Mercedes Schneider knows that Democratic candidates righteously day they oppose “for-profit” charters. Carol Burris explained that there is little or no difference between for-profit charters and nonprofit charters.
Archives for the month of: July, 2019
The charter Industry has one thing going for it. Guess what that is. Not superior academic results. No, its trump card is money. In this society, money is power. Politicians always are in search of money for their next campaign. Big donors always find open doors. Follow the money has become a precept more recognizable in this era than the Ten Commandments.
In California, there is a heated battle over how to reform the charter law. That law was designed by billionaires like Reed Hastings (formerly a member of the State Board of Education) to unleash charter schools from any oversight or supervision. The deal was that they would get millions of public dollars, and their authorizers would be hundreds of miles away, and the state would lack the staff to monitor their activities. How great a deal is that: the charter operators collect millions from the state and no one watches them. The rich and powerful California Charter Schools Association lobbies to keep the charters free from oversight.
In the wake of multiple scandals, the Legislature has been considering modest efforts to hold charters accountable and to limit their ability to evade oversight. Of course, the CCSA considers these efforts to be completely inappropriate. Instead of spending their time and resources cleaning their Augean stables, they are intent on squelching laws that threaten their freedom from oversight.
Rob Sandusky, a Parent in Ross Valley, California, sent the following warning:
EdSource is reporting that California Governor Gavin Newsom is potentially looking to gut the two pending bills to curb out of control charter growth:
AB1505: restoring local control to public school districts to approve/deny charters including due to fiscal impact to existing public schools
AB1507 would end ability for districts or counties to authorize charters into neighboring counties
https://edsource.org/2019/governors-team-jumps-into-fray-over-contested-charter-school-bill/615053
Newsom is making concessions to the Charter / Privatization to water down these bills. In looking at the Ed Source article, some of the changes make it very easy for charters to make (unsubstantiated) claims of bias to ensure that they get approved at the state level.
Newsom assigned a charter-heavy task force to come up with recommendations from which AB 1505 and 1507 were drafted (if I’m not mistaken), and now he is looking to gut this same legislation.
Voters in California need to contact Newsom’s office, and those of a few key senators, and tell him to stop pandering to the Charter Industry. CCSA has been lobbying hard, paying for protesters to show up in Sacramento with free rides, pizza, t-shirts and who knows what. They have a TON of cash and are backed by direct connections to the Privatization billionaires (check out this chart of how our local charter school – denied by both the district and county – is intertwined with the Privatization pushers and have been destroying and disrupting our community for several years:
[ LINK:. https://coggle.it/diagram/WN_bdOqtdwABB-Hu/t/ross-valley-charter-and-dark-money-networks/f8e5b506af9b2db7e2f2c100eb7ff0e6f430108fc04d0c7e7d74a5e2e2cfb360]
Here is contact information for people to call. People are watching what happens in California, the “Wild West” of charter law. CCSA has been using it as a demonstration and testing ground for taking over a state and will apply learnings across the country.
How else are we to combat the tide of money and influence coming from billionaires overriding common sense legislation?
Governor Gavin Newsom:
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 558-3160
Senate coauthor of AB 1505 is:
Nancy Skinner (D) D9
(916) 651-4009
Senate Education Committee Members:
Senator Connie M. Leyva (Chair) (D) D20
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4020Senator Scott Wilk (Vice Chair) (R) D21
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4021Senator Ling Ling Chang (R) D29
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4029Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D) D24
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4024Senator Steven M. Glazer (D) D7
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4007Senator Mike McGuire (D) D2
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4002Senator Richard Pan (D) D6
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4006
Thank you again for all that you do!
Best,
Rob Sandusky
After Rob posted this comment, another reader in California added this postscript:
Commenting on Rob Sandusky’s request to phone members of the CA Senate Education Committee. This morning the Committee narrowly passed both bills, so these watered down versions are still alive, and are wending their way to a full Senate vote, if they first clear a financial committee. Phoning the Governor’s office, listed, is still a good idea. We would love to see California becoming a model of accountability.
It opus discouraging to see the charter industry snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but bear in mind that the tide is turning against its greed and rapacity. Hold your elected representatives accountable for their votes. Never give up. Never.
Roland Fryer Jr.s Education Innovation lab at Harvard was funded primarily by Eli Broad’s Foundation. Fryer received numerous prestigious awards for his work a san economist. He was the “chief equality officer” for the NYC Department of Education under Joel Klein.
|
|
Rhode Island: Governor Raimondo Picks a Member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change as State Commissioner
Governor Gina Raimondo is a bona fide neoliberal who is part of the DFER clique, having been a hedge fund manager herself.
