Ted Morris, Jr., resigned his post as leader of the newly authorized charter school called “Greater Works Charter School,” after numerous revelations about discrepancies in his resume. The charter board still plans to open the school in September 2015.
Peter Greene reviews the accumulation of new details about the young man, age 22, who was granted a charter by the New York State Board of Regents and has a question: If he and other bloggers and one reporter were able to determine in only 24 hours of Internet searching that this young man did not graduate from the Rochester high school that he claimed on his resume, that it was uncertain whether he had earned a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree or a doctorate, why didn’t the New York State Board of Regents know these things before handing out a charter to someone who had never taught or run a school?
Mercedes Schneider wonders too about the vetting process of the New York State Board of Regents. Do the Regents care about the experience of qualifications of those who are granted a charter to run a school with public funds?
She writes:
The short of it: This guy is lying about his credentials, and NY Regents just approved him to run a NY charter school at $12,340 per student for the life of the charter (see page 56 of 2014 application), with 96 students approved for 2015-16. Morris admits in the second D&C article seeking his charter board “through posts on Craigslist, Linkedin, and websites for nonprofits” and has used their credentials to help dress up what is an impressive charter operation on paper.
D&C could not reach either of two NY Regents members for comment on Morris’ application approval.
If NY Regents really has students’ best interests in mind, it would seem that thorough checks on the references of charter applicants would be in order.
The Perdido Street Blogger reports that the young entrepreneur has resigned from the board of the charter school that he was supposed to lead, and asks the logical question:
Now comes the work of holding the Board of Regents accountable for giving approval to this fraud’s charter school and using this fiasco as Exhibit A when Cuomo, King and Tisch look to raise or eliminate the charter cap in New York State.
If Dr Ted Morris Jr, huckster extraordinaire, could get a charter in New York State now before the cap is lifted or eliminated, just wait and see what happens after the cap is increased or ended completely.
Chancellor Merryl Tisch has admitted that she hopes to spread charters across the state, and Commissioner John King is a charter school founder from a “no-excuses” charter school with the highest suspension rate in Massachusetts.
A sign of coming attractions: Jonathan Pelto has sent a request to state and city officials in New York asking for a formal investigation of Steve Perry’s recently approved charter school in New York City. Pelto writes that Perry, an employee of the Hartford, Connecticut, public schools, is planning to use copyrighted material for the benefit of his private charter company:
Either the Commissioner, staff and Regent’s Committee were unaware that Mr. Perry and his fellow charter school applicants do not own the concepts, materials or intellectual property that they claim or the Commissioner, staff and Committee was aware of this issue and are intentionally engaging in what appear to be Mr, Perry’s criminal violation of copyrighted material owned by the Hartford, Connecticut Board of Education…
Throughout the application, and in the hearings, meetings and communications associated with his attempt to get garner approval from the New York Board of Regents for his Harlem charter school application, Mr. Perry consistently claimed that he and his company own the concepts, materials and intellectual property associated with the Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford and have the legal right to “replicate” that school in New York using materials created for the Connecticut public school.
However, neither Steve Perry nor his private company has any legal right to those concepts, materials or intellectual property.
Since Steve Perry and his associates are full-time employees of the Hartford Board of Education, the copyright laws are extremely clear. Concepts, materials and intellectual property created by employees of a school district are the sole property of the school district….
Mr. Perry and his company are seeking to use copyrighted materials for personal gain, which of course, is an extremely serious and potentially criminal offense. According to federal law, “A commercially motivated infringer can receive up to a five-year federal prison term and $250,000 in fines. (17 U.S.C. § 506(a)), 18 U.S.C. § 2319)
Mr. Perry’s application to open a charter school in Harlem contains numerous claims that he is basing his work plan on concepts, materials and intellectual property that he does not own or have the right to utilize.
Someone at the New York State Board of Regents should take note and pay attention to due diligence.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Do the Regents care about the experience of qualifications of those who are granted a charter to run a school with public funds?”
Well, Duh …
The only thing they care about is bleeding public schools to death.
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While Morris’s resignation is welcome news, I’m sorry to say such a positive development won’t last.
My own educated prediction:
Dr. Ted Morris, Jr.’s parting from the charter school is only temporary. (Indeed, the latest statement that the Kozik is that Morris has only been replaced as “lead applicant” by Kozik. It says nothing about whether or not Morris is out as CEO.)
Morris’ resigning is just a strategic ploy to quiet criticism in the short term… then, once enough time has passed, and the spotlight is off, Kozik and the charter honchos will just do what then originally wanted to do in the first place—install Ted back into a high-paying leadership position at the school.
Mark my words, Dr. Ted will eventually end up employed by the school at some position—with a six-figure salary, a fancy title, and vague duties / job description… and those folks calling the shots won’t have the least bit of shame in doing so.
When defending Ted’s rejoining the charter, be prepared to hear the charter school leaders vomit up something along the lines of…
“Someone of Ted’s caliber and dedication and leadership abilities will be a fine addition to our school. We’d be foolish not to avail ourselves of his talents… ”
or words to that effect.
AND ONCE A CHARTER SCHOOL’S OPERATIONS ARE UNDERWAY, NOBODY CAN DO A THING TO STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING.
As anyone who follows education knows, once the charter is granted—especially with a rabidly pro-charter Board of Regents led by Ms. Tisch—and the charter school’s functioning is underway, it’s impossible to close them or exert even minimal oversight, or effect any safeguards—i.e. one barring this mountebank Morris from having anything to do with the school.
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“As anyone who follows education knows, once the charter is granted—especially with a rabidly pro-charter Board of Regents led by Ms. Tisch—and the charter school’s functioning is underway, it’s impossible to close them or exert even minimal oversight, or effect any safeguards—i.e. one barring this mountebank Morris from having anything to do with the school.”
It simply isn’t true that it’s impossible to close a charter school in New York State. As of March 2013, the Regents had closed 5 of the 46 charters it had granted. Since 1998, 19 out of 229 granted charters in New York State have been permanently closed.
Click to access 3131p12d2.pdf
Charters come up for renewal every five years, but there are annual reviews and authorizers do not have to wait until the five-year term has elapsed to close a school. In 2011 the Regents closed a charter after just one year of operation—I saw it happen with my own eyes.
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That’s right Tim. Several charters in Buffalo have bit the dust and a few more are on the chopping block. These are schools which catered to the minority community and their results were the same, if not worse, than the public schools with the same population.
If you keep doing the same things over and over, don’t be surprised if you keep getting the same results.
Ellen T Klock
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Thanks for that clarification, Tim
I’m still interested in what threshold of non-performance would prompt a closure or non-renewal.
Out here in California, that threshold is in the stratosphere.
Furthermore, even when this absurdly high threshold is met and a closing / non-renewal results, there are other potenial authorizers at other levels—the county board, the state board—that the closed/non-renewed charter can appeal to and who will then who in and re-authorize the exact same disastrously performing charter that had been closed… and who make no demands that the charter correct the the problems that led to its prior closing.
Also, given what’s been discovered about Greater Works CC and it’s “founder”, do you believe that the Regents should allow the school to proceed and open?
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As I’ve said in a couple comments, this was a borderline proposal even before the resume fudging, and I would hope that the Regents take another look at it.
