Bill Phillis is a retired administrator who champions the cause of public schools in Ohio. He founded the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy. Having served as a deputy commissioner of the state education department, he closely tracks the state budget. He frequently writes about the charter industry and its unscrupulous raid on public monies. If you care about public schools in Ohio, you should add your name to his mailing list and consider a contribution.
Today he writes:
“Federal government adds $333 million to $3 billion already spent to expand the failed charter industry
“Congress and the U.S. Department of Education made a devilish wrong turn in public K-12 education policy with the enactment of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Departing from its historical role of supplemental support for the public common schools, the federal government, in some respects, turned against what Horace Mann declared the “greatest discovery of mankind”- the public common school.
“NCLB provided a variety of weapons to discredit and punish the public system. In that context, the feds have appropriated $3 billion to promote the charterization of the public system. In spite of the corruption and racketeering in the charter industry and its dubious performance, the feds have put an additional $333 million in Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for 2016 to further expand the industry.
“The charter industry seems to have a stranglehold on the federal politicians. The charter lobby, via campaign contributions and other perks, are able to advance this inferior alternative to the great American common school system.
“Those great political and educational leaders, who founded the common school system, never envisioned that government would become the enemy of the real public school system.”
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
Ohio E & A
100 S. 3rd Street
Columbus OH 43215
Sent by ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a former state leader in NC (a reasonable Republican from the 80s) said, “we send $10 to the DOE and get $1 back.”
DOE needs to go, yes?
Don’t be silly. They love public schools, but only as data collection units.
It’s really not an exaggeration if you read on the ed reform side. Public schools are often not even mentioned. They’re simply absent.
Apparently “the new normal” in education is completely omitting any mention of public schools other then their role as testing centers:
http://www.thirdway.org/report/the-new-normal-in-k-12-education
Charters and tests. I think we could send our kids in for 2 weeks of testing in the spring and as long as we complied with that they’d be completely off the ed reform radar which might be good, come to think of it
“They love public schools, but only as data collection units”
That pretty well sums it up.
They also love public schools as “hosts” for charter schools and as the “dumping ground” for those rejected by the charters.
If there were no public schools, where oh where would Success Academy locate? The public library? The train station? Your house? My house?
And where would they send all the special needs kids and the “discipline” problems? And the ones who don’t do well on tests?
This post shows that due to monied interests, public schools which serve the vast majority of students have become the whipping post of both Republicans and Democrats alike. Despite charters’ less than impressive records, the flow of money to almost anyone that wants to start a school continues. Lying, cheating and stealing are all in the corporate playbook. Parents and concerned citizens must be vigilant in these times, or public schools may become an “endangered species.”
cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Federal-Government-is-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-Schools_Corruption_Diane-Ravitch_Public-Assets-To-Private-Wealth-160427-760.html#comment594087
with this comment Submitted on Wednesday, Apr 27, 2016 at 2:05:38 PM
For more on charter school fraud, from the search field at the Ravitch blog.
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=charter+school+fraud
here is one report:
“Thomas Ultican is a teacher of physics and mathematics at a high school in California. The students in his school are 50% English language learners and 75% Title I (poor).
He writes here that the charter experiment has been a disaster for public schools. California was second in the nation to pass a charter law in 1992, and now 9% of the children are in charter schools. While the charter schools have a rich and powerful lobby, the public schools suffer from underfunding and overcrowding. The charters get to choose their students, and some charters are located in affluent communities, where they serve the children of the rich. This is very far from what charters were supposed to be when they were first proposed in 1988. Ultican writes that it is time to change the law in California and ban charters outright.”
By green lighting selective charters that filter off the most affluent, white students, the federal government is contributing to increased segregation. That’s a bit of irony! Perhaps the feds should pause and study the impact of what is happening before they keep throwing more public money at them.
retired teacher: excellent observation.
I await a stinging rebuttal by the charter/privatization folks that visit this blog.
😎
Don’t hold your breath waiting KTA!
Señor Swacker: give me a moment. I failed to heed your advice. After my face turned blue I think I lost consciousness for a few seconds…
😏
Ok. Here goes. Are you telling me that thought leaders like Non Sequitur, one of the few sane people that leaves comments on this blog, won’t directly address an issue that he has brought up numerous times when it had little or nothing to do with a particular posting or its thread? And now that it’s a pointed topic of conversation, he will refuse to Dial up the grit and rigor that has served him well in dealing with heavy-desk tossing five-year-olds?
O ye of little faith!
😎
Susan .
