Peter Greene reports on an audit in Ohio about phantom students in charter schools. Charters are paid by headcount, and some charters have seen the advantage of inflating their enrollment, although it is illegal.
He writes:
On October 1, the auditors walked into The Academy for Urban Scholars Youngstown with a stated enrollment of ninety-five. Actual students that the auditors found in the building?
Zero.
The explanation wasn’t exactly encouraging. Students had been sent home at 12:30 because they had spent the morning prepping for the state exam. So it’s not that the Academy was lying about students in school– they just weren’t actually teaching any.
A Youngstown tv station reported that the auditors made a follow-up visit in November. On that occasion, they found thirty-seven students in attendance.
Capital High School in Columbus claims 298 students. Auditors found 142 in the building.
Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition writes that charters have been inflating enrollments for years, without accountability or consequences, because the charter operators make campaign contributions.
He writes:
State Auditor: Charter school head count much less than students reported for payment
Why are charter school operators and charter school sponsors not being prosecuted for collecting money on phantom students? A recent State Auditor’s report-Report on Community School Students Attendance Counts-documents that many charter schools are collecting funds for students they are not serving. These charter operators and their sponsors should be charged with dereliction of duty and fraud.
These spurious maneuvers have been ongoing. Nearly ten years ago, the Scripps Howard News Service conducted a head count in several Ohio charter schools. The Scripps report-Ghost Schools— revealed that absentee rates in charter schools were as high as 64 percent. The investigators that did the Scripps Howard News Service study sent the report to Ohio officials, including the Attorney General. They thought someone would be sent to prison for fraud, but state officials seemed to ignore the report.
The State Auditor found current student attendance compared to the number of students reported in July 2014 as low as zero percent. Other egregious rates of attendance found by the Auditor were 17%, 18%, 23%, 25%, 48% and 66%. This theft from taxpayers must stop.
The worst offenders in this scandal are among the largest political contributors in Ohio. Don’t expect any remedy to this corruption in charterland unless a grassroots outrage emerges.
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Picky, picky, picky. The students weren’t missing. They were just ghosts being driven around in Los Angeles Police Department ghost cars.
¿?
LATIMES, editorial, 10-14-2014, “Busting LAPD’s ‘Ghost Car’ Falsifications.”
[start editorial]
An Inspector General’s report released Friday confirmed what many Los Angeles Police Department insiders have been complaining about for months: Officers have routinely falsified records to make it appear that they were patrolling the streets, when in fact they were doing paperwork, working desk jobs or handling other duties at stations.
The investigation found false reports of patrols — so-called “ghost cars” — in at least five of the department’s 21 geographic areas. The falsifications were carried out over multiple shifts by officers of various ranks, but the sole purpose was to make it appear that station commanders were meeting staffing levels set by a computer program and rigidly watched by department brass. As Alex Bustamante, the LAPD’s inspector general, wrote, commanding officers are responsible for 100% compliance with daily patrol staffing levels, and when they fail (or are unable) to meet that goal, they must answer to top leaders of the department. Union officials said captains are under “intense pressure” to hit their patrol numbers, and that urgency trickles down to lower-level supervisors who order officers to fill out logs showing they are on patrol when they are not.
The Inspector General’s revelation is troubling for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s dishonest. False data lead city leaders and the public to believe the streets are more heavily patrolled than they really are. That undermines our sense of how safe we are, and also influences policy decisions on, for example, whether the city should hire more civilians for administrative tasks or keep hiring officers. And if supervisors can justify lying about staffing levels in order to keep the bosses happy, what other transgressions or omissions will they allow?
Most worrisome is that this is the second report in recent months to conclude that the LAPD has been relying on bad data and inaccurate reporting. A Times investigation in August found that the department understated violent crime in the city by misclassifying nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses during a one-year period. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck chalked that up to human error, although department insiders said deliberate miscoding had become common as captains and other supervisors were — again — under intense pressure to meet crime-reduction targets set by the brass.
Together, these investigations suggest that Chief Beck and his administration are so focused on maintaining good metrics that they’re ignoring what’s happening on the ground. Or worse, that they’ve created a culture in which officers and supervisors feel they have to cook the books to succeed. Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Police Commission must hold the LAPD responsible for these specific lapses, but they also must determine whether there are deeper problems within the department.