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THE LATEST NEWS as of Turkey Day:
As many here predicted, New York State Regent Meryl Tisch has just told reporter Justin Murphy that Morris’ fraud is no big deal, and that Greater Works Charter School will still be opening, albeit without Morris.
As for anyone being held accountable for Morris’ fraud going undetected, that’s no big deal, either. Tisch hedged on implicating anyone on any level. In short, nothing really serious went wrong here, and whatever did go wrong was nobody’s fault anyway… so let’s all just move on, now, shall we?
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/11/26/merryl-tisch-regents-ted-morris-charter-school/19549033/
——————————-
“A day after 22-year-old charter school founder Ted Morris Jr. resigned precipitously after lies were discovered on his résumé, state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch deflected blame for the charter’s approval and said the school, without its founder, should still open next fall.
” … ”
“Tisch said the board only sees applications after they’ve been recommended by the state Education Department, suggesting it wasn’t the members’ normal responsibility to vet them for errors.
” ‘When it comes to the board, it comes with an endorsement from (NYSED) and the local regents,’ she said. ‘What we hear is whether … they’ve put together a sound application. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, and I think people in (NYSED) need to address that with you.’
“Bill Clarke, the director of the NYSED charter school office, was not available for comment. A NYSED spokesman said no one else would be available either because of the snow descending on Albany.
“Two of the state Regents are based in Rochester, Andrew Brown and Wade Norwood. In a statement released Tuesday before Morris’ resignation, Brown said:
” ‘We rely on a considerable amount of data and information provided by applicants, along with conducting many in-person interviews before reaching a decision. If it were to turn out that we were deliberately provided misleading information by an applicant, that would of course call for further review of the issuance of the charter.’
“Neither he nor Norwood responded to a request for further comment Wednesday. Tisch hedged in implicating them:
” ‘I believe Regent Brown and Regent Norwood were kept in the loop with this charter school coming forward, and the issue of (Morris’ biographical information) did not surface.
“Greater Works’ new board chairman, Keuka College education professor Peter Kozik, said the school still intends to open in the fall, and Tisch said she believes that is proper.
” ‘We weren’t granting the charter to a person; we were granting it to a board entity,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen other circumstances where board members come and go, but if the focus on instruction and curriculum is sound, you have real potential to have a good school.’ ”
——————————-
My prediction: once a comfortable amount of time has passed and the spotlight’s off, Morris will be re-hired, and back in the Greater Works fold, with a fancy title and a six-figure salary…. and there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent this.
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Is there no end to the slime and shirking of responsibility and morality? I guess this is a rhetoric question, but i wish it wasn’t.
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To Regent Tish… (or any NY Regent reading this)
Ted Morris, Jr. gave an interview to Leslie Brown at “Unhyphenated America.” Unlike in the slick presentation he gave or in the charter application he presented, Morris let his hair down and gave the true details of how the Greater Works Charter School would be operating
What Morris shared sounds like the recipe for an unmitigated disaster.
Look what Greater Works has in store for their future students and the Rochester community!
With or without Morris, this is what’s ahead.
When Greater Works CC does open, most of the teachers that you’d see as a traditional high school won’t be there (SEE BELOW).
No, they will be replaced by computers, while those few teachers remaining won’t have to “waste hours of time” creating those antiquated “lesson plans.”
It’s genius!!! Pure genius!!!
With his “freshly-minted Ph.D”, Ted will be—er… was formerly going to be until he resigned—putting all his skills to use, skills so lacking in older members of “academia”… such as… “logic.”
From this Greater Works Charter school promotion puff piece on “Unhyphenated Americ”: (what follows is real, NOT a parody)
“http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/”
———————————–
LESLIE BROWN:
“The (Greater Works) school will be largely computer-based, which will free the teachers up for one-on-one tutorials where needed. Hmm, no time wasted literally writing HOURS worth of lesson plans, like 34, or so a week…. I’m just sayin’.
“For some reason, libs are not too ‘keen’ on charter schools. One can ‘choose’ whether to grant life to a kid that would potentially attend the school, but not allow said kid, or parent a choice in selecting the school.
“Got it?
“Ted Morris is a freshly-minted Ph.D., and he has that oh-so-rare attribute largely lacking in academia; ummmm, LOGIC! He will be opening this charter school in Rochester, New York, in 2015.
“ ‘I remember being in school and feeling I was a bit more advanced and (not having enough options),’ Morris said. ‘I wanted to grow up and open a school that’s predicated on each student’s needs and interests. … I did it sooner than I expected.’
“Instead of funneling all of the students towards college, the school will also encourage the military or other career choices. F.Y.I. our ‘trade’ industries are really lacking trained workers which is why former Texas gubernatorial candidate Tom Pauken brought attention to that matter.
“It will be called Greater Works Charter School, accepting about 100 ninth-graders in its first year and eventually expanding to about 400 students in grades 9-12.”
Read more at http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/#hbz1V3RMIcDJbQjC.99
———————–
Gosh, if only I had high school-aged kids… I’d be signing them up for Greater Works so fast…
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The problem is that too many people in authority have little to no background in the public education system. Even if Ted Morris’ credentials were legitimate, there was no way he had the experiences necessary to be qualified to run a high school. And those who rubber stamped his application either neglected their due diligence or are incredibly inept (or both).
Just because you were once a student, doesn’t make you an expert in education.
Ellen T Klock
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The website for “Great Works Charter School” is still up. Check out how slick it is:
http://www.gwcharterschool.org/
Any parent who is not fully informed about the latest developments would view this site, then assume that the entire operation is indeed a legitimate educational institution.
They would also assume that a man with no proof of even a high school diploma—who is on the main page of this website—is, in fact, a “Dr.”:
—————————
“Opening in 2015 with 100 ninth graders!
“We are now accepting applications for admission!
“Thanks for visiting our website!
“Greater Works Charter School will offer an alternative option to families in the Rochester, New York area!
“We invite you to learn more about GWCS and contact us if you have any questions!
“Thanks,
“Dr. Ted J. Morris, Jr.
“Founder – Greater Works Charter School”
—————————-
It still reads that way.
Also on the same page:
———————————–
“It’s Official!
“GWCS Approved by NYS Board of Regents!!
“The New York State Board of Regents approved GWCS to open in 2015 at their November meeting on 11/18/14.
“We are now accepting applications for admission for the 2015-2016 school year!”
—————–
Here’s GWCC’s Facebook page: (with news of Morris’ resignation):
https://www.facebook.com/gwcharterschool
KOZIK: “Ted Morris, Jr., lead applicant and Board Member, has resigned his position from the Board of Trustees of the Greater Works Charter School effective immediately.
“Our goal – to provide a high quality education in a safe and supportive school that provides students with the academic and technical skills needed to succeed in college and in today’s workforce – is bigger than one person. For the good of our students, we will move forward.
“We plan to open the Greater Works Charter School in Rochester, NY in the fall, 2015 initially serving 96 9th graders; ultimately, our plan is to educate up to 384 students in grades 9 through 12 with the aim of fully preparing every one of them for the rigors that await them in college and their careers.”
“For more information, please contact Peter Kozik
at (315) 380-9721
or
at pkozik@keuka.edu.
