Bad things happen in all sectors. But so many bad things happen in Charterworld because there are so few controls or oversight. Public school employees typically undergo background checks, and their schools are regularly audited. The charter industry considers state regulation of any kind to be insulting.
But, lo! A charter school founder in Cleveland was arrested for being part of a human trafficking ring.
Incredible!
CLEVELAND — On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that a total of 160 people were arrested in a human trafficking crackdown initiative, known as “Operation Buyer’s Remorse.”
Among the list of 160 people who were taken into custody from Sept. 25-30 was 68-year-old John Zitzner, the co-founder of Breakthrough Charter Schools.
According to a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Zitzner was arrested by the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force. Zitzner told task force members that “he works in education at Friend of Breakthrough Schools.” His case is being handled through the Rocky River Municipal Court.
Court records show that Zitzner was arrested on Sept. 28 in Westlake and charged with engaging in prostitution. He had his initial court appearance on Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 10.
What kind of person founds charter schools and engages in human trafficking and prostitution?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charters are BAD. There is NO OVERSIGHT re: Charters and…of course Vouchers.
Tell this to Cardona.
Bigger question: did he ensnare any students into this enterprise and, if so, how many?
With such perverts, throw away the key and prevent him from getting near any child or school.
The type of person that would engage in this type of behavior is a morally compromised opportunist. Zitzner knows how to follow the easy, unaccountable cash just like junk bond king, Michael Milken. Operating a charter school is a form of legalized vandalism. Charter schools get to drain public school budgets to serve their own interests and feather their own nests. This guy may have used charter school profits to set up his prostitution ring, but the public has no way of knowing where the public money went, when public funds were turned into unaccountable private funds. With a lack of oversight and regulation, charter schools are a Mecca for fraudsters, thieves and hustlers.
This information should be ‘IN THE NEWS!”
And AMEN to retired teacher.
Ohio journalists should add to their reports about charter school scandals and the wrongdoing of those in that business sector- “Policy advocates for school choice include Fordham Institute, the Gates Foundation, the Koch network and, the Catholic church.”
Seven years ago Fordham posted a photo of AG Dewine (now Ohio Governor) touring a Breakthrough school. “Fordham spotlighted” the school writing, “charter schools …play a vital role in…creating safe neighborhoods.” Breakthrough’s “focus is on…and, citizen development.”
John Zitzner was quoted as part of Fordham’s laudatory coverage, “We appreciate AG Dewine’s commitment to protect Ohio families.” In a concluding statement to the article, Fordham wrote, “Kudos to (Breakthrough) for making a big difference in lives…”
Wasn’t there a case of an AZ charter teacher engaged in human trafficking with the cheerleader squad?
I think that was the Andre Agassiz school in Arizona. Everything went wrong there.
Why? Where better for a trafficker to find children and then mark them for kidnapping or lure them into a trap.
The charge seems to be patronizing a prostitute, without taking a position either way , I think we can have a discussion of about whether prostitution should be criminalized. Personally I think it is demeaning to those involved and destructive to those involved . Whether adults engaged in prostitution or their clients should be criminally prosecuted is a question for debate. So portraying him as a pimp is a bit over the top.
That said: I was curious whether he was charged as a John or a trafficker, which should definitely be criminal. In a Google search I came up with a news link from the Cleveland Jewish News. Their coverage of this story makes it obvious that they are a mouth piece for Public Funding of Religious Schools.
Their coverage of this story is hilarious, for its dishonesty.
https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/former-breakthrough-public-schools-founder-zitzner-arrested-in-sting-operation/article_dd8ec986-6223-11ee-a09d-4755d7c8e8e9.html
between 40 and 80% of all street prostitutes are users of or addicted to drugs.
Only a punitive and Puritanical culture not interested in people’s actual welfare would criminalize sex work. This drives it underground and is a job creation program for criminal organizations. And it leads to many evils, such as drug abuse and rampant venereal disease. Legalization with regulation is the only sane way forward.
The average sex worker is assaulted at least once a month.
Another horrific consequence of criminalization. This needs to end. We need legalization and regulation of this industry. Seriously.
I was not looking to start a debate. The News story I linked was Orwellian in its description of the Charter School as a Public School.
In other news, what laissez-faire Capitalists really think (and say to one another in private):
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html
And in other News. There are no free markets, never have been and never will be. No place is that more evident than in the Pharmaceutical and Financial Industries.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/10/05/team-billionaire-is-winning/
Exactly, Joel. The whole notion, so foundational to fake economics, is absurd. A market is not “free” to people who cannot afford to participate in it. The housing market, for example. There is a free market in private islands. ANYONE can participate in it. LOL. Idiotic. Yet people allow politicians and economists to get away with talking like this. It’s doubletalk.
There is a free market in housing. The rich live in comfort and splendor. The poor live in slums.
They are free to live in those slums. And if they were rich, they would be free to live in splendor.
Bob Shepherd
Markets function according to the rules set out for them even the lack of regulation is a regulator of markets.
Politics is the business of setting those rules.” Determining who gets what when and how”
Baker loves to point out that our libertarian Tech and Pharma CEO’s are the recipients of the most anti competitive protections in the form of Patents. Guberment granted monopolies written into the Constitution. . While without Guberment funding for research or contracts for the products, much if not most of these inventions / products would not exist. Covid 19 Vaccine a perfect example. !5 years of Government sponsored research yet Pharma was granted Patents and buyers.
Bob– OMG where do you find these gems. The title alone cracked me up. Additional knee-slappers in text.
The kind of person who wants access to many children.