districts who take the fingerprints. Ka-ching!
Am I correctly understanding from the comments here that teachers with criminal records may not be hired in Connecticut public schools?
Yes, you are correct and we must also be fingerprinted. Volunteers, mentors, speakers cannot even enter my building without being fingerprinted ahead of time.
A retired teacher wanted to come back to a building to stamp books for busy teachers, and she had to be re-fingerprinted. But charters are different because they are more “successful”.
The problem is Dannel Malloy, Lawyer/Charter Founder, Fake Commissionr -Stefan Pryor and the CTBOE willing to cover for them while kowtowing to the uber-wealthy in Fairfield County, the gold coast of CT.
But don’t forget Flerp: it’s for the kids and it’s the civil rights movement of our time.
Nor would they be eligible for a teaching certificate in GA.
We are also finger printed and background checked every 5 years ( certificate renewal).
Teachers with *any* criminal record are *automatically* barred from receiving teaching certification in Georgia? I find that stunning. It’s one thing to require criminal background checks and to require applicants to disclose any criminal history on their applications. It’s another thing to have a rule that gives employers absolutely zero discretion about whether to hire someone with a criminal record, no matter what the crime was or how kong ago it happened. Frankly I’m skeptical that this is the law in Georgia. If it is, it’s horribly unfair and incredibly stupid.
FLERP,
what states allow convicted felons to teach in public school?
Not jaywalkers. Felons.
Well, I suppose if by ANY criminal record, you include minor traffic violations, jay walking, those sorts of things, then no.
Obviously.
If I remember correctly any felony conviction or any conviction involving “moral turpitude” disqualify applicants. Also drug convictions (I think even fairly minor ones), and of course any sex crime convictions disqualify applicants.
And as I said, we are also re finger printed and re background checked every 5 years.
However, it has been a while since my classes on GA school law.
If you are interested you can read up on it at the Georgia Professional Standards web site. I believe it is all posted there.
About all things charter school, I now ask myself, WWCD? “What would Campbell [Brown] do?
She would have to check with Michelle and Eva first. She is their eduho and they are the pimps.
“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.”
What a bold statement. So he admits that any ex-convict can become an school official and do whatever he/she wants because violation of policy is little or no big deal?
Simple. Just pass a law stating background checks are “optional” for charter school operators. This will make it easier to find people experienced in, say, embezzlement and hire them as your CFO, then if caught the school can claim they opted not to perform background checks due to budget restraints.
Read NC Senate bill 337 for an example on how to pull it off.