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Jack, the school will open next September
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I know they’ll still be opening… and look what they have in store for their future students and the Rochester community!
When Greater Works CC does open, most of the teachers that you’d see as a traditional high school won’t be there (SEE BELOW).
No, they will be replaced by computers, while those few teachers remaining won’t have to “waste hours of time” creating those antiquated “lesson plans.”
It’s genius!!! Pure genius!!!
With his “freshly-minted Ph.D”, Ted will be—er… was formerly going to be until he resigned—putting all his skills to use, skills so lacking in older members of “academia”… such as… “logic.”
From this Greater Works Charter school promotion puff piece: (what follows is real, NOT a parody)
“http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/”
———————————–
LESLIE BROWN:
“The (Greater Works) school will be largely computer-based, which will free the teachers up for one-on-one tutorials where needed. Hmm, no time wasted literally writing HOURS worth of lesson plans, like 34, or so a week…. I’m just sayin’.
“For some reason, libs are not too ‘keen’ on charter schools. One can ‘choose’ whether to grant life to a kid that would potentially attend the school, but not allow said kid, or parent a choice in selecting the school.
“Got it?
“Ted Morris is a freshly-minted Ph.D., and he has that oh-so-rare attribute largely lacking in academia; ummmm, LOGIC! He will be opening this charter school in Rochester, New York, in 2015.
“ ‘I remember being in school and feeling I was a bit more advanced and (not having enough options),’ Morris said. ‘I wanted to grow up and open a school that’s predicated on each student’s needs and interests. … I did it sooner than I expected.’
“Instead of funneling all of the students towards college, the school will also encourage the military or other career choices. F.Y.I. our ‘trade’ industries are really lacking trained workers which is why former Texas gubernatorial candidate Tom Pauken brought attention to that matter.
“It will be called Greater Works Charter School, accepting about 100 ninth-graders in its first year and eventually expanding to about 400 students in grades 9-12.”
Read more at http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/#hbz1V3RMIcDJbQjC.99
———————–
Gosh, if only I had high school-aged kids… I’d be signing them up for Greater Works so fast…
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Also, Ted has left his Facebook page up, but wiped it clean of the detailed curriculum vitae that was previously there… it’s barren as a desert:
https://www.facebook.com/tedjmorris
At the bottom there are just links to the Great Works Charter School website and GWCC’s Facebook page.
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A big thanks here is due to Diane Ravitch, Peter Greene, Mercedes Schneider. You bloggers are keeping them honest! Take that, Democrat-Chronicle!
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Clearly, this is a young man with many talents, though those do not seem to include the ability to sit still for a conventional education, the ability to distinguish fantasies from reality, an understanding of the power of crowd-sourced fact-checking. . . .
Which raises an issue: Children differ. The national standards and standardized tests from the Common [sic] Core [sic] Curriculum Commissariat do not. I wonder what sort of education would have served the young Ted Morris, Jr.–what sort would have made him eager to attend those classes he skipped, would have made him willing to play by the rules.
Another thought: Here’s a young man who wanted to o’erleap all the standard hurdles in one bound, to go from “administrative assistant to the CEO” (what we used to call a secretary) to “assistant CEO” in a couple of key strokes, to go from “recent graduate” (at what level? from where?) to “CEO school leader” based on little more than some boilerplate ed reform blah blah blah on a few forms. He wouldn’t be the first youngster certain that the adults had it all wrong, the first to be entirely dismissive of any barriers in his way, who dreamed of taking charge himself without having to go through any intermediate steps involving learning something about what he planned to do, the first who didn’t know how much he didn’t know.
There’s something so typically, almost endearingly adolescent about this, though most would know better, I imagine,than to be so brazen.
A heedless youth. Not a new story, that.
But that this should have been approved by adults in positions of power and authority. That’s another matter altogether. Their heedlessness is another matter indeed.
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Shephard… GOSH SO TRUE… almost “endearingly adolescent” if it weren’t for the insane running the asylum – those at the top who are adults and supposedly “in the know” about education. That they allowed this to happen speaks VOLUMES about the utter nonsense of “ed reform”… Maybe the prison work detail for these “ed reform” shysters should be painting white picket fences all day long – day in and day out for the lengthy term of their prison service!
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I so agree with you, artseagal and Shephard. No need for more words. AGREE…TRUE! Gotta had it the deformers, they sure are criminals out in the open troving for tainted money and illusive power. Sad, very sad.
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In our current messed-up lawless society, I don’t think they’re technically criminals. When theft, graft, and corruption of all sorts are legal, there is no such thing as criminal (except for a black kid jaywalking, that is).
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“Maybe the prison work detail for these “ed reform” shysters should be painting white picket fences all day long – day in and day out for the lengthy term of their prison service!
How about this for them:
Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along (see GAGA). The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
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Duane – I’m more into reincarnation, myself. I’m hoping that all the rephormers come back as poor black kids with disabilities.
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Robert,
I like your positive attitude towards Ted. He is a young boy, perhaps gifted, perhaps a prodigy, perhaps with a decent vision. It is obvious that the Rochester Public Schools (which have always struggled with a poor, minority population) did not meet his needs. Perhaps his ideas might work. Let us not be too harsh. This is somebody’s child. I wouldn’t want any of my children crucified by the media.
And the Regents do not automatically approve Charter Applications (I know this for a fact), so it must have been intelligently written.
So, the devil is in the details. Is this young adult so charismatic that adults flock to his side, or is he simply a figurehead with an idea.
I graduated with 3 degrees from SUNY at Buffalo with honors at the age of twenty one. I, too, had many abilities, but there is no way I felt ready to develop my own high school. I was too busy trying to learn my craft by subbing in the local school districts until I was able to get my first job at twenty two. We called it paying our dues. I had a vision even back then (which I stayed true to throughout my career), but it took years to develop my craft.
So Ted, you jumped to the beginning of the line without “paying your dues” like the rest of us. No matter how good you are or may become, we want you to wait your turn while you develop the skills necessary to be knowledgable in your chosen profession.
Ellen T Klock
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So, when does someone on the NYS Board of Regents resign? I’m not kidding. This is a BIG story. Teachers and principals working on the front lines are endlessly told that we are being held “accountable” blah, blah, blah…. Students are made to jump through hoop after ridiculous hoop and told to just suck it up and have “grit”. Cuomo thinks that were not being challenged enough as it is. So, who will be held accountable for this debacle?
Or, are Tisch and King and whoever else on the state level dropped the ball on this one “too big to fail”?
And, where was the so-called “newspaper of record”, the oh-so-wonderful New York Times on this charter school story? Lazy and blinded by its own bias , that’s where it’s been.
And this professor from Keuka College who is quoted in the Democrat and Chronicle story….. “It was too much of a distraction,” said Peter Kozik, the professor who will now take over as “lead applicant” for the charter. According to the newspaper, Kozik added, “Life can be difficult for sure. This is not the first parting I had….”
Huh? A “distraction”? And, “LIFE CAN BE DIFFICULT”. What kind of pompous crapola is that? What is your degree in……clicheology?
I am truly embarrassed for our nation.