She recently selected Angelina Infante-Green as State Commissioner of Education. Infante-Green is a member of Jeb Bush’s cohort of Future Chiefs for Change. Now that she is a State Commissioner, she will qualify to join the big boys and girls as a full-fledged member of Jeb’s Club.
Chiefs for Change support privatization and high-stakes testing. It is Jeb’s vehicle to spread Florida’s failed model, whose ultimate goal is the elimination of public schools, unions, and professional teachers.
In a major corruption investigation, the FBI arrested former Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher in DC.
Keleher was brought to the Island to cut costs, impose charters and vouchers, and break the union. She was paid $250,000 a year while preaching austerity and budget cuts.
Puerto Rican educators did not like her, to put it mildly. They referred to her with the hashtag #JuliaGoHome.
Puerto Rican journalist #RimaBrusi tweeted that the new hashtag is #JuliaGoToJail
The charges include wire fraud, money laundering, and theft.
Tom Ultican writes here about the biggest charter fraud in history (to this date).
This fraud was not one of those one-day wonders that people read about and forget the next day.
This one should wake up state legislators and produce genuine reforms of the state’s super-permissive charter law.
Ultican writes about the indictment of 11 people for the theft of $50 million. Other writers, however, peg the loss to the state and its students at $80 million.
Whether it’s $50 million or $80 million, it should catch the attention of those who are devoted to ethical behavior.
Ultican explains that charter advocates designed the law so that it would NOT regulate who got the money or how it was spent. The California charter law is an open invitation to graft and corruption.
And they walked through an open door, reaping millions from the state’s lax law. Deregulation and lack of oversight was supposed to spur innovation. But it mostly spurred theft.
He writes:
The state of California puts more than $80 billion annually into k12 education. Because that money is a natural target for profiteers and scammers, extra vigilance is needed. However, California’s charter school law was developed to provide minimum vigilance.
During its early stages, several billionaires like Carry Walton Penner, Reed Hastings and Arthur Rock made sure the California charter school law was designed to limit governmental rules and oversight. For example, charter schools are not required to meet the earthquake standards prescribed in the 1933 Field Act, which hold public schools to higher building code requirements. Since its enactment no public schools have collapsed in an earthquake. The picture of the Education Collaborative School above is evidence that students in a known earthquake zone are now at increased risk of injury and death.
A few weeks ago Louis Freedberg observedthat a key weakness in California’s chartering law is that there are no standards for authorizers and a lack of expertise. He also wrote about the number of charter authorizers saying, “unlike many states, California has hundreds of them: 294 local school districts, 41 county offices of education, along with the State Board of Education.” Among these 336 authorizers, several are school districts of less than 1,000 students which have neither the capacity nor training to supervise charter schools. Some of these small districts look more like charter school grafters than public school districts.
The California law is deeply defective. It assumes that the market will produce better schools. We now know that isn’t right.
Reader Greg Brozeit posted the following comment and video.
I went to see Hiss Golden Messenger, aka MC Taylor, perform. He played a new song that I think all of you will appreciate. Here is what he said to introduce it:
“I was thinking about, what to make a video, how to make a video for this song. And I started thinking about all of the teachers that I’ve had in my life, specifically public school teachers. My wife is a public school teacher. Both of my parents were public school teachers. My sister is a high school counselor. Both of my kids go to public schools. I’m a product of public schools. And we all turned out pretty good. And, I don’t know what it’s like here [Cleveland], but teachers in North Carolina get treated like absolute trash. And it’s rough. So, the teachers in North Carolina, about a month ago, staged a walkout, it wasn’t a strike, but school was cancelled statewide and thousands of teachers gathered in the state capital, Raleigh, and marched with their demands. Which are simple: fund education, basically. It seems so simple.
“So, we sent a film crew out there just to capture the faces of the teachers, just to take their pictures and assemble them into a video. And I think that I’m really close to it because of all the people in my life that have been teachers and have been dealing with legislators telling them that they’re lazy, they’re not worth paying any more than, you know, a babysitter. And the video is so heavy. I can’t wait for you to see it. When I got the first cut back, I just cried and cried like I haven’t before because I saw this thing in these teachers’ faces that I’ve been seeing my whole life, which is like: we love this job, why don’t you pay us to do it?
“So, yeah, you’re going to see this video in a couple of days, but this is a tune called ‘I Need A Teacher.’”
