Denis Smith, retired school administrator who worked in Ohio’s charter school office, writes here about the stench coming from the charter industry, not only in Ohio, but in other states.
Imagine for a moment that you’re in a California television studio and Alex Trebek turns to you and two other contestants in a Final Jeopardy! segment. The famed host asks: “Name the five most commonly used words uttered about the charter school industry.”
If you answered “Will the defendant please rise?” you might have the potential to be a Jeopardy! champion. On the other hand, you may not have to be a Jeopardy! high-performer to know that as scandals in the for-profit education world continue to pile up, the number of charter school industry culprits and defendants continues to grow, as sure as there is stink on…
Well, gentle readers, since we are all in polite company, perhaps that simile can be completed privately. But yes, malodorous conditions aside, it’s quite clear that there are plenty of defendants in the proliferating, malodorous charter school industry. Plenty.
As we saw recently, there’s something about voodoo accounting that seems to be part of the DNA of charters. Here in Ohio and across the country, stories abound of treasurers mishandling millions of Ohio tax dollars, and management companies buying property and issuing leases to the school at exorbitant rates, with one Columbus school paying 81% of its state aid in rent. Add to this the sad tale about board members and school leaders of a Cleveland charter school that were indicted for payments to shell companies set up to be the repositories of state funds.
All the while, charter school scandals and corruption continue unabated. Everywhere.
Smith recounts the latest charter school scandals. Taxpayer funds wasted; schools closed; profits for entrepreneurs; inflated enrollments; lease deals; kickbacks.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
White Hat is the same group behind Newpoint Schools that perpetrated the fraud, money laundering scheme in Escambia County, Florida. That investigation now goes to the grand jury. The superintendent wishes he had investigated sooner, but the hybrid status of charters limited his authority and made it difficult for him to take action. http://inweekly.net/wordpress/?p=22779
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Stench is an excellent choice of words. Denis Smith is a tireless worker in exposing the corruption. In Ohio the people who could stop this corruption are not interested in holding anyone responsible, least of all Kasich here in Ohio, or the billionaires and the federal officials who keep shoving money out of the door on the pretext of doing good works for children of color and low-income families…their language, and while waving a banner on behalf of civil rights.
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Are you sure you’re not talking about Michigan?
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I thought NY didn’t allow for-profit charters? :
“Maple Street Charter School, the for-profit charter school hoping to open in Rochester next year, has paid tens of thousands of dollars to a lobbying firm at the center of a rapidly expanding federal investigation into improper influence in Albany, state records show.
Maple Street’s parent company, National Heritage Academies, has been using the Albany-based lobbying firm Whiteman Osterman & Hanna since at least 2007. A WOH subsidiary in Washington, D.C., was led until recently by Todd Howe, a former associate of Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is at the center of the probe by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.”
Maybe there’s a nonprofit shell as an intermediary corp?
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/05/17/maple-street-charter-nha-bharara-probe-woh/84492648/
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Chiara,
New York legislature passed a law prohibiting the opening of new for-profits. National Heritage has one in Brooklyn, paying outrageous rent to…itself! But I don’t see how they can be authorized to open a new one in Rochester.
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Fordham’s Chad Aldis was interviewed in the Dayton Daily News on Friday. He said, “…absolutely, we should do a better job of vetting them (charter schools).” “WE” , what government department employs Aldis? ”
I understand the charter schools’ assumption of control, when former legislator, Batchelder joins his former legislative aides, in a lobbying firm that represents one of the largest charter school operators in Ohio. “Since 2010, Lager, (owner of a charter school) donated $1 mil. to Ohio Republicans.” “Since 1998, $1.76 bil. in taxpayer money has gone to Lager and Brennan.” (Ohio.com and Cleveland.com)
When do wolves crying wolf, stop their half decade of blathering, cautionary rhetoric and, take ownership for the harm to students, fleecing of Ohioans and loss to communities? The Waltons’ money buys a scourge on decency and democracy.
Aldis’ concluding quote, in the DDN, Ohio’s charter industry wants Washington’s money so that “good schools can grow”. Un Huh. And, so that former politicians can make money and current politicians can continue to screw Ohio taxpayers and communities.
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