The founder of the Grand Traverse Academy in Michigan is being tried in federal court for misappropriating $3.5 million of the school’s funds.
His attorney explained that it was a loan to pay off his taxes.
Attorney testifies Steven Ingersoll was aware in May 2013 of federal tax investigation when he told the Grand Traverse Academy board he could not pay his $3.5 million dollar Academy debt…and his taxes!
Meg Hackett, a Grand Rapids attorney representing the Grand Traverse Academy board, testified today in Steven Ingersoll’s federal fraud trial that during a May 20, 2013 Academy board meeting, Ingersoll asked the board to characterize his $3.5 million dollar indebtedness to the charter school as a “loan”.
For years, the Grand Traverse Academy had carried Ingersoll’s growing debt on its books, characterizing it variously as either a receivable, a related party receivable or a prepaid expense.
Is this sort of like a public school, where the principal borrows $3.5 million from the school?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We need to add this to the cost of charter schools. Not only are they mostly inefficient and ineffective, rob public schools and squander public funds, they sometimes commit fraud and rob us. Then, we get to waste more public money on a trial as well as free “hotel” services for these thieves in a prison that spends a lot more on each prisoner than we do on public school students.
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Liar, liar, house on fire!
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That’s so he can collect the insurance.
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The charter sector is one of the most corrupt market sectors in America today, especially when you consider it’s relatively small share of the “market” vs. the huge number of stories from all parts of the country about financial mismanagement, nepotism, and fraud. On top of that, we haven’t even been able to look at all charters due to the serious lack of accountability they demand and enjoy. Considering how long this has been going on, the most rational assumption would be that to reformers, this is a feature, not a bug.
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Welcome to the Grand Travesty Trial! You are cordially invited to watch Ingersoll’s and his tounge-in-cheek attorney defend his money laundry scheme to cover his charcoal pit that blew off conflagration on the entire school community.
Sincerely,
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Nice!
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“Explaining it was not a forensic audit, Hackett said the school’s authorizer, Lake Superior State University did not audit the Academy as part of its oversight. In addition, Hackett said while both Lake Superior State University and the Michigan Department of Eduction both “look at” the audit, neither are allowed access to Smart Schools Management’s financials. In addition, she added that the federal Department of Education would only be able to audit any federal funds paid to the charter school.”
They can’t audit the management company because it’s private and Michigan lawmakers turned over complete control of public funds to a private entity, but maybe they can audit the authorizer..
What does Lake Superior State University do to earn the cut of state K-12 funding they’re taking?
They’re not providing oversight. What is it they do, exactly?
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I gotta get me one of these charter schools for my very own. It sounds like a license to steal. Free money, no oversight, who cares if I ultimately fail, just bleed the cow dry the first year and retire. This is better than Wall Street.
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Lake Superior State University gets 3 percent of the Grand Traverse Academy’s take, which averages upwards of $250,000 a year. As the writer of the blog “Glistening, Quivering Underbelly”, I’d take that job on myself!
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These are the people drafting Ohio’s “charter reform”:
“Charter school advocates speaking at the University of Colorado over the weekend took aim at several underperforming charters school operators in Ohio.
They mentioned White Hat Management and the online conglomerate Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow or ECOT.
ECOT recently hired the lobby firm of William Batchelder, the former Speaker of the House.”
Can we get some ethics laws in government? This is ridiculous. Obviously these people aren’t self-policing. It’s an ethical collapse, both on the personal level and on the systemic level.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2015/03/03/29089/#more-29089
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“Ethics” seems not to enter into the equation. With so much money in politics, conflict of interest is just called “networking.” It’s “Quid pro quo” until you get your way through lobbying or buying influence.
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The greed is disgusting. He has to start a lobbying firm the minute he leaves government? He couldn’t find anything else to do?
Pass some laws. Obviously these people need constant supervision and extensive regulation.
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This stuff happens with public school employees all the time as well, but yes, it is more regulated. Charter school teachers and students are the ones who are suffering! Teachers and students do not get the supplies, books, etc. that they need, and the management company employees live high on the hog. Very sad!
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Ingersoll’s for-profit charter schools use his Integrated Visual Learning as the basis for their curriculum. They buy their supplies from Ingersoll because he’s the owner of IVL. He also screens the kids’ vision to determine if the parents need to pay for vision therapy from him. Ingersoll claims he has cured 90% of students with ADHD who are taught his method of learning. Ingersoll’s schools all receive Title I funding as well. At Bay City Academy, the Title I teacher also happens to be the IVL specialist for that school. It truly is a slippery rabbit hole of educational horrors.
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