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Andrea Gabor: The Slow But Steady Decline of the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
July 6, 2019 //
8

 

Andrea Gabor is one of the most interesting education writers around. She holds the Bloomberg Chair in Business Journalism at Baruch College. Her articles appear on sites read by people in the business world. Yet she has a firm grasp of education issues. Her latest book, After the Education Wars, has the best discussion of New Orleans education issues that I have seen. Her book The Man Who Invented Quality, about W. Edwards Deming, has a brilliant chapter #9) utterly demolishing merit pay. Follow her articles.

Her latest appears on the website of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Gabor tells the story of the reversals of fortune of the charter industry in California. Its billionaire funders spent heavily on losing candidates in the last election and are now playing defense.

The article was written before the indictment of 11 people in the charter industry in California for scamming the state of $80 million. That got lots of press and increases pressure on the Legislature to plug some holes in its charter laws.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Is it Just or Patriotic to Paint Over Art That Offends Someone?

By dianeravitch
July 5, 2019 //
50

 

Larry Cuban posts here an opinion piece that appeared originally in the New York Times about a decision by the San Francisco School Board to paint over (and thus destroy) a Depression-Era mural that is highly critical of the U.S.

The artist Victor Arnautoff was a Russian immigrant and a Communist. His mural “Life of Washington” depicted George Washington and other Founding Fathers in a very negative light.

The 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American.

The School Board decided that the mural was offensive to Native American and African-American students. And they voted not to cover the mural but to paint over it so that it would be utterly destroyed and never seen again.

These and other explanations from the board’s members reflected the logic of the Reflection and Action Working Group, a committee of activists, students, artists and others put together last year by the district. Arnautoff’s work, the group concluded in February, “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, Manifest Destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.” The art does not reflect “social justice,” the group said, and it “is not student-centered if it’s focused on the legacy of artists, rather than the experience of the students.”

And yet many of the school’s actual students seemed to disagree. Of 49 freshmen asked to write about the murals, according to The Times, only four supported their removal. John M. Strain, an English teacher, told The Times’s Carol Pogash that his students “feel bad about offending people but they almost universally don’t think the answer is to erase it.”

So the school committee voted to condemn a work of art that acknowledged and by doing so condemned “slavery, genocide, colonization, Manifest Destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.”

This action by the School Board is nuts.

Categories Accountability, Art, California, San Francisco

Red Queen in LA: Deciphering the Charter Chaos and Shape-Shifting

By dianeravitch
July 5, 2019 //
6

 

This is another brilliant post by Sara Roos, known as Red Queen in LA.

She read the report of the leaked emails among charter advocates. She notes their double talk, their rhetorical legerdemain, their organizations that pop up like mushrooms, then morph into new organizations.

Behind this seeming chaos is a steady purpose: to disrupt and destroy public education.

Behind the chaos is the steady flow of millions from the billionaires who despise the commons.

The connect between the chaos and the billionaires are outstretched hands for hire.

She begins:

Charter schools in California band together as an embattled group, agitating for hostile takeover of the Public Commons. They serially convene, dissolve and reform a plethora of working groups to bombard public schools with “messaging” and disinformation.  The groups as well as charters themselves of course, drain resources from schools, necessitating capital (monetary and human) defending what should be protected by the people, for the people.

One of these itinerant ideologues is Ben Austin, founder of the “Parent Trigger”, who in 2014 resigned from his astroturf group to foment a new one, Kids Coalition. A collection of emailsmade public by the municipal-transparency site michaelkolhaas.org uncovered a set of strategies developed among this cabal, reported by Howard Blume at the LATimes hereand here.

The collusion, as one of them explains elsewhere, is “all about the messaging”. And the message revealed in aggregate over 5000+ emails, lays out a very stark code-shift. The catchy phrase, “kids first”, is a logical fallacy. Iterated unceasingly by charter advocates, it simultaneously casts aspersions on a presumed alternative (‘a time or place when kids were not first’) even while kids in schools have always been “first”. But consistent with the ideology of long-standing and now charter-mega-fundersKoch and Walton (among others), that term “kids first” effectively codes for “anti-union”. Because if formerly it were true that kids were not first, it would be the fault of the system that transposed their status, their teacher’s union. ‘If the proper order of kids is not upheld, it must be the fault of their teachers’ is the sly message.

Likewise there is a constant drum-beat against “bureaucracy” and “adult issues” but that too is simply code for “anti-regulation”. Charter schools aren’t really about finding a better way around bureaucracy. It is reviled incessantly, but the rules they denounce are precepts of democratic transparency, safety, efficiency, equity – cumbersome perhaps but the tenets of our republic. Instead the path they forge is of non-accountability: government funding without regulation. And this, even while the maxim “another day another charter school scandal” has been commonplace for decadesnow.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fraud, Los Angeles, Privatization

EdSource: Why California Charter Schools Have Little or No Oversight

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2019 //
12

 

Louis Freedberg of EdSource explains here why California charter schools are largely unsupervised, leading to a drumbeat of scandals like the recent indictment of 11 people charged with a theft of $80 million.

