The day after the election that handed control of the Los Angeles school board to charter promoters, the head of a now-closed Los Angeles charter school was charged with embezzling $200,000.
Kendra Okonkwo, 51, was charged with misappropriation of public funds, grand theft by embezzlement, money laundering and keeping a false account, according to a news release issued by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Her son, 29-year-old Jason Okonkwo, is accused of approving fake invoices to further the plot and faces the same charges, prosecutors said.
Kendra Okonkwo founded the Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists near the Watts neighborhood in 2006, but the school quickly became a target of regulators and lost its charter in 2016. She and her son were arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday morning and remain jailed in lieu of $145,000 bail, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Dana Aratani, who is prosecuting the case.
From January 2012 to March 2014, approximately $201,000 was transferred from the school to an unnamed business run by Okonkwo, according to the district attorney’s office. The money was then transferred to her personal bank account, prosecutors said.
That’s the downside of opening schools that receive public funds without transparency or accountability.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Of COURSE. It’s about $$$$$$$$$.
And these people don’t care a wit about anything else except their pocketbooks and perks.
Wow.
Yikes! It didn’t take long for this problem to emerge.
Tip of the freakin Iceberg. If they really search they’ll find more of these from the 1% that start these BS schools up.
Well, just forget it. The official line is all charter operators are wholly self-sacrificing and noble.
Only public school employees are “self interested”.
This isn’t possible so therefore it didn’t happen.
BTW, they’ll see more of it in LA. The charter scandals in Ohio didn’t really peak until ed reformers had been dominating state government for a decade- after they “flooded” districts with charter schools to gain market share, so beginning in about 2006.
Los Angeles is just getting started. Wait until they really ramp it up. The scandals will become impossible to ignore and eventually local media will catch on and much, much later you’ll see a response from lawmakers.
The problem is by then every single educational investment will have been directed to charters and public schools will lose a decade. That’s what happened in Ohio.
From your mouth to God’s ear, Chiara. But maybe– just maybe– Ohio’s tribulations will not have been in vain. CA has only been entrenched in the charter mess for about 10 yrs (1/2 Ohio’s experiment)– & already the main news organ of LA– where Broad is trying to turn over 50% pubschs to charter– is publishing bigtime charter fraud just a day after a pro-charter LA BOE success. That would not have happened in OH 10 yrs ago. Perhaps MSM & voters are listening in real time because of all the charter-school fraud reported out of OH, FL, MI, et al in recent years…
Maybe it’s time to ask ed reformers not how they see charter schools (we know the answer to that- super awesome) but instead how they see PUBLIC schools in these “ecosystems” they’re busy engineering.
What is the role of existing public schools in ed reform? Do our schools have a role? Are they just the designated back-up to “choice” schools? The “default” system – as one ed reformer describes them?
Are they like the Medicaid system as compared to the Obamacare subsidized private marketplaces? If so, shouldn’t the public be told that’s the plan?
Keep at it Chiara!! You certainly have the right target!!
IMO, our most important message to taxpayers– especially in states embracing ‘school choice’– must be to facilitate an understanding of the tax-supported school district as one whole system, all supported by tax dollars. Folks who like the idea of choice– charters &/or vouchers– must be helped to understand that alternatives to the pubsch sys depend on the pubsch being there as a no-fault backup to educate (a)those who’ve just moved in & haven’t had time to select an alternate, (b)those who weren’t accepted to [or couldn’t afford] an alternate, and (c)those who were counselled out/expelled from an alternate.
When & if the taxpayer grasps that they are paying for the whole district system, they can begin to glean the nuances, e.g.: (a) if there are no charter/voucher options for SpEd– the most expensive to educate– those students must be educated in the pubschs, whose funds have been depleted by loss of enrollment to charter/ voucher students, & also by fed/state budget-slashing, and (b) [depending on state charter/ voucher accountability law] the remaining pubsch studs may be even more expensive to educate by virtue of being the only studs subject to state stds/ computerized assessments/ data-mining et al ‘accountability’ measures.
Arne Duncan said at one point (confidently, with the same false certainty with which he always cites numbers) that charters would be “10%” of US schools. I wondered at the time how he knew, because this is supposedly a “free market”.
Now, “10%” is clearly not the plan because all of these people spend all of their time either expanding charters or promoting vouchers.
So what IS the plan? 50%? 100%? When do they think they’ll let the public in on the secret number? It’s pretty important if you’re a public school parent or you actually live in one of these places! We really deserve a head’s up if the powers that be have determined our schools are slated for eradication. Would be good to know.
Chiara: I think a main clue is that many look at public schools as “unfair competition.” Like many well-meaning but clueless people, they cannot see the FUNDAMENTAL difference between (1) a market-only kind of thinking and (2) a view that places markets in the larger view that includes markets, but understands ideas like infrastructure, the common good, and commonWEALTH, as a higher, broader, and more inclusive form of culture–and education as a part of that broader culture and its principles.
