Just when you thought you had heard every possible charter scam, up pops a new twist.
Steve Van Zant, the superintendent of a tiny two-school district, was charged with violating conflict-of-interest laws for helping charters win authorization, then getting them to hire his consulting firm.
California has one of the most permissive charter laws in the nation, approved when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor and the state board of education was packed with charter advocates like Reed Hastings. Districts can authorize charters in other districts and get a commission.
“A former San Diego County superintendent who approved charter schools that later hired his consulting firm was arraigned Friday in San Diego Superior Court on one felony count of conflict of interest, according to the San Diego district attorney’s office.
“The allegation facing Steve Van Zant, who currently is superintendent of the Sausalito Marin City School District, dates to May 2010 while he was superintendent of the Mountain Empire Unified School District.
“According to the criminal complaint, Van Zant “did willfully and unlawfully violate the provisions of such (conflict of interest) laws.”
“Van Zant, who is not in custody, could not be reached for comment. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
“The District Attorney’s Office declined to provide details of the case.
“Van Zant, 53, has been a controversial figure among San Diego County educators. Long before he faced legal troubles, Van Zant stirred animosity among school districts for years as he brokered deals with charter schools to operate in their districts — often without providing the notice required by law.
“Some of the charters that Van Zant ushered through soon hired his consulting firm for support services.
“Van Zant worked in the tiny one-campus Dehesa School District, where the school board authorized several charters to operate in other districts, before he was hired to run Mountain Empire schools in 2008.
“Under Van Zant’s direction, Mountain Empire authorized its first charter, San Diego Neighborhood Homeschool. Roughly a dozen more followed before he left in 2013.”
No doubt, Van Zant was acting with high intentions, helping poor kids escape failing schools.
Alternative explanation: A scam.
Here is the website for his consulting biz: http://edhive.com/what-we-can-do-for-you/
Step right up and get your charter school!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you, Diane. This is good news.
Here is my article on who should be running the schools…published today in LA Progressive…
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Who Should Run LA’s Public Schools?
By Ellen Lubic
Over a decade ago, when there was a push to break off the vast San Fernando Valley from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and for the Valley to form its own school district, I was not in agreement. However, with approximately 675,000 students in the seven district areas that comprise LAUSD, I find I am now changing my mind, as have many of us who are education professionals and follow and write about public education.
This huge LAUSD enterprise, with a yearly budget of over $7 billion, has been mired in confusion, corruption, and inefficiency for many decades, and seems not to be manageable.
This huge LAUSD enterprise, with a yearly budget of over $7 billion, has been mired in confusion, corruption, and inefficiency for many decades, and seems not to be manageable. I tend to now agree with some Angelinos who are pushing to reconstruct LAUSD into multiple independent districts. The danger, however, is that it would further segregate the inner city students.
Right now, the multitude of charter schools (LA has the most in the nation) that pick and choose among students of color—leaving behind those who are hard to teach, English Language Learners, or are personally handicapped and have special needs—have contributed to almost total re-segregation of students of color despite the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education.
Also, it would be very costly to have all these new districts with a multitude of administrators. One of the greatest economic problems at LAUSD is the nepotism that for so many years has caused the abundance of hiring many unnecessary middle managers whose large salaries are now built into the budget and who do little to deserve this taxpayer largesse.
Many lifelong Los Angeles residents—and particularly those of us who are also professional educators—are beleaguered by the lack of input allowed the public by the district, lack of transparency of the district and the Board of Education, and the system of highly financed candidates who get elected to the BoE, who either are not educators, or also are not skilled in business management.
We do not need more ‘Voteria’-impacted (paying for votes through an illegal lottery), multi-millionaire charter school candidates and other toadies of Eli Broad using his directives to run LAUSD. It is We the People who pay all the freight and this is the only thing that is “public” about Broad’s latest permutation. His new takeover scheme to hide his name but use his plan for charterizing the district—which they now call Great Public Schools Now, and which is designed to convert public education into a business model and a vehicle for free market profiteering, but with the taxpayers still footing the bills—is not the ‘robber baron’ solution to funding and running public schools that educate the entire student base, and not only carefully selected students.
