There is a very serious problem associated with deregulation of public school funding turned over to privately managed charter schools. The absence of oversight and auditing facilitates criminal schemes, such as the one that was just revealed in Dayton, where three men were convicted of bribery and other charges.
A federal jury in U.S. District Court on Tuesday convicted three men of bribery and conspiracy charges connected to their work for Arise! Academy, a Dayton area charter school that operated from 2004 to 2010.
Federal prosecutors said two Arise board members — Christopher D. Martin, 44, of Springfield and Kristal N. Screven of Dayton — and school superintendent Shane K. Floyd, 42, of Strongsville conspired to steer lucrative, unbid contracts and make overpayments to Global Educational Consultants, which was co-owned by Carl L. Robinson, 47, of Durham, N.C.
Martin, Floyd and Robinson were convicted Tuesday in a jury trial of the bribery and conspiracy charges and Martin and Floyd were also convicted of lying to FBI investigators. Martin and Floyd face up to 20 years in prison while Robinson could be sentenced to up to 15 years.
Screven, 39, pleaded guilty on May 8 to one criminal count of conspiracy to commit bribery and faces up to five years in prison. Screven had originally been charged with conspiracy, bribery and witness intimidation for allegedly telling a witness to lie to the grand jury.
Arise! paid Global $420,919 over 15 months, starting in September 2008 at a time when the charter school had trouble paying its bills and staff, according to federal investigators.
In exchange for the consulting contract, Robinson paid Floyd and Martin thousands of dollars in cash and other benefits, like an all-expense -paid Las Vegas trip taken by Martin.
The defendants may be required to forfeit the $420,919 paid to Global Educational Consultants.
Floyd and Robinson knew one another well and had previously formed another educational consulting firm together — a fact they concealed from other Arise board members, prosecutors alleged.
Martin, who served as Arise board chairman, worked as an aide to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
Beset by financial problems and poor academic performance, Arise charter school closed its doors in June 2010.
This statement by one of the men who was convicted is priceless:
In 2009, when Arise paychecks were bouncing, vendors went unpaid and staff took a 20 percent pay cut, Floyd told the Dayton Daily News: “These pains, these wounds are great now; I understand that and I sympathize with the staff here to take a cut like that. But I do commend their determination and the willingness to still go about the business of educating our young people.”
“At the end of the day, it’s about the kids,” he said.
Remember that: “At the end of the day, it’s about the kids.”
Scoundrels used to wave the bloody flag (the blood of patriots, that is) and wrap themselves in their patriotism; now, they say, “It’s all about the kids.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
The corporate ReeFormsters will say anything to get at that money, and the Bill Gates
Cabal is probably manufacturing the U.S. flags they are going to wrap themsevles in on an assembly line in Bangladesh where the starving workers—many are children—who are paid pennies a day, are chained to their sewing machines.
One reason the corruption continues and escapes Congressional attention…
Martin, who served as Arise board chairman, worked as an aide to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
Thanks. It’s so great how cozy the revolving door is. Really makes the public trust government, how they go from “public service” to privatizing public schools.
I’ll have to look at it, but I’m sure curious why the Ohio attorney general didn’t bring this.
The corruption charges in PA were federal too.
Where are our county and state regulators and law enforcement? We had a new principal here steal funds that came from a school support group. She was charged and convicted by a county prosecutor in the span of June to September.
We’re going to be waiting a long time if the only enforcement of charter schools is federal.
In March, DeWine sued to recover, in the case of Lion of Judah charter school.
Unrelated to the prior, given the number of Ohio charter school prosecutions, state and federal, the length of time the legislature has failed to act, and, widespread media coverage of their failure to act, I’d like to see a defense attorney introduce, enticement, as a defense.
Charter school defendant statements and lack of prior criminal activity suggests “unwary innocent”, to me. Defendants don’t appear to have a predisposition to engage in wrong activities, if they’re in it for the kids. Media reports don’t show evidence that they acted “skillfully” in the commission of the crimes. In one case, a charter school Board member, currently with a high-ranking political appointment, when interviewed about financial findings against the school, indicated he had no awareness of a problem.
From the FBI “Federal Crimes Report to the Public-2006″, combatting corporate fraud should include a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board…..” In the 9 years that have followed the report, has Ohio’s Congress acted conscientiously enough, in terms of statutes?
Did campaign donations from the charter industry have any impact on legislative delays?