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P.S. “Andrew Brown, a member of the Board of Regents, said in an email that the board and the State Education Department “undertake a very rigorous process” before granting a charter.” Democrat and Chronicle, November 25, 2014
Of course, everything these people do is “rigorous”. The cereal they eat is rigorous. The way they comb their hair is rigorous They probably believe their poop is rigorous. Will someone please call these idiots out on this overused, not-so-rigorous anymore word: “rigorous:? We needed an extended, hilarious riff on this cliche.
Anytime I hear someone use the word rigorous nowadays I think, yup, that person drank the Kool-Aid. Time to turn on my dim wit detector.
It is a word that means NOTHING anymore. Can we all stop using it. Or, at least how about spelling the debased version differently. How about RIGRUS ?
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Amen John, I cringe every time I hear the “R” word. “Grit” is the other one that is cringe-worthy.
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“RIGRUS” is perfect, except that middle R should be turned backward a la “TOYS R US”.
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Rigorously said.. John Ogozalek or shall I say rigrus!
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Talkin my lingo now, John O, TAGO!
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Case in point. Idiot son Andrew Cuomo who has vowed to crack down on all those teachers. (Thanks to Perdido Street blog for the coverage! November 26, 2014)
“Later, right before his re-election, Cuomo told the Daily News editorial board that he wants to “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.” The paper reported he said he wanted to tie incentives and sanctions to the ratings.”
Yup, Cuomo’s brain is RIGRUS, too.
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I too am truly embarrassed for our nation on many, many levels. But, we are number 1 in “blindly” bashing teachers, our heroes and heroines, on so many level, that’s for sure.
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Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
Professor Harold Hill from the Music Man could get a charter in NYS… and probably OH, MI, IN, TN, TX, NC, FL and an increasing number of states. I am certain that each of these states bends over backwards to vet teachers: they all likely require fingerprinting, certification, and screening…. but charters? Those kinds of pesky regulations stifle creativity and disruption.
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Sadly, the deformers want to replace vetted, qualified teaching professionals with minimum wage workers and iPads.
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When Greater Works CC does open, most of the teachers that you’d see as a traditional high school won’t be there (SEE BELOW).
No, they will be replaced by computers, while those few teachers remaining won’t have to “waste hours of time” creating those antiquated “lesson plans.”
It’s genius!!! Pure genius!!!
With his “freshly-minted Ph.D”, Ted will be—er… was formerly going to be until he resigned—putting all his skills to use, skills so lacking in older members of “academia”… such as… “logic.”
From this Greater Works Charter school promotion puff piece: (what follows is real, NOT a parody)
“http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/”
———————————–
LESLIE BROWN:
“The (Greater Works) school will be largely computer-based, which will free the teachers up for one-on-one tutorials where needed. Hmm, no time wasted literally writing HOURS worth of lesson plans, like 34, or so a week…. I’m just sayin’.
“For some reason, libs are not too ‘keen’ on charter schools. One can ‘choose’ whether to grant life to a kid that would potentially attend the school, but not allow said kid, or parent a choice in selecting the school.
“Got it?
“Ted Morris is a freshly-minted Ph.D., and he has that oh-so-rare attribute largely lacking in academia; ummmm, LOGIC! He will be opening this charter school in Rochester, New York, in 2015.
“ ‘I remember being in school and feeling I was a bit more advanced and (not having enough options),’ Morris said. ‘I wanted to grow up and open a school that’s predicated on each student’s needs and interests. … I did it sooner than I expected.’
“Instead of funneling all of the students towards college, the school will also encourage the military or other career choices. F.Y.I. our ‘trade’ industries are really lacking trained workers which is why former Texas gubernatorial candidate Tom Pauken brought attention to that matter.
“It will be called Greater Works Charter School, accepting about 100 ninth-graders in its first year and eventually expanding to about 400 students in grades 9-12.”
Read more at http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/#hbz1V3RMIcDJbQjC.99
———————–
Gosh, if only I had high school-aged kids… I’d be signing them up for Greater Works so fast…
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Good point, wgersen. Even a worker at the local day care center or your Sunday School teacher in church has to pass a fingerprint check.
What precautions are taken for the leadership of all these charter schools?
Ellen T Klock
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From Democrat & Chronicle:
“A third job listing was senior administrator for Victory Living Christian Faith Centers from 2003 — when he was a few months shy of his 11th birthday — to 2010. The resume said he “hired, trained and supervised a staff of seven administrators … (for) a national Christian organization).”
Morris reiterated Tuesday that he did in fact start serving as an administrator at age 10, “as little as I was,” and “did all the official paperwork” in those seven years. His hiring and supervisory responsibilities started when he was around 15 or 16 years old and were done together with other leaders, he said.
Victory Living didn’t return a call seeking comment Tuesday.”
Did anyone over there at the NYS Board of Regents do a ‘Close Reading’ of this kid’s resume ?!?! Clearly, they are not ‘Thinking Critically’. Time after time, it is “Do as we say, not as we do” for the NYS Bored of Rejects., I mean, Board of Regents.
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It’s fashionable in business right now to say that “you don’t hire credentials, you hire talent”
When you hear it you’re supposed to think the speaker is very forward-thinking and cutting edge. “Hmmmm. HIRE TALENT! Why didn’t I think of that!”
You’ll be hearing ed reformers parroting it shortly. All of their approaches come from fads in the private sector.
One of the things getting a “credential” does is uncover things like lying about your background. That’s part of the reason we have credentialing processes, which they will re-discover here shortly when they hire someone without any and it turns into a disaster. .
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You must admit, Ted was clever in tweaking his resume to make himself sound like the best thing invented since sliced bread.
Perhaps his next career should be as an author of realistic fiction.
Ellen T Klock
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“..Clever in tweaking his resume”? How about a plain old liar
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Maybe he’s a liar, but he’s a rank amateur. If you want to see professionals in action, google “Dr.” Steve Perry, “Dr.” Michael Sharpe, or Paul Vallas (in his Connecticut iteration).
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After reading Ted’s resume, I realize he already is pursuing a career in Fantasy writing.
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Private charters need more scrutiny across the nation, but methinks the fox is watching the henhouse.
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This young man and the Regents who granted him the charter are shameful for their lack of admission to perpetrating this fraud.
All he would have to do is come forth and admit that his credentials were not true and that the quality of his education was fast track, pay-for-the-speed diplomas that don’t offer as much practicum in critical thinking as conventional programs. I mean, obviously they did not because he would have thought this all through carefully before launching ahead like a brainless, soul-less, morality-free cannon ball shot out of a cannon.
This young man (who really carried on like a child) gives serious advocates for charters a terrible name and imagery. He has destroyed people who are serious in their advocacy for children, and has viciously and narcissistically betrayed the charter school community.
The fact that he has de-identified himself on Twitter and Facebook by taking down all his information is a sign of cowardice. Coming forth and telling ALL the truth would offer this very young man some redemption.
He is 22 years old, and he is not a child any more.
The others who supported him in this should incentivize him to come forward and dispel exactly what was true and what was myth by disclosing all components of his education.
It would not surprise me if he was manipulated by those much older and more manipulative. Still, if you want to play with the adult devil, you will accept consequences as an adult yourself . . . . .
As for the Regents, they would probably grant a charter to anyone not smarter than them . . . . .
