Public radio station KPCC in Los Angeles obtained a copy of the audit of the charter school run by Ref Rodriguez, who is running for the city’s school board on May 19 against incumbent Bennett Kayser.
The story was written by Annie Gilbertson, the same reporter who broke the Deasy-iPad scandal.
“A Los Angeles Unified school board member sought to withhold an inspector general audit finding Partnership to Uplift Communities’ Lakeview Charter Academy was insolvent for nine years.”
An unnamed member of the school board had tried to suppress the audit until after the election.
The audit shows that the charter was insolvent for nine years. Also it “noted numerous fiscal “deficiencies,” including poorly documented expenditures, failure to meet minimum reserves and questionable oversight by the parent organization.”
Rodriguez is co-founder and treasurer of the charter organization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So we have a rheephormster that has an even lengthier track record of managerial and fiscal incompetence and dishonesty?
I am sure that John Deasy feels humbled by the resumé of a peer [shills & trolls—word play. Get it?] in the education status quo.
Only thing is, we don’t need a John Deasy on steroids on the LAUSD BOE.
How about someone who has at least the promise of being able to do the right thing right?
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
I knew she would say that…
😎
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Vote for Bennett Kayser !!!!
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The major question I have is how many more of the charters in this network are being run in the same manner? To casually ignore federal guidelines such as child abuse protocols and accounting procedures, to fail to account for over 100,000 in public funds is alarming to me as a taxpayer in LAUSD. Then to have a person, financially and personally involved in this noncompliance running for a seat on the school board, the entity responsible for oversight over these charters. It stinks to high heaven. LAUSD, how low can you go?
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YES,,,Vote for Bennett Kayser.
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It was reported that the board member trying to keep this audit under wraps was Monica Garcia, a charter advocate and main supporter of John Deasy. Just by elimination, it had to be her. But, her actions just point out how terrified she was that the “truth” would come out just before the election. With Rodriguez and incumbent Galatzan both receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the CA Charter School Association PAC, this audit could have a negative affect on both. Incumbent Bennett Kayser has been a staunch supporter of public education and has voted against charters for exactly the reason demonstrated by this audit. Charters have poor to no oversight and get away with massive lack of fiscally responsible practices for years and years. As we can see here, only an audit by the Inspector General uncovered what should have been addressed from the first year that this school was open.
Also, the PUC schools are run by a management organization called PUC National. Reporters need to delve into this aspect as many other charter chains have been found to use these management companies to enrich CEOs of charters by providing “services” back to the charter and allow the CEO’s to be paid by both.
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Educator…you will remember that when Deasy was up for contract renewal in 2013, other dirty tricks emerged from Monica Garcia’s office at Beaudry.
For one, the letter of support for Deasy that had two unknown signers, ostensibly showing public admiration of him, distributed to most LA residents by email….but which was sent from her office on Beaudry.
And then, the fully orchestrated charade day with paid shills bussed in for a media frenzy on Oct. 29, 2013 at Beaudry. Young people, the ‘yellow flower’ group, sitting all around me in the BoE meeting room were buzzing about the fun they were having at Garcia’s invitation, and they cheered when she entered the room.
The public speakers for the day were strictly limited to the ‘yellow flowered’ claque she had brought into the Board Room to laud Deasy. She sat on the dias, with a big Cheshire cat smile as they spoke first in Spanish, then with interpreters….all talking about Deasy as the Second Coming. Of course, this whole street theater performance was planned and paid for by the billionaires who profit from the privatizing of our public schools.
Garcia’s machinations seem endless. Where is her conscience?
And she was/is always joined by her alter ego, Tamar Galatzan, in these stances. Galatzan was the one who tried to destroy Vladovic with long settledcharges, and these two voted with/for Deasy at every juncture.
The election on May 19 finally affords the LA community an opportunity to make positive change on the LAUSD BoE by voting for Bennett Kayser and for Scott Schmerelson.
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My new motto: At no point does shame kick in.
anyone who wants to follow the fold flow of corruption in LAUSD needs to go to Perdaily, and read the chronicle of LA’s demise.
he’s just one post
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
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In addition, I find it discriminatory for LAUSD to enforce child abuse protocols in its public schools to the extent of concocting false charges against hundreds of veteran teachers and then totally ignore enforcement of any type of child abuse protocol in its charters. Would you call this disparate treatment? If charters are public entities, shouldn’t they be held to the same compliance as public schools?
