Dr.Julian Vasquez Heilig reports that two mothers in Houston want to sue the KIPP charter chain for collecting fees from them.
They “have been speaking out against KIPP’s ‘optional athletic fees, field trip fees, academic fees, etc and they state that these optional fees ‘have been charged as required fees at at least ten KIPP schools since 1994 and that the optional fees go into one account and are used for whatever purpose KIPP decides.’”They believe these fees violate state and federal laws.
KIPP denies that it collected fees illegally. The mothers want to know when they will be reimbursed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Kudos to them! Even if the fees weren’t illegal (&, also, why are they “optional?”), we have here a question of accountability: I’d always attended public schools (my daughter, as well) where there were fees–book fees, gym fees, etc., w/the understanding that such fees were actually used for book purchases, gym clothes/equipment, etc. Therefore, the money collected would be going into specific accounts. Over the years, I have received, read, questioned & compared school budgets of both the public school district where I worked & that of my daughter. Does KIPP provide parents with a printed, detailed budget on request? Do they answer to a Board? Is there any oversight/accountability (such as has been reported lacking w/regard to charter schools)?
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Do they answer to a principal, a school site council, the district office and it’s superintendent, a county school board and it’s superintendent, a state school board and the state superintendent, or the federal department of education ? oh yeah…. no. – guess there is no place for you ladies to go with your complaint.
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The KIPP brass — particularly Sebhe Ali, the CEO of KIPP Houston — want to have it both ways.
1) they want to quell the outrage of parents and community when it was exposed in the Houston Chronicle that KIPP leaders were illegally charging parents mandatory fees — illegal because charter leaders are barred from going so — so, in the aftermath of the Houston Chronicle expose, they make an announcement that they’re stopping the practice.
That’s an admission of wrong doing. Right? Therefore, it would logically follow from that if those parents were charged illegally, KIPP leaders would have to pay back those parents, which and earlier Houston Chronicle article estimated was $2.5 million.
Ehh … not so fast.
2) KIPP leaders such as KIPP Houston CEO Sehbe Ali, also want to claim that the the prior collecting of an estimated total of $2.5 million in fees from parents was never illegal, that the parents were never illegally charged, and therefore, that those parents aren’t entitled to one penny of refunds.
BELOW is the excerpt that Dr. Vasquez-Heilig caught while watching a video of a KIPP Houston Board meeting.
KIPP Houston’s Director if Finance, Mr. Thomas, unaware of the new party line, mentions the discontinued practice of charging the parents fees, and even mentions what he has been told, and what is his understanding up this moment — that the practice of charging parents these was stopped because those fees collected to date were “not allowable.”
KIPP Houston CEO Sehbe Ali, presumably on the advice of lawyers, quickly interrupts Thomas to say say that NO, those fees were allowable. This is the party line which KIPP leaders now must cling to, lest they be legally compelled to return the estimated $2.5 million to those parents — the vast majority of those parents who are in extreme poverty, by the way.
We’re stopped the practice of charging parents fees, but at the same time, back when we WERE charging those parents those fees, we did nothing wrong. and charging those fees was “allowable.”
You’re essentially watching the actual moment when Finance Director Thomas is clued in to this new party line by his boss, CEO Ali.
Here’s the exact quote and link to the video:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
DR. VASQUEZ-HEILIG:
But KIPP is denying the findings of the report, and has not refunded the “optional” fees that they have been charging poor families. This problem was raised parents at KIPP Houston Board meeting on 6.22.17. You can watch here.
(CLICK the video at the top of the page dated 6-22-17)
2017 Board Meeting Videos | KIPP Houston Public Schools
( 59:12 – )
http://kipphouston.org/2017boardmeetingvideo
( 59:12 – )
Kipp Houston Director of Finance, MR. THOMAS: “We also included for all of our schools $25 (per student? JACK) for AVA … because we were charging student fees that we probably shouldn’t have been, so to help kind of build on that-“.
KIPP Houston CEO SEBHE ALI: “No, That’s actually incorrect. We WERE ABLE to charge those fees. We were not charging anything that was not allowable.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
In her next comment, Ali even takes pains to reiterate that the reason that the recent decision to discontinue the charging of fees had nothing to do with the Houston Chronicle report finding them to be illegal. Ali and the KIPP brass just wanted to do something nice for the parents, and so, from this point on, they will discontinue the practice of charging parents these fees, and make up the shortfall with other KIPP funds.
The fact is — if they really wanted to do something nice for those parents, they’d refund the estimated $2,5 million.
It also doesn’t make logical sense.
If they did nothing wrong or illegal, then why are they stopping the practice? Just to be nice?
Yeah, right.
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DeVos gave a speech to community college leaders in Michigan:
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/remarks-secretary-devos-michigan-community-college-association-summer-conference
In the speech, she goes out of her way to bash K-12 public schools, with one of her favorite “public schools suck” stories.
Does anyone know when the mission of the US Department of Education became “travel the country and attack public schools, while promoting charter and private schools”?
Is this what we’re paying 2400 federal employees to do?
Can Betsy DeVos point to a single thing she has done to help, assist or add value to any public school or public school student, anywhere, since she was hired?
Do we really need to spend a million dollars a month on security for an anti-public school lobbyist, in a country where 90% of kids attend public schools? Can’t the Wal Mart heirs pay her? Why am I stuck with her expenses?
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Where I come from, you’re not allowed to charge fees if you are a representative of public schools. If you’re a teacher, you can’t charge a nickel for a pencil, not even a penny. When you need new uniforms for the sports team and the school budget is too tight, you hold a fundraiser; you don’t charge “optional” fees. Pizza works.
I would think that if KIPP did not clearly write ‘optional’ on the request for funds, they are liable.
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Here’s a related story from Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-can-we-teach-our-kids-about-class#.WYz7z3xaskY.facebook
“Schools Are Humiliating Kids Who Don’t Have Lunch:”
“Money as a Cruel Lesson in Social Class”
“Isn’t there a better way to teach kids about inequality?”
By Alissa Quart / The Guardian
August 10, 2017, 10:15 AM GMT
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“Recently, in a Maryland suburb, a high school baseball team competed against players from a wealthier suburb nearby. A mother was happily chanting for her son’s team when she heard the ‘cheers’ of the other team, issued by both adults and kids. “They chanted:
” ‘Lower average income! Lower average income!’’ said the mother, Jodi Jacobson. The taunts continued:
” “Can’t your parents afford to feed you?! Can we call child protective services?!’
At another game, players sang:
” “That’s all right, that’s OK! You’re gonna work for us someday!’
“ ‘It was disgusting,’ Jacobson concluded. ‘I was astounded at the crude and cruel things said by the people in the stands.’
“Echoing this episode, school bullying over social class has found an even crueler iteration in ‘lunch-shaming’: children being humiliated for not having enough money to pay for their public school lunches.
“When parents have failed to pay, in some states, children’s little arms have been stamped with the phrase ‘Lunch Money’. In others, milk cartons have been taken from their hands and their hot food dumped in the garbage in front of their classmates. The very poorest families get free lunches or discounts (if parents make less than $45,000), but other working-class households may just miss the cutoff.”
” … ”
“Money and one of its embodiments, social class, are both riveting and mysterious to children. And if we don’t challenge today’s stigma around class status, it will warp a new generation’s experience of an even more important class – the kind in which they learn.
“And that’s one thing we simply can’t afford.”
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