[end editorial]
Link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-lapd-ghost-cars-20141014-story.html
Wow…
Next thing you know charter schools will start imitating worst “data-driven’ decision making” practices too, like redefining 30% or 40% or 50% attrition rates from 9th to 12th grade as 100% graduation rates. And you might even get the LATIMES itself reporting that their favorite “metric shape-shifter” his own bad self, former LAUSD Supt. John Deasy, reported a 12% graduation rate when it was only 2% because he got rid of all those ‘rate suppressors’ he is supposedly so passionate about.
But let me give the final word to someone who knows how to squish and massage and creatively disrupt numbers, a miracle worker who took “her” students from the 13th to the 90th percentile.
Could it be that the leading edge of the “education reform” movement customarily (to borrow the words from the above editorial)—
“are so focused on maintaining good metrics that they’re ignoring what’s happening on the ground. Or worse, that they’ve created a culture in which … they have to cook the books to succeed”?
Could that be true?
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
And she means that in the most Johnsonally sort of ways, rheeally…
But for the rest of us, the damage to communities and futures and any sense of moral comportment and decency, is tremendous. Really…
😎
The drive for data leads to the creation of fake data. The more emphasis placed on living by numbers the more likely people will fabricate results, especially when there are punitive outcomes from the data.
Interesting, Ohio ghost students being driven around in LAPD ghost cars. They must be doing this Colorado or New Mexico. This must be what is called the “Ghost to Ghost Transfer.”
The EdWeek version of this report says that the State of Ohio Department of Education thinks that an attendance rate of 50% is OK for charter operaters. In other words the State of Ohio Department of Education is allowing this corruption.
They’ve been terrible. Not that it matters. They have very little statutory authority over charter schools in Ohio. They simply don’t have the law they would need to regulate even if they wanted to, which they don’t.
Ohio has almost completely relinquished authority over these schools to sponsors and management companies. They’ve made the state actors all but irrelevant.
I think “relinquishment” is part of the appeal of privatized schools for politicians. Running public schools is a pain in the neck- so many different constituencies, so many competing goals, so much political peril- this way they simply take “public schools” off their list. They dole out funding and send parents out to “choose” which contractor suits their fancy, and they’re done- off the hook.
Meanwhile, while the Ohio Department of Education can’t be bothered to regulate charter schools or support the 90% of Ohio kids who attend existing public schools, they find plenty of time to promote private schools down there in Columbus:
http://education.ohio.gov/Media/Media-Releases/Applications-Now-Being-Accepted-for-Private-School#.VM5gvi7xeWi
Do they allow 50% for public schools?
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” [Ionesco]
TAGO!
😎
The Dayton Daily News wrote that Ohio public schools must report attendance daily and, the charters, once a month. May have been a misunderstanding by the reporter?
Diane, take a look at the SC Supreme Court case decided last week – personnel from charter schools are state actors in breach of contract case brought by teacher.
Click to access 27490.pdf
Worried from SC,
The link for the decision didn’t work.
Interesting that the judge decided that charters are “state actors.” They typically insist they are private actors, not state actors, which allows them to ignore state law governing public schools.
It worked for me Diane.
I think this draws another boundary line at least at the state level of where a Charter is public and where they’re private.
I like the phrasing that by fulfilling the state’s obligation to provide an education they are indeed state actors even if they don’t have every tool available to government agencies.
Of course it cuts both ways and protects them in ways it shouldn’t – but at least in this regard, while it only covers the circumstances in this case of when attorneys’ fees should be covered, it will be interesting to see what happens if this label gets applied elsewhere.
For instance, if they are indeed a state actor, and they have malfeasance, is the state culpable for the crimes of a private operator working under a state contract? What will legislators do if they find themselves facing a slew of lawsuits and are forced to more tightly regulate? What will charters become then?
The head count issue is important, because if they’re over-counting students it doesn’t just harm that charter or those students- it harms the “sending” public school district.
However, I read the report and I was surprised by how many charters are relying on a lot of “online learning”. It isn’t just the “drop out recovery” schools either- drop-out recovery schools in Ohio are privatized for-profit schools for the most vulnerable students- it’s ordinary charters.