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Let the sun shine in…
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Cross post at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-audit-finds-school-b-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-School-Failure_Charter-Schools_Corruption_FAILURE-150430-457.html#comment543288
Submitted on Thursday, Apr 30, 2015 at 11:05:38 AM
with this comment WHICH HAS EMBEDDED LINKS TO THIS SITE, which do not reproduce here.
The corruption that attends charter schools is astonishing, but the media pushes the story that our public schools are failing.
The National Education Policy Center regularly reviews research findings, in effect, acting as an independent peer review board. In this case, its reviewer challenges the latest CREDO report on urban charters: Is It Time to Stop the CREDO-Worship?
New review explains CREDO charter school research flaws, raises concerns about misunderstandings of effect sizes.Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Andrew Maul, (805) 893-7770, amaul@education.ucsb.edu
URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/mbse6m7
Or go to the Ravitch Blog, and put charter school corruption in the search field
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=corruption+charter+school
Diane Ravitch says: “To think about charter schools in America today, you have to separate the rhetoric from the reality. It helps to have a guide, someone who sees the man behind the curtain. Blowing smoke in the eyes of the media and the public. The rhetoric tells us that charter schools will save poor minority kids from failing schools. The reality is that charter schools produce no better results and make their sponsors rich with taxpayer dollars. ”
Look at North Carolina. “There, the red red legislature passed charter legislation. Not all charter teachers need certification. Some people with good friends are getting very rich, like Baker Mitchell, who is on the board of the libertarian John Locke Society, which was created by zillionaire Art Pope, who happens to be state budget director. Mitchell collects rent on charters, which provide him with a few millions a year. Nice. He also sits on the state advisory board on charters.”
AND LOOK BELOW AT JUST A FEW OF THE STATES:
Feds Investigating $20 Million No-Bid Contract in Chicago!
Catalyst reports that a federal investigation is underway regarding a $20 million no-bid contract to an organization that trains principals. Investigators are probing whether Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett had a conflict of interest. Principals have complained about the relevance and quality of the training. Ohio: Mercedes Schneider did her usual digging, and she found the usual suspects, funded by the usual foundations; and don’t miss this one– jail for a charter school leader. and in Florida: Kathleen Oropeza leads a statewide parent group in Florida called “Fund Education Now,” which advocates on behalf of public education. She sends the following report of the latest news from the state legislature, which is very charter-friendly. The head of the house education appropriations committee is related to the family that owns the Academica charter chain, one of the wealthiest charter chains in the state. (It is under federal investigation for conflicts of interest.) According to the Miami Herald, Academica has cleverly accumulated a real estate empire worth more than $115 million through its charter acquisitions. To really understand this charter miracle story, read Jersey Jazzman’s analysis. and this: Florida: Legislature Sweetens the Charters’ Revenue Flow
Submitted on Thursday, Apr 30, 2015 at 11:05:38 AM
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The Watergate scandal involved crimes committed and crimes concealed. That Monica Garcia feels the need to (at least temporarily) conceal the audit, points to possible complicity,or hiding the truth.
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Here’s the audit: https://www.scribd.com/doc/263583262/CCSA-s-Ref-Rodriguez-s-PUC-Lakeview-Charter-Academy-Audit
Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez and California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) want to bring this brand of malfeasance and incompetence to all Los Angeles schools. Eli Broad’s “business principles” in action. PUC Lakeview Charter Academy Audit. Under Rodriguez’s “leadership” they ran a school that: 1) FAILED to document training, if any, for the REQUIRED Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting; 2) Did not document School Advisory Councils; 3) Failed to maintain “Critical Documentation” regarding employment procedures REQUIRED by the California Education Code and their Charter Agreement; 4) “Numerous fiscal oversight deficiencies were noted.” Many other violations and irregularities are in the report that concludes that Ref Rodriguez’s “Lakeview Charter Academy was not in compliance with some of the terms and conditions of its charter agreement.” Later the audit explains that Rodriguez’s school’s negligent oversight “have the the effect of creating an environment where the potential for errors, improprieties, or other undesirable outcomes occurring is increased.” Voters need to protect students from Rodriguez and the rest of the profit-minded charter cabal!
