Did I say that Arizona was the most corrupt of all states in handing out taxpayer money to friends, family, cronies, and an industry that knows and cares more about profits than children?
No, the winner of the sweepstakes for charter corruption is Florida. There, legislators with direct ties to the charter industry vote to take away money from public schools and give it to their charter chains. In Florida, taxpayers and children are ripped off every day by unscrupulous charter profiteers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I guess ethics are obsolete when it comes to politicians….
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When it comes to ethics I guess they are obsolete in public education as almost all teachers and adminimals, knowing the harmful results and damage to children’s education, implement the educational malpractices that those politicians demand.
But, oh, but, the teachers and adminimals have to implement those malpractices because they have to have a job to upkeep their own families. . . .
GAGA Good Germans, everyone of them who choose self expedience over ethics and justice for the children. From a gentleman far wiser than me:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Andre Comte-Sponville in “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues” [my additions]
Does my comment prick your conscience dear teacher or adminimal? I hope so! Perhaps you have time to redeem yourself.
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What? Ohio doesn’t contend for that crown?
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We’re the Great Lakes leader, followed closely by Michigan. And I do mean “followed”. Every bad ed reform idea Ohio adopts (all of them) then spreads to Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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You are right, Let’s get these state rankings stacked so there are clear runner-ups.
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Does California not even enter into the competition?! I defy you to find a state with more scandals!
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Not to be a droning, broken record, but let’s not get into the American disease of trying to rank everything. They’re all bad and the closer you live to one of these disasters, the more likely you are to think that it is the “worst.” For example, I agree with Steve above, but only because it’s where I live and what I understand better. Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Wisconsin…add to the seemingly never-ending list (which is not just American, but international). They all stink to high heaven need to be exposed for what they are, which is something, thanks to Diane, we sadly learn every day.
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We now know that HB7069 is now a crooked law that was passed in violation of the state’s sunshine laws. It was signed by Scott, another governor of questionable ethics. This law puts charters on equal footing as public schools requiring public schools to share Title 1 and building funds with charters. This law will further weaken public schools and raise property taxes. Residents should get rid of the complicit corporate cabal in the legislature including Manny Diaz and Michael Bileca. They deserve an orange jumpsuit, not a seat in the legislature.
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I think Florida wins the east coast award hand’s down. You could rank according to region.
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“The Race to the Charter Bottom”
The Race to the Bottom is close
A regular photo finish
The state that has done the “most”
Is difficult to distinguish
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I don’t think Florida has a conflict of interest law. Ergo, a politician can be involved in both education policy as well as chart schools. Does this sound right?
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“The largest charter school closing before the ECOT debacle was the mass exodus from Imagine charter schools in St. Louis. As I reported for the Washington Post, in 2007, Imagine Schools, a for-profit chain of 69 brick-and-mortar schools currently operating in 12 states, moved into the city and opened four new charters. By 201i, Imagine had six schools enrolling nearly 4,000 students, over 10 percent of the district’s student population.
District officials and local reporters noted Imagine’s students performed consistently worse than city and state averages on standardized tests, yet the company was reaping huge profits from its real estate business.
Missouri state officials, alarmed at Imagine’s fiscal stunts and persistently low performance, closed all six schools in 2012, sending 3,800 students from closed schools to district schools that needed millions in new funds to upgrade and outfit buildings to accommodate the influx.
It’s fortunate, those students had public schools to take them in. The same is true in Ohio.”
It’s incredible. DeVos and Company are pushing online chains now, today- and you will not hear A WORD about these massive failures.
ALL you will hear is stories of failing public schools.
I don’t mind political campaigns. If these folks want to privatize public schools they should certainly try. I DO mind paying thousands of federal employees to conduct what is an anti-public school marketing campaign that spreads disinformation by omission and gives it the implied credibility of the United States.
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And the saga continues………..Here in SW florida, there is a school board member in Naples that wants to do away with schoolboard salaries as they as too “exorbinant” -even though our districts are by county, some with 100,000+ students. I heard that part didn’t go thru. But she wants ALL superintendents in the state to be appointed-most are, by why can’t districts decide if they want to elect their superintendent?Church lady voice from SNL). As soon as we make the board members that are invested in our community leave we can bring in dark $$ from the outside to influence and buy elections locally. If they have the power to appoint the superintendent, can you IMAGINE what will happen? I think that happened in Colorado, right? Our state also wants to have its own governing board at the state for charter schools. OMG you can’t make this stuff up. Corcoran wants to run for governor……………God help us all down here.
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Remember it was Florida that gave you GWB.
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