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(gosh, that had some poor structures and errors, but it’s 7:19 in the morning . . . . apologies . . . . )
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Yep, getting late in the morning by 7:19-he he!!
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Robert Rendo –
My concern, and not just about Ted, is that online isn’t on the spot. It doesn’t give you the one on one experiences necessary to interact within a school – either as principal, teacher, or board member. It doesn’t give you the skills to run a department or a corporation.
And if we are talking career and college ready, successful personal interactions should be near the top of the list.
And that’s one skill computers can’t teach.
Ellen T Klock
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Good, now it’s time to do some “close reading” of NYSED Commissioner John King’s purported background. His LinkedIn page shows him simultaneously earning a law degree from Yale, an Ed.D from Teachers College and working as Managing Director of charter chain Uncommon Schools.
A renaissance man, or another malanthropist-promoted, so-called education reform fraudster?
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I’ll go with the second!
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Well, King did earn both the law degree and the doctorate from accredited institutions with sound reputations. Take a look at his doctoral dissertation, however. It’s available for about $35.00 from ProQuest Dissertations. It is a thinly theorized description of his small charter, and two others. In it, he advocates for Mass. legislators to permit the rapid expansion of charters, because charters can accomplish success with students that regular educational institutions, constrained by collective bargaining agreements and a comprehensive regulatory climate, can not. Then, as Commissioner in NY, King went on to expand one of the most expensive and restrictive regulatory environments in NY State education history, all the while further advancing the charter industry. I’m not as cynical as some who claim that the “reform” movement is intended specifically to drive public education into failure in order to advance corporate and private interests, but when you look at the facts of King’s history this cynical view gains plausibility.
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It’s not cynicism to think that these people are out to privatize public education and bust the unions: it’s a reasonable inference, based on their actions and writings.
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Amazing that Commissioner King earned a law degree at Harvard and an EdD at Teachers College at the same time!
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Yes, and he was also simultaneously the Managing Director of the behavior modification boot camps also known as Uncommon Schools.
The so-called reformers truly are miraculous (in their ability to lie about everything)!
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If I and a bunch of retired teachers tried to open a charter, I am sure we would be rejected. They would scrutinize our whole licensing and job histories to find something on us. The Regents would find some loophole to use against us teachers. Of course, the real reason would be that they would not want a charter that would teach a real curriculum and may even be unionized. On the other hand, Ted was perfect. He was completely qualified in their eyes. They knew someone with his background would create a charter that would have had a religious fundamentalist bent. Therefore, his high school would be graduating students who would get our state’s new credentials for career and technical education and be ripe and ready to work at McDonald’s or Walmart On the other hand, this kid would be lining his pocket with our tax dollars. Mr. King and the Regents are, without a doubt, representing this state’s most corrupt public agency What needs to happen is that we must build a political organization to depose this governor and elect one that will do away with the present structure of the State Education Department. We need to elect officials who will be amiable to creating a truly professional Education Department run by PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS. I am as mad as hell over this.
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Exactly this, liberalteacher. I think the cat is now out of the bag. How many charters are put up on shaky foundations as this one? Did any of them, the Regents, the charter founders of this application, think that when the smoke cleared and people actually were able to find out about this kid’s “qualifications” that no one would be the wiser?
This has, literally, made me sick to the stomach. I was born on a day, but it wasn’t today.
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Peter, Mercedes and Diane, as well as those commenting above are guilty of clinging to the old-fashioned notion that credentials and experience count. Unfortunately, all of you perpetuate a bias that holds low expectations for young people.
I say the Regents acted nobly in approving the charter school that Dr. Morris headed. I wish he would not have chosen to resign when his age and background were called into question.
Be real folks. Would you have also rejected application to establish charter schools had they been submitted by the following prodigies:
Blaise Pacal’s — Elementary School of Mathematical Theorems
Enrico Fermi — Intermediate School of Nuclear Physics
Jean Piaget — Early Childhood School of Logical Thinking
Shirley Temple — All Girl’s School of Cutesie Tap Dancing
Ted Kaczynski — HS of Explosive Devices (Yes, although he affectionately became known as the Unabomber, this Dr. Ted was also a child genius)
Alexander Pope — Lyceum of Poetry and Oft-Cited Quotations
Picasso — Pre-K School of Cubic Expression
Bobby Fischer — Enfant Terrible School of Fierce Chess
Joy Foster — Middle School of Table Tennis
John Stuart Mill — Alternative School of Philosophical Reasoning
The twice, ye credentialists, when so quickly spurning the ideas and blazing talents of
our youth.
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Proof that anyone can start a charter.
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NOt intended as a reply to Fred Smith, not sure why that happened,
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Approve a High School of Explosive Devices run by the Unabomber just because he was a child genius? Really?
People are free to open private schools and folks like Andre Agassi should establish a private tennis camp. This differs greatly from granting that high school drop out permission to run public schools and authority to raid tax dollars. They should be investing their own money in their own private enterprises.
America is not better off today for having had a long list of non-educators appointed to top leadership positions in education for the past three decades, such as Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, etc. Look into expert-novice comparison research because there is a large body of evidence indicating that expertise is not just a result of being born talented. Expertise develops as a result of training and many years of experience, with a concerted effort towards self-improvement and honing one’s skills.
All leaders in public education should have proven expertise in at least one area of education and Morris has no more expertise in education than any of the other educator-imposters who have promised the heavens and given us hell on steroids.
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Loved your list of possible charter schools, but it is too close to reality. Oprah has a school in Africa, and doesn’t a major sports figure (I can’t remember which one) also has a school in the US. Who knows what will come next.
Ellen T Klock
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Fred, most of your prodigies were educated not by computers but through human interaction. Some went to private schools that offered a rich humanities based education, by private tutors who imparted a rich liberal education or in traditional European secondary schools and universities. One can teach historical facts by a computer but human interaction is needed to teach one to interpret and analyze these facts–the same goes with English and even science. If one reads the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, she said that she learned how to think when she went to school in Europe. It was a girl’s school that had a curriculum based on the arts and humanities. This proposed charter school admits that most of their prospective students will be trained for the military or some vocational occupation –probably a Walmart cashier. That is not having high expectations for high need students but a way to make sure a good part remain in the servile class.
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Why are we assuming that this young man is some sort of prodigy? What solid evidence do we have that he is anything other than a huckster? That being said, no matter how “smart” he is, he does not have the experience to be running a school.
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Well, you must admit that his BS output on LinkedIn was pretty prodigious (at least before it was taken down)
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You are right. He is not a prodigy but simply a problem student–one with a budding psychopathic personality.
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finally, a posting that ‘nails’ this guys personality disorder, without resorting to any mushy thoughts. most appreciated. can we leave this character behind us and move on to other topics?
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This must be that “strong authorizing” I’ve been hearing so much about, and how New York isn’t like Ohio because charters are so rigorously regulated and thoroughly vetted.
He said he was managing a church organization when he was ten years old and that flew right by the crack team of regulators.
You can’t get a job at a chain supermarket here without them verifying that you have a high school diploma, but you can open a publicly-funded charter school where 100 kids will be in your care.
They’re lucky bloggers found it. They should be grateful someone else did their jobs for them. If some kind of tragedy eventually results from putting anyone who applies in charge of schools and hundreds of children, people are going to want to know how that happened, and who signed off on it.