I really sad , I don’t know how I can get the chance to show that is the most important thing to do. The only way people wake up and get involved with you guys should make it. I’m not sure if I could have the chance to see the greatest team I ever had in my life
Thanks for following me and my comments about it and the rest of a good, very good justice defenders to me is likely to be in my hometown. I’m not sure where is my hometown . I’m not from America. I’m not sure if Americans people like me but I don’t now how much I hate abusers, I love be in a place where I can be used to tell the truth about the corruption of place where I leave. I never thought be in a situation like this. I don’t have a clue. Not sure if I’m from here , if I below its not that good at all and the rest of the people who don’t have the minimum clue about the future of the this country. I don’t have to be in another state of America. I’m not sure if the government has become so far away from the reality
reibelcastillo, you are not alone in wondering if you belong. There are plenty of people who were born in the U.S. who are beginning to wonder the same thing.
In watching Ken Burns’ films on the National Parks it came to mind that, in the reform movement, we are seeing the same land grab for profits that the national parks faced.
We have our John Muir, in Diane Ravitch. We need a president like Teddy Roosevelt who is unafraid of doing the best and noble thing of protecting the very valuable resource from desecration for dollars.
That’s an excellent observation.
Some (John Muir and Diane) see value that extends well beyond the monetary while others can only see only the latter.
As Diane has pointed out, public schools are a public good — a public treasure really — just as national parks are a public good.
And just like public lands, once the schools are gone (auctioned off for short term gain), they are essentially gone forever.
“Common Ground”
The school is like a park
A sacred public good
A kind of Noah’s ark
Preserving neighborhood
Yes, but the challenge is to make the public schools sexy or lovable. They’re despised by the reformers. Will they ever be beauty queens? I don’t think so. They’re destined to be the repositories of many below average students, and merely OK teachers. When you include the whole gamut of humanity, that’s what happens. I’m for this inclusiveness, but the result is unsightly to the meritocratic elites. How can we teach them to embrace this muddle?
You migh be interested to know the Tennessee just canceled TN Ready tests for this year in grades 3-8.
I don’t know the whole story yet. But I wanted to let you know.
Vero Paz
Ps. I replied to your last post. But it has nothing to do with that.
>
Diane
El Gobierno federal está planificando , está bien analizado , nunca olvides esto la inteligencia siempre hay que usarla , desafortunadamente en todas las guerras tienen que morir soldados , la inteligencia de este país es superior a la
de esos corruptos que odian el bien . Aparentemente también creía yo que el gobierno federaley el gobierno estatal
se estaban uniendo . No el gobierno local , instituciones locales el nivel de Corruption es muchísimo superior que el nivel intelectual. El gobierno federal no ha tenido otra opción que tirarles un anzuelo ( HUGE JUCKS ) SHARKS
SRARKS TANQUES ? NOW SHARK tank is going to disappear.
That’s the plan for the federal government. Those billions that they are giving them is a huge hook.
Le admiro, reibelcastillo, que le es tan importante expresarse que escribe aunque tal vez pocos pueden entender. Con su permiso, traduzco:
The federal government is planning, it has been carefully analyzed, never forget that one must use their intelligence, unfortunately in every war some soldiers must die, the intelligence in this country is superior to the corrupt ones who hate the common good. It also seemed to me that the federal and local governments were coming together. Not the local government; in local institutions the level of corruption is much higher than the intellectual level. The federal goverment has had no other option but to throw out a hook – and caught a shark.
Thanks very much ms. Christine .
Nice person like you don’t live in a fantasy world. I’m not going anywhere else in the world to me there’s nothing like a good day to be the first time since I was in Cuba and the only way to get the chance of getting a new friend.
I don’t know how to explain. I’m not sure what they are not going anywhere else in the world to me I have no clue how to make a good one comment about the same thing over and over again. I DON’T HAVE TO GO BACK AND OVER HERE IN FLORIDA DADE CAUNTY SPECIALLY HIALEAH THE MAYOR CITY AND THE REST OF THE CORRUT POLICE OFFICERS AND DETECTIVES ARE ARASMENT ALL DAY LONG BUT I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M NOT SURE IF YOU WANT TO READ MY MESSAGE. I MEAN YOU CAN BE THE RIGHT PERSON WHO CAN BELIEVE. I SCAPE FROM MY COUNTRY . CUBA AND RUSSIAN RULERS NEVER FOOL ME TWICE.
NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE I CANT FROM CUBA I FELD BAD . THEY POLICE TOLD THEY GOINT TO SEND BACK TO CUBA IF I KEEP COMPLAINING. IF THE WANT PLAY GAME GREAT I CAN PLAY A GAME THAT WILL SEND THEM TO FEDERAL PRISON . I DON’T HAVE NO MORE CHOICE THAT GO AND SHOW . HOW MANY MORE CRIME THEY COMITE . CHRISTINE THANKS
-You cannot beat a person who never gives up
Orestes would continuously bother us. My son would not play, and the principal and coach had to do what he said.
I asked for a second meeting with the principal Carlos Albares. He did not want to meet at school.
He would only meet with me in expensive restaurants such as:
– Ruth’s Chris
– Steak House
– Capital Grill
– Hillestone
– El Novillo
The restaurant he chose in this occasion was Prime 112, and we had to go in MY car. His exact words were “Prime 112 it is”. See screenshots attached below from our text messaging conversation.
I told him Don Shula’s Steak House.
I made a reservation for Thursday November 13th from 8:30 to 9:00 PM and we were going in different cars.
I arrived at Don Shula’s at 8:30 PM and he would not arrive. I send him a text message to ask why he was taking long. He said he was on his way and demanded that we go to the bar. He came in and went directly to the bar, without even asking me.
At our meeting, he told me he controls the police because he was going to run fro mayor. He completely ignored when I told him it was not fair that he do what Orestes wanted because Peter was a prospect. That was the agreement that they came to. He did recognize in our conversation that Orestes and the coach were good friends and that he let them to whatever they desired.
During our time there he ordered the most expensive Whisky and very expensive food. The total for that night was around $700. He left drunk and did not even thank me!
(continued on page 3)
Things got worse after our meeting…
The day after the “meeting”, Friday, November 14th, there was no confidentiality.
After practice, the coach called the team to meet. The objective was to pressure Daniel because of the meeting. He wanted to know why “that guy’s dad (myself, Daniel’s father) did not meet with me before going to THE PRINCIPAL”. (There is a law that does not permit parents to meet with the coach to talk about a disagreement or a situation.)
During this meeting, the coach was psychologically abusing my son, Daniel. He asked the same question over and over, “Why didn’t that parent come talk to me?” He would continuously look at Daniel. This was deliberately and obvious bullying in front of all the other kids.
Some names are:
Miguel Pitcher
Aron Hernandez
Dany Ramos
Victor Fleitas
Kenny Goodrich
They all quickly knew the meeting was for Daniel; the whole team knew. The coach said “I need to speak to the player whose dad spoke with Albares! ASAP” and he looked at Daniel.
Afterwards, they all left except for Daniel. Daniel said “Why did you meet with everybody if you knew it was my father? Who told you coach? I knew that the meeting was for me. Your looks and words told not only me, but the whole group. I did not know my dad was in that meeting.” He said all of this with fear.
November is a month in which the sun goes down early. They took advantage of this and cornered Daniel against the fence, behind third base. The coaches, Regee and Nalepa (a big guy, 6’ 4”), intimidated Daniel, as if he was in a prison. They mentally destroyed Daniel. As a result of this, he lost 15 lbs. in 20 days. In page 4, there is a before and after picture of Danny during this time.
Slade Park is a public park that Hialeah Educational Academy (HEA) uses. Multiple witnesses observed what happened without being seen. This was on the night the coaches had my son cornered against the wall.
I asked around and I already have various witnesses that were there. For the moment, they wish to remain anonymous. However, they are ready to testify if they are questioned. I personally have the names and phone numbers.
After what happened, Daniel became isolated. He would not eat or sleep (the pictures in page 4 speak for themselves). There is a letter from Psychiatric Doctor Rosa Turned attached also in page 4.
(Continued on page 5)
Figure 1 BeforeFigure 2 After
Daniel told his mother “I hate this live and myself”. He had many thoughts of suicide.
Daniel was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The law requires special treatment to this kind of student. The only one who received special treatment was Peter Valdrich!
The whole team and their parents were there. Witnesses:
Miguel
Aron Hernández
Andy García
Brando
Víctor Fleitas
Dany Ramos
Kenny Goodrich
77% of the team was interrogated. (They were subpoenaed and they coincided)
Dany García
Bandos parent
Migueles parten
Kenny Goodrich’s dad (a subpoena would show proof of bribery) – Obstruction of investigation (a criminal charge)
He was a witness of the physical abuse on Daniel. He told me “They abused your son.” He called my house (on the phone speaker). Witnesses heard this call.