There’s a new interview on BookTV.org about a book called (something like) America’s Sickness. I think it speaks to this one-horse market-only, zero-sum-game mentality as a sickness that’s been growing for a long time and the infects American cujlture like a cancer.
When it comes to venture capitalism, the plan isn’t 10% or 50%. The plan is More.
Like.
It’s the camel’s nose under the tent principle. Any kind of privatization plan depends, preliminarily, on finding a way to provide overhead & profit. For a school, that means (a)cutting into teacher’s wage (because teacher salaries are 75% of cost)– which means lowering teacher wage, which means accepting lower-credentialed/ less-experienced teachers for starters– & (b)carving out OH, which means further slashing teacher-budget [& even facilities & supplies] to make room for (i)hi-salary admins, &/or (ii)canned-curriculum/ scripted/ even computer-provided lessons…
And that’s just for starters. Because any kind of biz– to be worth the front-end funds provided by hedge-funders– has to be able to show projection for growth. Which means ‘school-choice’ alternatives to poor inner-city pubschs must be able to expand beyond those borders to grow in working-class & middle-class areas, & beyond…
bethree5 It’s about the money, but also, for many, about controlling the curriculum, for instance, Betsy Devos has definite religious intentions about curriculum, regardless of the dollars. But there are other ideas, some intentionally subversive of democratic ideals, and some just blow back from the ignorance of those who think they know something about educating children, like Bill Gates, for example.
Corporations are always looking for “new markets.” They are only satisfied with MORE. I recently read Amazon is branching out into prescriptions. It’s all about the cash.
“The plan is More. ” YES. As always with an ever more deregulated school “reform,” the plan is Whatever The Market Will Allow Us To Suck Up At This Moment.
Diane, do you have a clearinghouse for listing all of the typical elitist evil we see from the charter school “believers”? Do you have a website to list the entire body of the ongoing corruption and lies by omission of these people who don’t give a damn about advancing education?
You will get help with any costs if you need it as your diligence in pursuing truth in education is unparalleled. Your focus and the quality of your work is right on.
You get my medal of freedom; the good one that comes from the heart.
Thank you for all you do.
Bill,
Several years ago, Sharon Higgins began creating a clearinghouse called “Charter School Scandals.” I don’t know if she has kept it up to date because she became fascinated with the Gulen schools and documenting its deeds and misdeeds. My only record is this blog, but since there are 15,000 or so posts, it would be hard to break them out, other than to look for anything that had the word “fraud,” “hoax,” or “scandal” attached.
I know that charter defenders say that public schools are no different, but they are different: public schools have supervision and oversight. Charters do not, and that opens the door to frauds.
Diane,
The other fact gleaned from your blog is that charters perform worse on average than public schools even before you factor in that charters can avoid taking in special education students. These students guarantee lower grade averages and higher costs. Of course lower grades will adversely affect their ratings.
Ironically these are the very students charters were first created to help. This evidence exposes how charters have morphed from hopeful solution into fraudulent schemes, nothing more.
Given these statistics, why would anyone promote sending their children to poor performing, chaotic, and unaccountable schools like charters? That’s the question that must always be asked.
I’ll keep reading.
Thank you again.
“Why would anyone promote sending their children to poor performing, chaotic, and unaccountable schools like charters?”
Why would anyone vote for Donald Trump?
If anyone here is in Indianapolis, Betsy DeVos will be in town tomorrow. She is speaking tomorrow night at the Westin Hotel.
I hope that some parents and teachers let her know what you think of her plans to gut funding for public schools.
Why, Bill?
$$$$$
According to The Boston Globe, charter schools continue to outperform public schools by a wide margin.
That’s what happens when you exclude students with profound disabilities and ELLs.
Great scores!
Isn’t that the purpose of education? High scores?
How often do these corporate charter school fraudsters actually go to prison, I mean a real prison instead of a country club prison for the rich and powerful where they have tennis courts and possibly a gold course?
And when they are fined for their crimes, how often is the fine equal to or more than the amount they ripped off from the public?
Lloyd, one charter cheater from Michigan, Steven Ingersoll, is currently housed in FCI Duluth. It’s described as a “prison camp” and not a penitentiary. Ingersoll received 41 months for three counts of tax evasion and conspiracy related to a charter school in Bay City, Michigan. However, the trial revealed Ingersoll had fraudulently converted millions from another charter school, the Grand Traverse Academy. As of today, no charges in that case.
Here’s what I found about FPC Duluth. IT’s obvious that this is not a prison for the working class. Working class people end up in prisons where nonviolent offenders are mixed in with violent ones and dangerous perverts.