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Yeah, he claims in his resume that he was the…
“Senior Administrator” at Victory Living Christian Faith Center”
at the age of 10??!!!
Note, this was one of the things on his resume that Morris stood behind, saying that, “as little as I was, he was, in fact, that organization’s “Senior Administrator.”
It’s kind of foolish to even dignify this nonsense… but doesn’t that mean that Victory Living Christian Faith Center broke child labor laws by employing a ten year-old? Were there tax forms generated for his work there? Or did he get paid under the table in cash?
When the Victory Living staff had meetings in the board room, did this ten-year-old sit at the head at the table and say,
—————–
TED MORRIS, JR. Senior Administrator:
“This meeting of the Victory Living Christian Faith Center will now come to order. Will the secretary please read back the minutes from the last meeting before we proceed with today’s agenda?
“Oh, could someone else go get the Capri Sun juice box and the Oscar Meyer Lunchables that my mom always puts in my backpack?
“Proceed with the minutes… “
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Jack, when I was ten I wrote a play that was performed by my Sunday School class so I guess I’m a playwright. And my daughter at the age of six had a drawing created into a mosaic tile which is still on display at the Downtown Greyhound Terminal. So she is an artist.
Spin, spin, spin.
Ellen T Klock
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It’s pretty clear that the Regents are pretty much puppets for Dandy Andy and about as useful as a screen door in a submarine.
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America used to have high standards that applied throughout an organization. Now, at the higher echelons, standards are porous like “a screen door on a submarine”.
With current fashion, It is those who actually contribute to GDP that are accounted to death.
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What is clear is that charter schools need regulating including a rigorous vetting process. When Michael Milken can open up a chain of charters, you know something is wrong! Charters should have to hold true to the original to their original mission which was to innovate and offer a superior education to public schools. When they fail in this mission, they should be closed. Then they should not be allowed to squander taxpayer’s dollars on a trial and error educational misadventure while young Americans are collateral damage.The original intent of charters had nothing to do with new markets for Wall St. Their intent was to improve educational opportunity and outcomes for children. Sharks will pursue every loophole in their greedy pursuit, and it is up to the government to protect the students and serve their best interests. Contact your local representatives and remind them of their duty.
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Shouldn’t the credentials of the New York Regents’ Board members, be reviewed for accuracy?
And, shouldn’t the bio’s, at the Regent website, state if the Board members’ children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren attend public schools?
Certainly, both of the suggestions qualify as best practice.
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What we have in New York State follows the model of a bowl of candy, handed out to all who stick out their hand. Let’s start with securing Tish’s resignation and move on from there. No, that could only occur in a state with leadership that is driven by the public/collective good. ‘Good times’ Andy Cuomo is only impelled by the good of the private charter schools. As I wrote earlier, l’affaire Ted Morris was both sad and surreal,
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The big bowl of candy is NOT available to all who stick out their hands. Only those who are wealthy or connected enough to have really long arms. The rest of us are left to rot. Mixed metaphors, I know, but you get the idea.
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yes, indeed. big bucks only can dip into the candy jar.
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It’s troubling that there was so little oversight for this charter school applicant. Most egregious, while Ted Morris was allowed to proceed up to this point, education students are subjected to an incredible amount of scrutiny in New York to even become licensed to teach in New York public schools. The amount of standardized tests they are required to take and pass prior to graduation, in addition to student teaching (which is now driven by the EdTPA), mirrors the nation’s obsession with accountability measures. http://publicschoolscentral.com/2014/11/15/so-you-think-its-easy-to-become-a-teacher/ In addition, teachers have to begin the process of earning a masters degree in New York shortly after graduation. However, charter school applicants and would be charter school operators merely have to tell a good story. It doesn’t even have to be true. Where’s the accountability in that?
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Deb – only the plebeians on the bottom rungs have to jump through hoops. Those holding the ladder are exempt.
Ellen T Klck
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Let’s see if the mainstream media picks up this story.
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I would rather that the NYS Attorney General’s office pick up the story.
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Putting aside the fact that the Regents failed to conduct due diligence (what, again?)… last I heard, online activity involved the FTC, and other federal agencies, and wire fraud was a federal criminal act. So, if this guy applied, online, to an online college, and claimed to be a high school graduate, but wasn’t, well, there’s Count One. And each material intentional misrepresentation of fact on the Internet… successive criminal counts… All the way up to his “Ph.D” and beyond….
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If you’ve taught high school for any length of time, you know a kid like Ted Morris. He’s bright, engaged, but has no follow through. He sees you in the cafeteria and tells you what he thought of last night’s assignment, but never shows up to class next period. If you assign him to work in a group, the other kids complain to you privately that he doesn’t pull his weight. He runs for class office, has a great speech and cool posters, but the kids don’t vote for him because he’s all talk. When you sit down with him for a serious conversation, you tell him he’s not living up to his potential. He offers that school is too easy for him, because he’s not challenged enough.
At 22, he’s still a kid.
The Regents – they have no excuse.
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We had a word for kids like that…
lazy.
Let’s see… he does no work.
Why?
Well, because that work would be so easy to do and would not challenge him.
Think he about about it. Given that, he has no choice except to be lazy
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Come on, Folks! This has been up a day-almost 50 comments and no one, not one single person has asked “Where is TE and Joe N?”
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(Just funnin, ya Joe & TE.)
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duane- they are happily hiding under the blankets.
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TE may have been banned.
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Why now after 2+ years? Did I miss something?
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Chris in Florida did one of his things where he described TE and Joe Nathan as “religious bigots.” (Not sure why my name was omitted; I hope I haven’t lost my credentials.)
TE asked Chris why Chris thought he was a religious bigot.
Someone else told TE that TE was likely misinterpreting Chris’s comment, and that Chris probably wasn’t calling TE a religious bigot.
TE responded that Chris often called him a religious bigot ever since TE, in response to a post in which Diane praised the moral underpinnings of parochial schools, noted that those moral underpinnings included refusing to hire LGBT faculty, or something close to that effect.
Then Diane said she had had it with TE and that TE had no moral or ethical compass.
And then there was no TE.
I could be wrong, maybe he’s just thawing a turkey.
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FLERP, I warned TE repeatedly about making personal comments about me and my family. He crossed the line. I deleted his offensive comment.
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I was well aware of his behavior which draws red flag in the last several months. I even introduced an apologist website to him for his prurient pot-shots. He deserves what he did. Consequence: spam bucket. No excuse. His buddy(or buddies) should also be in the watch list.
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I totally support Diane’s decision. I thought it was evident last week that TE was going after her and, in his typically perseverative manner, he made it clear that he would not be letting up. I think she took a lot more than I would bear and enough is enough already.
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Some how I missed the latest inappropriate posting from TE. Props to Diane for taking a most deserving action. Diane answered that old question : ‘When is too much, too much?’
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“I could be wrong, maybe he’s just thawing a turkey. ”
I could be wrong, but I think the turkey was just put on ice.
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Notice at the top of this web page: “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all.”
It’s like her online living room. We’re the invited guests. Sharp discussion is permitted and frank exchanges are encouraged.
