Billionaire Reed Hastings of Netflix gave $5 million to the campaign to beat Steve Zimmer for the LAUSD School Board last spring.
The charter billionaires won control, and Ref Rodriguez was elected president of the board.
Now Ref is in legal trouble, and Reed came through for his legal defense.
Click to access LAUSD%20Board%20Member%20Ref%20Rodriguez%20Legal%20Defense%20Fund%2010.09.17.pdf
So good to have friends when you are in trouble.
Deep pockets.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the charter chain founded by LAUSD board member Ref Rodriguez has now accused him of financial misdeeds. He was accused last month of money laundering during his campaign for the board seat. Rodriguez was put into office by the charter billionaires associated with the California Charter School Association. After the defeat of Steve Zimmer by Nick Melvoin last spring, The board had a charter majority for the first time and was on the cusp of privatizing many more schools. After his indictment, Rodriguez stepped aside as board president but refused to give up his seat.
Will Rodriguez cling to his seat? Will Eli Broad and Reed Hastings and Alice Walton have to buy a new board seat?
“The charter school network that L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez co-founded and ran for years has filed a complaint with state regulators alleging that Rodriguez had a conflict of interest when he authorized about $285,000 in payments drawn on its accounts.
“Officials at Partnerships to Uplift Communities, or PUC Schools, filed the complaint Friday with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
“According to the complaint and documents reviewed by The Times, the vast majority of the money transfers that Rodriguez authorized and PUC has flagged went from school accounts to Partners for Developing Futures, a nonprofit under his control.
“An attorney who reviewed the records for the school network said he has found little or no evidence so far of services provided for these payments.
“The payments were made in 2014, but do not appear to have been properly authorized,” said attorney Gregory Moser, whose firm was hired by PUC to conduct the investigation. “Nor are the purposes of the expenditures and benefit to the schools adequately documented, our investigation revealed.”
“PUC’s senior managers said they uncovered the transfers — made in a series of checks — while responding to questions and requests from The Times in compliance with the state’s Public Records Act.
“The conflict-of-interest allegations could add to Rodriguez’s legal problems.
“Last month, prosecutors charged him with three felonies and 25 misdemeanors for alleged money laundering in his school board campaign. Rodriguez is accused of soliciting people to give him donations and then illegally paying them back.”
Charter Schools Education Los Angeles Board of Education
Denis Smith worked in the charter office of the Ohio Department of Education until he retired in 2011. He continues to be amazed by the growth and scale of charter fraud, waste, and abuse, which the legislature ignores. Of course, the charter industry has been shielded because charter lobbyists wrote the law!
In this post, he describes some of the most flagrant abuses, several of which involve real estate and exorbitant rentals and leases that allow the charter company to pocket taxpayers’ dollars.
Here is one of the most flagrant abuses:
“The Columbus Primary Academy, part of the Imagine Schools charter chain, is saddled with a lease that requires exorbitant rent to Imagine’s for-profit real estate subsidiary. In two other states, federal courts deemed the leases “self-dealing’’ and ordered Imagine to pay $1 million fines. The latest state audit shows the academy’s current lease extends to 2033, while the latest state report cards shows the school continues to fail our kids.”
An inflated lease that runs through 2033 for a failing Charter School!
Why do Ohioans tolerate this misuse of taxpayer dollars?
How many more scandals will be exposed before the legislature stops waste, fraud, and abuse in the charter industry?
I wrote earlier today about how disappointed the chair of the Senate Committee on Education in Arizona was when the charter school in her district was graded F. She felt sure this couldn’t be right. As chair of the Senate Committee on Education, she must have approved the wacky idea of giving letter grades to schools. Yet now this ALEC-Jeb Bush strategy has blighted the charter she insisted upon.
You should know more about Sylvia Allen.