He writes:

As charter school conflicts intensify in California, increasing attention is being focused not only on the schools themselves but on the school boards and other entities that grant them permission to operate in the first place.

They’re called charter authorizers, and unlike many states, California has hundreds of them: 294 local school districts, 41 county offices of education, along with the State Board of Education.

In fact, California, with over 1300 charters schools, has more authorizers than any other state. That’s not only because of California’s size but also because it has an extremely decentralized approach to charter school authorization.

Someone wishing to start a charter school, or to renew a charter, must apply to a local school district to get the green light to do so. If a petition is turned down by the district, applicants can appeal to county boards of education, and if they are denied there, they can go to the State Board of Education as a last resort.

An emerging question is whether California’s authorizers have the skills, capacity and guidance to adequately oversee the charter schools under their jurisdiction.

Under the state’s extremely lax law, a tiny rural district may authorize a charter to open for business in an urban district hundreds of miles away. The rural district collects a commission, the charter has no supervision.

A win-win for the charter and the authorizer, a lose-lose for taxpayers and students.

The California problem is not that authorizers need training, but that any district can authorize charters in other districts.

The law should be changed so that districts control whether charters open inside their boundaries. The current law encourages scavengers to prey on other districts. This must stop. Give districts control and responsibility for the schools inside their geographic area. Stop the charter vandals whose only goal is profiteering without oversight.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Deregulation, Education Industry, Privatization

Ohio: More Charter Scandals Running on STEAM

By dianeravitch
June 22, 2019 //
4

Bill Phillis writes about Ohio’s connection to the biggest charter school heist in history (so far):

 

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More about the STEAM charters that have connections with the individuals indicted in California for an $80 million charter fraud
Five STEAM charters were “licensed” to operate in Ohio. Two of them, sponsored by Ohio Council of Community Schools, closed after a short period (2 years for one and 4 years for the other.)
Three STEAM charters are still in business as follows:
·       STEAM Academy of Warrensville Heights sponsored by Ohio Council of Community Schools
·       STEAM Academy of Akron sponsored by the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation
·       STEAM Academy of Warren sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education
Three of 11 individuals indicted in California for an $80 million charter fraud case have direct connections to the STEAM charter business enterprise in Ohio.
Other Ohio charter operations have been connected to charter operators indicted in other states. Several months ago some charter operators indicted for charter fraud in Florida had Ohio charter connections. The deregulated charter environment attracts people that relish the possibility of a quick buck.
The Ohio Department of Education and the two other sponsors should initiate an investigation into the operation of STEAM charters in Ohio.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540| ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| www.ohiocoalition.org
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Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Ohio, Privatization

Bill Phillis: Stop Online Theft of Public Funds

By dianeravitch
June 21, 2019 //
3

Ohio experienced the collapse of ECOT (Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) earlier this year, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars meant for instruction.

California recently indicted 11 people in the theft of more than $50 million connected to online charter schools, padding their enrollments with ghost students.

Bill Phillis of Ohio has a suggestion.

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No reason for online charters to be paid as much per student as brick and mortar schools
The charter industry is replete with concepts, conditions and practices that defy logic. A really bizarre practice in Ohio is funding online charters on the same basis as brick and mortar schools.
Online charters are cash cows for companies like the defunct ECOT, K12 Inc., etc. Online charters don’t typically provide such programs and services as:
·       Transportation
·       Facilities
·       Food service
·       Athletics and co-curricular activities
·   Variety of school personnel such as librarians, nurses, social workers, etc.
There are no state standards regarding teacher/student ratios for online charters. Reports from former online charter employees indicate some online teachers have up to 200 students.
Some Ohio public officials have expressed serious concerns about the funding formula for online charters, but efforts to address the matter have been ignored and/or delayed. Until Ohio officials figure out how to fund online charters, the amount paid to these charters should be cut in half. School expenditure data collected by the Ohio Department of Education could be analyzed to demonstrate the need to reduce per student funding to online charters.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540| ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| www.ohiocoalition.org
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Categories California, Education Reform, Fraud, Ohio, Virtual Charter Schools

Mercedes Schneider on the Biggest Charter Heist in History-More than $50 Million and Still Counting

By dianeravitch
June 21, 2019 //
14

Mercedes Schneider read the voluminous indictment of the founders of the online charter chain called A3. She describes the counts in the indictment in this post.

She writes:

In this post, I offer excerpts of the 67 counts detailed in the 235-page indictmentof Sean McManus, Jason Schrock, and nine others who used weaknesses in California’s charter school laws to construct a network of fraud and launder $50M in public funds into their own pockets over the course of years. These 11 individuals (and unidentified others) did so by opening multiple charter schools and using companies, both pre-existing and newly-created, to establish a complex system of self-dealing– with little to no education actually happening via those exploited, educational dollars.

