Michael Klonsky says, “I am not anti-charter, but I am anti-this.”
What is “this”? Frauds, empty promises, avoidance of accountability and transparency. For this with eyes to see, the charter movement has turned into the charter industry. It is fueled by greed and playoffs to politicians.
Klonsky’s exemplar is the Mavericks charter chain led by non-educator Frank Biden, the Vice-President’s brother. One of its principals was arrested for allegedly sharing drugs and sex in a car with a student.
But that’s not all.
“Back in 2011, when Krista Morton was the principal at Richard Millburn Academy — a charter school for dropout students in Manatee County — district officials investigated the school for graduating students who did not meet requirements, having grade-change irregularities and giving students puzzles and word searches instead of more rigorous work. It is not known whether Morton resigned or was fired. The school shut its doors later that year.”
“Why did Frank Biden choose her to become a Mavericks principal? We may never know. But this we do know. Mavericks have been under scrutiny for years. Back in October, the Sun-Sentinel reported widespread financial mismanagement within the chain. It said that Biden had launched the network of charter schools more than five years ago, “drumming up publicity with prominent pitchmen and pledging to turn dropouts into graduates”.
“Many of the company’s schools have been investigated and asked to return public dollars. At least three of the Mavericks schools have received $250,000 federal grants through the state, state documents show. They’ve been repeatedly cited for flawed enrollment and attendance numbers, which Florida uses to determine how much public money charter schools get. Three have closed. Local, state or federal officials have flagged academic or other problems at Mavericks schools, including:
• Overcharging taxpayers $2 million by overstating attendance and hours taught. The involved schools have appealed the findings.
• Submitting questionable low-income school meal applications to improperly collect $350,000 in state dollars at two now-closed Pinellas County schools.
• Frequent academic errors that include skipping state tests for special-needs students, failing to provide textbooks and using outdated materials.
“This latest incident also brings up the question of whether or not charter schools run by private networks are truly public schools.”
Will anyone be held accountable? Don’t count on it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If Frank Biden is on a “mission from God,” he should give up destroying public schools and students’ lives and go on tour with Dan Aykroyd as the missing brother of Blues Brothers. Sorry, you have to be old to get the reference.
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I like the reference…very funny. 🙂
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Is anyone legit looking at “credit recovery”? I ask just because this issue was raised regarding the Mayor’s claims on Chicago grad rates and no one seems very interested in delving into that.
Since the grad rates are being used to push a very specific and narrow brand of ed reform nationally, one would think they’d be careful they’re not basing putting “movement” policy in every single public school based on these numbers. .
That may be hard to “unwind” as they say in the private sector. It seems like we have 500 paid ed reform groups with what must be by now thousands of employees. Maybe they could do a real study before the politicians (Duncan, Emanuel) use bad numbers to push their political agenda. We’ll be stuck with this stuff long after they’re in their post-government, private sector careers. Some “rigor” might be in order before blindly accepting these claims.
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There’s an inescapable conflict at the heart of for-profit charters. Schools need to be mission driven, focused on high levels of learning for all students. Once the profit motive becomes part of the equation, the commitment to the mission of schooling is compromised.
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What I don’t like in addition to the obvious waste, fraud, disruption, destruction and loss of democracy is that the government is in collusion with these sharks. The government is responsible for the “wild west” ambience that promotes charter expansion without regulation or much accountability. The government, state, federal and in some cases local, demonstrate blatant partiality to charters while they starve public education which serves at least 90% of the students. The charter movement has failed to deliver, and the governments and delusional leaders choose to ignore reality. They step on the lives of citizens to serve billionaires and corporations.
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Though it may go against the grain of the mainstream narrative, supporters of public education should be “anti-charter,” since, whatever their initial intention, charters have been hijacked and turned into a vehicle for siphoning money from the public schools.
Want to receive public dollars? Then be accountable to the public, and take all the children who come through your doors; otherwise, you’re just a dressed-up private school milking the taxpayers.