After this, he met with Albares who promised his son a scholarship if he did not testify. After this, he did not want to speak anymore with me about the abuse, he would blatantly ignore my calls.
I now want to continue discussing the mental abuse and bullying against Melanie, my 11 year old daughter, by Regee Rodriguez, science teacher/baseball coach.
Regee IGNORED Melanie and his face showed that he had taken things personally against my daughter.
Melanie came home one day and let me know that she felt insecurity and she had lost the passion she had for school. On a scale of 1-10, her interest in school was a 10; now she was more of a 5. Melanie is a very dedicated young girl. She is very disciplined and she was always happy to show her report card consisting of straight A’s.
When Albares asked me to transfer Melanie from Hialeah gardens, he asked me if he could speak to her. Melanie did not want to go, so he promised to take her to Starbucks. He gave me strategies so that they would let me transfer her to HEA. This was because HEA did not transfer students during the school year. It is a charter school that requires registration during the previous school year. He violated that rule when he saw Melanie’s grades. He wanted to have her in HEA; a girl like that would give HEA even more honors.
He never took Melanie to Starbucks, and Melanie noticed that he did not keep his promises. Albares was ignoring my daughter after all the issues. He was taking things personal with Melanie. My question is, WHY?
The principal of Hialeah Gardens School cried when I asked to transfer Melanie. She said “Please do not take her. Please think about it at least three days”. But I had already told Albares I would, and I did three days later. This caused much sadness to Melanie’s principal, counselor, and teacher.
Back to Albares, he later told me “You are suing MY school?” He seems so believe he is the owner of the school.
The incidents kept getting worse as described by Melanie. Please see a statement from her below.
“Kittens? Go ahead with the sue… I have my lions… I’m ready”. This is what Albares would say. He was trying to tell me that no lawyer would win.
Mr. Albares would always brag about his connections. Those words were said in the meeting that my wife and I had with him. The reason we met was to stop the abuse that he was permitting. I told him “Please stop, or you leave me no choice but to sue you”. My wife asked for another meeting, but this time with Regee Rodriguez (the coach) present. My wife understood that this abuse was very real. She generally does not involve herself in sport-related matters, but this was no longer about that… This was about the proven abuse of our children!
Martha, in a very demeaning way, told us while we were waiting to meet with Albares, “If you don’t like how we treat your kids, change them out of this school!”
I asked her “Do you know what IDIA means?”
She was surprised and could not answer.
“Of course you don’t know. That is why there are so many problems here. Very few of you know how to deal with students with ADD”, I said.
My wife responded, “That is not the right thing to do… taking our kids like as if we were in Cuba? No! Please locate your boss that he is already about 30 minutes late.”
Martha told us to come in. Albares came late with Regee. Why? He was planning how to respond to us, apparently. The meeting did not last long because the coach came with some papers, fraudulent papers. He was trying to convince my wife why Daniel was benched. He focused the attention on my wife and tried to convince her.
I looked at the stats he had. “He is a liar, a false coach! Look my love, there are the right stats”, I said. “Our son is the second prospect after Peter. Peter is in 12th grade, traveling the whole country. Daniel is only in 11th grade and naturally strong, with a healthy, nutritional diet.” I was letting them know that “it is likely that Peter was using steroids. It does not surprise me as Regee in many occasions would tell stories to the team about when he would use steroids and how he would get a noticeable improvement. What he SHOULD have told them is the damage that steroids cause on teens and how it is irreversible.” They were both surprised!
“Where did you get those stats?” Regee asked me.
I said, “From the official location, real stats. Not like the ones YOU falsified. The only truth is that you have abused Daniel a lot; physically, mentally, even his self-esteem was destroyed. That almost left us with just one child! Thank God that the psychiatrist helped him mentally and gave him written authorization to not come close to you for 15 days. If not you would have thrown him out. You hated my son and you hated me! You said you would kill me in front of the whole group for slashing your tires (a false accusation).
Look, you are a coach without principles. You came to even ask me for money so that you would THINK about putting Daniel in. You even accused me of slashing your tired. You are being investigated. Just like you also said I stole the money for more than 200 Marlins tickets. I paid you with checks and have proof! Just like you obligated every player to buy 10 tickets for $250. Many poor parents paid and the tickets DID NOT SELL. Yet Daniel and I sold ours. More than 200 and not in the position that Mr. Albares chose like the 100 best tickets. Why? Why did he want 100 tickets in the front? Why so many?