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Yesterday’s LA Times reported that the board member who requested the public be denied access to this audit report was Monica Garcia, who calls her eblasts “The Cradle of Reform”.
“Two well-placed district sources said that the release of the audit was delayed at the request of school board member Monica Garcia, a political ally of candidate Ref Rodriguez. Rodriguez works for the charter organization.” http://lat.ms/1PZfLQX
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Vote for Bennett Kayser, who has stood up for public schools for decades!
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Monica Garcia probably feels safe in her continuing shenanigans since she is termed out and so she has the rest of her last term to pull endless Rheeform stunts like this one . But following her many behaviors that are probably illegal, and are certainly immoral, perhaps we are at a moment where we should be calling for her to be recalled.
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In addition…I wonder how much of a role Monica Garcia plays in the new bribery scandal surrounding Refugio Rodriguez and the SouthWest (Latino) Voter Education and Registration project?
The $25,000 bribe offered to get inner city Spanish speakers to vote (of course, for the Spanish surnamed candidate), and possibly win a huge lottery windfall, is so similar to the Oct’ 29, 2013, pay day offered them to be part of the street charade, wherein she was a prime instigator.
She, like Rodriguez, has little respect for all the upstanding members of the Chicano/Latino community who would never get involved in this kind of immoral behavior.
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On the basis of NPE’s endorsement, have sent a donation to his campaign.
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I have too.
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I am providing the position of LASchoolReport a blog maintained by reporters. A few days ago they revealed their position (verbatim) as follows:
http://laschoolreport.com/why-we-are-closing-down-comments-on-our-site-for-now/
“Readers of LA School Report may notice that we are no longer providing an option for posting comments, following in the footsteps of other news outlets recently.
While our comment section sometimes served as a lively place for informed debate with differing opinions on education issues in Los Angeles, it has increasingly become a repository for diatribes, name-calling, politicking and personal attacks.
As a group of social scientists pointed out in a study called “The “Nasty Effect:” Online Incivility and Risk Perceptions of Emerging Technologies”:
“Much in the same way that watching uncivil politicians argue on television causes polarization among individuals, impolite and incensed blog comments can polarize online users based on value predispositions utilized as heuristics when processing the blog’s information.”
Reuters ended comments on news stories last fall, following Popular Science, which had grown weary of science skeptics. Others, like the Huffington Post now offer comments only through Facebook.
Here at LA School Report, we have asked our readers many times to tone it down. In many cases, it has not worked. While other sites have the capability of vetting comments sections, we have neither the staff nor the technology, and in those instances we have taken down uncivil comments, we are accused of being censors.
With apologies to our readers who have contributed to the healthy debate around education issues, we will be posting our stories without comments — at least for now.”
The “Nasty Effect:” Online Incivility and Risk Perceptions of Emerging Technologies†
Ashley A. Anderson, Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Michael A. Xenos and Peter Ladwig, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 19, Issue 3, pages 373–387, April 2014
Abstract:
Uncivil discourse is a growing concern in American rhetoric, and this trend has expanded beyond traditional media to online sources, such as audience comments. Using an experiment given to a sample representative of the U.S. population, we examine the effects online incivility on perceptions toward a particular issue—namely, an emerging technology, nanotechnology. We found that exposure to uncivil blog comments can polarize risk perceptions of nanotechnology along the lines of religiosity and issue support.”
I agree with LaSchoolReport. They have the same breaking news from KPPC Los Angeles today, but no one can comment because of previous uncivilized response from readers. It is a sad day indeed. Please take another look at the comments above to try to understand the point made by LASchoolReport.
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” Dost thou think, because thou art/
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”
Seriously, Raj?
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Civility invites quiescence and serves the unjust/unequal social status quo.
Get Loud, Get Ornery, Get in Authority’s Face!!
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Ooo SNAP!!! The “reporters” at LA School Report put us in our places. How dare we question our betters and think that we’re allowed to think and form opinions!! They even have a study that shows that we are uncivil!! Maybe the wealthy grande dame of privatization, Jaime Alter Lynton will take her marbles and go home and shut down the LA School Report. That will teach us.
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Yes, Michael…once again the ‘Raj’ shill for corporate leeches turns in nonsense to deflect from the serious issue of Monica Garcia and her many law breaking behaviors, most recently in favor of Rodriguez who is running a dishonest campaign for BoE. Thanks to Robert Skeels for publishing the Annual Report of Rodriguez’s PUC vast charter school business, showing financial manipulation and mismanagement of taxpayer money.