It was released today and I hope you all enjoy and will be inspired by it as I was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=nDGYV82lAFI
Love me harder
Cry like thunder
Kick the floorboards
Paint it a different color
Another year older
Debt slightly deeper
Paycheck smaller
Goddamn, I need a teacher
Rock me, Daddy, I’m still your kid
The ways to you are oh so very different
Beauty in the broken American moment
Rock me, Daddy, happiness ain’t free
I see where you’re at, I know you can see me
Beauty in the broken American moment
Tell the truth, dear
Don’t be jaded
That’s no way to play it
To say it
To feel it
Lord, make me thankful
Though it ain’t easy
Give it away freely
It’ll come back to you eventually
Rock me, Daddy, I’m still your kid
The ways to you are oh so very different
Beauty in the broken American moment
Rock me, Daddy, happiness ain’t free
I see where you’re at, I know you can see me
Beauty in the broken American moment
G.F. Brandenburg cannot understand the Washington Post editorial writer Jo-Anne Armao. When Michelle Rhee started her job as chancellor of the D.C. schools in 2007, Armao interviewed her and decided that she was the greatest educator ever. Nothing that has happened in the past dozen years has changed her views. To this day, she still writes lovingly, respectfully about the Miracle that was Michelle Rhee. All her initiatives have failed. A huge cheating scandal was covered up and forgotten. Charter scandals have come and gone. A high school boasted of its 100% graduation rate, but it was a fake.
No matter. The Washington Post editorial board has Rhee’s back, almost a decade after she left.
For a fun trip down memory lane, read the comments on the John Merrow post from 2013 that is included.
Angie Sullivan teaches in a Title 1 elementary school in Las Vegas. It is underfunded. The state is willing to fund failing charter schools but not pay for the public schools that most children attend. Angie wants to know why.
She recently learned that Soner Tarim wants to open a charter in Nevada. This is the same man who wants to open a charter in rural Washington County in Alabama and set off a firestorm of controversy. This is the same man whose proposal for a new charter chain was just rejected by the Texas State Board of Educatuon.
Angie writes:
Google: Soner Tarim lawsuit
Why is Soner Tarim pictured at Switch with these local Nevada folks?
Soner Tarim is a constantly under investigation all over the United States. As soon as he gets caught – he goes to the next place.
Someone in the NVDOE needs to be accountable for this and fired.
Google: Soner Tarim lawsuit
Folks in other states are contacting me to warn Nevada. This huge charter scammer keeps reinventing himself and opening charter shells in various states to try to attract investors.
Why is he opening new charters in Nevada? Who gave permission for this? He been kicked out of so many other states? Does anyone in charge have google?
Google: Soner Tarim lawsuit
80% of Gulen Schools have been closed across the world for good reason.
Alabama just kicked Soner Tarim out for fraud, hiring and other sketchy practices.
Austin, Texas – rejects Soner Tarim
Texas speaks out against him
Dallas, Texas – Bias and Self-Dealing.
The New York Times wrote an article about the misuse of federal money.
Memphis denied their application – School of Excellence.
List of Gulen Charters- Soner Charters are listed as low performing and closing or denied.
Are they funding a terror group using Texas education money?
This is bad.
We have no education money and this is what we do with the money we have? Fund a scammer?
He uses local folks to scam the Nevada Tax Payer?
Google: Soner Tarim lawsuit
We do not have money to waste like this. I’m not convinced the Gulens we have are honest or doing an education service. Please. Make. It. Stop.
I am
Mad.
The teacher,
Angie
Angie Sullivan teaches children in a Title 1 elementary school in Las Vegas. Many of her children are poor and don’t speak English. Her school is underfunded. Angie frequently sends blast emails to every legislator in the state, as well as journalists. She refuses to allow them to ignore her students, while they cater to the whims of billionaire casino owners, like the chair of the state board of education.
Angie wrote these posts recently:
Ironically as many scream for transparency of public schools – they also seem intent on making it as difficult as possible to find information on Nevada Charters. I’m looking at you “fiscal conservatives”.
Finding information on Nevada’s charters is like finding a needle in a haystack.
You can find it if you have 100 years. Or have time to puzzle it together. It took me hundreds of hours to develop just a list of Nevada charter campuses a few years ago.
I might come across the name. Or not.
Currently the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority (SPCSA) is the only sponsor accepting applications for new charter schools
The main source of information I have found is the Nevada Charter Authority.
