The Mind Trust in Indianapolis has been the central engine of charter creation in that city and holds itself up as a model charter authorizer.
Until it was “deceived” by a would-be charter operator with a rosy vision, according to this story by Stephanie Wang in Chalkbeat Indiana.
She begins:
To launch a “transformational” middle school in an overlooked eastside neighborhood, Indianapolis charter advocates turned to a man students call Coach T.
For two decades, Tariq Al-Nasir ran his Stemnasium enrichment programs with a mission of helping Black and brown students realize their “superpowers” in science, technology, engineering, and math. With a resume boasting advanced degrees from MIT and Stanford, Al-Nasir put forward a vision of education in which hands-on lessons in coding, flying drones, and tinkering with robots could change children’s lives.
Calling him “brilliant” at working with students, the influential charter incubator The Mind Trust gave Al-Nasir a two-year, $800,000 fellowship last summer to develop Stemnasium Science Math Engineering Middle School.
But a Chalkbeat investigation found that the rosy charter pitch painted over troubling details — lawsuits, financial troubles, questionable academic credentials — that escaped notice by city charter officials and The Mind Trust.
A bankruptcy filed six months before Al-Nasir won the prestigious fellowship showed that he had accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts while running the programs that inspired his charter proposal — including a nearly $500,000 judgment in a lawsuit that alleged Al-Nasir wrote bad checks to cover outstanding Stemnasium bills.
His resume lists a bachelor’s degree from New York University, a master’s from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate from Stanford University — each earned at times when the employment section of his resume placed him at jobs in other cities. All three of those institutions told Chalkbeat they had no records of Al-Nasir’s attendance.
The lawsuits and financial scandals did not deter The Mind Trust but lying about his academic credentials did.
The Mind Trust cancelled his fellowship.
What is even more shocking than the candidate’s misrepresentations was The Mind Trust’s failure to conduct a review of his background.
Without the inquiries from Chalkbeat, it’s unclear whether Al-Nasir’s money troubles or unsubstantiated educational claims would have come to light. The Indianapolis mayor’s office, which oversees more than 40 charter schools in the city, is often named among the strongest charter authorizers in the nation. But its director acknowledged that officials don’t vet new applicants’ financial histories or even run a simple free search on a public database of court records that would reveal lawsuits.
The Mind Trust displayed neither accountability nor transparency. Its naïveté and gullibility embarrassed the candidate as well as the organization. It failed to vet him or to conduct due diligence.
This just in: In a surprising story, charter operator uses some of the funds he takes from the public treasury to educate children. Outraged, other charter operators demand investigation.
Fake news
Extra:
Dr. Charteroperator not only actually has a PhD but is also a real medical doctor with an MD from Johns Hopkins.
Other charter operators complain based on the argument that he is overqualified for the position.
Extra extra:
Dr. Charteroperator, who always wears a mask in public is physically restrained and forcibly unmasked by other charter operators and revealed to be Dr. Fauci.
Other charter operators unanimously call for his head on a pike.
That’s nothing, SomeDAM. I have a PhD in Magic Reformy Educational Elixir Administration from Bob Shepherd’s Real Good Online Florida University and Supplement Shop. This qualifies me to do turnarounds of entire school districts for a very small upfront fee.
Well, I recently acquired one of these for doing very quick school turnarounds.
In fact, after it is properly positioned on the turntable, I can turn an average school around in under ten seconds.
My record is actually 1.5 seconds, but that was for a small one room schoolhouse which had a relatively low moment of inertia.
It takes a lot of force and energy to get the big schools turning.
Also, it is no easy task getting the schools to stop before they overshoot the 180 degree mark.
On more than one occasion, the schools ended up back where they started and I had to turn them around more than once.
While this works, it is little less than optimal and sometimes makes the students and teachers dizzy and even sick, which can lead to lawsuits.
Because of this I have had to take out expensive malturnaround insurance.
Having said that, if you want your school turned around, call 1-800-TRN-ROUND
My fees are reasonable and I charge by the degrees turned, with a max of 180 degree charge in cases where the turnaround goes beyond 180.
Sorry, two many numbers
1-800-TRN-ROUN
Note: my turntable is not big enough for turning around entire districts in one fell swoop.
But I am checking Craigslist every day to see if something bigger turns up, if you will pardon the pun.
“too” many numbers.
Not “two” just “one” too many.
Not “one two many”
By the way, Bob
If your Magic Elixir treats nausea from turnarounds, I think we could profitably team up.
I think it might reduce my malturnaround insurance, but i will have to check with my agent at Flybynight Insurance.
Of course, I have considerable investment on the R&D side, so your share would be adjusted to take that into account.
But I think we could probably arrive at a mutually agreeable arrangement.
I think we would be an unbeatable team.
You have the theoretical (magic) side covered and I have the experimental side covered.
We might even be able to corner the turnaround market. Or at least turn the corner on the turnaround market.