The 100 tickets all together (1-100) came to reach a value of more than $200. It would be a huge problem if an investigation proved that only a few of the 100 tickets were taken by Mr. Albares.”
“Carlos Albares tickets were sold on Stub Hub”, they said (this was a lie).
I continued, “Albares and Regee, where is the bat you promised you would gift to the student who sold the most? Yes, where is Daniel’s bat? He sold more than Albares. It is another crime to lie to an adolescent with mental problems. You never gave him any bat.”
“Mr. Albares”, said my wife, “What about the hard hits on my sons knees. Why does he have those?”
This was analyzed behind closed doors, and it stayed behind closed doors. Logically, they convinced Kenny’s dad so that he would not speak of that matter anymore. Why would that be logical? Because like I have said many times, Kenny Goodrich Sr. had notified me of the abuse. And he did not do what he had to do, bring the matters to the police.
Albares responded, “Look, I support my coach in everything he does”.
I got up very upset.
“It is over”, I said. My wife also added, “Respect is more value than prominence. I leave this is God’s hands.”
“Let’s go”, I said. I took out my wallet and looked up Mr. Steve Rosie’s business card. Upset, I threw it over the table and I yelled, “Look at this kitten, like you called the ex-FBI agent. Albares, you will see who is the lion. You or Mr. Rosie!”
Before I left, I looked at him, pointed my finger, and said, “I assure you I will be the Martin Luther King of this dictatorship that you have implanted”. When I left he tried to convince me not to call Mr. Rosie. But it was too late. Every day the City of Hialeah would call me to meet with us and would ask us not to involve a lawyer… that they would fix everything.
“I can’t”, I would say. “I’m sorry but I already hired a lawyer.”
“Mr. Albares never told me about you guys”, they said.
“Thanks!” I responded.
Page | 7
Yet the NEA and AFT fall all over themselves to endorse a federal candidate who will continue the policies of the previous “leader,” and most of you agree with your union’s endorsement.
My only point is that from an education point of view the NEA and AFT have NO business endorsing any federal candidate. However, these organizations care more about politics than education.
Agreed. What also destroys me is that my tax dollars have supported TFA through government grants, and I have had no say in that whatsoever. I do not wish my tax dollars to eviscerate public schools, and yet, it has happened. How do we stop it?
The government shut down, and when it reopened, in the bill were more monies for Wendy Kopp. It makes no sense.
Obama, as our democrat President, has done more damage to pubic education than any previous President. Shame on him and the DOE. The DOE should be dismantled, as should TFA. There should be no incentives for Wall Street to “invest” in charters to the detriment of public schools. Its wrong. So very wrong.
So is the insertion of Pearson and all the test and punish nonsense. I want my money back…I want my tax dollars returned to me, or at the very least, returned to the public schools to fund wraparound services, nurses, smaller classrooms, art, music. Period.
I share your frustration. I feel like it is taxation without representation. Even though in theory we have representatives, they are ineffective because they are in lobbyists’ pockets. They rarely let the public weigh in when they choose to ignore the 90% of students in public schools. The system is corrupt.
yes, taxation without representation…with the involvement of British East India Company (aka Pearson).
Time for a party.
Tea, anyone?
Ah, now I get it
“T for America”
testing
Indeed- After researching this situation in 2014 we wrote this book in 2015. There is a plan to have the corporate rich run the schools by design. Everything you see from charter schools, to common core to testing to Teach for America has many of the same fingerprints. We give away this book for free here- https://weaponsofmassdeception.org/
Expected-
Gates’ generous support, made possible, the Aspen Institute’s “Urban Superintendents Network”. (David Koch and Madelyn Albright are Aspen Institute Board members). The group is meeting April 27-30.
Gates’ generous support, made possible Aspen’s “Senior Congressional Education Staff Network”.
Nothing unexpected about the public paying the time sheets for public employees to learn the views of the richest 0.1%.
I’ll write to charter school-loving, Sen. Sherrod Brown, to ask if his staff attends the meetings of the richest 0.1% Aspenites, to learn about commercializing public education.
As a taxpayer, I want to know why the government is throwing good money after bad? This is ridiculous. Why is the American public allowing this to happen?
Princeton Prof. Martin Gillens’ research showed Congress doesn’t listen to the opinions of 90% of the American people.
Specific to Ohio, a school superintendent reported that when he presented to the House, the representatives were, at least, respectful. On the other hand, Ohio’s state Senators were rude. It was obvious, to him that they wanted to show him they were ignoring him. Probably took lessons from the childish Governor Kasich.