You could look there for the names charters use. As you know, charters can change their names and I have found up to 15 names for the same address. Multiple campuses with different names are stacked under one charter.
The Nevada Secretary of State website can be searched.
I do know that business licenses with multiple names often come up as a topic in the Las Vegas City Council. Mainly because charters open many businesses under different names and/or expand without permission (like open an on-line in a brick and mortar). They forget to get licenses for all their “businesses”.
Charters are a nuisance. They do not consider traffic at pick up and drop off. They do not monitor kids and often do not have a playground. The public regularly complains about charter “business practice” in Las Vegas City council meetings. Sometimes I find information about them because they are a pain and citizens complain in public forums.
There should also be a way to follow the money since the receiverships are so plentiful. But there is not a easy way that I have found.
Aaron Ford who got a PHD in charters before becoming our Attorney General is not likely to ask for accountability anytime soon.
It is for all these reasons – lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and poor business practice: Nevada Assembly considered a moratorium on charters. It did not pass but it should have.
So long story short.
I would not surprise me if you found a someone running a charter in Nevada using a sham company. Who doesn’t? Throw a rock and hit a charter scam.
The bottom dwellers have all attempted to come here too. Sometimes as the FBI is chasing them out of other places.
I can hunt and peck around. The name does not ring a bell but these shady characters come and go and change their name so often in my corporation friendly state – they could be right under my nose and I see nothing.
You are welcome any time to come and I will find a venue for a movie showing. I’m just a teacher and have no money – we pulled together enough to have a viewing of the Matt Damon Film last year with Congresswoman Dina Titus and Candidate for Governor turned Governor Steve Sisolak. They did not watch the film but spoke at the beginning of the event.
You have a true champion in Congresswoman Dina Titus if you ever need one.
You need to avoid anyone from Team Harry Reid – he attended the Gulen Coral opening at the Air Force Base and supports Gulen charters fully. May even be key to bringing them to Nevada.
Teachers are most likely going to strike in the fall – so no union resources. The union actually owes me one because VP Theo Small held a union event with a charter expert as a headliner.
Gulen is a problem.
Academica is the charter monster in Nevada. It’s a real estate grab.
Along with the Agassi-Turner Hedgefund. It’s also a real estate grab.
We need money so badly – all of this is worse than a shame. Robs all the kids I love. All of them. Robs kids. Hurts kids.
Angie Sullivan
I would love to hear what new appointment Rebeca Feiden thinks of all of the above. Lack of information or accessible information is long running. And she knows it.
TFA creates data monsters who then are well paid to ignore data.
Then Angie wrote this post:
The Nevada Department of Education has been very pro-Charter under the direction of Casino Billionaire Elaine Wynn, Nevada State School Board President.
The other Nevada Gulens which are named Corals – even displaced the Air Force Teachers by offering to build a new school for the base. They forced the military wives off the base because the charters could not match salary. Gulen Corals clumped their data by north and south. Their administrators came to some meetings I held and became verbally irate telling folks about how great they are. How would anyone know? The Gulen Corals have not shown three years of data for their campuses yet. Opened for decade plus and zero data by campus.
Now I suspect they will just manipulate the data. There have been limited campus visits so no one makes sure there are testing protocols in place.
How do you keep a Nevada Charter from opening?
If someone can figure that out – I will employ that technique non-stop. It is difficult to even find a place to voice opposition.
They have agenda here:
Meetings are held during the day when teachers work. The person in charge of the 100+ charter campuses is a very young former TFA without a curriculum vitae to manage one charter let alone a $350+ million money distribution.
Most of the agendas are charter expansion.
And talking about charter problems without ever doing anything.
I would love to know how to actually prevent Nevada from being scammed by these corporations that other states are kicking out.
Please. Let me know.
Reason does not work.
Logic does not work.
Data does not work.
Nevada insists on pouring money into the charter toilet.
Crazy folks go nuts for choice – even as it is explained to them it the worst choice in the nation.
There is zero accountability. Nevada does not close charters for financial corruption/receivership. Nevada does not close charters for lack of data or lack of graduation. One charter might have closed because it literally had only one student.
Basically I keep pointing out to all the elected legislators, these businesses are failing to educate children. I try to shame folks taking money $350+ million and not providing anything to the tax payer.
Shaming.
Put them in the local newspaper. That is about the best tool I have.
Failing charters that are bottom
dwelling scum are what Nevada attracts because our per pupil spending is last in the nation.
So of course Gulen wants to open more.
What a scam.
Angie Sullivan
Diane Ravitch's blog 