A note from Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy. White Hat is Ohio’s largest charter chain. It operates for profit. The owner of White Hat, industrialist David Brennan, is a major contributor to Republican politicians, including Governor John Kasich and legislators. Because it is a private company, White Hat does not permit public disclosure of its finances.
Phillis writes:
“A White Hat online business enterprise took $13,106,192.74 from 409 school districts in 2013-2014
“Part of the opaque charter school empire of White Hat Management is an online business. 409 school districts paid $13.1 million to White Hat Management in 2013-2014. Like the giants in the online charter school industry-E.C.O.T. and K-12, Inc.-White Hat’s Alternative Education Academy (also known as OHDELA) is a low performing, low graduation rate, online operation. The 2012-2013 Report Card indicates Alternative Education Academy, a mostly F rated enterprise. The five-year graduation rate was 22.8%.
“These 409 school districts, by force of flawed law, gave up funds (state and local) and governance to one business entity-White Hat Management. Out with democracy and in with oligarchy!
“Does democracy matter?”
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Follow the money
And you can bet
It flows in circles
Pocket to pocket
And down the toilet.
BURMA SHAVE
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Tell those bland and boring, all too peaceful Ohioans – typical midwesterners – that their standardized diction in English (Ohio, believe it or not, is deferred to as the national standard for optimum and standardized proununciation of American English) is not enough to put them on the map.
They should in this order:
1. Choose to get informed.
2. Actually GET informed.
3. Organize.
4. Molbilize.
5. Take to the streets.
6. Whip out the torches and pitchforks.
This news, pardon my rash and mean spirit, enfuriates me. I don’t really mean at all the stereotypes portrayed above.
And if one does not think it’s not coming or can’t come to a theater near you, think very carefully again.
This is a prime example of out with the public trust and in with the privatized, plutocratic monopoly.
Watch out, families who live in Perry, Ohio. . . . . The bolb may be sliming its way to your municipality.
Students and parents beware . . . . .
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Cx: . . . the blob may be sliming its way . . . .
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The reality of ed reform doesn’t matter in the following states: OH, MI, PA and FL.
Can’t we talk some more about those high-scoring charter schools in NYC and Boston?
The huge swathe of the country with the ripoff for-profits and complete deregulation of the “charter sector” must never be mentioned in our “national conversation” about ed reform. What you’re seeing if you live in one of these states? You imagined it.
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White Collar in the White Hat. Oh wait, is it Black Fat Cat in the White Hat?
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It’s difficult to choose, but I think the worst part of ed reform in Ohio is probably what we’re doing with the most vulnerable students, the drop-outs.
Our brave and bold lawmakers have generously “relinquished” those students to the private sector, and essentially abandoned any responsibility for them.
It’s outrageous that they’ve gotten away with this under “reform”, but they have.
“In 2010 at age 17, Al Tonyo dropped out of a vocational high school in Cleveland but still wanted a diploma.
So, he enrolled at Life Skills High School of Cleveland, one of 77 publicly funded Ohio charter schools that markets itself as a flexible alternative to traditional public schools.
Then, he dropped out again.
Tonyo was no exception.
Charter schools such as Life Skills, operated by Akron-based White Hat Management and targeting dropouts, are sending Ohio spinning off in the wrong direction. Dropout rates nationally are on the decline, but Ohio’s rate is on the rise.
Many dropout charter schools, including White Hat’s chain of Life Skills centers, consistently report single-digit graduation rates. Over the course of last school year, more students dropped out of Life Skills than attended on the average day.
Together, they are dragging down the state’s overall rate.
After charter schools received the largest funding boosts per pupil in the most recent state budget, state legislators are toying with the idea of giving them more money to fix Ohio’s dropout problem at a time when charter schools are reporting record-high dropout rates.”
It’s easy for lawmakers and others to send them off and wash their hands of them and it’s cheap to operate these franchises and turn a profit because they stick the kids in front of a screen. We have so many lobbyists embedded in our legislature now they will never give up this source of revenue.
If lawmakers didn’t want to take responsibility for public schools, why did they take the jobs in the first place? Who said they could off-load all of their responsibilities on private management companies? Is there some reason we need them around now that they have “relinquished” public schools to the private sector? Are they just a conduit to transfer payments to contractors? We can hire a private firm to perform that function, and they’d probably do more due diligence.
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Here’s the growth area in for-profit K-12. The most vulnerable students:
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ohio-s-charter-school-dropouts-soar-push-state-in-opposite-direction-of-u-s-1.490893
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Ohio has gone to the greedy DEFORMERS and the people of Ohio are being duped. Where are the critical thinkers?
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Having had the extreme misfortune of working for a charter school in Pontiac, MI that White Hat mis-manages, I can attest to just what a shoddy, sleazeball operation they run. David Brennan and his minions have only one concern: the bottom line. Many of its students are not being educated, parents are abused, staff is expendable, and in general people are treated like dirt, all in the name of profit.
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Michael Paul Goldenberg: your comments drawn from personal experience are illuminating but painful to read.
Thank you.
😎
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Where is the outrage from Campbell Brown? Rhee? Arne? Obama?
Where is the outrage? Why are not Koch, Broad, Gates, et al, the usual suspects, rallying around Ohio and demanding for teacher/clerks to be fired? Charters to be closed? They don’t rally because there is no pie in it for them, and no union to cast aside. Sickening.
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Educators in Ohio are horrified of the toxic changes that John Kasich has made and will continue to make in his next 4 year term which he will likely get. It is downright scary to even think about the damage he can do with 4 more years.
Born and raised in Ohio, my husband and I have had enough of the highly regulated and highly taxed state. Kasich cares nothing about the high tuition rates of Ohio colleges and intentionally hurts the middle class. My husband and I want better for our 2 kids, so within 2 years, we will have our family moved to another state. I will have to pay taxes on my STRS check, but that is all Ohio will get from me.
Kasich makes believe we are New York. We could never be New York. We are rural, paying high taxes, and living out in the middle of nowhere. I still think it is so sad that Kasich’s horrible policies affect all the kids except his own twin daughters. Their private school does not have to follow his destructive rules. He might care if his poisonous policies would affect his very own children. I know Governor Strickland is horrified at what Kasich is doing to the public schools.
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Reblogged this on rjknudsen and commented:
Our tax dollars at work, at the expense of my class room.
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To hear of horrible things going on in these Ohio charter schools and do nothing is an unforgivable sin. The rich politicians will all pay for this someday, and they will have to answer for it. I hope they all love very hot places. They will all arrive there in due time. If anything like this was reported in a public school, they would have law enforcement there immediately, as they should. But, because there is so much money involved in charter schools, they turn their heads. I never thought I would see such smut in Ohio. It all makes me sick and makes my blood boil.
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Another Plunderbund revelation. Gulen donations. Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/08/26/josh-mandel-receives-large-donations-from-fbi-raided-charter-school-founders/
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