The California legislature is currently deciding whether and how to reform the state’s charter law. The California Charter School Association is fighting any accountability or reform of the law. If a theft of more than $50 million by charter vultures doesn’t persuade the legislature of the need for reform, nothing will.

Bring on more theft of public money! More millions scooped up by entrepreneurs and grifters!

Thanks, Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, Bill Bloomfield, the Fischer family (the Gap and Old Navy), the Walton family, and all the other billionaires who make this piracy possible and who fund the CCSA!

Why spend money on public schools when it can go right into the bank accounts of smart and savvy entrepreneurs?

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Corruption, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

How Online Charter Operators Scammed More Than $50 Million from Taxpayers and Schools in California

By dianeravitch
June 18, 2019 //
7

 

Valerie Strauss posted a fascinating column about the biggest charter scam in history. 

She writes:

Late last month, San Diego officials indicted 11 people in what they described as a charter scam that defrauded the state of California of more than $50 million in education funds.

The indictment details a scheme in which an Australian man and his business partner in Southern California opened 19 charter schools throughout the state and then took the public funding the schools received to operate and used it instead for real estate and other ventures.

This post explains the scam that the 235-page indictment spells out in detail. This is long but worth the time to read to get an understanding of how easy it is, because of lax charter sector laws in some states, to defraud the public.

California, which has more charter schools and more charter school students than any other state, now has one of the most lax charter laws in the country, allowing these schools to operate with little if any accountability or transparency to the public.

The story was written by Will Huntsberry, a reporter for the Voice of San Diego. She received permission from the Voice of San Diego to repost it in full. It is an important story.

It begins like this:

Sean McManus and Jason Schrock created an online charter school empire that covered more than half the state of California, according to prosecutors and investigators for an outside charter school organization.

From the port of entry at San Ysidro up to Los Angeles, past the cliffs of Big Sur all the way to Santa Cruz; east through Raisin City, past the giant sequoias of Sierra National Forest, and down into the flat and quiet of Death Valley; south again to the Mexican border; and back to the coast — a person could travel unbroken through 20 counties that made up the lower half of their empire. An outpost of 14 counties encompassing Sonoma and Sacramento sits further north.

From this vast swath of territory, McManus and Schrock absorbed mind-blowing profits. Take just some of their 2016 tax returns (1): Their nonprofit charter management company A3 brought in $14.2 million in revenue. It spent only $3.6 million. Of the money it spent, $855,796 went to McManus and Schrock’s salaries. They appeared to be the only two employees, according to the tax return.

The profits climbed even higher in the months that followed, according to an indictment (2) filed by prosecutors. A3 Education and other companies controlled by McManus and Schrock ultimately brought in more than $80 million, prosecutors say.

Categories California, Corruption, Fraud, Virtual Charter Schools

Tom Ultican on the Privatizers’ Efforts to Sabotage Reform of the Charter Law in California

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2019 //
8

 

Tom Ultican, retired teacher of physics and advanced mathematics, has become a scholar of the privatization movement.

in this post, he reviews the efforts of the charter lobby to undermine the effort to reform the egregiously defective charter law in California.

At times like this, you need a scorecard to keep track of the multitudinous organizations created by the billionaires who want to replace public schools with charter schools.

Ultican is one of the few people able to sort out the charter menagerie.

The Waltons, Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and assorted billionaires think they can create the illusion of popular support by spinning off more and more AstroTurf groups that have no connection to parents or teachers. Just money. Their ruse is failing. Betsy DeVos must be enjoying the charade.

Congratulations to Superintendent Tony Thurmond for getting a reasonable set of recommendations for charter law reform from a deeply divided task force.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Capitol & Main: Can California’s Run-Away Charter Expansion Be Curbed? Plus: Why EE failed

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2019 //
4

 

Bill Raden of Capitol & Main has a sharp analysis of the recommendations from Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s Charter School Task Force.

Plus, public school advocate David Tokofsky explains why Measure EE—which was supposed to raise $500 million annually for the schoolsof Los Angeles—failed.

With allies like L.A.’s neoliberal supe Beutner running the Yes on EE campaign, who needs enemies? Beutner’s biggest blunder, according to Tokofsky, came last year when he and his pro-charter allies on the board torpedoed the efforts by board members Dr. George McKenna and Scott Schmerelson to get the tax on the November, 2018 midterms ballot, when polling suggested that a larger, more liberal turnout would have made it a shoo-in.

Beutner  compounded that error by not only scheduling EE for June’s low-turnout, single-measure special election but by bunglinga last-minute language change that effectively translated as millions of dollars worth of free publicity for the measure’s opponents — anti-taxers like the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization
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