I’d like to see a gofundme account set up for an Ohio defendant’s case, based on Ohio Congressional inactivity/culpability relative to charter schools.
“Sweeping. Groundbreaking. Historic.
Those are the words school choice advocates are using to describe a new Nevada law that will give public school parents near total control over the way state education dollars are spent on their children.
Why? Because the level of school choice this law will permit in Nevada is unprecedented: All parents of public school students will be allowed to use state funding earmarked for their child toward tuition or other expenses related to a nonpublic education.
That includes religious private schools and even home schooling.”
Have Democrats issued a statement lauding this yet? They should. Misleading voters for another cycle is dishonest.
This was the end game, right? Cheers all around in ed reformland! Full privatization!
So much for the 150 years of public education in this country. Dismantled and thrown in the trash by reckless people who won’t suffer any of the consequences of their actions and never valued public schools to begin with.
The plan is, incrementally, to legislate away “state funding earmarked for education”.
When money is wildly misspent (like in the charter schools), it erodes public support for education tax dollars. The end goal is a feudal economic system, with only wealthy children educated.
The rest of the families will have the alternative of the Gates/Pearson, for-profit “school-in-a-box”.
Here’s a former Obama Administration endorsing the new Nevada voucher system:
“Been thinking about new NV “Educ Savings Accts.” A lot of $ now under parent control; an experiment worth watching”
https://twitter.com/JoanneSWeiss
Did the President deliberately mislead millions of voters when he said he wasn’t in favor of privatizing public schools?
Will the Democratic Party get away with that again in 2016? I hope not. There should be some accountability for powerful people in business/government.
“an experiment worth watching”
These people can’t get enough of their experiments on children and families.
Education “reform” is one giant experiment that no parent or teacher ever gave consent for.
It’s amusing. They’re making this silly legalistic distinction between “vouchers” and “education savings accounts” so I guess that’s the campaign-ready flim-flam.
Democrats will say “we don’t support vouchers! we support this thing that works exactly like a voucher!”
It’s only 5k per kid, so it’ll work out as a cut to public education funding, which was probably the point.
You know ed reformers aren’t real big on funding education.
Sorry, SDP. Again, I should read an entire thread before commenting. At least I picked someone whose thoughts are worth repeating.
‘…an experiment worth watching” ‘
How do these people totally divorce themselves from the fact that the experiment is on children?
These “reformers” really know how to steal a buck!
In NJ, we had Chris Cerf set up an company “Global Education Advisors”. When Cerf became Commissioner of Education, he gave Global Education Advisors 1.9 million for consulting fees in Newark. Cerf claimed that he no longer had an interest in the company that he had started and no charges were filed.
This could get interesting:
” Three charter schools that face closure by the state say they will appeal that decision within a week.
Representatives of each of the schools say that they have made changes to improve the schools and that it is unfair to single them out for poor test scores when other schools in the city have scores that are as bad or worse.”
I wonder if there’s any rational, replicable due process or whether Ohio is just opening and closing them based on political connections or, I don’t know, whether they’re fashionable this month 🙂
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/charter_schools_say_they_will.html
‘ But I do commend their determination and the willingness to still go about the business of educating our young people.” ‘
I’m sure the staff whose pay was cut and whose checks bounced appreciate his appreciate his commendation. (snark alert)
Nothing we do anymore, teachers aside, has anything to do with “for the kids.” Teachers do the best they can, with the limited resources me have, but administration is all about the money, nothing to do with teaching kids. Fewer young people are going into the teaching profession, and the ones who do, usually quit within the first 5 years. Teaching is a non-respected profession, and the rewards are getting fewer and fewer, as teachers aren’t allowed to use their knowledge and skills to do their jobs.
Laura Bischoff is the excellent reporter who directed focus to and, wrote the conviction article. Last Friday she won an award as a Living Legend in Dayton.
A couple of years ago, her superb journalistic skills were on display, when she avoided the Pew/Arnold misdirection regarding pensions. She recognized the well-crafted smokescreen before her national news colleagues and the public learned that Wall Street created pension fear, as a playbook to abolish Social Security.
While the editorial page of the Dayton Daily News appears to, still be joined at the
hip with charter schools (they supported the anti-labor legislation SB 5), there are reporters like Bischoff and Josh Swigart, who are an honor to their profession. Doug Livingston at the Akron Beacon Journal is also exemplary.