A message from Donald Cohen of “In the Public Interest,” which follows news about privatization of public services.
“Cashing in on Kids, a joint project of In the Public Interest and the American Federation of Teachers, is working to ensure that parents, teachers, students and taxpayers continue to have a strong voice in how we run our schools and educate our nation’s children. Below is an action that needs your attention.
“The FBI is currently investigating Concept Schools, Inc., a charter management company, which operates nineteen schools in the state of Ohio. The federal investigation is for “white-collar crime,” self-dealing, and misusing federal money meant for the neediest students.
“Given the seriousness of the allegations, it is likely that all nineteen Concept charter schools will be shut down, but too often this puts taxpayers on the hook for the schools’ liabilities and debts.
“Can you sign our petition today and help us protect taxpayers from any more grief and costs created by Concept Schools?
“That’s why we are demanding that the Ohio Board of Education and the Ohio Department of Education take the necessary steps to protect taxpayers’ and students’ interests against further wrongdoing on the part of Concept Schools.
“Total enrollment in Concept Schools in Ohio is nearly 6,700 students and is funded by $48.5 million from state taxpayers. Working men and women in Ohio should not be forced to spend a single dime due to the potential closure of Concept Schools as the result of its own misconduct.
“State education officials have the power under Ohio law to take back control of Concept Charters as the schools’ sponsor and require that each of the nineteen Concept Schools post a “bond payable to the state or to file with the state superintendent a guarantee, which shall be used to pay the state any moneys owed by the community school in the event the schools closes.”
“Please add your voice to those of parents, students and taxpayers across the country upset by poor oversight over charter schools and demand that we take back control of our schools. It is time that for-profit charter school operators like Concept Schools be held accountable and pay for their own wrongdoing, instead of taxpayers footing the bill.
“Sign our petition today.”
Sincerely,
Donald Cohen
Executive Director
In the Public Interest
Diane Ravitch's blog 
People who think Charter Schools are good are being duped!
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The hubris always brings them down. The GOP-controlled governor’s mansion and legislature in Ohio may feel Teflon-coated and immune to accountability but the stench of the corruption eventually arouses the attention of even the most diehard loyal party members and the public outcry will be heard all over the country.
I had always hoped that a grassroots resistance would defeat the reformists before their own hubris began to bring them down but I guess times are different now. As long as the curtain is pulled back and their nastiness is exposed to cleansing daylight . . . .
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I’m for accountability, so I think it’s important to remember how we got here. This is from 2008:
“As Mike Petrilli at Fordham’s Flypaper explains:
Get ready for another golden era for charter schools. In many ways, the Bill Clinton years were better for charters than the George Bush years. Largely that’s because the press and the public expects Republicans to support choice and charters; it’s much more powerful when Democrats do so.
And by all accounts, Arne Duncan loves charter schools. One person told me that Duncan would make every school a charter school if he could. But at the least, he will be an effective advocate for the view that urban districts can use chartering to promote their larger reform agendas. Which means charters are going mainstream.”
Sadly, the “golden era” for charter schools under President Obama has not been so golden for public schools, which was probably inevitable, seeing how they came into office into office “wishing” to make every public school a charter school, you know, “if they could”
Wonder why President Obama didn’t run on that in Ohio?
http://reason.org/news/printer/two-reasons-to-like-chicagos-a
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Just like the mortgage meltdown, now there is the charter school meltdown. Liar loans are the same as the lies that authorize charter schools. In both cases there is/was nothing legitimate backing the assets, thus, a house of cards.
Go back to what works, accountability, and a standard public school system for all.
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“Go back to what works, accountability, and a standard public school system for all.”
NO!
Community public schools were never “standard”-not being “standard” being the strength and wisdom of community public schools. Community public schools have been accountable through the elected school board.
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In case anyone was wondering if it’s “political”, this is the political operative they hired to operate the campaign that started yesterday:
“The Beacon Journal has attempted unsuccessfully to reach the politically-connected Concept Schools several times since mid-June. The private company, founded by Turkish men, operates 19 public charter schools in Ohio, each overseen by school boards with many members of Turkish descent — some lacking U.S. citizenship.
The move to hire Weaver, a Republican political consultant and campaign adviser to former Ohio Attorney General and State Auditor Betty Montgomery, follows two months of stories by a number of newspapers.
In recent years, Weaver has worked for the campaigns of Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp and presidential candidate Mitt Romney and has been a spokesman for gambling interests and electric utilities. About a dozen years ago, he helped with a political action committee backing Supreme Court justices who would hear charter school cases. The PAC was headed by charter-school operator David Brennan of White Hat Management.”
I wondered why the rhetoric was focused almost exclusively on teachers unions.
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear a huge charter school case at the end of this month.
White Hat.
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/embroiled-charter-school-company-hires-publicity-firm-1.512278
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Chiara,
In the original story, Concept denied it was a Gulen school, but the identifier of a Gulen school is its board of directors. When almost all of them are Turkish men, it is a Gulen school.
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“The Ohio Supreme Court will hear a huge charter school case at the end of this month. ”
Do you think whatever the OSC “Rules” on the charter school case
will have a greater “Effect” than their “Unconstitutional Method of Funding” rule?
I don’t understand how so many “Swear to UPHOLD the constitution”
and THEN engage in an unconstitutional method of funding.
Professed values compared to actions…
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Aaaaand, besides working for the charter schools, White Hat’s PAC and the campaigns of Ohio Supreme Court justices, Weaver is also a partner at a firm who serve as “special counsel” to the Ohio Attorney General.
http://cronygateohio.progressohio.org/meet-the-cronies/mark-weaver/
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