The audacity of these billionaires to appoint a hardball charter school lobbyist to run their new 501c3 nonprofit that they rapidly tossed together after the major teacher and public protest at the Broad Gallery on the day of its opening, boggles the mind, and when Broad’s paid articles and editorials are run in the LA Times suggesting this hired gun (to kill public schools in favor of free market profiteering) should have the public servant who is the new Superintendent of Schools participate in this destruction of public education by “giving her a seat at their table,” is the greatest form of sophistry we have witnessed yet. This is off the charts in terms of any democratic structure…and public education has always been the crux of our democracy.
We do need more people willing to run for the Board of Education who have some training in business management plus a background in education. We got lucky that Scott Schmerelson, with his many decades of experience as a teacher and senior administrator, was willing to come out of retirement to run for, and win, a seat on the Board. He has become the major hope on the BoE to make reasoned decisions while also holding back the Broad deformers from taking over the district.
We had hoped that George McKenna and Richard Vladovic, with similar credentials to Schmerelson, would also function positively to protect the public schools against the charter onslaught of these billionaires, but it seems that these two men have become stuck in their own personal issues.
Monica Ratliff, who is a both a Columbia-trained attorney and an elementary school teacher, has been a staunch defender of public education as a member of the BoE, but she has been pushed to a background role by the testosterone overload on the Board. I still have faith that she will vociferously support Schmerelson’s position as he speaks loudly against the ‘Broad-billionaire clique’ takeover, and that there will be a far more fair changing of the guard when Zimmer completes his role as a BoE member and as the current President of the Board.
For now, however, it is imperative for the public to raise loud voices in support of our public schools. All this outsider cash donated by Broad, the Waltons, Bloomberg, Murdoch, Anshutz, and others, to now multimillion dollar elections for LAUSD BoE, elections that only a decade ago cost $30K to participate as a candidate, must be stopped.
https://maxcdn2.laprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ellen-lubic-200.jpgIt is a push by these few golden boys and girls to takeover all of our American institutions by these few, so that all the rest of us are made to conform to their form of rule….all of us all serfs for Eli Broad and his band of invaders. It would be more fair and productive if these privatizers would donate to programs that strengthen the public schools by hiring back teachers, aides, nurses, counselors, janitors, etc. and funding the arts and special education, as well as academics.
Posted on January 18, 2016
Too bad you don’t have his mug shot. He seems so happy and cheery in the Tribune photo. New Hall of Fame/Shame posts? Smile. Here’s your mug!
WOW … marketing, marketing, marketing. Bad. OY!
Here is the website for his consulting biz: http://edhive.com/what-we-can-do-for-you/
The charter lobby lawyer steps up to defend him:
“Ricardo Soto, chief attorney for the California Charter School Association, told The San Diego Union-Tribune in November that school districts are threatened by non-classroom-based charters that he believes operate legally.”
Got that? This is the fault of public schools, who “feel threatened”
I bet they feel threatened. They’re surrounded by crooks.
What a crooked system! Our leaders need to wake up and regulate.
Don’t want to overload you all…but I wrote this one on Sunday and it was published yesterday at City Watch Today. Refers to CCSA and their arrogance in pushing Broad’s agenda. Of course their lawyers will protect the deformers. They are growing more visible through using Eli’s helper law firms and PR firms…and they have the billionaires backing. We all must keep exposing them.
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Beware of Eli: Hammering another Nail in the Coffin of Public Education
19 Jan 2016
Written by Ellen Lubic
CHARTER SCHOOL WARS-As we continue to see, the highly biased LA Times is under the thrall of Eli Broad and his cohorts to take over public education in Los Angeles and convert it to free market profiteering. Almost daily, the Times runs what is loosely called journalism, lauding charter schools and defaming public schools. They add a disclosure announcement at the end of these articles admitting they are paid for by Broad and non-profits such as United Way where he calls all the shots.
Here is the operant paragraph of Sunday’s editorial from the LA Times, which is paid for by Eli Broad and his claque of pretenders (see their full disclosure which appears repeatedly with most of the education issues on which they report).
“A better move would be to call on Great Public Schools Now to provide a place at the table for the district’s new superintendent, Michelle King, to participate in the planning process. If the new non-profit organization hopes to overcome resistance in the community, it needs to be more open about its planning and it needs to open the process to public discussion — after all, whether charter schools or not, these are all public schools.”
