Ohio ‘s charter watchdog had to resign because he wasn’t watching charters with vigor. Some charters, especially if they were GOP campaign contributors, barely got a glance from the watchdog.
Stephen Dyer writes:
“Looks like David Hansen, who is the husband of Kasich’s presidential campaign manager, was forced to resign as the state’s top charter school watchdog because he (tell me if you’ve heard this before) rigged the state’s accountability system to benefit big Republican campaign donors. Sad day for Ohio’s kids and another setback for the state’s quality-based charter school community. http://bit.ly/1Kesmgi
Best,
Stephen Dyer
Education Policy Fellow
Innovation Ohio
35 E. Gay St.
Columbus, OH 43215
http://www.innovationohio.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well, it’s a step up that he had to resign. In Illinois I think he’d get a raise.
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5 years ago in Ohio it would have meant a raise. The ed reform landscape has shifted dramatically in the last 2 years. They don’t get a complete pass anymore.
I’m hoping it will broaden the debate in the ’16 election outside of canned ed reform talking points due to Ohio’s role in national elections.
I don’t think you can come in here anymore and answer “charter schools, standardized tests and evil labor unions” in response to any question. It’s different. It took forever to shift, but shift it did.
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I’m sure Rauner could find a suitably lucrative private sector job for him.
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I hope a database, providing a timeline, location, and money trail, can be created of all the charter scandals and posted to Facebook & Twitter pages. I don’t expect major media outlets to report these scandals aggressively. Look what happened to Michael Winerip of the NYTimes.
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The Plain Dealer (Cleveland.com) has done a good job the past two weeks covering what has been going on in Columbus with the state board of ed. including this today:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/state_supt_ross_kept_youngstow.html
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Great thesis project for a student in Grad School of Ed. Coders here might jump in a create this database.
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Michael, there is a website that attempts to document charter school scandals. It is run by a parent in Oakland, Sharon Higgins. It is called “charter school scandals.” It is hard for her to keep up. There are so many.
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Why isn’t he brought up on the same charges as the Atlanta teachers? Let’s hold this man accountable!
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Linda, you might wonder why other cheaters have not been indicted under the RICO statute for cheating. Like the principal in NYC who allowed students to graduate with fake credits or former Indiana superintendent Tony Bennett, who rigged the school grades to favor a campaign contributor’s charter.
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A blip.
Ohio will probably enlist Ross, head of ODE to run BRIGHT, which is a TFA for school principals. When I tried to research BRIGHT, I got the name of Richard A. Stoff, Chief Executive Officer, Ohio Business Roundtable. This looks like an Ohio BROADie program, a step to get principals on the same slash and burn program as superintendents.
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Also! There’s yet another layer to this story!
The charter school sponsor who benefits most from excluding the scores is the daughter of the author of the charter school sponsor law.
It’s a very small club 🙂
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Great interview on Nevada’s 100% voucher system. I’m shocked that a US state is just walking away from public schools. They’re passing out vouchers and washing their hands of the whole idea. No one has any obligation to anyone besides their own child.
http://edushyster.com/backpacks-full-of-cash/
If people are marketed right out of a public school with the voucher system, can they sue, I wonder? Obviously one could move to a state with a public education system, but can one demand the state of Nevada provide one?
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose… 🙂
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My theory that giving everyone a voucher for X dollars will automatically set the BASE price for a seat to pout your child’s butt in to X. Private schools will instantly raise their their tuition to X+Y, experiencing an immediate windfall.
It’s economics (which used to be taught in public schools…)
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There is a fairly new scheme by corporations to insert their policies into local government.
Without much fanfare, the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC—the source of corporate-friendly and “free-market” state legislation—has spawned ready-to-use model legislation and ordinances for local governments.
ALEC’s progeny is called the American City-Council Exchange (ACCE). Set up in 2014, it is designed to promote “America’s only free-market forum for village, town, city, and county policy makers.”
