A charter founder in the suburbs of Illinois is under investigation for theft of $2.7 Million from school lunch Funds, to subsidize her lavish lifestyle.
“Pamela Strain said she’d once dreamed of following in the footsteps of Clarence Darrow, the legendary Chicago attorney known for championing the underdog.
“Strain instead went into education, rising to become an elementary school principal in an impoverished neighborhood in Chicago before founding her own charter school in the south suburbs serving underprivileged kids.
“But federal investigators say instead of championing the less fortunate, Strain has been stealing from the very programs intended to help them.
“Court records made public this week show that Strain is suspected of using the small, nonprofit school she founded in 2005 to loot as much as $2.7 million in funds over a seven-year period, including money from federal school lunch subsidies and other grants designed to provide nutritious food to low-income children.
“Strain, 60, allegedly used the funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle, including her home and other properties, luxury cars, spas, salons and shopping sprees at stores such as Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
“The 54-page filing also contained startling details about the conditions at Strain’s Beacon Hill Preparatory Academy, which operated in various locations in the south suburbs before reopening in Lansing last year under a new name, Lighthouse Christian Academy.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Likely a fan of Roy Moore.
“Over the next decade, Beacon Hill relocated several times, moving to buildings in Harvey and South Holland before landing at the current location in Lansing under the name Lighthouse Christian Academy”
Oh my goodness!! Lynwood and Lansing, IL are near my condo. I used to play in bands during the summers in South Holland. I lived in Harvey right after getting married many, many, many years ago.
This is crapola right in my backyard. How can anybody steal that much from kids? It takes a certain type of creep to stoop this low. “Christian Academy”???
Yes, & of course I was wondering how in the hell a school calling itself
Lighthouse CHRISTIAN Academy (& Strain even stated that the curriculum included “spirituality”) receive public funding?
One of the many wonders of charter “schools.” (And a “nonprofit”–translation: no profits for kids but PLENTY for owners.)
A more apt name would be “schools for scandal.”
carolmalaysia: “Christian Academy”?
Ah, another example of how the corporate education reform crowd is so fiercely against any ‘burdensome’ and ‘onerous’ big gubmint regulation like a legal requirement for truth in labeling…
Look, when you’ve got money to burn on Victoria’s Secret then you inadvertently create the fire that casts the light on all the “bare” necessities like luxury cars, spas and salons that make the efforts put out by the leaders of the “new civil rights movement of our time” worthwhile.
Remember: “it’s all about the kids!”
🤪
If the above is too harshly put, then in accord with the dictates of the “civil conversation” so favored by Mr. Peter “I Monitor Diane Ravitch” Cunningham: it’s sooooo much easier to relax one’s conscience when you’re making six figures a year because then you don’t have to, er, skimp on the, er, skimpy, er, haute couture you can get at Victoria’s Secret.
I hope I have laid bare their reasoning process.
Rheeally!
😎
P.S. Apparently this song is quite popular among the chief enforcers and peddlers of corporate education reform: “The Bare Necessities” (THE JUNGLE BOOK). Ahhhh, the simple life of selflessness and self-sacrifice…
Local communities need to stay in control of their local tax dollars. They shouldn’t be required to toss money at some private school, and hope for the best. The school should have the burden of accounting for every penny. Why should religious organizations or corporations be able to drain public money away from legitimate public schools while the taxpayers have no rights to account for expenditures? It seems like taxation without representation.
Omg, how sick.
It’s time for John Oliver to do a follow-up or sequel to his (8.4-millions-views-and-counting) takedown of charter schools.
It’s hard to beat this for comedy:
STATE INVESTIGATOR: “Say, are those moths?”
CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICAL: “No, those are just pencil shavings.”
STATE INVESTIGATOR: “Pencil shavings?”
CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICAL: “Yeah, pencil shavings that just look similar to moths’ wings. We get a lotta those in our school.”
STATE INVESTIGATORS: “Yeah, but they’re flying around the room.”
… adapted from HERE:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/news/ct-met-superintendent-fraud-underprivileged-students-20171114-story.html
x x x x x x x x x x x x x
CHICAGO TRIBUNE:
“During one visit to the school’s Harvey location in 2015, a state inspector encountered offices with badly outdated equipment and records of a food program that were either missing or incomplete. The school appeared to have no dedicated food prep area, and an empty classroom where food was being stored was infested with moths.
“When asked about the problem, the school’s principal ‘unsuccessfully tried to convince (the inspector) that the moths were pencil shavings,’ the filing stated.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Here’s the original John Oliver piece:
Are there any charter schools that are legit and not stealing money from somewhere?
Diane, nothing in the article indicates that these are/were charter schools. Beacon and Lighthouse are private, Christian schools according to the article.