Raj, like the Lytons, wants all truth swept under the concrete at Beaudry. As with the sentiment, what the public does not know, cannot hurt us.
The Lytons inside emails recently published widely, show their disdain for the public and for teachers. Husband Lyton, the very rich senior executive at Sony, encourages his wealthy wife, the publisher of LASR, and they concur about WE the People, the great unwashed to them, who should not have any voice in the transfer of all American wealth upward…as with turning public education into private charter schools, paid for by the rest of us who are not Wall Street cronies.
They made open input an impossibility some time ago by convoluting any entry into their site for public comment.
How long will the public put up with all this deception without revolting? How long will the LA Times also refuse to print the truth of what goes on with LAUSD?
Raj…are you actually Gabe or another PRev employee who works to save your high salaried position of privatizing our public schools?
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And here is how Ref Rodriguez is helped to win the BoE election…by his Latino followers and United Way….if you can’t win fairly, you buy the election through bribery. I am so disgusted. I have been a member of this Latino Voter group for many decades and helped register voters in LA. Never did I think they would be bought…but with United Way, an Eli Broad toadie group, you have the money and power to do anything, no matter how immoral. Monica Garcia is toasting this announcement which just came to me. Great lesson for first time voters to sell their votes to the highest bidder.
Ellen
———————————————————————
From: Latino Vote 2015
To: elubic
Sent: Thu, Apr 30, 2015 8:13 pm
Subject: SVREP Statement on LA Youth Vote Registration Drive by United Way
SVREP Statement on LA Youth Vote
Registration Drive by United Way
“We are pleased that SVREP’s $25,000 Votería Voter Participation Drawing has created debate and attracted attention to the important upcoming May 19, 2015 LAUSD board election”.
“SVREP commends the United Way and their partners the LAUSD and the League of Women Voters for employing incentives (a drawing with valuable prizes for students that register and vote on May 19) similar to our Votería Voter Participation Drawing (a cash prize of $25,000 for 1 valid District 5 voter on May 19, 2015) as an innovative strategy to increase voter participation in LAUSD’s anemic elections.
“We will know after Election Day if our collective efforts to mobilize more voters increased participation. Either way we will have learned valuable lessons that can inform those that are passionate about reviving our dysfunctional democracy,” said SVREP President Antonio Gonzalez.
************
Note: SVREP, a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to increasing voter participation sponsors “Voteria” — a non-partisan effort to encourage greater voter participation that will offer a $25,000.00 cash prize to one randomly selected voter who participates by voting in the May 19, 2015 General Election for Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, District 5. How does a voter in LAUSD Board District 5 qualify? By voting — No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or to win this Voter Participation Drawing. See http://www.voteria.com for more information.
http://app.streamsend.com/c/23848417/36033/qn88Y4r/4vlc?redirect_to=http://www.layouthvote.org/
National Office*1426 El Paso Suite B* San Antonio, TX 78207 (210) 922-0225* Fax (210) 932-4055
California Office* 2914 N. Main St., 1st. Floor* Los Angeles, CA 90031 (323) 205-2190 Fax (323) 205-1419
Founded in 1974, SVREP is America’s largest and oldest non-partisan Latino civic/voter participation organization. A national 501 (C)(3) non-profit organization SVREP conducts non-partisan voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns. Since its inception SVREP has conducted over 2,200 civic/voter participation campaigns resulting in over 2,200,000 new voters. Along the way SVREP has trained over 100,000 volunteers in over fourteen states.
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“The School not Taken” (with apologies to Robert Frost)
Two schools diverged in a neighborhood,
And sorry I could not fund them both
And be one bureaucrat, long I stood
And put down public as much as I could
Until it bent from the blunder-growth;
Then took the charter, as much more fair,
And having no doubt the better claim,
Because it was classy and vaunted “career”;
(Though as for that, the grad rate there
Had ranked them really about the same)
And both that morning unequally lay
(For first, “No Child” had trodden black)
Oh, I closed the first for the charter way!
And knowing how pay leads on to pay,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be taking much of the blame
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two schools diverged in a hood, and shame—
I took the one with charter name,
And that has made all the difference.
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