“On March 29, 2011, a reporter from a CBS affiliate station in Minnesota interviewed Denny Hecker, an inmate at FPC Duluth. Hecker, who made millions of dollars as the owner of car dealerships, is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud in 2010. The reporter, Esme Murphy, described the interview:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Camp,_Duluth
That description sounds better than when I returned from Vietnam and was stationed at Camp Pendleton while I was still in the Marines. The only difference is the Marines usually got week-end liberty to go off and get drunk and womanize, but we could also be send back into combat at any time.
Hi, Diane and all.
Since I don’t know where to post this news, I’ll just add it onto this recent, unrelated post.
News from Montana:
Our U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke vacated his seat when he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Donald Trump. That created an opening for which Republicans and Democrats are vying here in Montana (and also Libertarians).
The Republican running for this seat is Greg Gianforte, a rich tech entrepreneur who supports school choice. The Democrat running is Rob Quist, a well-known Montana musician raised on a ranch. This race is big news out here, especially as Montana only has one Congressional seat.
I think Quist will be the better candidate, in terms of education policy, although his views on standardized testing are not fully known. Here is info from the Billings Gazette:
“There are significant differences between the candidates. Quist says he’s an automatic ‘no’ on any school choice proposals that would direct public money toward private schools. Gianforte supports school choice, but was wary of federal proposals.
Gianforte is a notable supporter of private education in Montana. His foundation funds Petra Academy, a Christian private school in Bozeman, and he is a major contributor to a scholarship program for private schools. But he said that options like tax credits, vouchers and education savings accounts, which all use public money to subsidize private education, have their limits.”
Anyway, feel free to read more on each candidate. Bernie Sanders is in Montana right now campaigning for Rob. Despite the fact that Montana leans Republican, this is a VERY close race because Montanans trust ranch and farm candidates, like Montana (Democratic) Senator Jon Tester.
If you decide Rob Quist is the better candidate, here is a place to send money. (This special election is on Thursday). We could use your help!
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/quist-homepage?refcode=MS_HP_FR_2017.04.25_X_homepage_X__X__MT&amount=25&amounts=15,25,50,100,250,500,1000,2700
And if you want to hear a really cool song composed and sung by Rob Quist, click here:
This song is “A Lady Called Montana” and expressed Rob’s love for our beautiful state. He said he got into this race in order to preserve our open, public lands (some Republicans have tried to move toward selling these off).
Thanks for any help you can give–even just sending good energy or prayers!
Thanks Montana Teacher…this is a very important race and Quist needs all the help Dems all over the US can muster,
My RESIST group and the one in Simi Valley are making calls for Quist in addition to sending cash for last minute TV ads. Please help out since this special election is May 25, Thursday of this week.
This election could turn the tide of the 2018 elections and make our Congress, both Senate and House, BLUE again. Impeach would be first on the agenda.
Thanks for the information about Rob Quist. I have been donating to his campaign and to Jon Ossoff in Georgia.
I joined up with a group called The Flippables and they send alerts about seats that can be flipped.
Good luck to Quist and Ossoff and all others trying to bring back sanity and concern for others.
Good to know about the Flippables, Diane…most of the resist groups (Indivisible, Our Revolution, etc.) have caught on and are focusing on weak Repubs in their states, then moving in to support the Dems running against them.
In California there are 14 of these Repub legislators, and my RESIST group just yesterday chose to unseat the obnoxious long termer, Darryl Issa from Vista. If every Dem Club and every Dem and progressive group leans in on this method, we can turn the Congress around next year.
Ellen,
As you know, the party that wins the presidency usually loses seats in the midterm elections that follow. Our job is to sweep the House and block Trump cruel budget cuts to education, health, environment, etc.
BTW…the big billionaire Repub cash has poured into Georgia to try to defeat the popular Ossoff, so he needs that continuing support of us all.
Ellen, so good to hear from you again! Wish I could put my real name on these posts, but I don’t feel safe to do so, right now anyway. Thank you for all of your help!
Montana teacher…I am smiling. Reach me at
Joiningforces4ed@aol.com
and we can talk more about Quist et al. Those who are still teaching must remain incognito to save their jobs.
Another thing Rob Quist wants to help is our rural and reservation schools–just like Senator Jon Tester has been trying to do. The average starting salary for teachers in those areas is $25,000.
Today the LA Times lead article was on the Yukon tribe at the Klamath River who are in dire straits. Heartbreaking situation similar to Montana. Quist is a unique candidate and he deserves all the help we can offer him. Should be a close race.
Hey folks, this money taken is your education tax dollar…how do you think it should be spent ? Charters, unless they are local and under a school board and part of a district, are set up for fraud. …free government money…like they used to say on the late night comericals.
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This charter was actually rejected by the LAUSD and then accepted by the county BOE. I have been pressuring the VP of this board about a similar action with Magnolia, but he has been more interested in hurling insults than answers.