But that doesn’t mean there are no limits. Of course, this escaped the attention of a certain commenter who found it baffling that others didn’t share his unbounded joy in the deaths of 1000+ Bangladeshi clothing workers because it was a down payment on “progress.”
You can’t lose a moral compass you never had.
There are plenty of other websites where flaming is popular and the sneer, jeer and smear are the coin of the realm. The commenter in question will surely find a home elsewhere.
I agree with the action taken by the owner of this blog.
😎
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I don’t recall TE expressing “unbounded joy” in the deaths of Bangledeshi workers. I understand why people found him frustrating, but TE was very low on the list of commenters on this site who have engaged in “flaming.” I’ll miss his voice, even if I’m the only one. Maybe especially if I’m the only one.
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This may sound strange coming from me, but engaging with TE, who constantly charged off in other directions with his endless questions while ignoring the issue of a thread, led to several blog posts that I wouldn’t have written that triggered research I would have never done.
I’d prefer it if he was allowed to stay and keep frustrating us.
Sometimes that frustration with what appeared to be a closed mind led to new perspectives and thinking—that often resulted in posts that proved TE’s thinking wrong—for those of us who engaged with TE looked for evidence to counter him.
Does it really matter if TE ignored us when we proved him wrong repeatedly with logically organized arguments loaded with evidence and links? Maybe having a local devil’s advocate who appeared stuck in the muck with his thinking helped many of us strengthen our fact-based ability to argue with the false reformers.
Sun Tzu says know your enemy. If we see TE as a mirror of our enemy, then keeping him around keeping us on our toes might benefit the resistance in the long run.
Does it matter if he seldom, if ever, conceded he was wrong?
Consider TE to be the resident devil’s advocate and engage with him to improve your knowledge and ability to argue with the fake reformers.
Let’s not forget that this site is a public forum with thousands of daily visitors and many of those visitors don’t leave comments but do leave better informed and armed for the resistance. There are enough daily visitors to this site to fill a good sized stadium, and they are watching the show the commenters put on. Without TE around, the show might not be as interesting.
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I tend to agree with you Lloyd. However, he chose to cut his own throat.
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Maybe I missed that. What did you do?
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I forgot to put a reference in. My agreement was about TE. He knew how to push buttons, but he did make me think. He, however, chose to offend Diane. She does not have to tolerate it.
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The Bangladeshi comment was bad enough. The comment Diane refers to that she removed was personal, ugly and intended to demean. Diane is our generous hostess on her blog. A disrespectful guest was shown the door, as he should have been.
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“agree with action taken”. While I strongly object to those economic researchers, who tailor and distort information, at the bidding of the plutocrats, they tend not to add personal attacks to their hogwash.
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TE did a bit of research on my behalf last July and recommended something I could use in my economics class.
Of course, he didn’t ever attack me personally…..and I, too, am a visitor on this blog. But I appreciated the fact that he did some actual work on my behalf.
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Sometimes, I even agreed with TE.
Ellen T Klock
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For many months now Lloyd Lofthouse’s comments here have carried a lot of weight with me. So, I was drawn to reread what he wrote about TE again this morning. I know….probably most people will have already moved on to the latest blog posting…..and a turkey dinner. But it’s early and everyone here is still sleeping.
After reading this “thread” (is that what it’s called?) repeatedly last night I looked up the word “troll”. I also looked up the word “gadfly”. It was sort of interesting to compare the two words. Lloyd used the idea of a “devil’s advocate”.
Long before the internet, I worked full time as a reporter. I covered town board meetings for a small newspaper. Some towns had guys like TE…”gadflies” who would show up at meeting after meeting armed with a barrage of questions, gumming up the already glacially moving gears of local government. My God, I first thought…it’s after 11 p.m. and I’m way out in Callicoon….when the hell am I going to get OUT of here? (When I first moved to the country from NYC the darkness and isolation of Upstate New York seemed almost akin to the dark side of Pluto. Now it’s just my backyard. LOL)
The funny thing is, once in a while, one of these gadflies would get it right. I mean their research would catch the government with its proverbial pants down. We had a guy named Noel van Swol. Noel was a royal pain in the ass to any elected official who wanted to raise his taxes. Ironically, he was also a public school teacher! Noel was smart, shrewd and could be mean, too. Really mean. I kept my eyes on him whenever we passed, like you would a snarling dog. But Noel was right more than once. He caught a superintendent who had phony credentials and proved the NYS Education Department wrong on many occasions. Just before his unexpected death in an accident, Noel tangled repeatedly with the actor Mark Ruffalo, who has a house in the area. Noel fought tooth and nail for “fracking”. taking on anyone and everyone -even “the Hulk”. Ruffalo, to his credit, had some very kind words to say about Noel when contacted about the accident.
I miss seeing all these people face to face. Something is truly lost. I think I’d probably have a very different relationship with TE if he and I were both sitting at a town board meeting late at night as the snow began to pile up outside.
Lloyd describes this site as a “public forum” which is true. But,of course, it is not free and open to the public in the same way a government meeting is.
As I spend more and more time on the internet, I have to wonder just how much of this “place”, the internet, the computer sitting in front of me here in my living room, is truly a public space? And, if it is, what is the nature of the public discourse in that “space”? Of course, we now know that the NSA is recording our every keystroke we make these days in this place. (That sure never happened at the town of Fremont meetings -which, by the way, were located conveniently right next door to a bar called “Arnie’s Scrounge Lounge” -now torn down.
So, on this Thanksgiving, let me give a shout out to all the old time “gadflies” I encountered in my past….. Noel, Bud and Muriel… along with a long list of those students who sat in the back of my classroom over the years and never let me get away with anything. (Yes, in one of those PUBLIC schools that was open to everyone.)
Boy, it all seems like a very long time ago now.
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John,
What a great Post.
The problem with the Buffalo Public Schools is that we have too many Noels – either as a parent, a teacher, or a school board member – at a board meeting, on a blog, at a union meeting, and/or in the Buffalo News. It does keep life interesting, though sometimes I feel that boring can be good.
Ellen T Klock
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KrazyTA is exactly right. TE had no problem with the horrendous deaths of thousands of exploited foreigners working in outsourced jobs for slave wages and subjected to deplorable working conditions.
TE lacks empathy for virtually all people except Asian farmers, who he sees as having it worse than anyone else because they do hard labor for pennies. With that as his criteria for human suffering, TE is unable to comprehend the issues around the inequitable distribution of wealth, the realities of a diminishing middle class and poverty in America. He thinks that even his own foster child does not warrant advocacy for livable wages, even though his son is trying to support his own children in a minimum wage job.
TE has demonstrated that he is insensitive to the broad spectrum upon which the human condition lies. His thinking is warped and entrenched, and I really think he should seek professional help. I am personally very glad to see such an amoral person banned from this blog, and I will certainly never miss his constant efforts to drag other people down to his morally bankrupt perspective.
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Thankfully, someone took a picture and saved his Ted’s Linkedin page before Ted cowardly erased it: (like when you turn the lights on in your basement… the rat runs and hides)
Now if only the major news outlets would use info like this and cover the story
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I am familiar with Church Women United. That is a volunteer, multi-denominational religious organization run by women which provides programs and raises money to support good works throughout the world. It is a local organization which feeds into a National Organization housed in NYC (This group is also an International Organization). Their major fundraising event is the Least Coin, where women save up their pennies, nickels, and dimes on a daily basis and send it in once a year (I do this, too). Their other well known event is the World Day of Prayer held the first Friday in March, where various churches throughout the world hold the same worship service developed by rotating countries. This year’s theme is the Bahamas. I also am involved with this.