“The Times receives funding for its digital initiative, Education Matters, from the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Broad Foundation to support this effort. Under terms of the grants, the Times retains complete control over editorial content.”
What a pile of manure…the only way these charter schools are public, is that We the People, we the public, we the taxpayers, are forced to pay for them…with NO oversight by the public, the government, or the school system. This is an amazing scam concocted by the Bonfire of the Vanities guys to use public funding for public schools while transferring students to privatized charter schools, all for their own profit. Rupert Murdoch and Eli Broad have openly written about this, and they and their billionaire buddies are gathered in their kingdoms, cackling at their success in fooling the public.
Now we read in their controlled corporate media, the LA Times, that Broad and Company wants the new Superintendent of LAUSD, Michelle King, to sit at their golden table as a participant with his hit squad, to charterize and privatize the rest of LAUSD…or at least for now, up to 50 percent more charters which take away from public education. Their fantasy seems to be that Michelle King will now work for them and be a subject to Myrna Castrejon…and of course Eli Broad.
It is shocking to see that Broad lawyers and PR firms now use as their mouthpiece, this hard core, non-educator, lobbyist for CCSA who spent her time twisting arms in Sacramento and who now thinks she is on the same level as the new Superintendent of LAUSD.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiv1eC787PKAhWB1CYKHUsyAZYQjRwIBw&url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/capitolweekly/22576732918&psig=AFQjCNH1SqxfWgSm8hQ9h2yo-aq2aCjWxQ&ust=1453225050327799Here is the Times dossier for Myrna Castrejon, (photo) the political hit woman who works for charter schools:
“The organization driving a controversial effort to vastly expand charter schools in Los Angeles has selected one of the state’s most visible charter school advocates as its first executive director.
Myrna Castrejon, 50, is leaving her position as a lobbyist and strategist for the California Charter Schools Association to lead Great Public Schools Now, a non-profit organization established to carry out the charter expansion strategy, which was first developed by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and his foundation.
“In her new position, Castrejon will become the face of an initiative that is stoking tumult among educators and push-back from the Los Angeles Unified School District. An early proposal called for raising $490 million to enroll half of the district’s students in charter schools over the next eight years.
Castrejon, senior vice president of government affairs for the charter association, begins her new role Feb. 22. She said a key priority will be reaching out to leaders of the nation’s second largest school district who, just two days ago, publicly opposed the plan developed by the Broad Foundation.
LA Unified Supt. Michelle King on Thursday echoed concerns raised by the school board, saying she does not support any initiatives that propose to “take over” the district by encouraging students to enroll in charters.”
How many of the California legislators are under the influence of Broad and his endless cash? We know for a fact that former LA Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa, who is now preparing to run for Governor, is prime among these sellouts to Big Money. He is so close to Eli and John Deasy, he can taste them.
Have we lost all control of American society and democracy to Broad his band of oligarchs? How can they form a new 501c3 and think it will be the vehicle to infiltrate the school district and usurp it totally from the Superintendent to the BoE to every classroom and every piece of LAUSD real estate?
The arrogance and sheer chutzpah of this power grab is mind boggling.
The real public, those of us living in the community, better wake up to this irreversible loss of public schools; we must take to the streets to preserve what is left. California already has more charter schools than any other state in the Union, and Los Angeles has the most of any city in the nation. Yet university reports show that the preponderance of these charters do no better than public schools in educating students, and a large group does far worse…all the while making big bucks using ill prepared teachers who flee their charges quickly.
(Ellen Lubic, Director, Joining Forces for Education, Public Policy educator/writer. Views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of CityWatch or its ownership.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 14 Issue 6
Pub: Jan 19, 2016
“Districts can authorize charters in other districts and get a commission.”
I thought Ohio’s charter laws were bad but that is amazing. What an absolutely horrible idea. They gave districts an actual incentive to battle one another for revenue. His district can’t win unless another one loses.