Linda Lyon, President-elect of the Arizona School Boards Association, writes:
“Yes, the AZ Republic called Senator Sylvia Allen “one of the best-known lightning rods in the AZ Legislature.” Her stated belief that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and her suggestion that church attendance be mandated as a way to “get back to a moral rebirth in this country” are just two of the reasons for her notoriety. I was shocked when I heard of her appointment as Chair of the Senate Education Committee, but it shouldn’t have surprised me.
“After all, I doubt her religious fervency is the reason AZ Senate President Biggs selected Allen to be the person who will control what education proposals make it out of the AZ Senate. Rather, I suspect it is her support of charter schools like the George Washington Academy she helped found in Snowflake. Listed as the “Administrative Program Manager” on their “GWA Teachers and Staff” page, Senator Allen’s employment with this school makes me wary of her ability to be impartial when it comes to legislation that favors charter schools over public district schools.
“Please know that I am not a charter “hater.” I recognize there are charter schools that fill critical needs. What I am, is realistic about the impact the diversion of tax payer dollars to privately managed charter and private schools is having on our public school districts and their students. Make no mistake; this is a zero sum game. When charter schools win, public district schools, often the hub of small communities, lose.
“Senator Allen’s George Washington Academy may be located in the community of Snowflake, but it is managed by Education Management Organization (EMO) EdKey Inc., a for-profit management company that operates 18 schools in Arizona. Although its schools are technically “public” there are numerous differences between them (and all charters) and your average community district schools.
“For starters, the requirements for accountability and transparency are very different. Public district schools have locally elected governing board members that are accountable to the public. Not so with charter schools. In looking at the George Washington Academy website, they had no information about the school board on their school board page, and under school board agendas, only a statement that says: “Sorry, but that directory is empty.” I had to go to the corporate website (sequoiaschools.org) to see the names of their six governing board members, but there was no access to board agendas or minutes.“
Here’s a twist. The city of Cleveland wants to upgrade the quality of its charter schools by blocking a very poorly regarded charter authorized but the Ohio State Superintendent turned Cleveland down.
Bottom line: it is easy to close a public school, but very difficult to close down a low performing charter or authorizer.
“The first real test of whether city leaders can force higher standards for charter schools in the city – a power they fought for in the state legislature five years ago – has failed.
“Though Cleveland has some of the strongest charter schools in Ohio, it also has some of the weakest. So Mayor Frank Jackson and other city leaders have wanted to force some of the weakest operators and oversight organizations for the privately-run, tax-funded public schools to do a better job.
“Making that happen has been a challenge.
“Jackson won limited power from Gov. John Kasich and the legislature in 2012 to let his school quality panel, the Transformation Alliance, recommend to the state who can create and oversee new charter schools in the city.
“That hard fought power was much less than what Jackson had initially sought – an ability for city leaders to approve or deny each new school directly.
“But when the panel tried to use that already-reduced power this year for the first time – asking the state to block controversial charter sponsor St. Aloysius Orphanage from starting new schools here – the Ohio Department of Education did not agree.
“Piet van Lier, executive director of the Alliance, shared this week a recent letter from State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria affirming that he will not grant the Alliance’s request and will let St. Aloysius add new schools here.
“DeMaria is instead forcing St. Aloysius to better communicate with the city over its educational goals.
“We are very disappointed by ODE’s decision,” van Lier said.”We reviewed St. Aloysius’s application thoroughly and found no evidence that the sponsor is focused on providing a quality education for all Cleveland children.”
“Dave Cash, head of Charter School Specialists, the for-profit company that oversees schools for the orphanage, did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment this week.”
Mr. Cash is the appropriately named head of The for-profit company that runs the low-performing authorized.
“Members of the Alliance – Cleveland school district, union, charter school, higher education, business and philanthropic leaders – believe that the Cincinnati orphanage, which now oversees 12 charter schools in Cleveland, creates mediocre or poor schools across the state, just to offer school choices for the sake of choice, not quality.
“Alliance members also question whether the orphanage and the for-profit company that creates schools for it are mainly trying to make money.”
The authorizer gets a cut of the funding no matter how poorly the school performs.
