Investigative reporter David Goldstein reported for KCBS-TV that charter schools in Los Angeles County gathered $78 million in Paycheck Payment Program, even though they had no cessation in public funding and no layoffs.
The big winner was ritzy Palisades Charter High School, which received more than $4.5 million.
The PPP was supposed to benefit small businesses that needed the money because their doors were closed during the pandemic and they needed to keep paying their employees.
For charters, PPP was a splendid payday. They never closed their doors; they never stopped getting a steady flow of government dollars; and they didn’t have to lay off anyone. It was free government money, for nothing. They had no need, but they grabbed what they could.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sickening.
A country that does not support Public Education is one that is failing it’s citizens.
failing citizens and our nation’s entire foundational premise: well educated citizens can participate in a healthy democracy, while poorly educated citizens are easily manipulated by dictatorial leadership
Grab what you can get (unless you’re poor or not white) is the Trumpist credo. It’s meant to turn us against one another.
The Charters grabbed what they could and Trump’s corrupt administration made sure they got it.
Remember and vote in November: “Trump Fires Watchdog Overseeing $2 Trillion in Coronavirus Stimulus Funds” By Matt Stieb
“I’ll be the oversight,” he [Trump] told reporters in one of his coronavirus press conferences. Despite efforts to hold him accountable, he has kept that vow, treating it as something between a promise and a threat. …
“The firing of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee inspector general is just part of an administration-wide purge: Last Friday, Trump removed Intelligence watchdog Michael Atkinson, who had received the whistle-blower complaint that led to the president’s impeachment.” …
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/trump-fires-watchdog-overseeing-coronavirus-stimulus-funds.html
Trump just said that schoolkids won’t be bringing the virus home. So, I guess they are going to issue a requirement that students leave their viruses in their lockers at school.
I thought Trump would have signed an executive order that says children must leave the virus at school before they go home or he will send in his goon squads to grab any kids that carry the virus home. They will show up in their unmarked uniforms and violate every protection even our children have from the U.S. Constitution and lock them up without due process.
How dare they ignore Trump’s executive order and take the virus home. Trump will show them who the leader of the United States is. He’ll point at the White House and say, I work out of the Oval Office. I am the president. I am the most powerful man in the world. Blond porn starts with large breasts are waiting in line to spend time with me in that Oval Office. I know more about the porn industry than anyone on this planet. No one is smarter than me when it comes to porn. I am an expert on porn.
A reporter raises his hand and Trump with the stern expression of an all-powerful emperor who can have you vanished with a Tweet nods to go ahead.
“Mr. President, how did the topic go from children being infected by COVID-19 to porn?”
“Fake news! Fake News,” Trump yells as spittle flies from his mouth and his jowls jiggle. “It’s Obama’s fault! Obama was born in Kenya, and he illegally had the FBI spy on me. My loyalist troops are going to lock Obama up in the same cell with Crooked Hillary. Guards, arrest that reporter! He is a terrorist! Lock him in a small cage, ship him to Guantanamo and waterboard him to find out what he knows about Antifa and the domestic terrorists in Portland that claimed they were mothers protecting protestor from my army.”
And then he starts with the crazy stuff. . . .
It’s refreshing to see local news media investigating charter scams. A huge thank you to David Goldstein and KCBS for getting in contact with the Network for Public Education and others to bring this heinous abuse of parents and the economy to the televised light of day. Los Angeles owes you one.
Again? Diane, I know there’s nothing you can do about it, but it seems WordPress is mad at me again. Nearly every comment I write goes to moderation. It started yesterday when I wrote that our streets belong to us, not to federal agents. Seems to me someone out there doesn’t like the idea of a United States Constitution with a Bill of Rights.
Almost every comment is going into moderation. I will complain to WordPress. The people who answer complaints are called Happiness Engineers. Seriously.
This is my guess. I got two hostile comments a few days ago from someone who signed “ent.”
As it happens, I recognized her email. She has never commented here before. Given that I don’t permit personal insults, I put ent in moderation.
That may have caused WordPress to block every comment that includes “ent.” I just deleted. I will see if that stops WP putting everyone’s comments in moderation. The word “comment” is enough to knock you out.
Thank you for telling me, I’m glad to know it was an accid-e-n-t. E-n-t was certainly an malcont-e-n-t, and certainly not very eloquent-e-n-t. That comm-e-n-t-er kept saying, “You have changed, Diane,” not knowing that charging you with willingness to change is seen by all here on your blog as a complim-e-n-t. If told I had “changed” I would not diss-e-n-t. I would not rep-e-n-t, not to any ext-e-n-t. Well, I hope the Happiness Engineers can augm-e-n-t the blog by allowing “e-n-t” acc-e-n-t-ed cont-e-n-t again. They have big shoes to fill if engineering our very happiness is what they’re supposed to repres-e-n-t.
It worked!
Actually, two more large conversion LAUSD charters got more than that. Birmingham received over 5 million and Granada Hills Charter over 8.3 million. Now it’s time to take a look at the Independent Study charters. Since they deliver curriculum online, their personnel costs should have been much less impacted, if at all. Also, they don’t have the facilities issues to contend with. However, finding them on the data base is very tricky. Spoiler alert…..there’s more than a few.