Presumptive Republican nominee has said that billionaire Carl Icahn is the kind of person he would pick as Secretary of the Treasury.
It seems there is a magnetic attraction between billionaires and charter schools.
Investigative journalist George Joseph took a closer look at Carl Icahn’s investment in charter schools:
Like Trump, Carl Icahn has also named a school after himself—seven charter schools in New York City to be exact (Icahn Charter School 1, Icahn Charter School 2, Icahn Charter School 3, etc.). And as with Trump University, the money trail suggests the organization running these schools may have served to enrich its billionaire founder, Icahn, at the expense of its own students. An AlterNet investigation finds that Carl Icahn appears to have treated his charity like a personal piggy bank, using it to make potentially tens of millions for himself while benefiting from tens of millions in tax deductions.
In 1997, Carl Icahn made a $100 million tax-deductible “contribution” to his public charity, the Foundation for a Greater Opportunity, scoring about a $45 million income tax reduction, according to an estimate by Gregg Polsky, a law professor at UNC. In January 2006, Icahn’s foundation suddenly sold back the stock gift to an Icahn corporation, Modal LLC. The $100 million gift in American Railcar Industries Inc. shares was conspicuously sold three days before the company was to go public, a process that often sparks a short-term hike in share value. The convenient date of the sale strongly suggests Icahn knew his limited liability corporation, rather than his educational charity, would make a killing off the public offering.
Isn’t it wonderful how some people, like Icahn, have figured out how to do good and make money at the same time?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Priority one is making money, doing good is secondary.
Icahn did NOT do any good. He’s just a greedy, self-centered, selfish scam artist.
Although this is a dreadful thought, Hillary might appoint one of her foundation donors.
That’s just as bad.
This election is very scary. There is no one that I trust.
Icahn’s foundation does seem to give away very little in relation to its assets, and pay its staff handsomely to oversee what appears to be not much activity, but going by their Forms 990, I don’t think Alternet is describing this particular transaction accurately. See page 42:
http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/133/133913393/133913393_201312_990.pdf?_ga=1.224407507.89429772.1466184038
Icahn buys the stock from the foundation at either fair market value or $100 million, whichever is greater.
Icahn pays the foundation $10 million in cash and a $90 million promissory note, payable in January 2016. He pays the foundation interest on this note monthly at the prime rate.
Two months after the sale, in March 2006, Icahn signs over an additional promissory note for about $29 million, also payable in January 2016, also with monthly interest payments at the prime rate. This payment presumably represents the increase in stock valuation after the IPO (and it is–accidentally, I’m sure!–not mentioned in the Alternet piece).
So with a $100,000,000 loan, in about 10 years the foundation ends up with a completely risk-free $129,000,000, plus, according to their revenue statement, about $3,000,000 annually in interest payments, or another $30,000,000 or so. Not too shabby!
It’s also worth poring over the Form 990 to see how little cash support the foundation gives to the Icahn schools—new schools get some modest start-up construction money, but after that they are expected to be entirely self-reliant. Class sizes are capped at 18, their student populations fairly closely match their home district averages, and they backfill every open seat from K-8. Icahn’s been sending kids to specialized high schools since their first graduating class!
The mention of the union-funded Center for Popular Democracy’s “report” that charter schools lose $1.4 billion to fraud—a figure determined by nothing more than a trade group survey estimating that ALL organizations lose 5% of their revenues to fraud—is a tip-off as to what this piece is really about. Icahn schools are popular and successful, and they must be stopped.
A new career path to become Secretary of the Treasury–buy the future President’s failed casino?
Off topic- The Political Insider reported “Soros fund managers, Bessent and Druckenmiller, donated $488,000 to Gov. Kasich’s soft money fund, according to records provided by the FEC.”
Bernie didn’t have a chance.
Linda, Bernie wasn’t funded by the billionaires, as you know. He proved that it was possible to raise hundreds of millions in small donations, average: $27
Pulling the Soros money out of a hat, for use in Ohio’s primary, didn’t alter the outcome. HRC was always going to be the Democratic candidate. Bloomberg made that clear when he said, he’d run, if outsiders were the nominees. And, the Koch’s expressed, comfort level with Hillary, provides additional corroboration. The opposition candidacy of independent, Bernie Sanders, gives him the clout to help candidates like Tim Canova, in their fights against the corporate right wingers, calling themselves, Democrats.
