Ref Rodriguez founded a charter chain. Most of the charters are in Los Angeles. One is in Rochester, New York.
Ref is in trouble with the law. Until recently, he was president of the LAUSD school board. Faced with felony indictments, he stepped down as chair, but remained on the board. More indictments came, but he refuses to leave the board. The salary for board members was recently raised and is substantial.
Joy Resmovits of the L.A. Times reports that the charter school in Rochester that is part of Ref’s former chain is in trouble.
Unlike Arizona, New York state officials don’t like conflicts of interest.
When the New York state comptroller’s office recently audited a charter school in Rochester, N.Y., investigators found a number of troubling financial practices, including inadequate oversight.
One issue auditors noted was that the local school contracted out its financial management to the national charter network it was part of — and membership on the Rochester school’s board and the school network’s board overlapped.
Rochester’s PUC Achieve is the only school outside California in the 18-school Partnership to Uplift Communities charter school network co-founded by L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez. Rodriguez and his PUC Schools co-founder Jacqueline Elliot were flagged for being on both of the boards.
“While not prohibited by law, these situations create a conflict of interest,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wrote when the audit was released in May.
Rodriguez has more pressing concerns in Los Angeles, where he faces three felony and 25 misdemeanor charges for alleged campaign money laundering.
But problems in Rochester broadly echo some questions recently raised in L.A. about Rodriguez’s conduct and PUC’s management practices.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A audit of a charter school is quite an alien concept here in Cali. It usually only happens in the wake of a criminal indictment. And conflicts of interest law? Ha! We’ve been trying to make charters subject to that for years! BTW I enjoyed the talk 10/13 at Oakland Tech. High.
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Interesting contradiction here with LATimes Joy Resmovitz. She is one of the pro-charter reporters who surfaced when Broad gave all that money to the Times to pay for education coverage. She usually doesn’t write negative facts about charter chains. …Unless the charter chain is threatening the charter friendly LA Board majority…
Such a tangled web charters weave.
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And how much we need journalists willing to look into journalistic bribes.
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Does loading the elementary classroom with Chrome Books or other devices help or hurt? Does Google classroom help or hurt? I say hurt. Google Classroom sanitizes all work.
Our youngest students should be using their hands – writing – drawing – sculpting – knitting – whittling – etc. Enough of the tech. It is not building a better student – not at all. One of the many PARCC flaws is the insistence it be taken on computer. Later, once there is a mastery of the hands, introduce computers. Students will be more creative and in general more effective with these powerful devices.
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