The documentary “Backpack Full of Cash” tells the story of the well-funded, duplicitous attack on public education. It was created by a professional team that had trouble raising money since most foundations docilely follow the lead of the Gates Foundation. “Backpack” was intended to be the answer to “Waiting for Superman,” but the filmmakers lacked the kind of lavish funding from billionaires like Bill Gates and industrialist-evangelical Philip Anschutz for production, promotion, and marketing that “Superman” had.
The documentary shows that charters, online charters, and other forms of privatization are causing public schools to be underfunded, closed, stripped of resources, while charters flourish and select their students.
The title of the film was taken from an interview that the filmmakers had with Jeanne Allen, who is a clone of Betsy DeVos. Her “Center for Education Reform” is funded by foundations and financiers who want to privatize public education.
Allen has given the documentary widespread attention because she keeps attacking Damon for narrating it. He is the proud product of public schools, but sends his own children to private schools. He pays their tuition. He doesn’t think the public should pay their tuition. He understands that supporting public schools is a civic duty, not a consumer choice. He can afford a private security force for his family, but he doesn’t expect the public to pay for his private choices.
Allen doesn’t understand the civic duty thing. Like her mentor Betsy DeVos, she wants to abolish public schools or let them languish as one of many choices, even though they are required to take the children that no one else wants. She wants them to survive as a dumping ground, not hold pride of place as a basic democratic institution.
For some reason, she thinks Matt Damon might notice her. Dream on, Jeanne.
What you are doing with great success is giving the pro-public school documentary the fabulous publicity that its filmmakers can’t afford to buy.
See the film for yourself. Organize a community viewing. PBS was paid millions by rightwing foundations to run a libertarian propaganda film earlier this year. But for some reason, PBS can’t find a way to air “Backpack.” No billionaire backers? Too controversial?
Thank you, Jeanne Allen, for calling attention to this important documentary. Keep it up.
The legislature of North Carolina created a special district to seize control of low-performing schools and turn them over to private charter operators. The district was to be called the North Carolina Innovation School District. It was modeled on the Tennessee Achievement District, which was a complete flop. The plan was funded by a wealthy mogul in Oregon, who filed to create a charter chain and make money off North Carolina taxpayers. He has no education experience. He saw easy pickings in the charter industry, especially when the legislature is so compliant and not too perceptive.
But what the legislature and John Bryan of Oregon didn’t count on was parent resistance. Parents in Durham organized to save Glenn Elementary School. The state, which started with a list of 48 schools for privatization, whittled it down to six. Glenn was one of the six.
The state just backed down and dropped Glenn.
Now parents want the whole retrograde ISD shut down.
A reader from Durham writes:
“VICTORY in Durham!!!
http://abc11.com/glenn-elementary-no-longer-on-list-of-schools-to-be-taken-over/2528853/
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article178705551.html
“We are now going to turn our attentions to getting rid of the NC Innovative School District altogether so that no public school will be threatened with nonconsensual takeover. We plan to show support for the schools that do get “selected” so the fight is not over, but this battle, for now, is won!!”
Eli Broad says he is stepping down from leadership of his foundation to “devote more time to his family.” This is cause for the New York Times to speak of his many gifts to the cultural life of Los Angeles.
We can only hope that he steps away from his hyperactive efforts to privatize public schools in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Eli Broad and his wife Edythe are graduates of the public schools of Detroit. But they feel no gratitude to the Great Democratic Institution that helped to lift them into a life of great riches.
Maybe they hated their teachers.
For whatever reasons, Eli Broad has contributed a significant bit of his vast fortune to training Superintendents to close public schools and replace them with privately run charters. They are known across the nation as “Broadies” and are viewed by parents and teachers as top-down bullies. He has created a plan to put half the children in Los Angeles into private charters. He contributes to publications and policy groups that defame public schools.
Why the hostility to public schools? Why doesn’t he want to make public schools the best they can be instead of undermining and closing them?