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Yes, Michael, I could not agree with you more. And this is not news to those of us who’ve been around awhile, such as Mike Klonsky.
Back in the 90s, insightful professionals in higher education here saw the potential for self-dealing, profiteering and the destruction of public education and warned of what was likely to result from the encroachment of privatized public schools and public funds being siphoned off by unregulated, private managers of charters. That has all been confirmed by the scandal ridden recent decade of charter school expansion.
Any well informed educator who doesn’t have a problem with charter schools today is as much a detriment to public education as the charter profiteers themselves. No wonder Klonsky invited Peter Cunningham to speak in his college course this past week. I stopped following Klonsky’s posts due to his non-stance stance on charters. He needs to wake up to all the evidence demonstrating how privatization in our city has benefited profiteers considerably more than people of color, the dwindling middle class and the working poor.
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Chi-Town Res,
As I understand it, Mike Klonsky and Bill Ayers were active in helping the misguided plan to dismantle large high schools in Chicago, even before the so-called reform regime took hold, inadvertently making it easier to break up the system.
If you want to save public education, then charters must be reined in, and trying to finesse the matter by saying, “I’m not against charters, I’m just against the corrupt ones,” is weak and ineffective.
If you want to save the public schools, then don’t mince words, and call out those who want to privatize them or enable those who do.
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Michael, Yes, that occurred from the mid to late 90s. under Paul Vallas, and it was funded by Annenberg. It wasn’t just for high schools though. I worked with a couple inner city elementary schools then that had been broken up into smaller schools due to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama was involved in that as well. I didn’t realize Klonsky was.
What the schools really needed were smaller class sizes, not multiple schools within the same building, with restricted access to shared resources, and paying double the number of salaries for redundant administrators. That became the model for co-locations at all levels today.
Who the hell comes up with this garbage and why will they do just about everything EXCEPT reduce class sizes?
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“The Milwaukee County executive would oversee the turnover of up to five struggling Milwaukee Public Schools per year to operators of successful public charter or private voucher schools, according to details of a proposal that two suburban Republican lawmakers have been working on for months.
Under the proposal, County Executive Chris Abele — who was not fully briefed about the plan before details were leaked to the media — would name a commissioner with parallel authority to Milwaukee Public Schools.
Abele said Monday that he didn’t seek the legislation, but if it passed, he would accept the responsibility.
Staff at the public schools run by new operators — or directly by the commissioner — would have to re-apply for their jobs and, if hired, would waive their right to be represented by a union.
The “Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program” is a proposal by Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. Dale Kooyenga (Brookfield). An email they sent to education leaders in Milwaukee late last week for feedback on the plan was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.”
Wow. 5 a year turned over to private operators. We can probably predict the year Milwaukee loses public schools completely.
I’m curious about this new ed reform tactic of “waiving” your right to join a union. That’s new to me. Which think tank/lobbyist came up with it, and when will we see it imposed on every state?
They must be worried about charter teachers joining unions if they’re pushing this policy. So much for “empowerment” and “teacher voice!”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/county-exec-would-ovesee-turnaround-of-mps-schools-in-gop-plan-b99497540z1-303267021.html
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Cross-posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Michael-Klonsky-What-I-Do-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Accountability_Fraud_Greed_Politicians-150513-984.html#comment544739
With this comment which has embedded links at the article post
:
All the following comes from The Diane Ravitch site, where I follow the 15,880 school districts in 50 states, ant he puppet masters determined to end public education do their thing: for example, just few that you can find i you put CHARTER SCHOOL CORRUPTION into he search field:
“Paul Thomas of South Carolina calls out the charter industry for its spiraling frauds, hoaxes, profits, and resegregation. ”
“A look at OHIO: This website, called “KnowYourCharter” is powerful. It dispels the myth that charter schools are superior to public schools. A few are, but most are not. Even in some of the lowest-performing, most impoverished districts in the state, the public schools outperform many charter schools. You can plug in the name of any school district in the state and see how the public school district compares to individual charter schools. They are compared by such factors as state funding per pupil, overall state performance rating, average teaching experience of teachers, and how much money the charters extract from the public system.”