On the other hand,
SNAFU instantly turns to FUBAR when you
try to fix it the way the other guy didn’t…
🙂
The Mind Trust is really the gold standard for privatizing school systems and Indianapolis is their flagship effort- the privatization model they hope to export all over the country- lavishly funded, supported by powerful people, sophisticated marketing and political lobbying.
If they don’t do any due diligence before handing out contracts to buy schools none of the other ed reform groups are doing any either.
The real problem is ed reform is an echo chamber and they buy their own hype. They didn’t do any due diligence because the rest of the crowd had already endorsed this guy. There’s no checks and balances in these privatized systems they create because they hire exclusively out of the same echo chamber they reside in.
Ed reformers often use information collected and recorded by public school systems and teacher unions to bash public schools. But the only reason they have that information is because they’re PUBLIC schools and labor unions are required to make and retain records on employee discipline, etc. They don’t have the same information regarding charter and private schools. There’s less negative information because there’s less information, not because nothing bad is happening in any charter schools.
They’ll do some big “expose” on teacher absences in public schools and there’s never a comparison with charter schools. That’s not because charter teachers don’t take sick days- it’s because there’s no system-wide record of their sick days.
“Reinventing America’s Schools
Apr 28
Join us Wed., May 5th at 1pm EST for a historic debate, “Parent or The Public: Who Holds Schools Accountable?”
Ed reform “debates” about public education are like the opposite of a “debate”. They rigorously exclude anyone who runs, works in, uses or supports public schools from all public education policy discussions.
90% of the students in this country are completely unrepresented in ed reform forums. Their schools are simply not there.
The Biden Administration held a public school discussion yesterday. I was shocked to discover 2 public school leaders somehow got included. It’s probably the first time they’ve ever been asked.
“I was shocked to discover 2 public school leaders somehow got included. It’s probably the first time they’ve ever been asked.”
Window dressing. Biden’s top leaders in the DoEd are recycles of public school haters Arne & King. Someone from Mind Trust was on the DoEd transition, team, too.
I’m waiting for an historic debate from Democrats on “Who holds education reformers accountable? Parents or The Public?”
“Parent or The Public: Who Holds Schools Accountable?”
By the way, you’ll see more and more of this expressed in the echo chamber. They can’t both fully privatize K-12 education AND “hold schools accountable” because the accountability metrics they apply to public schools won’t apply to privatized systems.
They’ll jettison the “accountability” piece in favor of the “privatization” piece. They have to. They won’t be able to test and monitor 500 ever-changing private educational contractors, and they’re never going to be able to hold the publicly funded private schools to the same set of mandates they hold public schools to.
They’ll go full free market, deregulation. It was inevitable. The ideology always had to end up this way.
As it is now in Ohio if you’re a parent who wants to escape the ever-changing mandates and metrics and gimmicks and fads imposed on public schools in Ohio BY ed reformers, all you have to do is take a voucher and attend a private school.
They can’t reach private schools, because they’re private.
They stuck our schools with their policy and exempted their own private schools. Public school students get the worst of both worlds- they get stuck with junk ed reform policy and they get no ed reform support.
In the Money-Laundering Biz this is known as the Spin Cycle.
LOL
The Mindless Trust
The Mindless Trust
Has failed to vet
And failed to bust
A tale that’s wet
The Mindless Trust
Is mindful NOT!
And really just
A mindless bot
After looking into the Mind Trust (Hoosier School Heist by Doug Martin), it appears that the Mind Trust “failure” is actually not failure at all.
[Mind Trust’s] naïveté and gullibility embarrassed the candidate…”
Poor “Dr”. Al-Fakir
“Al-Faker”
“School Choice Expansion among Legislative Successes for the Indiana Catholic Conference” (Today’s Catholic 4-27-2021)
And, the Indiana Catholic Action Network page, posted at the ICC site about HB 1005, Episode 11, “School Choice Myths”. The view cited in the conclusion as, “The Church’s concern” for well-funded school choice- (1) privatization does not lead to segregation (racist Georgia Gov. Talmadge must have been wrong) (2) privatization does not take money from public schools and, (3) private schools deliver better academic outcomes. How could GOP Charles Koch be more pleased with Catholic politicking in Indiana?
What a joke of a name: “Mind Trust.”
Should be called: “Mind FARCE.”
The MindTrust sent Patrick Herrel, to Cincinnati were he was installed as CEO for Accelerate Great Schools. he failed to raise money so he was sent packing. see tom tultican’ report for his on this sham effort to enlist local power brokers to ease the path for more “high quality seats” in Cincinnati.
Who is going to mind the trust that cannot be trusted? Privatizers dream up systems to keep the public in the dark about where the money goes. EMOs are known culprits of moving money to unaccountable entities and moving funds offshore. Without regulation and accountability, they can sometimes operate outside the law. Once money moves to an opaque wall of private ownership, there is no way to track funds. The Mind Trust has shown itself to be incompetent, and it should lose its status as a charter authorizer.
