The Tri-Valley Learning Corporation charter chain in California was caught in a massive scandal, after millions of dollars of taxpayer money went missing. Some in the legislature thought this was proof of the need for stronger oversight and accountability. But the California Charter School Association, rolling in billionaire dough from the likes of Reed Hastings and Eli Broad, will oppose any meaningful effort to hold charters accountable.
You see, there are all kinds of charters. Some are honest. Some are run by thieves. They need “flexibility.” CCSA’s job is to protect them all.
CCSA is Betsy DeVos’s dream team!
Charter school’s demise prompts debate about strengthening oversight
“Prompted by investigations into alleged misappropriation of funds at Tri-Valley Learning Corporation, a charter school chain based in Alameda County, the California Charter Schools Association and advocates for more charter school transparency are stepping up efforts to advance competing approaches to combating financial fraud, waste and mismanagement.
“Tri-Valley operated in two districts in Northern California, east of San Francisco. It had two schools in Livermore in Alameda County and two schools in Stockton in San Joaquin County. The Alameda County district attorney was already investigating Tri-Valley when the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team completed an audit in June. That report concluded that charter school executives had conflicts of interest and that the organization had commingled funds, including the use of “bonds totaling over $67 million to purchase land and buildings under the pretext that the acquisition was for a public charter school.” Tri-Valley filed for bankruptcy in June, the same month its schools were closed.
“The scale of the alleged misappropriation of funds at Tri-Valley is raising larger issues about how to ensure that public money for charter schools is not misspent. In its 2015 report, “Risking Public Money: California Charter School Fraud,” the San Francisco-based nonprofit law firm Public Advocates estimated losses of more than $100 million due to fraud for that year.
“While charter schools are subject to significant reporting requirements and monitoring by oversight bodies, including chartering entities, county superintendents and the State Controller, no oversight body regularly conducts audits,” the report states.
“Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, is among those calling for more charter school transparency. For example, he told EdSource last week that charter schools need standardized financial management systems, such as common software, to share their data with the school districts that oversee their operations.
“It’s clear that the statutory framework in this state has been reactive and not proactive,” O’Donnell said.
“Representatives of the California Charter Schools Association disagree.
“We need flexibility in financial management because there are many kinds of charter schools,” said Colin Miller, the association’s senior policy advisor.
“Instead, the charter association supports legislation that would allow county offices of education to regulate charter organizations that operate in multiple school districts. Miller said oversight of Tri-Valley might have been more stringent if it had been regulated by the board of education for Alameda County, the site of the charter operator’s headquarters, instead of by two school districts in different counties.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“We need flexibility in financial management because there are many kinds of charter schools,”
That is really a bizarre statement form Colin Miller. Claims about the need for “flexibility” are creeping into the federal policy landscape, notabily in ESSA and the batch of health care bills under consideration by Congress.
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I’ve heard that “we need flexibility” line before from greedy edu-egotists. It’s code speak for “we need to divert and pocket funds without your knowledge.” The kicker is the given reason, “because there are many different kinds” — of ways to pocket funds without your knowledge.
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The NAACP’s report on charter schools — two years in the making and encompassing dozens of hearing nation-wide — has just hit the net:
It’s a scorcher!
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The NAACP and its report is about to get the full smear campaign that was meted out to John Oliver about a year ago.
It’s already started.
African-American charter cheerleader “Citiizen Stewart” has been covering the NAACP’s public presentation of its report, and reporting live on his Twitter. He’s practically foaming at the mouth with rage at what he’s hearing and seeing:
https://twitter.com/citizenstewart?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
At some point, though, to win people over to their side, Stewart and the rest are going to have to actually dispute the facts and testimony in the report, not just rant incoherently.
We’ll see how that plays out.
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Thanks to charter cheerleader “Citizen Stewart” and the miracle of modern media tech, you can already watch the NAACP’s 10-minute video intro to its report, as it is embedded on one of Citizen Stewart’s tweets. It has a nice 1950’s jazz combo score, reminiscent of The Chico Hamilton Quintet:
(hit the “PLAY” arrow > icon on the lower left corner, and then click the X next to the audio “speaker” icon):
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Okay, that didn’t work. At least not on my computer.
That means it’s time for …
PLAN B:
1) Go to Citizen Stewart’s twitter here:
–
2) Then scroll down to the tweet at:
” 7:31 AM – 26 Jul 2017″
You should see the video embedded there.
–
3) Hit the “PLAY” arrow > icon on the lower left corner, and then click the X next to the audio “speaker” icon)
Hope that works!
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But they want to hold teachers accountable via student test scores? DUH…what creeps.
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The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a warning that charter schools posed a risk to the Department of Education’s own goals. The report says: “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals” because of the financial fraud, the skimming of tax money into private pockets that is the reason why hedge funds are the main backers of charter schools.
The Washington State Supreme Court, the New York State Supreme Courts, and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL” because no charter school fulfills the basic public accountability requirement of being responsible to and directed by a school board that is elected by We the People. Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money.
Even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its “reporting” on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax money that is supposed to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets.
Charter schools should (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that they are accountable to the public; (2) a charter school entity must legally be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) charter schools should be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property. These aren’t onerous burdens on charter schools; these are only common sense requirements to assure taxpayers that their money is being properly and effectively spent to educate children and isn’t simply ending up in private pockets or on the bottom line of hedge funds.
These aren’t “burdensome” requirements for charter schools — they are simply common sense safeguards that public tax money is actually being used to maximum effect to teach our nation’s children.
The result of full, detailed financial reporting will cause most charter school operators to fade away because once what they’re doing with public money comes to light, the game is over.
NO PUBLIC TAX MONEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT FAIL TO MEET THESE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC.
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As long as Charters can stonewall and duck accountability, they will. They are continuously sneaking and conniving to give the impression of a good school with artificial test scores bolstered by pushing low scoring kids out. That way they can maintain a system and philosophy of education designed for the Monsters, Ogres and Agenda driven Politicians, with absolutely no regard for children.
The only way to change that is sabotage!
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