This editorial appeared in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, a newspaper that has paid close attention to the scandals and frauds in the charter industry.
It begins:
Operators of two Indiana charter schools spent nearly $86 million in tax dollars at businesses in which they had ties. The money came from state tuition support for students who, in some cases, were never enrolled in the schools.
This is the school choice Indiana lawmakers celebrate – a breathtaking violation of the public trust.
A special report by the State Board of Accounts was released last week, based on an investigation of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Chalkbeat, an online education news service, first reported in 2017 that one of the online schools collected nearly $10 million in 2015-16 while graduating only 5.7% of its seniors – the lowest graduation rate in the state. Chalkbeat revealed a web of business interests between school founder Thomas Stoughton and AlphaCom, a for-profit company he operated while charging the school millions for management services and rent for offices in a suburban Indianapolis office park.
State auditors found public funds misappropriated through “malfeasance, misfeasance, and/or nonfeasance.” The complexity of the scam required a diagram to lay out ties among Stoughton, other charter officials and 14 private companies that shared in ill-gotten school funds – almost $69 million.
Chalkbeat’s reporting found discrepancies in enrollment now confirmed by the state. In more than 4,700 examples, children reported as enrolled completed no courses. Another 3,811 were flagged with just one or more course completions. The ghost enrollees included individuals who died or moved out of state, students withdrawn for lack of participation and some who did nothing beyond requesting information on the school. Counted as enrollees, they drew thousands of dollars each in state support that was, in turn, funneled to connected vendors. In the 2017-18 school year alone, the audit identified $15.5 million in overpaid tuition support.
Asked about the State Board of Account’s report, House Speaker Brian Bosma defended the virtual school program and pointed to Daleville Community Schools, the tiny public school district that granted its name as authorizer of the charter schools, and the Department of Education, overseen by Indiana schools chief Jennifer McCormick. The Republican state superintendent, whose office was eliminated by the legislature effective next year, has been outspoken in calling for greater accountability for schools of choice.
Blaming the Department of Education for the abuses of charter school operators is like blaming the BMV for the actions of a drunk driver. Responsibility for lax regulations and oversight for both charter schools and voucher schools falls squarely on Bosma and the GOP supermajority. In cozying up to the deep-pocketed school-choice community, they ignored glaring examples of corruption here and elsewhere. It was almost 11 years ago when The Journal Gazette first reported on the suspicious real estate deals surrounding two Imagine Inc. charter schools in Fort Wayne – schools that eventually shut down with $3.6 million in outstanding state loans.
Charter school scandals are so common that the Network for Public Education began collecting them on a website and tagging them on Twitter: #AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal.
“There is a crisis of charter corruption in the United States and sadly the powerful charter lobby stops every attempt to enact reform,” said Carol Burris, executive director of the organization. “In 2019 alone the Network for Public Education identified four major virtual charter scandals, including Indiana’s two schools. A California virtual scandal cost that state’s taxpayers over $50 million. Virtual charter schools have a pattern of ‘cooking the books’ when it comes to attendance and enrollment, and have the worst outcomes when it comes to student achievement.”
Do Indiana taxpayers care?
Remember when children worked in factories? Charter schools (and vouchers) are the NEW factories and Charters (and Vouchers) are “USING” our young and their teachers ….. FOR PROFIT.
SICK.
Media reported that a national Catholic school chain requires students work 1 week a month for private companies and return the their pay to the school, despite some of the schools receiving $6,000 per student in taxpayer money.
I think that chain is Cristo Rey, supported by Gates. Melinda is Catholic, and if they wanted to save Catholic schools, they would donate $3 billion as a permanent endowment.
Speculating- the Gates want what prosperity Catholics want – disadvantaged students working for free, trained to believe education is screen time and Common Core software and, taught obedience to theocrats.
White congregants (the 40% who didn’t vote for Trump) remain silent about the system and, I’m sure have some self-justification.
Walton heirs gave the chain $400,000 in 2018.
The Gates no doubt think a sum like $3 bil. is too much because they think Bernie’s tax plan is too much. Their actions and those of their fellow 0.1%’ ers tell us they want greater concentration of wealth. Three Americans with wealth equivalent to 150,000 Americans isn’t satisfactory.
Correction- 150,000,000
I infer that South Bend City Council members don’t know that Notre Dame’s ACE is in the forefront of parental school choice. The ACE education summit will be held in June in New Orleans, a city that recently closed its last remaining public school. The Indiana Catholic Conference, Indiana Catholic Action Network and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops promote parental school choice.
The conservative Fordham institute, whose agenda was steered by Chester Finn of the Hoover Institute, and the Koch-linked Manhattan Institute, both praise Catholic schools.
Jefferson said, “In every country, in every age, the clergy have been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own.”
Almost 60% of white Catholics voted for Trump. The Catholic Church of the 60’s and 70’s is not the church of today.
Is it fair to suggest that the conservative turn of Catholicism can be traced to the population that left the church during those decades? Unwilling to cooperate with conservative elements in the religion, they left the church. Their leaving meant only conservatives remained. Is this a fair assessment?
The reason I question this is that this is the story to,some extent in the mainstream Protestant churches. Or at least it it my perception that it is this way. Exceptions exist to these generalizations.
“None of that appears to matter to Bosma and other legislators, who have been rewarded for their support of school choice by generous campaign contributions. Companies and individuals connected to the two virtual schools gave more than $100,000 to legislators and to Gov. Eric Holcomb. Bosma collected $10,000 and his GOP caucus campaign committee collected another $10,000. Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, not only received $3,000 in campaign cash from vendors tied to the virtual charters, but his business consulting firm was awarded a contract by the virtual schools, as The Journal Gazette’s Niki Kelly reported Tuesday. The contract amount is unavailable – the two charters are closed.
It now lies with state and federal law enforcement to attempt to claw back the $68.9 million carelessly entrusted to Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. State officials made a poor school choice, indeed. Voters must remember on Election Day.”
Amazing how closely it tracks to Ohio’s giant charter school scandal, except Indiana’s is about 18 million dollars bigger.
They’ll never get the money back. Ohio’s is long gone. Regulators ignored it and covered it up for so long the perpetrators got away with their ill-gotten gains.
Why are there never federal prosecutions of these charter scams? Some of this funding has to be federal. Is our entire government hopelessly corrupt and captured?
What was found in the FBI raid of schools allegedly linked to Gulen?
Why is there no accountability for the US Dept. of Ed.’s lie in referring to private schools as public?
The FBI never released report on Gulen raid.
a key to understanding who is fully behind the scam? WHY are there never federal prosecutions of charter scams…
How much graft will Indiana put up with?
If it is Republican, never ending.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6775250-State-Board-of-Accounts-special-investigation-of.html?fbclid=IwAR1h6q3coqwPZq6P-51O3ahIAI_qtJPgiyd8wtCzmR4vusflBTPh64qhpb4