“(Madison, WI)–The federal government has spent more than $3.3 billion over the past two decades creating and fueling the charter school industry, according to a new financial analysis and reporters’ guide by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). (The new guide can be downloaded below.)
Despite the huge sums spent so far, the federal government maintains no comprehensive list of the charter schools that have received and spent these funds or even a full list of the private or quasi-public entities that have been approved by states to “authorize” charters that receive federal funds. And despite drawing repeated criticism from the “The Department of Education is pushing for an unprecedented expansion of charter schools while paying lip service to accountability, but independent audit materials show that the Department’s lofty rhetoric is simply not backed up by its actions,” noted Jonas Persson, a writer for the Center for Media and Democracy, a national watchdog group that publishes PRWatch.org, ALECexposed.org, and SourceWatch.org, adding, “the lack of tough financial controls and the lack of public access to information about how charters are spending federal tax dollars has almost inevitably led to enormous fraud and waste.”
I could go on and on!
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So let me get this straig—
All that charter/privatizer talk about big gubmint monopoly schools being “factories of failure” and “dropout factories” was really—
Just a projection of themselves?
😱
And for all the very real and serious problems that public schools suffer under, when it comes to charters that are (allegedly) automatically innovative and creative and do more with less—
They are leading the way in worst educational & management practices, not best?
A big part of the problem might be what Marilyn Johnson wrote on this thread:
“There’s an inescapable conflict at the heart of for-profit charters. Schools need to be mission driven, focused on high levels of learning for all students. Once the profit motive becomes part of the equation, the commitment to the mission of schooling is compromised.”
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
But honestly, folks, we know that when it comes to “our most precious assets” she always looks to what makes the most ₵ent¢…
😎
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You get a real sense of how politically powerful charter schools are when you realize no one in political media writes about how the Vice President’s brother runs a charter chain with such a horrible reputation. His brother!
When Duncan and the Charter Promotion Team are out there selling charters, no one asks him if he has a comment on the fact that the Vice President’s brother runs a chain, and not only that, promotes for profit schools nationally! I just can’t imagine this weird gag rule applying in any other “sector”.
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State attorneys general and the feds are turning a blind eye to the charter industry corruption. Until there is even more investigative reporting and systematic documentation of the corruption the charter industry, it will thrive. There must be a state-by-state record generated and a full-out expose, with National Press Club and other PR.
The Common Core +TESTS agenda is about to explode in the news. There are justified predictions that scores will be very low. These scores will produce stack ratings of states who have signed up for the CCSS and have “aligned tests.” All of the PARCC and SBAC tests are supposed to have comparable cut scores. That will permit stack ratings of many states, and not much there to brag about for all of the supporters–even with an estimated $12 billion price tag for this unfinished grand experiment in standardizing public education, including teacher education.
In the short run, there are two politically easy consequences from forthcoming reports on the performance of states on Common Core compliant tests. One is more huffing and puffing about failing schools, teachers, etc, more test prep in still-standing public schools, and not many of all of the doom-sayers interested in facts. The other is a terrific opportunity for the charter industry to say…. Here we are, your alternative, just give us the money, and our CEOs will fix everything. Do not expect us to open our schools to all students or to open our books on who is getting paid for what, or reveal our schemes for self-dealing, or show you how our non-profits manage to make huge profits.
In the long run, we can work to make sure more citizens–the public– is well informed about all of the fiascos and frauds that are being allowed to flourish unchecked, while restating the virtues and varieties of truly public schools and the necessity of strengthening public education from the ground up, building on the wisdom and expertise of educators not management schemes from McKinsey & Co., CEOs, and fellow travelers.
