St. Louis College Prep charter school is under investigation for fraud.
St. Louis College Prep has lost tens of thousands of dollars in state funding amidst an investigation into whether the charter school’s founder over-reported attendance records.
The Missouri State Auditor’s office accepted a request Jan. 11 from Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven to review St. Louis College Prep’s finances. Charter schools are public schools that receive state and federal funding but operate independently from traditional school districts.
The charter school’s sponsor, University of Missouri-St. Louis, in October “identified possible issues with attendance data and remedial enrollment numbers that would have resulted in overpayments to the school in previous years,” Bill Mendelsohn, the executive director of UMSL’s charter school office, said in a statement.
Mendelsohn brought the findings to the school’s board of directors. When questioned about the potential irregularities, the school’s founder and executive director, Mike Malone, resigned Nov. 1. The board alerted the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — or DESE — the following day.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Welcome to the ABCs of the American Business Culture —
Whose watchword is All Fraud All The Time
Or at least Any Time We Can Get Away With It …
I’d like to see a real analysis of both the “projected enrollments” that charters use to get the charter, and also the “wait lists” we’re always hearing about.
Some non-echo chamber entity doing the analysis, please.
It seems more and more clear that these wait list claims are bogus. How are Los Angeles charter schools under-enrolled if there are wait lists, and why are they spending millions and millions on advertising if they have more students than seats?
Has there ever been a real analysis of the “wait list” claim outside the one that was done in Massachusetts, where it was determined the wait lists were inflated?
What would Secretary DeVos be saying if there were this number of incidents (let alone a proportionate number of these incidents) among public schools?!
She’d be paraphrasing Gil Scott-Heron’s song Shut ‘Em Down.
I can’t imagine that she has a clue to who Gil Scott-Heron is, just a tad too radical for her tastes.
Imagine how many charter school crooks are getting away with their fraud because no one is watching them.
Missouri has a unique place, because of the lack, or refusal of the media to fully report about education. The St. Louis Post Dispatch refused to mention the Jeff Bryant story about the history of St. Louis Public schools which appeared in the Washington Post. They have not mentioned anything about this PBS story….maybe it was inconsequential? I used their currrent affairs forum, (they bar me from all other commentary) to tear into KMOX host Charles Brennan…he featured the person in charge of education stuff at St. Louis U….about 20 minutes, bragging about all he was going to do with a million dollar gift—–without mentioning that the gift came from the Waltons. (I told him to start his education with 15 links to Walton stories from this site).I am not always perfectly focused, but it is up to 29 comments, and more than 300 views…good numbers. A parent who has his kids in a really good catholic school, lectures me about how public schools need outside challenges….eventually taking me into discussing work by Anand Giridharadas of the nytimes, and my niece in law Sarah Reckhow about your subject above….the danger of replacing democracy with government by gifting….then I discovered the 50 million dollar gift from Billionaire Sinquefield…..This is not great literature, but if anyone is inspired to add anything…..I would be absolutely thrilled, negative or positive in tone towards me. http://interact.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1304230&start=16
th Gary W. Ritter Retweeted Charlie Brennan
Had a great conversation with @charliekmox on the Charlie Brennan show this morning — talking about the exciting work going on at @SLU_SOE … I am looking forward to many more conversations with Charlie focused on education in St. Louis and across Missouri!e most significant thing to me on the initial radio show trigger….
my comment was…”I’ll bet he does”. Huge backup available just from doing a search on this site “the Waltons”.
Not sure…my post might be blocked because of my link to current affairs at the Post Dispatch……Missouri has a unique place, because of the lack, or refusal of the media to fully report about education. The St. Louis Post Dispatch refused to mention the Jeff Bryant story about the history of St. Louis Public schools which appeared in the Washington Post. They have not mentioned anything about this PBS story….maybe it was inconsequential? I used their currrent affairs forum, (they bar me from all other commentary) to tear into KMOX host Charles Brennan…he featured the person in charge of education stuff at St. Louis U….about 20 minutes, bragging about all he was going to do with a million dollar gift—–without mentioning that the gift came from the Waltons. (I told him to start his education with 15 links to Walton stories from this site).I am not always perfectly focused, but it is up to 29 comments, and more than 300 views…good numbers. A parent who has his kids in a really good catholic school, lectures me about how public schools need outside challenges….eventually taking me into discussing work by Anand Giridharadas of the nytimes, and my niece in law Sarah Reckhow about your subject above….the danger of replacing democracy with government by gifting….then I discovered the 50 million dollar gift from Billionaire Sinquefield…..This is not great literature, but if anyone is inspired to add anything…..I would be absolutely thrilled, negative or positive in tone towards me.
I totally agree that St Louis does not have a free press wrt ed. Unfortuneatelly the national press is equally “unfree” wrt ed. Just look at lack of coverage of Gulen charters and the FBI raids on them. Not just St Louis that is silent.
most significant thing to me on the initial radio show trigger….: Gary W. Ritter Retweeted Charlie Brennan
Had a great conversation with @charliekmox on the Charlie Brennan show this morning — talking about the exciting work going on at @SLU_SOE … I am looking forward to many more conversations with Charlie focused on education in St. Louis and across Missouri!
my comment was…”I’ll bet he does”. Huge backup available just from doing a search “the Waltons”on Diane’s site.