Carol Burris reviews here the five biggest charter scandals of 2019.
There were many to choose from.
Numero uno, of course, was the giant charter scam in California:
1. A3 Education: Eleven are indicted over their involvement in a charter scheme that defrauded California taxpayers of more than $50 million.
In May, the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego indicted 11 people on charges that they helped defraud California taxpayers out of $50 million via an elaborate scheme to create phony attendance records to increase revenue to an online charter chain known as A3. You can find a summary of the story with its elaborate kickbacks and fraud schemes here.
The alleged theft took place over the course of several years. In 2016, Jason Schrock and Sean McManus reportedly purchased Mosaica Online learning, which got its start with a $100,000 grant from the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). They eventually renamed the online schools Valiant. Schrock and McManus managed the schools through the nonprofit Academic, Arts and Action (A3) Charter Academy. Eli Johnson would reportedly approach small, cash-strapped school districts to enlist them as authorizers, for which they would receive an authorizer fee.
In addition to Valiant Academy charter schools, A3 expanded by starting CA STEAM Academies throughout the state. Using the 19 resulting charter schools that enrolled thousands of students, they put their scheme in place. Thousands of summer school students would enroll, some unwittingly, and never take any classes. Meanwhile, according to the indictment, the money flowed into Schrock and McManus’s real estate ventures, bank accounts and the kitty they created for payoffs.
In 2016, I exposed the mysterious growth of the CA STEAM Academies and other charters in which Johnson and McManus were involved here on The Answer Sheet. As part of my investigation, I spoke with Johnson on the phone. He claimed he did not know the name of the company he worked for or who signed his paycheck.
The CA STEAM empire extended into Ohio. Whether it has been investigated in that state is unknown. The A3 investigation and prosecutions continue as they hunt for McManus, who has disappeared.
Read on to learn about the other four members of the Dishonor Roll.
I had the odd experience of meeting McManus a year ago. I happened to be at breakfast in a hotel in Newport Beach, California. My companion and I were seated next to a table where a man was in harmonious discussion with two or three others. He spoke in a loud voice and I heard references to “schools,” “sports,” “$5 a head,” etc.
When their party broke up, I stopped and asked him I’m if he was “in the charter industry.” Yes, he answered, and told me proudly he owned many corporations.
That was Sean McManus, now on the lam.
In case the story is behind a paywall, number 2 was the decision by the board of Texas-based IDEA charter chain IDEA to lease a private jet for $2 million a year. The board reversed the decision in response to public reaction. Now the executives and their wives fly first class.
Number 3 is a small California Charter Chain whose owners somehow became multimillionaires, although their charters are “nonprofit.”
”4. A nonprofit operator of migrant shelters, Southwest Key, coordinated with its for-profit organizations to bleed its charter schools into rat-infested classrooms.
A Texas charter school named East Austin College Prep made national news in 2019 when the New York Times reported complaints of raccoons and rats invading classrooms, rain pouring in through a leaky roof, and furniture occasionally falling through rickety floors. Yet, according to the story, the charter high school pays almost $900,000 in annual rent to its landlord, Southwest Key Programs.
The school, which received a CSP grant of $450,900, is owned by Southwest Key Programs, the nation’s largest provider of shelters for migrant children who’ve been separated from their families at the border….
5.The North Jersey Record uncovered hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds going to buildings owned by private interests, with charter schools paying inflated rents that far exceed building debt.
A 2019 five-part series written by a team of reporters from the North Jersey Record exposed the shady dealings hidden from the public eye that allow developers to cash in on public money and tax breaks by providing real estate to charter schools. The reporters found that information was buried so deeply in documents, it was difficult in many cases to find out who was making the profit.
The report resulted in a federal grand jury subpoena issued to the Thomas P. Marion Charter School in Newark. Its nonprofit “Friends of” organization purchased two public school buildings and flipped them for a profit of nearly $10 million.
I left out the details. Burris’ article includes them. Read it in full if you can. The details are shocking.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Role Call: Two scandals from the State of Texas (thanks little dan). Two from California and one from New Jersey.
Yippe….let’s give more un-monitored money charters so people can get rich and steal from the government and children that could benefit from that money.
I forgot, private planes and flying first class are much more important.
The government is really “we the people.” We pay the taxes that the shady grifters and scammers steal. Our so-called representatives are supposed to represent our interests. We the people should start pressuring the elected representatives to be better stewards of our tax dollars. There’s always a conversation in government about holding public school accountable. The private charters are not always held to the same standards so we have little information about where the money goes. We need to do a better job of making elected representatives accountable for the waste and fraud associated with privatization that they continue to rubber stamp.
I hope you won’t be offended. I read your comment a few times. So, in that spirit, here is how your argument—in your words—resonated positively with me, realizing it might be a good starting point for how we frame our discussions.
“We need to do a better job of making elected representatives accountable for the waste and fraud associated with privatization that they continue to rubber stamp. There’s always a conversation in government about holding public school accountable. The private charters are not always held to the same standards so we have little information about where the money goes. Our so-called representatives are supposed to represent our interests. We the people should start pressuring the elected representatives to be better stewards of our tax dollars. We pay the taxes that the shady grifters and scammers steal. The government is really ‘We, the people…’”
I personally am adopting a new philosophy when I vote. I will not vote for an incumbent ever again.
If congress will not impose term limits on themselves then it is up to the people to not let any one person be there so long that they are permanent.
David, I think term limits will do nothing, only weed out the truly talented people (should Adam Schiff, to take a recent example, be term-limited)? Or to take from another age and party, Bob Dole. Worse yet, you distill even more power into unelected staff and lobbyists. If you term-limit people, their chiefs-of-staff, legislative directors, and committee professionals–the real ones who maintain the clockwork of Congress–shift to other bosses. It’s not at all uncommon for committee and subcommittee chiefs-of-staff to remain while their bosses change. There are many other issues.
Before term-limits, more fundamental issues like gerrymandering, campaign finance, public financing and outside limits, need to be changed and the new laws enforced.
I agree with you on this, Greg. One might imagine term limits would break up the longtime affairs between old-timers and their fave campaign-coffer-stuffers. But $clouty influencers are like rats, quickly adapting to humans’ shifting habits. Gotta use an exterminator.
And this year’s Oscar Nominees for Best Grifter are. . . .
No one beats Trump—as a grifter!
Yes. This is one area in which he definitely is “the best”–the “winner” he imagines himself to be.
I don’t know who the Best Grifters are, but I’m fairly sure of the Best Griftees: a large portion of the American population and anyone else around the world who falls for fascist (call it neo-whatever or alt-something) propaganda to influence their actions or lack thereof.