HRC’s appointments to the Supreme Court will be better than Trump’s. She isn’t offensive, internationally. Anger from minority communities, within the U.S., will be tamped down by HRC rhetoric. But, concentration of wealth (and, all of the policy baggage that comes with it), which is the nation’s major problem, will increase, with either the Republican or Democratic candidate. Just an opinion.
Cross posted at..http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Will-Trump-and-Charter-Sch-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Education_Follow-The-Money_Investigation_Money-160618-468.html#comment602604
with these comments which have embedded links to posts here…so go to the page and click on the links in my comments!
COMMENT 1: Submitted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2016 at 9:30:48 AM
Let’s look at ” The Attack on Public Education in California which is under siege by people and organizations who want to privatize the schools, remove them from democratic control, and hand them over to the charter industry.Big Money and Slimy Tactics by Charter Advocates Prevail in Legislative Races says Diane Ravitch,”The charter industry continues to descend into a pit of slime in its drive for money and power and its desire to cripple public education.”
“Awash in contributions from billionaires, the California Charter Schools Association claimed victory in several contested legislative elections.Its candidate in the 43rd Assembly District, Laura Friedman came in first, bolstered by more than $1 million in campaign gifts by the powerful lobby.”
“The charter lobby, as usual, ran under false colors, pretending to be “all about the kids” and fighting for high-quality schools. But Steve Zimmer, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board, called them out, saying it was all about contracts and money. Zimmer denounced the negative mailers sent by CCSA Advocates that flooded voters’ mailboxes in the district that includes Glendale, Burbank, La Canada Flintridge and parts of Los Angeles.”
“It is base thuggery, no more or no less,” Zimmer said.
“Billionaires are not smart just because they are wealthy. See another example of the extremist far-right Koch funded school sinking in a cesspool of corruption: Gates, Koch, Broad, the Waltons, et al. have hubris and privilege but no expertise on schools and teaching.”
Laura Chapman writes at the Ravitch Blog: “I think that the criticisms of the Gates Foundation may be calculated to leave the local Broad Foundation untouched, also the Walton family and on down the line. ESSA is retaining the worst of this era’s policies and that foundations are already looking at new ways to meddle with education without giving up the Gates-led initiatives. One of the most important and easily overlooked is the successful organization of many foundations in to networks so they could have a “collective impact” on policies and events at different tiers of action: local regional, national, international. ”
Submitted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2016 at 9:30:48 AM
COMMENT 2 Submitted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2016 at 9:41:56 AM
Public education under attack by our billionaires: Martin Levine, writing in NonProfit Quarterly, reviews the latest statement by the President of the Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellman, and concludes that the foundation is unwilling to learn from its mistakes.
“After Bill Gates had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in creating small schools, he abruptly abandoned that idea and moved on, with little reflection.”
“The foundation’s lessons learned from this experience did not result in any questioning of their core belief that the answer to building a more equitable society would be found within our public schools. They just shifted their focus to increasing the number of charter schools, creating test-based teacher evaluation systems, improving school and student data management, and setting universal standards through the common core curriculum. Each has struggled, andnone appear to have been effective.
Nonetheless, public schools are disappearing and with it the road to income equality as well as a democracy. Shared knowledge is a requirement for a democracy, and when Billionaire Koch can write North Carolina’s social studies curricula…..
See my series on privatization, http://www.opednews.com/Series/PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html
using information that Diane Ravitch provides about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption .
Comment 3 Submitted on Saturday, Jun 18, 2016 at 9:45:25 AM
Let’s look at charter schools elsewhere: North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper sued a charter operator who got$666,000 from the state to open a charter that closed after being open for only 10 days.
AND: “Jessica Calefati of the San Jose Mercury-News wrote a shocking seriesabout the online charter schools of K12 Inc., which have the lowest graduation rate in the state, and which counts students “present” if they log on for only one minute. Millions of public dollars fund the California Virtual Academies (CAVA), which operates for profit and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, founded by Michael and Lowell Milken, delivers a substandard education. It should be closely supervised or shut down. ”
“Unfortunately, as Calefati discovered, the legislature ismoving at a snail’s pace to authorize an audit of CAVA. Nothing seems to be happening. Much clucking of tongues, but no action. CAVA is the lowest performing school in the state. Why hasn’t it been shut down long ago? If you recall, K12’s online charter in Tennessee was the lowest performing school in the state, and not even the State Commissioner Kevin Huffman was able to get it closed. Why?”
So the magnetic connection between billionaires and charter schools can be summed up on one two words: personal profit.