Florida is a state that apparently does not prohibit nepotism or conflicts of interest when it comes to charter schools.
The League of Women Voters in Florida studied charters and documented financial links between charter schools and legislators.
The Miami Herald recognized years ago that Florida was creating a dual school system, and that the charters were fleecing taxpayers with little oversight or accountability.
The Miami Herald wrote about the most recent examples of family members of legislators cashing in.
”Though far removed geographically from each other, two new Florida charter schools share an uncommon feature: They both have a board member who is married to a state lawmaker heavily involved in crafting state policy on charter schools.
“Anne Corcoran, the founder of a charter school in Pasco County, is assisting with a new Tallahassee school. She’s married to Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes.
“Erika Donalds, the founder of a charter school in Collier County, is leading the effort to open a new Martin County school. Her husband is Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, who shepherded Speaker Corcoran’s bill on vouchers for bullied students in the House.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article207320264.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When an industry is unregulated, there will always be opportunists eager to grab public money. Charter schools are the wild west of investing. Anyone that passes the “sniff test” gets to use public money and profit from it. Charter school operators socialize their risk and privatize the profit. Unfortunately, many so called representatives are in office to get the inside track on where to put their money. Without explicit rules regulating this type of behavior, we cannot be surprised that what was once called a “conflict of interest ” becomes normalized behavior.
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Conflict of interest is not a thing anymore. Those CoF forms these public servants sign are as valid as confederate currency.
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“The family that grifts together…”
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. . . Sifts together???
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Of course, Florida isn’t the only state in which this happens. In Utah, family members, and even sometimes the legislators (or state school board members) themselves are closely involved in, and probably profiting from, charters. It’s common knowledge in the state, and even occasionally mentioned in the local media, but no one seems to care or notice the flagrant conflicts of interest.
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It’s so great how ed reformers always bash public schools when selling charter schools:
“It was night and day from our experience in the public school system … he’s getting in the car and instead of crying, he’s telling me about what he learned all day about the crusades and Benjamin Franklin,” Donalds said of the switch.”
Imagine being this guy’s constituent and having a kid in a public school. He doesn’t work for you – why would he! Public schools are SO horrible they make children cry!
This is true across ed reform, by the way. DeVos does the same thing in her speeches- public schools, according to the US Department of Education, are full of thugs and bullies and low performers while private schools and charters are all sweetness and light.
It’s outrageous that the public has to pay these people for bashing our schools.
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She said she decided to open her liberal arts charter in Pasco County after her children’s private school was boarded up, saying the specialized curriculum is “a broader and more beautiful understanding of education.”
So can everyone do this? Can everyone open a school that fits their personal definition of “best school”?
Because the public system will be a chaotic, corrupt underfunded mess if these people get their way and everyone gets to design a public school and just plunk it down anywhere.
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My kid really enjoys music class. Can I open a school for children who like music regardless of what effect that might have for the 97% of students in my district who don’t attend my school?
Who advocates for them? No one in Florida, apparently, not even the people who are paid to represent them.
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Florida is a state where they allowed a convicted arsonist — one who had spent four years in jail for arson and grand theft — to open and run a charter school.
The state’s chartering authority knew of all this (!!!!) — she hid nothing, and admitted to everything when applying to open a charter — but the state’s charter authorizing entity felt the greater good of charter proliferation and and a Devos-ian strict adherence to de-regulation ideology superseded any concerns it had regarding this female arsonist’s past, and her high likelihood of financial malfeasance in the future.
Ideology trumps all.
The results?
Once in control of a multi-million-dollar budget of taxpayer money, she began robbing the taxpayers blind. Things caught up with her in 2017, so it’s back to the slammer for you, Sweetheart. (She was convicted and sentenced July 2017).
Gee, who could have predicted THAT outcome?
That story was discussed here on this blog:
The original story is here:
http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/education/article160181454.html
Charter defenders would dismiss this case as just being “one of the bad apples, so you can’t stereotype charters based on cases like this,” or …
NACALT: “Not all charters are like that.”
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It’s also the State where a convicted felon with a cocaine charge is allowed to serve as the Vice President of the largest Teachers Union in the State. The United Teachers of Dade should be ashamed of themselves!
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At least they had enough information and evidence to convict this woman that stole tax dollars. Florida needs to vote the grifters out of the legislature.
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She never should have gotten authorization to open and run a charter school in the first place.
Think about this one for a second.
As a convicted felon in Florida, you’re legally assumed and judged to be unfit to vote, and are rightfully barred from doing so …
… but at the same time …
… you’re still legally allowed to be authorized to open and run a charter school where you’re in charge — with no oversight or demands of transparency — of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money given to you by the chartering authority.
WTF???!!!
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I never thought I was going to be famous without money, I never thought that my brain could dig so deep that all the information right there MEANING THE PANDORA BOX with charter schools was opened by me, I mean by God.
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