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I consult for private schools. So, I give some anonymity, I will not tell you what is my specific role in the private school world. Just the fact I help those in charge become better leaders, so they can have better schools that are controlled by their parents and stakeholders. However, I would never swoop into develop a private school in Utah or Vermont, states I have never been in or have no intention in residing. However, in the Midwest, it appears that anyone can swoop in and help and develop a school, including those who live out-of-the-country. Case in point Mahoud Sayani, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/msayani)who is from Canada (Has he ever traveled to Indianapolis?), was just given the keys to develop a charter school within the IPS’ system. There are brilliant individuals in Indianapolis that could develop a better system, than a man who might never have visited the 500 track.
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We’ve been in an “empire-building phase” for the last few decades. The billionaires and their govt. in this phase authorize brigands, charlatans, thieves, criminals, careerists, liars, and egomaniacs as officers to lead the assault with no fear of accountability, regulation, oversight, career-suicide, or punishment(except for few hapless colluders in Atlanta who happened to be the wrong color and without protection from powerful cronies in DC). The public sector is being looted and dispossessed by empire-builders who have eyes on their own long-term prize–demolishing unions, converting teaching from a long-term profession into a contingent short-term labor force of TFAers, and converting public districts into private revenue streams. The treacherous reauthorization of ESEA now before Congress codifies this new empire into legitimacy. The immense damage already inflicted on public education, its students, teachers, and facilities, will take a radical period of reconstruction to recover, not a minor tweaking of a 601-page unreadable reauth law with yet another bogus name promising good things for all kids. The two teacher union leaderships are eager to pass ESEA and smooth the conflicted education policy path for Hillary’s white house run; their job is to quiet the growing opposition and put a pretty face on the situation. Our job is to build more opposition.
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Diane, thanks for the mention. Thought you might be interested in this announcement on Maverick’s website:
Mavericks and Nike Unite
We are pleased to announce a new partnership between Mavericks High of Osceola and Nike, Inc.! Nike, Inc. who has the motto, “A Shoe. A Company. A Journey,” has chosen to take us along for the ride on this journey to success with them… Read the rest here. http://maverickshigh.com/mavericks-and-nike-unite/
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I’m sick of the stories of greed, corruption, and politicians. They just keep tumbling out. When will the evil right and the evil left turn away from the horrible things they do for money and power? It is actually nauseating! I hope people remember this when they go to the polls–if there are any worthy candidates.
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“You get a real sense of how politically powerful charter schools are when you realize no one in political media writes about how the Vice President’s brother runs a charter chain with such a horrible reputation. His brother!”
The charter school industry is running a “pay to play blitz” right now. Their hope is that the politicians will hand them the keys to the kingdom – billions of dollars. Even after people figure out that the charters are worse than the public schools, these charter thieves will cash in their real estate.
I don’t think charters are very “politically” powerful. The media would go CRAZY if this was Dick Cheney’s brother. This is just an example of “liberals” looking out for liberals.
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In case you didn’t notice, the primary people promoting privatized schools in your state have been your current and former GOP governors, Rick Scott and Jeb Bush. There are many examples of GOP school privatizers across the states. Regardless of party, no one is making an effort to stop charter school expansion anywhere, despite the fraud. Deregulation is integral to privatization.
Privatization is a component of free market neoliberal economics, which was born in the GOP and first promoted by Republican economist Milton Friedman, who said starting in 1955 that public education should be privatized. Clinton and his “New Democrats”, which continue to dominate the Democratic party under Obama, support privatizing schools just as the GOP does. Democrats have not been liberal on education and a lot of economic matters since before Clinton.
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That’s why economic policies that Republicans could only dream of, such as Welfare Reform, NAFTA, the repeal of Glass-Steagall etc., were accomplished under Clinton.
In its zeal to support charter school expansion, the Democratic party has been ignoring the fact that charters are instrumental in re-segregating schools across America. There is nothing liberal about promoting segregation.
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