More ed reform nonsense:
“As Congress doles out billions of dollars for K–12 schools, charter schools already receive a much smaller portion of the education-funding pie. Currently Congress appropriates $440 million for the CSP, which is just 1 percent of U.S. Department of Education spending on K–12.”
Deliberately deceptive or completely innumerate?
The hope here is the public won’t know that charter schools receive the same federal funding that public schools do- they use the 1% figure to mislead.
In this instance, the reverse is actually true. Public schools receive NOTHING from the special federal subsidy for charter schools, while charter schools receive part of any funding that goes to public schools.
Charter schools: special federal charter subsidy + federal K-12 funding
Public schools: federal K-12 funding
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/dont-believe-haters-federal-charter-schools-program-deserves-full-funding
It is another example of how charters game the system. They get paid from public school budget, and they get a portion of other federal dollars like Title 1. It would be fair if charters took all students, but they don’t. They avoid ELLs and severe classified students as these students have many expensive needs.
The annual $440 million grant is for opening or expanding new charters. NPE reported that the program is rife with fraud and waste. Nearly 40% of the money went to charters that either never opened or closed soon after opening. DeVos used the program to fund KIPP and other corporate chains. Charters get public school money. In Texas, they get more than public schools.
Speaking of “Trusts”, John B. King is reportedly taking a leave of absence from Education Trust to run for Maryland Governor. He can hobnob with the Hoover Institute’s Chester Finn since they both like privatized education. Georgia Gov. Talmadge liked privatization too.
Bad week for Bill Gates’ PR. First, there’s the arrest of former Bridge International Academies and Arne Duncan Dept. of Ed. employee, Seth Andrew. btw- a website, Black and Brown at DP (Democracy Prep) Community takes Andrew to task. Seth’s critics objected to his “white savior narrative” and, they wrote in reference to the Marlboro College situation, “You’d soon feel like many people in Harlem wishing he would leave.”
Secondly, there’s Diane’s post above about the Indianapolis charter school scandal. Indianapolis’ Mayor from 2000-2008 got a grant from the Gates Foundation ($11,000,000). PR for the grant described the Mayor as the first in the nation to have authority to charter schools.
Stemnasium was founded in 2003.
Gates has a potentially much bigger PR problem
https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines
Thanks for the link-
“Gates has an ideological commitment to knowledge monopolies…He controls the narrative and the payroll.”
The Aspen Institute credited Clinton with the beginning implementation of the ed reform agenda. (Gates was the benevolent face and also the funder of the Aspen Pahara Institute). We see now, Gates had a similar game plan in public health with Clinton as key.
When Fauci made the inexcusable mistakes of early-on dismissing the
impact of Covid on the U.S. and claiming masks wouldn’t work, I wasn’t surprised to learn that he regularly talks with Gates. Fauci, similar to Gates, has flat affect and he doesn’t admit his errors. I also noted what appeared to be a manufactured fan base for Fauci, reminds me of a page out of the Bill and Melinda Gates’ PR manual.
Gates is nothing if not consistent in his approach to a broad spectrum of issues, from software to vaccines to education.
Despite his claim to be “data driven” nothing could be further from the truth.
He is ideology driven.
He simply ignores any fact that disagrees with his market ideology.
Most people in the US can’t see through his sciencey pretense and naively view him as a data driven magnanimous philanthropist.
But much of the rest of the world sees him quite differently. In fact, people in India have called his recent statement that vaccine formulas should NOT be shared with the developing world “racist”.
Gates is pretty clearly dying from Parkinson’s and one would think that he would be concerned about how people will remember him.
But his legacy is going to be largely determined by his adamant insistence NOT to share “intellectual property” on the covid vaccines developing countries* , a stance which will almost certainly impede and prolong vaccine production and dissemination in developing countries and result in the unnecessary death of a large number of people throughout the world.
*There is a huge irony in all the claims of “intellectual property” in this case. The vast majority of the covid vaccines (particularly the one using mRNA technology like those of Moderna and Pfizer) were critically dependent on knowledge obtained from research performed by Dr. Graham and others at NIH. As one NIH scientist noted, in many cases, the vaccine developers were simply “copying and pasting” the work of the NIH scientists in order to develop their vaccines. The fact that the vaccine developers are now claiming exclusive intellectual rights on the vaccines also means they were plagiarizing the work of the NIH scientists. Some people have no shame.
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/26/bill-gates-says-no-to-sharing-vaccine-formulas-with-global-poor-to-end-pandemic_partner/
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/eedition/jefferson_county_leader/page-13/page_125e618e-3fe8-5e33-8095-ed15be989a27.html
sorry….i think stan Baker is a professional hate pedler, not from the town of festus….I am demanding the the editor of the Leader admit….she got played by a phony some sort of Police man for veterans who works in Arizona and supposedly lives in Festus. Go ahead and remove this…..I will just type his ignorant letter for the places I want it displayed. I am not good at computer stuff
The theft of public education lost one of its proponents, Eli Broad.