Jason France, the blogger known as Crazy Crawfish, calls attention to dangerous losses of data and computers when charter schools close. The Recovery School District, which oversees charters, relies on the charters to make sure that computers have been wiped clean of student data.
But when the charters close, they have no employees and no longer exist.
The risk, he says, is not only the release of student private data, but the state’s lists of people whose children qualify for free or reduced price lunch. A public school has people assigned to protect this data. When charters close, no one protects it.
He writes:
The RSD has been in existence since 2004. It has taken the state 10 years, and a concerned citizen, for the department to realize student data needs to be protected, and that charter schools that have been disbanded and have no employees are not the best custodians of data or the future of our children.
The former spokesman for Future Is Now, which was running John McDonogh, when it was shut down by the State, said it best and in a way so obvious it makes you wonder how RSD could not have foreseen problems with its approach. Namely, to expect charters that no longer have employees to follow protocol is ludicrous.
Former Future Is Now spokesman Gordon Wright said the organization had no response because it no longer exists.
Many charters, like Future is Now/John McDonogh, have been shut down for acting irresponsibly. This school is a saga all in and of itself, and was closed before its charter was officially up for review. How ridiculous and irresponsible is it to expect poorly run, or irresponsible organizations to follow proper protocol when they may not have money to pay salaries or any employees to follow said protocol and have not exhibited the best judgment when they were in operation?!?
Dozens of charters have closed down and changed hands, and even more RSD direct run schools have come and gone. By their own estimates, RSD has lost control of over 1600 items, including laptops. Those are the items they lost or miscoded in the last 4 years. They have lost so many items over the 10 years they have been in operation there is probably no way to account for them all.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When people do business in the corporate form, there is no accountability for the people who do wrong. They just let the corporation die and the responsibility goes with it. For some reason, the great mass of the American people do not understand this.
James,
The great mass of Americans do not understand most things that are against their interests and needs, and they certainly don’t understand ALEC, as Ellen Lubic has pointed out many times.
The irony is that the information is right under their noses on the internet and other valid, non-sensationalized sources.
Ignorance is the most silent and deadly killer . . . . .
Sorry, and Joanna Best has pointed out ALEC many time also. . . . . She is the ALEC “consultant”.
ALEC: such an evil body of people.
Screaming for choice is one thing. Having a certain level of expectation because charters deal with students is another.
Nevada does not have successful charters so I’m not sure why everyone screams for them – except it is the fad.
Yep. It’s “on trend.” Lots of places.
Yeah, I just can’t wait to see what our legislature comes up with. Andre Agassi will get more subsidies, we will get more modular buildings…I hope John Ralston is right, the nuts will cancel out the rest of the right wing in the Nevada legislature and nothing will get done. Here’s hoping.
The leaders and enablers of the self-styled “education reform” movement keep promising to leave “traditional” public schools in the dust.
They have—plumbing new depths of thoughtless irresponsibility towards, and callous disregard for, students, parents and public school staff.
Again, not even feigned moral outrage and pretend pearl clutching and casual couch fainting among the charterite/privatizer crowd that regularly visits this blog.
Their silence is deafening.
Their silence is consent.
😎
In the case of my school in rural Nevada, they have left us in the mud after the last flash flood. We are still cleaning up the muck from classrooms and begging for funds and a decent facility.
The two charter school authorizing bodies in New York State have extensive protocols in place that among many other things help to protect sensitive student and employee data in the event of a closure. Here is NYSED’s: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/psc/documents/nysed-charter-school-closing-procedures.pdf
There are considerable differences between charter school laws and processes from state to state. While there are some aspects of New York’s laws that could be improved, in general they are a big step up from what’s on the books in many other states, but especially those that permit for-profit schools/management, virtual schools, and district authorization. These create an environment where abuse, fraud, and failure are inevitable, and the states that allow these types of schools and authorizing should adopt laws that are similar to New York’s.
“The Recovery School District, which oversees charters, relies on the charters to make sure that computers have been wiped clean of student data.
But when the charters close, they have no employees and no longer exist.’
Actually even if the folks at the charters attempted to “wipe the computers clean” before they closed up shop, there is a very good chance that the data would still be on the hard drives.
Simply erasing files and “emptying the trash” on the desktop does not do the trick.
One has to use a program that zeros out the memory locations where the data is stored to accomplish that* and most people just are not aware of this.
*a sledgehammer on the hard drives also works. (I’ve used both methods and the sledge is less time consuming and more fun)
Finally, someone with some common sense yells “stop!”:
“Florida embraced the school accountability movement early and enthusiastically, but that was hard to remember at a parent meeting in a high school auditorium here not long ago.
Parents railed at a system that they said was overrun by new tests coming from all levels — district, state and federal.”