In addition to proposing model ordinances and legislation at this smaller scale of governance, ACCE is also intended to diminish the influence of the National Conference of State Legislatures as a go-to-source for policy ideas and status reports on legislation. For Example, the National Conference has a searchable data-base on pending or passed legislation of great use for legislators and their staff. For example, with their data base and search engine you can track 50 issues in education with state-by-state reports–summaries of legislation and the text of bills. Because the National Conference is not a 100% shill for market-based policies framed by corporations, ALEC and ACCE claim it is “too liberal” as a source for ideas about legislation.
Here is how the ACCE works. Elected officials in villages, towns, cities, and counties pay $100 for a two-year membership. They are identified as members of “the Public Sector.” Here is the ACCE pitch members of the public sector.
“ACCE members receive academic research and analysis from policy experts who work with issues, processes and problem-solving strategies upon which municipal officials vote. Provided with important policy education, lawmakers become more informed and better equipped to serve the needs of their communities.” So corporations are the sources of policy expertise and ready to “educate” public officials. No need for local expertise, public debate, and so on.
Corporations pay $10,000 to be a member of an ACCE Committee, or they pay $25,000 to become members of the Founder’s Committee with more influence on priorities.
Here is the pitch for members in “the Private Sector.”
ACCE Committee members “provide industry insights during policy creation.” “ACCE Council Committees closely imitate the city government legislative process: resolutions are introduced, meetings are conducted, experts present facts and opinion for discussion, after which lawmakers take a vote.” So corporations propose and vote on the resolutions formuated by corporations.
The ACCE is basically a pay-to-play scheme for peddling corporate views to public officials at the local level. The scheme comes with the bonus of a tax deduction because ACCE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
ACCE first two initiatives have been published and they are in circulation now, thanks to regional chapters. Some elected officials who are Democrats are trying to blow the whistle.
One of the first initatives is a model ”Right to Work” ordinance, a local version of Alec’s anti-union model legislation.
A second is designed to limit local government oversight of the process of contracting for municipal water and wastewater piping. Apparently the municipal and wastewater industry wants to secure total autonomy for project engineers to choose and set performance criteria for the piping in these huge public works projects. This may also be a scheme to by-pass EPA’s 2011 “green infrastructure” practices for administering the “Clean Water Act.” For both model ordinances go to http://www.alec.org/legislation-tags/acce/
In addition to these initiatives, I think we will see more of ACCE’s influence, working in tandem with other efforts to get rid of locally elected local school officials in order to set up “virtual” districts and multi-location districts with appointed CEOs. The Center for American Progress and venture capitalists like Global Silicon Valley Advisors want to accelerate popular acceptance of such schemes as “essential” to get more bang for the buck, to allow for more choice, and so on.
If your community still permits unions and suddenly decides to scrap those with something that looks like a ready-made ordinance, it could be from ACCE. It might come with claims that it will not only save money on salaries, but reduce pension obligations, permit fires and hires based on performance, and also be good for business, especially for those corporations who have paid for access to your elected officials.
Corporations do not want employees to have due-process rights. Many also have little respect for democratic governance and the electoral process—witness the current efforts of billionaires with corporate fortunes to buy the next President of the United States.
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Is it with vigor or rigor that he should have watched the charters?
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Probably both. If you are going to do something with rigor, you had better be vigorous. 🙂
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The Ohio Alliance of Charter Schools reports more than a third of the state’s charter schools are for-profit. The percentage places Ohio 3rd, after Michigan and Florida. The states of Tenn., R.I. and N.Y. ban, for-profit charter schools (Akron Beacon Journal).
AFT ACT, in the “About Us” section, states, “The AFT strongly supports charter schools that embody core values…” A union can attempt to unionize the workers in charter schools without “strongly supporting” the contrivance. IMO, it’s similar to saying, “We strongly support schools-in-a-box, given certain parameters, because we want to recognize that in the very rare circumstance, there is some immeasurable benefit to some small constituency. Appeasement is a successful strategy and It’s preferable to avoid experience and trend extrapolation, when making endorsements.”
Is there a reason that, apparently, the AFT didn’t even ask the Clinton campaign to request DFER. stop using the term Democrat, before the AFT endorsed its candidate?
The California Democratic Party made the request to DFER.
Since unions are being beat up in the press, as if they opposed privatized education, the public might be clearer if the AFT at least, vigorously opposed the for-profit mutation.
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