The Rochester unit might have done an outreach program involving the courts, but this was not a legitimate paid job within this organization. Kudos to Ted for assisting this worthwhile group, but a naughty, naughty for listing this on his resume as anything other than volunteer work.
Ellen T Klock
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This is very good news, really, although the fight is not over. I am so thankful to Diane and other bloggers who keep shining the light into the dark corners of the charter industry, as well as to the D&C reporter who jumped on the story.
Perhaps continued pressure on the NYSED will lead it to rescind, or at least delay, this charter. The RCSD stands to lose $1.2 million in the first year alone of this scam. From the D&C article, this hopeful quote from Regent Andrew Brown, “If it were to turn out that we were deliberately provided misleading information by an applicant, that would of course call for further review of the issuance of the charter.”
The charter school approval process at the NYSED and SUNY is not very *rigorous*, obviously, and agains all logic, the process takes only a few months. I know for a fact that it takes 1-2 YEARS for established, accredited universities, both public and private, to get state approval for new programs.
And word to any GWCS board members reading here: Run! Run from this debacle!
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I know they’ll still be opening… and look what they have in store for their future students and the Rochester community!
When Greater Works CC does open, most of the teachers that you’d see as a traditional high school won’t be there (SEE BELOW).
No, they will be replaced by computers, while those few teachers remaining won’t have to “waste hours of time” creating those antiquated “lesson plans.”
It’s genius!!! Pure genius!!!
With his “freshly-minted Ph.D”, Ted will be—er… was formerly going to be until he resigned—putting all his skills to use, talents so lacking in older members of “academia”… such as… “logic.”
From this Greater Works Charter school promotion puff piece: (what follows is real, NOT a parody)
“http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/”
———————————–
LESLIE BROWN:
“The (Greater Works) school will be largely computer-based, which will free the teachers up for one-on-one tutorials where needed. Hmm, no time wasted literally writing HOURS worth of lesson plans, like 34, or so a week…. I’m just sayin’.
“For some reason, libs are not too ‘keen’ on charter schools. One can ‘choose’ whether to grant life to a kid that would potentially attend the school, but not allow said kid, or parent a choice in selecting the school.
“Got it?
“Ted Morris is a freshly-minted Ph.D., and he has that oh-so-rare attribute largely lacking in academia; ummmm, LOGIC! He will be opening this charter school in Rochester, New York, in 2015.
“ ‘I remember being in school and feeling I was a bit more advanced and (not having enough options),’ Morris said. ‘I wanted to grow up and open a school that’s predicated on each student’s needs and interests. … I did it sooner than I expected.’
“Instead of funneling all of the students towards college, the school will also encourage the military or other career choices. F.Y.I. our ‘trade’ industries are really lacking trained workers which is why former Texas gubernatorial candidate Tom Pauken brought attention to that matter.
“It will be called Greater Works Charter School, accepting about 100 ninth-graders in its first year and eventually expanding to about 400 students in grades 9-12.”
Read more at http://unhyphenatedamerica.org/2014/11/25/greater-works-than-libs-by-age-22/#hbz1V3RMIcDJbQjC.99
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Gosh, if only I had high school-aged kids… I’d be signing them up for Greater Works so fast…
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If anyone’s interested, here is the full application–http://p1232.nysed.gov/psc/documents/GreaterFAR.pdf
Apart from the fact that the lead applicant fraudulently misrepresented his work history, it is a noticeably weak proposal overall. The quality and composition of a charter school’s board is critically important, and this group is collectively lacking in leadership experience and connections to the legal and business communities (boo, hiss, I know).
The lead applicant made it perfectly clear that he was not going to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the school, but I think the Regents should use this as an opportunity to revoke the charter before a single application is taken or a single penny is disbursed. While I don’t think this episode represents a systemic weakness in the authorization process, the Regents would do well to realize that nothing is preventing them from awarding one or two or even zero charters in a particular application cycle. The threat of closure/non-renewal ought to be a last resort.
Out of the 12,386 children in grades 3-8 in Rochester City Public schools last year, only 84 scored at the highest level of the state ELA exam, including not a single child in all of Grades 3 or 7. A mere 581, or 5%, scored “proficient.” As dismal as that is, the Regents should resist the temptation to lower the bar for a charter looking to open in the district.
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I’m sure the suburban schools surrounding the city of Rochester (a poor, urban, largely minority school,district) did much better on these assessments.
Rochester is one of the Big Five which, like Buffalo, has struggled over the years due to the flight of middle class families to the surrounding suburbs.
This is another example that one size does not fit all. The dynamics of each school determines the results. And we are looking at the wrong benchmarks to evaluate success or failure.
Ellen T Klock
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Yes, the surrounding districts of the Rochester suburbs and even the outlying rural districts typically do very well on the state assessments. Also, one of the top-rated districts in the entire country is Pittsford, literally minutes from downtown Rochester.
It’s also true that the RCSD, despite budget and leadership problems, nevertheless has some excellent magnet schools and the alternative Schools Without Walls, none of which were challenging enough, apparently, for “Dr.” Morris.
Another fun RCSD fact: any graduate of the district who is accepted at Rochester Institute of Technology can attend tuition-free. Sadly, “Dr.” Morris could have taken advantage of that offer to earn a real degree and real respectability within the Rochester community.
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Sharon – There is aways more to any story. Of course Rochester has some excellent programs. I believe the same can be said for all the urban districts in NYS, including NYC. I know that Buffalo has one of the top schools in the country (City Honors) as well as some other outstanding high schools, yet we only hear about the so-called failing schools. Better to examine what issues each school faces and fix the specifics within that building than to close it down and replace it with a charter school (I am referring to a handful of “underperforming” schools in Buffalo which Cuomo has targeted).
Ellen T Klock
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Ellen, exactly. But there’s no money to be made in success, so better to keep the failure narrative alive whether true or not for every school in a district.
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Not sure what happened to that link, apologies. Try this one instead:
Click to access GreaterFAR.pdf
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C’mon guys. Cut the Regents some slack. They carry the heavy burden of educational policy-making decisions. The Ted Morris charter school thing just fell between the cracks. Must have been while they were deliberating over Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King’s meandering roll-out of the Common Core. Or, perhaps, when they were suddenly asked to vote in favor of mandated field testing.
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It’s obvious they don’t care who runs or opens corporate Charter schools or what the quality of those schools will The primary goal of the fake reformers is not a quality education for children. The primary goal is to close public schools and turn the power of education over to the private sector so the people have no say in education or what their children are taught and programmed to think.
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I think I’ve seen this movie. …
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RIG’Я’US
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***VIDEO OF TED MORRIS, JR,***
Here’s a news story with a handsome, telegenic male reporter who forget to check if Morris had actual credentials… and Morris arguing that his lack of experience actually gives him an advantage over seasoned education professionals.
http://13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/local-man-launching-new-charter-school-17949.shtml
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