Thanks to politico.com for highlighting this shameful story.
Politicians in the Florida legislature love to regulate public schools, demanding accountability. They live to launch charters and vouchers that are deregulated, to prove that deregulation is a very good thing, except for public schools.
But now we learn that the politicians have been busy deregulating for-profit colleges while sweeping in campaign contributions from these institutions and their sponsors.
“The rules are different for for-profit colleges. Despite fraud lawsuits and government investigations involving for-profit colleges all over the country, Florida’s Legislature continues to encourage the industry’s growth while reducing quality standards and oversight. Florida’s attorney general has been less aggressive than some counterparts in pursuing the schools when they skirt laws involving the hundreds of millions they receive in state and federal money.
In one city, Homestead, a school owner gained enormous influence with the local government, working through the mayor, whose wife the owner secretly hired as a $5,000-a-month consultant. The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office looked into the connection but decided it was no crime.”
The groups with the biggest checkbook tend to set the agenda, said one critic.
Is this helping American education? Of course not. Is it helping students? Nope.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article19191054.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
MONEY MONEY MONEY. I am so sick of people selling our children and our country for money. Can someone explain why rich people seem to always spend their money on evil? I really believe they should do some brain scans of the rich and famous. I think their brain chemistry changes once they reach certain level of income. I just don’t think they are capable of thinking like a good, normal person once their income becomes higher than their IQ.
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Follow the money
And you can bet
It flows in circles
Pocket to pocket
And down the toilet
BURMA SHAVE
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Miami Herald article posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Higher-Ed-Hustle-by-BY-MI-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Accountability_Legislators_Money_Politicians-150506-926.html#comment544029
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Many members of our state legislature here in the Sunshine State are also owner/operator/investor in charter school chains and they have no problem passing legislation that increases their profits exponentially. Evil under the sun, to borrow and Agatha Christie title.
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Here is the link to the charter schoolscandal story, also from the Miami Herald:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/cashing-in-on-kids/article1939199.html
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Is Florida competing to be the most corrupt state?
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No they have it in the bag! Florida started all the accountability BS.
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It would be nice to see a ranking of the FIVE most corrupt states when it comes to destroying public education and ripping off the tax payers and terrorizing parents, children, and teachers.
#1 Florida
#2
#3
#4
#5
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Des Moines Iowa is right on up there as far as corrupt cronies. Check out The website. RiceField.Weebly.com. And forFieldFriendsofRiceField@ Facebook.com. You will get family, friends, money funneling. Democrats playing footsies to get rid of all our public schools.Wonder why Obamas and Biden speak at Drake University whenever they are in Des Moines,Ia ? This story plays like a Dominic Dunne series or power, greed and faith from both parties strip mining Iowa all the way around.
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Lloyd Here are the rankings. 1. Florida 2. Florida 3. Florida 4. Florida 5. Florida 6. Any other State take your pick. And the winner is drumroll please………….. You guessed it Floriduh. You are correct though many of the States are modeling their reforms by adopting the Florida blueprint. In Miami a teacher makes about $2400 a month . A one bedroom apartment goes for at least $1100 and car insurance is the most expensive in the nation. It is impossible to make a decent living as a teacher in South Florida and that is the sad reality. It has always been like this and it will never change.
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Florida per pupil spending barely $7,000 per kid and the politicians boast about it labeling it a historically high figure. A teachers salary in Florida after 15 years of service is roughly $45,000 compared to $40,000 for a brand new teacher and that was when there were steps. Step schedules have all but been eliminated since they are never honored. I quit with 13 years of service and was on step 7. Flat out thievery in up front dollars as well as pension payouts upon retirement. All teachers hired within the last 5 years in Florida are all annual contract teachers for the rest of their respective careers no more professional service contracts. This means they don’t have a job from year to year and can be dismissed without reason. A Masters Degree is worth $3,000 in extra pay; a figure which has barely changed since the early 80’s. Florida is and always has been a teaching nightmare.
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And I’m sure that Florida will be used as a model by the corporate education reform movement as model to copy for the rest of the country.
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Another one bites the dust:
“Career Education Corp., a for-profit college chain, said it will close or sell all of its career colleges following financial losses and a federal regulatory crackdown.
The company will take a charge of $40 million to $50 million for the restructuring, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Career Education said in a statement. The company’s two universities will remain open.
The company’s exit from career schools follows the collapse of Corinthian Colleges Inc., which declared bankruptcy this week, citing similar financial and government pressures on its operations. Career Education will let current students finish their programs at schools that are closing, a process called a “teach-out.”
We need some kind of inquiry into this. Congress seems to be almost completely captured. Maybe there’s a state attorney general who could do it.
Probably not the Florida attorney general, obviously. but there must be someone out there who still does fraud investigations 🙂
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Check out the BE INSPIRED faith at work magazine from Des Moines Ia Fall Edition. 2014. It talks about former Dominoes Pizza Owner Billionaire who built the Ave Maria College in Miami.
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