Fred Klonsky has the charter scandal of the day in Chicago. The founder and CEO of the Noble (no excuses) Charter Chain is stepping down after being accused of inappropriate conduct towards former students.
Public radio reporters Sarah Karp and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad of WBEZ broke the news of the latest Chicago charter school scandal.
Michael Milkie, the CEO of Noble, the city’s largest charter school network, is being investigated following complaints of “inappropriate behavior toward young female alumnae.”
Milkie has resigned in disgrace but without further consequences.
Noble runs 17 charter high schools and one middle school that serve more than 12,000 students.
Read the ugly details.
Noble has been considered Chicago’s premier charter chain.
One of the charters in named for billionaire Governor Bruce Rauner (just defeated). Another is named for billionaire heiress Penny Pritzker, who was Obama’s Secretary of Commerce. Her brother J.B. Pritzker, another billionaire, just defeated Rauner.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He should be more than “dismissed.” He should be dragged into court.
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Would dismembered be too extreme?
And of course, I mean “have his charter membership revoked”
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Some dam Poet is right: “Charter” is code for: “an invitation to commit fraud.”
Not everyone is a fraudster. And public school systems are hardly immune to bad actors. However, the public school system, along with its local, state, and federal regulation, and its systematic accountability and transparency, at least don’t serve two masters (capitalists and students) nor do they make themselves attractive to fraudsters offering carrots they cannot refuse. CBK
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People who work in public schools have to account for every dollar they spend. They may commit petty fraud but they can’t steal millions.
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“The charter network is also a darling of the city’s rich and powerful, with campuses bearing such names as Rauner, Pritzker and Chicago Bulls.”
Not Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. or Washington, but instead just naming rights for rich people? Why would the charter chain ever agree to this?
I read that (certain) Chicago Public Schools have longer wait lists than (certain) Chicago charters. It made me wonder- how many public schools have wait lists and why don’t we ever hear that mentioned? Why isn’t anyone ever clamoring to expand popular public schools?
As usual with ed reformers, it’s in the OMISSION of information where the political spin comes in.
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The charter network is also a darling of the city’s rich and powerful, with campuses bearing such names as Rauner, Pritzker and Chicago Bulls.”
The Chicago Bulls No Bull charter?
Isn’t that one of them Oxfordmorons?
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“The founder and CEO of the Noble (no excuses) Charter Chain is stepping down after being accused of inappropriate conduct towards former students.”
How Noble of him.
The Noble Committee should award him the Noble Prize.
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If it’s a no excuses charter, shouldn’t they have named it the “No bull” Charter?
I wonder what the CEOs excuse was for his “inappropriate (albeit Noble) behavior”
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Did he have excuses for his behavior?
No-excuses just for “scholars”?
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He prolly said he never inhaled.
No soup for scholars
Just for dollar$
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While this article about a charter school doesn’t involve sexual harassment, it does involve students and parents who are suing over first amendment violations: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/13/victory-preparatory-academy-class-action-lawsuit/
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If it had been a public school incident, it would have been repeatedly and exhaustively covered by the Chicago Tribune.
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Where is Campell Brown when you need her. I guess her concern is only about “Government Schools”
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Campbell
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Exactly. I bet The 74 didn’t report this or any other scandal.
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Is Michael Milkie any relation to Michael Milken?
You say Milkie I say Milken, You say bilkie, I say bilking
Milkie, Milken, bilkie, bilking
Let’s call the whole thing aweful
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Thanks, SDP—veeery funny & clever! I know who Mike Milken is & Mike Milkie, but still would get confused by the names. (And now, one is a convicted felon & the other might soon be a convicted felon.)
I guess one could think of them, in short, as The Milk Brothers, as in milking as much money as they can out of the education privatization industry, & it’s a toss-up as to who is the worse of the two: running a school so steeped in inappropriate disciplinary measures that beat kids down rather than grow them or educate them, or running a network of “virtual” (which really means “not real”) schools, where kids stare at computers &, not being students in brick-&-mortar buildings, meet no friends, get no exercise and have no art, music or any culturally enriching classes (or experiences).
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The alumna describes a situation from “several yrs ago”; presumably the other complainants’ issues took place over the last several yrs. Perhaps I am naïve, but I think it would have taken far less than “several yrs” for similar complaints to bear consequences, were the perp a pubsch supt or principal. Such folk have not the cachet of the “CEO” of a corporate network of 17 charter hischs smiled on by legislators. Pubsch supts/ principals are mere public servants serving locals, whose every move is transparent: betrayal of the public trust is more easily ascertained & sanctioned not downplayed by the machinations of the “corporate veil.”
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As we saw with all the fraud in the investment banking industry that caused financial meltdown in 07/08, CEOs pretty much do what they want, are rarely held accountable, often get to keep their illgotten gains and sometimes actually get million dollar bonuses for their criminal actions.
And, of course, have their companies bailed out by whoever happens to be in the White House — Republican OR Democrat.
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