Apparently no one in ed reform policy circles considered the practical problems with mandating testing on computers. The whole school comes to a screeching halt for weeks at a time as they shuffle kids in and out for test after test after test.
The biggest driver is Duncan’s ridiculous teacher ranking system:
“As part of the federal Race to the Top grant obligation, the state will require end-of-the-year tests for every subject to help evaluate teachers whose pay and job will be tied to scores. In Miami-Dade County, there are 1,600 courses.”
And the ed reform juggernaut rolls along, completely oblivious to the reality in public schools. The schools sound like grim, miserable places. The kids are testing 60 days a school year. It’s bonkers. This can’t be worth the federal funding. It can’t even make budget sense for these schools. No way.
as Missouri chooses a replacement for Chris NiCastro, the commissioner who stepped down, maybe or maybe not related to the consequences of her actions at the Normandy school district, I am wondering if this is a story which is only about Louisiana…..I am sure there are similar situations in other states, but I need to be able to be more specific if I want to use this story to raise some questions, and try to contrast it with the worst public school district in Missouri. My guess is, that with 45 percent new teachers, and some children still using the transfer law, and reports of teachers crying, and resigning after two or three months, they probably have better records regarding the children than this charter school in Louisiana……how widespread is this?
“. . . may be or maybe not related to the consequences of her actions. . . ”
Any idea who might be nominated? I’ve heard one name but I’m not sure he was part of Normandy.
A significant thing I have perceived…..was in an editorial in the Post Dispatch….. “The next state education commissioner shouldn’t be someone from the Nicastro years,” wrote Kansas City Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel President Andrea Flinders.” Supposedly a liberal paper, their all-white editorial board tries to remain politically correct, but they have become increasingly supportive of institutional racism, especially in education issues. I guess, since it is a teachers’ union person, their response can still pass for politically correct…..”That’s hogwash. The Board of Education should choose a candidate who, like Ms. Nicastro, is willing to listen…..” http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-search-for-next-education-commissioner-should-be-open-deliberate/article_b7dd580e-95aa-5757-b08a-f121db8faa9d.html ..Ms nicastro had one of those let’s all feel good about stuff letters in the pd Saturday……not much response, but there was me…..inviting her to the Panera’s bread company any morning and I can explain the details of just why I favor her years being “evaluated” by the FBI….After visiting the united church of Christ on north grand a week ago, where many educators were present, I was trying to get a fix on the levels of outrage towards you, compared with Obama’s cabinet member arne Duncan.http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/put-missouri-in-the-top-in-education/article_9a687f19-88ce-5c50-b4f6-6f768d128d79.html?mode=comments
Wow, here’s’ the end of the article:
——————
JASON FRANCE:
“DOA is sending employees around the state to wipe the laptops from just the last batch of auctions. They have been working around the clock, nights and weekends, to fix the absurd failings of the RSD and LDOE. Unfortunately their work will only scratch the surface. These laptops and desktops and servers have been sold for as many as 10 years without anyone bothering to ensure they did not contain millions of SSN’s of ordinary Louisiana citizens.
“This is what happens when you put people in charge that worry more about their 6 figure salaries and accommodating charter schools than protecting Louisiana children and citizens.
“Where are the organizations that pretend to stand for children, like Stand For Children, when children really need them? They are standing with the charters that abuse our children. They are standing with the charters that discard our children and their data. When real danger rears its head, when children are really put in danger, these groups fail to respond. That’s when you know what they are really all about. . and what they are not.
“Patrick Dobard, admitted RSD never verified any of the equipment they’ve surplussed has been wiped. Dobard acknowledged he can’t even keep track of the items they theoretically still possess.
“We have clear evidence charters are not wiping their equipment, leaving thousands of student records complete with, name, SSN, DOB, discipline, disabilities, grades, addresses and phone numbers.
“Millions of student and adult records have been getting exposed for years by an irresponsible RSD that is immune from criminal and civil prosecution.
“Current measures will only address the most recent exposures, doing nothing to address 10 years of negligent neglect.
“RSD had plenty of money (over a billion dollars) but no common sense and no duty to act unless forced to by outside forces.
“This is another clear example that charters schools are only tied to our communities as long as they are receiving a paycheck, and not one second longer.
“This is a systemic problem.
RSD and LDOE are refusing to acknowledge how big a disaster this really is. The threat inBloom posed our students was significant, but also theoretical to some degree. This is an actual, verified threat, one that has been going on for a decade, and one which will probably continue under the current management and RSD structure.
“The current approach by LDOE is to bury this story on a Friday and get the most recent laptop purchasers to sign affidavits they didn’t use the data for illegal purposes. If these are criminals that have already used this data, would this matter to them? What about the thousands of purchasers over the years. Will anyone be visiting them?”