How much online learning is going on and is it being used as a cost-cutting measure? Does anyone know? That’s the question I’d ask.
I hope all this screen time doesn’t migrate to public schools as an “innovation”. Thanks but no thanks. I think it’s substandard, cut-rate instruction that is being foisted off on low and middle income schools.
I wish I could remember who it was, but many years ago some futurist or other said that it was likely that schools for the poor would eventually be full of computers but very few teachers; schools for the wealthy would continue to be staffed with humans…
Bob P,
You read that line, probably, in “Death and Life of the Great American School System,” where I quoted an article that appeared in Forbes in 1984 or 1985.
You may have read the original article, or my quote of it.
Also, you-all may recognize this sponsor. Buckeye Community Hope. It’s the same outfit that just renewed the Gulen Ohio charters after the FBI raid:
“The Academy for Urban Schools in Youngstown, sponsored by the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, had zero attendance when members of Mr. Yost’s staff walked into the school’s doors on of Oct. 1. It told the state in July that it would serve 95.”
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2015/01/22/Auditors-find-Ohio-charter-school-enrollment-discrepancies-in-7-of-30-schools-visited.html#sF5ob171qoKTpMW5.99
“Inflating the head(count)”
Inflating heads?
Well, that’s “reform”
Inflating beds
With pillow form
They’re not going to be able to regulate hundreds of charter schools from the state level. It doesn’t work in Ohio and it won’t work in New York or all the other states that are following Ohio down this path.
That’s why public schools were and are regulated locally. It makes sense. There are thousands of them all over the state. The regulator has to be close to the entity regulated.
Turning “re-inventing school governance!” over to a pack of charter lobbyists probably wasn’t a good idea.
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
Very interesting! Do we have any “missing” students in Delaware?
“Where’s Waldo”
Waldo’s not in the charter
I’m certain ‘cuz I looked
In classroom and much farther
The book was simply cooked
I also can’t help but notice how Ohio lawmakers are willing to extend any amount of time and effort on behalf of the “charter school sector” but they have absolutely nothing to offer the public schools that educate 90% of kids in this state other than tests and punishments related to tests.
Once again, the entire legislative session will be devoted to “schools of choice”. Our public schools are either completely ignored or actively denigrated by the people we’re paying in Columbus. When do 90% of schools get an advocate?
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/28/republican-charter-school-law.html
Citing the need for accountability, students are measured by the achievement of imposed goals. Non-performance, within a specified time frame, results in failure. Ohio Sen. Peggy Lehman is responsible for charter school legislation.
Reflecting Columbus hypocrisy, Sen. Lehman says about her charter school legislation, “We are not going to rush this. (ed. note- more than10 years is insufficient). This is too important to set a deadline by a certain date. We’re going to do it right and do it well.” It’s her prerogative to set the goals/timeline and, she has control of all of the variables. Instead of her suffering the consequences of her failure to perform, it is off-loaded to taxpayers and children. The GOP will keep taking money from charter school operators, with no end in sight, until the public makes them stop.
Ohio ed reformers secure huge funding boost for charter schools, in return for minor (and unenforceable) rule changes:
“Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal Monday would offer charter schools in Ohio two new potential funding sources — a $25 million facilities fund and the ability to seek local tax levies from voters — while putting a greater focus on charter school sponsors, or authorizers, as a way to improve school quality.’
This is a huge win for the charter lobby.
The wanted local funding and they got it, in return for some toothless “suggestions” and “incentives” on regulation.
Nothing for the unfashionable public sector schools that serve 90% of Ohio school kids , as usual. Our schools are not even on the legislative agenda, nor has the governor mentioned them, other to promise to privatize Youngstown schools.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/gov_kasich_wants_to_add_more_teeth_to_charter_school_oversight_rules_and_let_charters_seek_local_tax_levies.html#incart_river
A couple of public school teachers promoting Common Core from the Ohio Educator Leader Cadre, are part of Educators for High Standards, which is supported by Gates- funded Educators for Excellence (or, as some may call them, Educators for Oligarchs),
Gates-funded Teach+Plus and corporate-funded Teachers for America.
IMO, these pustules closely resemble the Kochtopus model.
Did everyone forget the CPS scandal? This “scandal” is not limited to Charters as much as you would like to convince yourself otherwise.