I don’t have the answer but I do recall meeting with Eli in his gorgeous penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City. What stuck with me was his frank admission that he knew nothing about education but was certain that good management was the key to solving the problems of urban education.
When he looks over his accomplishments, education reform will not be one of them. He meddled heavily in Detroit, and he and DeVos cannot call it a success for their shared philosophy.
There is not a single district he can point to with pride and claim success.
He has been a destructive force in the world of education. His love of disruption produced nothing but disruption.
While he is retiring from an active role in philanthropy, don’t be surprised if he continues to meddle in education, about which he admittedly knows nothing but has very strong opinions.
Thanks to reader and teacher-blogger David Taylor for sharing this post from the far-far-far right Acton Institute.
The Acton Institute will hold its annual dinner on October 18 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The keynote speaker is Betsy DeVos. There will be no protestors. She will be speaking to her tiny little claque of extremist libertarians, who are exulting these days about their great strides in rolling back the New Deal, shredding any safety net for the poor, getting rid of unions, eliminating pensions, and privatizing government programs and services. Betsy is their hero, because she has not only funded the free-market cause (and the Acton Institute) but has jumped into the arena to put her reactionary agenda into the mainstream.
The post includes the names and connections among some of Betsy’s friends.
Like J.C. Huizenga. Time for a personal anecdote. Many years ago, I was invited to lecture at Calvin College, Betsy’s alma mater. Betsy was probably in the audience. That’s when I was on the Dark Side, a period of my life that I have utterly recanted. What I remember best about Calvin was that everyone was so very nice. You know, midwestern nice. Not what I’m used to in New York City, where the default attitude towards strangers is brusque and even rude. At the end of my presentation and the reception, I met J.C. Huizenga, and he told me about his many business investments, which included a major waste disposal company and a morality-based for-profit charter chain, National Heritage Academies. Then he offered me a ride home on his private jet. Interesting combination of businesses. Waste management and charters.
The elected school board of New York has asked state authorizers to grant a three year moratorium on new charters.
“Buffalo is losing resources, losing funding, and seeing its own efforts handicapped. The board also wants money refunded when charter students return to public schools.
“The new school year brought a new charter school to the city’s Willert Park neighborhood, while another Buffalo charter added a second location on Hertel Avenue.
“One broke ground for an elementary school on Great Arrow Avenue, while two more charters are scheduled to open next year, bringing the total in Buffalo to 18.
“At least three more are on the horizon.
“The flurry of local activity surrounding charters is refueling tensions with Buffalo Public Schools, which has petitioned the state to slow down the charter expansion across the city.
“Frustrated by the loss of more students and funding to new charters, the Buffalo Board of Education has requested that the State University of New York and the state Board of Regents – the two authorizing entities – issue a three-year moratorium on charters in Buffalo.
“It also asked that school boards be allowed to sign off on charter applications and recoup funds from charters whose students return to Buffalo schools.
“We just don’t want this to be seen as some symbolic gesture that doesn’t go anywhere,” said Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, School Board president. “We’d like to have some feedback, some dialogue.”
“Buffalo had more than 7,100 students enrolled in charter schools three years ago, but the district estimates that number is upwards of 9,000 this year.
“The district then pays the charters per pupil, a budgeted amount that has reached nearly $124 million and accounts for about 14 percent of the district’s general fund.
“In fact, district funding to charters is up by more than $14 million from last year, because of the new charters coming on board. And that doesn’t include other associated costs provided by the district, such as transportation and special education services, Nevergold said.
“More and more of the district funding is going to charter schools,” said Nevergold, who sponsored the charter resolution that passed in a 6-2 vote, “and yet, while that’s happening, we’re losing resources needed for schools in the district.”
“The proposed moratorium will be perceived as anti-charter – but so be it, she said.
“We’re not bashing charters, but charters aren’t the saving grace for public education,” Nevergold said. “While certainly there are charter schools that are successful, they’re not uniformly better than the district schools – some do better, some do worse, some are on par.”
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