The board of Houston Independent School District is reviewing three charter networks founded by one woman, who is both the highest ranking employee and pays her “related companies” $17 million dollars.
Lois Bullock runs the networks and pays rent to companies she owns.
“Over the past half-decade, Bullock’s company has served as the landlord for Energized For Excellence Academy, taking in $10.8 million in lease payments, and received a $4.2 million loan from the organization, records show. Bullock’s company also earned about $2 million over five years for her “labor and job benefits,” an annual amount roughly equivalent to the compensation of HISD’s superintendent. The three charter networks enroll about 4,000 students at eight campuses, while HISD serves nearly 210,000 students.
“HISD trustees are scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to authorize the renewal of contracts with the three charter networks, as well as five other in-district charter operators. The vote will determine whether the eight networks, which have a combined enrollment of about 11,000 students, can remain open past the 2018-19 school year.”
Remember, this is taxpayers’ money, intended for classrooms and instruction.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Charter schools might be the most crooked business in this country after the government.
Public School Teachers should SUE for damages. Heck parents should SUE, too.
The list is a long one, too.
The costs for review, possible prosecution, etc. wouldn’t siphon money from state budgets if the charter schools didn’t exist. Big shout out to Fordham .
It’s amazing, isn’t it?
You can start your own publicly-funded business, hire yourself, set your compensation rate and duties, and pay yourself whatever amount you and your hand-picked, rubber-stamp “board” decide on.
There’s no risk because none of the funding is yours.
During the insane rush to “reinvent” Detroit’s schools for the umpteenth time in 2012, our local paper did a story on a woman who was moving from my area in Ohio to open a charter school in Detroit. She had absolutely no qualifications or experience, in fact, at the time she applied for a charter she was unemployed. She created a publicly-funded job for herself, yet had convinced herself she was some kind of self-sacrificing savior of children in Detroit, a city she had never lived in.
While charter renewals traditionally had been relatively pro forma, they have become more contentious in recent years amid concerns about the district’s monitoring of in-district charters. One trustee, Elizabeth Santos, blasted some in-district charters last week as “obvious fronts for for-profit ventures.” Trustee Anne Sung said she finds it “hard to believe” that the Energized and Inspired charter networks are complying with all state regulations.
“This raises questions about the charters, obviously, but also whether we’re doing our due diligence in HISD,” Sung said. “I’m concerned that we don’t have a system of oversight, that we don’t ask questions about this.”
Ya think?
Let’s examine that- why charter promoters “don’t ask questions”. Why would that be?
Could it be because they’ve created an echo chamber that hears the word “charter” and immediately starts cheerleading and writing checks and the echo chamber now includes the entire federal government?
Could it be because they dismiss all criticism as “self interested” or “part of the status quo” and ban all dissent?
The charter industry is full of those that work closely with the prevailing city leadership to ensure sweetheart deals are made with no questions asked. With a lack of oversight and little to no regulation, charters are free to fleece the taxpayers in Houston and elsewhere. Privatization is a black hole into which millions are tossed, and there is no way to figure out where the money has gone and if the money was spent responsibly. We do know that the charter leaders collect millions to pay themselves royally or for phony leasing deals. This is taxation without representation. The leadership of the city must be held accountable for knowing where the money goes. It should be representing the interests of taxpayers, not charter chains.
“Betsy DeVos
I had a fantastic trip to Tennessee yesterday thanks to @GovBillLee, @LtGovMcNally, GlenCasada, and other state leaders who are leading the charge on education freedom and working to provide solutions for students and their families.”
Except public school students.
They were deliberately excluded and only mentioned with a throw away line at the end.
They attend the ideologically incorrect “public sector schools” so will receive nothing of value in the charter/voucher legislation and funding.
It’s really odd that no one at the US Department of Education can find a single public school or public school student to praise and promote. They should get out more.