Diane, this is exactly what I was trying to prevent in my district. Our school board chairman works for Dennis Bakke (owns the Imagine School, Inc charter network) as the executive director of his personal foundation. He’s held that job for 15+ years. To demonstrate how close Hornberger is to Bakke, only 4 folks work in the foundation and two are Bakkes family members. Furthermore, Hornberger’s biggest asset was AES stock which is how Bakke became a billionaire. Don’t think Hornberger did that stock research on his own.
In any case, I filed for a declaratory judgment against Hornberger since he had never EVER disclosed his conflict with Bakke and Imagine Schools. Hornberger ran on a pro-charter platform and even pushed charters while on the board. Imagine has met with several folks in my district (currently seeking FOIA requests on those emails to see how many) and canvassed my county for charter interest. They even identified a parcel of land to build the charter.
A key point I made to the judge was that the school board doesn’t need to actually give a charter to Imagine Schools for Bakke to make a profit. Imagine subcontracts with numerous charter schools to manage them. Their subcontract with a district in Ohio (taking >50% of the school’s revenues in their own lease payments) led to the charter board resigning en masse. If Hornberger/Bakke/Imagine have a foreseeable benefit/detriment when the school board approves a charter, elected officials MUST disclose that. Hornberger never has. That judge (graduated from the 7th worse law school in the nation) even sanctioned me $6800 for bringing the case. Our district is filled with corrupt and incompetent folks. I’ll get the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn it but I will not stop.
In any case, this appears identical to the case you cite. He established charters without any links to his consulting firm. Then, after the charters were established and are free to hire whomever they wish, the charter hires his consulting firm to cash in. I guess judges with LSATs in the 140-range can’t quite comprehend that here in my district. And that’s why hiring smart judges is absolutely critical to a working justice system.
San Francisco Chronicle coverage of the charges against the superintendent. (His charter activities were in the San Diego area, but he’s now in the Bay Area, 600 miles north.) http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/North-Bay-schools-chief-slapped-with-felony-charge-6767453.php
Wow. who knew that school district to could authorize charters in other districts. The scams keep on coming in California.
We have been trying to address this issue of out of district authorizers here in SD County for awhile and in our local progressive newspaper. It is great to see someone being held somewhat accountable. Dehesa and Julian school districts each have only 200 students, yet they authorize charter schools that serve several thousand in at least 3 counties. Some districts have sued. The problem is, they end up settling, or agreeing to oversee the school in a settlement. The charter school brings a bunch of protesters who tell a sob story about how their kids love their part-time school in the strip mall and the boards get intimidated — and of course, the media tends to make the district board look like bad guys instead of making the charter operators look like the scammers they are. I have been writing my school district for a LONG time. I have also notified other districts who had no idea these places had opened in their districts. All of these districts need to sue these illegal charters, try to get back payment, and shut them down!
For all those charter school scammers: Scratch a lie, find a thief. The thief was the supt.
As for the former governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, hopefully he won’t be back!
Ohio “reformed” their charter system but, as is a constant in this state, the problems public schools reported and asked state government to address were completely ignored:
“A trio of frustrated school officials from across Ohio said today that the legislature needs to fix the state’s current charter school funding formula that forces local tax dollars to be used to subsidize charter schools. The schools represented at the press conference were among the 36 different school districts that have passed a resolution and in many instances sent the state an invoice calling attention to this problem.
“Schools districts across the state are raising serious concerns about Ohio’s flawed school funding system, which forces school districts to divert local tax dollars to help pay for charter schools, many of which don’t perform as well as the schools in the districts that provide these subsidies,” said Innovation Ohio Education Policy Fellow Stephen Dyer. “We have made progress with recently enacted charter school accountability measures, but now we need to address a funding system that unfairly pits school districts against charters.”
Officials from districts in Wood, Washington, and Montgomery Counties discussed the challenges their districts face in coping with the lost revenues and the reasons they decided to send invoices to the Ohio Department of Education. Northmont City Schools, near Dayton, billed the state for $430,955 for revenue lost in 2015, and Belpre City Schools billed the state for $1,010,013 for lost revenue to charters going back to 2002.”
Why don’t public schools have any advocates in government? In this state, they educate 93% of the children- children of ALL income levels.
One would think we could get at least one of the thousands of people we’re paying in state government to pay attention to the schools that educate 93% of children.
https://seanwes.com/2012/reposting-the-etiquette-of-attribution/