Archives for category: Education Industry
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NYC: Comptroller Audits Eva, Chastises Success Academy for Poor Financial Controls

By dianeravitch
December 20, 2016 //
35

New York City’s Comptroller Scott Stringer released his long-awaited audit of one of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter schools, Harlem Success Academy 3. Moskowitz fought the audit, even going to court to prevent it.

 

The story is reported in the New York Daily News.

 

“Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter network engaged in a variety of sloppy financial practices and should reimburse the city for a $50,000 in public money it has received, Controller Scott Stringer charged in an audit released Monday.

 

“Stringer’s long-awaited financial probe of the city’s largest charter school network shows the network billed the city for special education services it can’t prove it provided at Harlem Success 3, the school that is the focus of the audit.

 

“We found irregularities in this audit of Success Academy that raise serious concerns,” Stringer said. “Billing the DOE for special education services without records to verify that they were provided, financial reports that made administrative costs seem lower than they actually were, ineffective fiscal controls over credit card and other spending, missing loan agreements for millions of dollars — all were findings uncovered by this audit.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy

Corporate Reformers Will Meet in Atlanta to Promote Privatization

By dianeravitch
December 19, 2016 //
13

Thanks to friends in Georgia who sent me the alert about a meeting planned in Atlanta for January 11-12, 2017.

 

It is billed as planning for the future for a radical transformation of Georgia education. Georgia voters just voted overwhelmingly to block the governor from taking control of their public schools and giving them to charter operators.

 

Nonetheless, consider the 2016 sponsors of this “radical” transformation:

 

The Walton Family Foundation

American Federation for Children (Betsy and Dick DeVos)

StudentsFirst

Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Educational Excellence

 

The corporate reformers never give up. No matter how many times the voters say no, they come back for more.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Chicago: Charter Schools Do Not Outperform Public Schools, Despite Rahm’s Claims

By dianeravitch
December 19, 2016 //
11

Rahm Emanuel wrote an article in the Washington Post a few days ago, defending school choice (and putting him in the same camp as Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump). He gave the example of charter schools in Chicago to support his claim.

 

But a recent analysis of charter school performance in Chicago says that they do not measure up to the public schools, even though they get to choose their students and benefit from the extra money of philanthropists and hedge fund managers.

 

Here is the abstract of the study, by Myron Orfield and Thomas Luce.
Charter schools have become the cornerstone of school reform in Chicago and in many other large cities. Enrollments in Chicago charters increased by more than ten times between 2000 and 2014 and, with strong support from the current mayor and his administration, the system continues to grow. Indeed, although state law limits charter schools in Chicago to 75 schools, proponents have used a loophole that allows multiple campuses for some charters to bypass the limit and there are now more than 140 individual charter campuses in Chicago. This study uses comprehensive data for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to show that, after controlling for the mix of students and challenges faced by individual schools, Chicago’s charter schools underperform their traditional counterparts in most measurable ways. Reading and math pass rates, reading and math growth rates, graduation rates, and average ACT scores (in one of the two years) are lower in charters all else equal, than in traditional neighborhood schools. The results for the two years also imply that the gap between charters and traditionals widened in the second year for most of the measures. The findings are strengthened by the fact that self-selection by parents and students into the charter system biases the results in favor of charter schools.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Emanuel, Rahm, Privatization

Indiana: The Disaster of the Hoosier Online Schools

By dianeravitch
December 19, 2016 //
17

Chalkbeat reports that the Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter School has earned an F again, yet is opening another virtual school.

 

When Indiana education officials released school A-F grades this week, only three schools had received F grades for six years in a row.

 

Two were traditional public schools in Gary and Marion County, and the other was Hoosier Academy Virtual Charter school, which does all its teaching and learning online. For the traditional public schools, the sixth straight F marks the first time the state can potentially close the school.
But for charter schools, the limit is set at four, a milestone Hoosier Virtual surpassed almost two years ago. Despite its poor performance, the state has not taken steps to close the school or restrict state funding to its charter authorizer, Ball State University.

 

Hoosier Virtual was told in March 2015 to figure out a plan to improve. But while school officials did that, they came back to the board in August of this year with something unexpected: Hoosier Virtual had opened a new school, transferring 663 of its students there…

 

Here is the most startling sentence in the story:

 

But Byron Ernest, head of Hoosier Academies’ three schools and also a state board member as of June of last year, said opening the new school, called Insight School of Indiana, was a way for the network to focus on students who needed more help than could be offered in a typical online classroom.

 

And here is another statistic to think about:

 

Hoosier Academies is not alone in its struggle to improve its schools. Every online school in the state that tested students in 2016 — including four charter schools — received an F grade: Hoosier Academy Virtual, Hoosier Academy-Indianapolis, Insight School of Indiana, Indiana Connections Academy, Indiana Virtual School and Wayne Township’s virtual high school.

 

Every study of online schools has concluded that they deliver an inferior education. Even CREDO reported that going to an online charter school is akin to not going to school at all. For every 180 days enrolled in an online charter, students lose 180 days of “instruction” in mathematics, and 72 days in reading.

 

Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, believes in online schools. Evidence doesn’t matter to her, only privatization.

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Failure, Indiana, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

Carol Burris: Help Us Fight the Nomination of Betsy DeVos!

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2016 //
7

Carol Burris sent an email to all members of the Network for Public Education with a list of ways that you can express your opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. She is uniquely unfit for the office, as she has no relevant experience, and she is on record in opposition to public education. Her efforts in Detroit and in Michigan have harmed the children of that city and state. She supports charter schools, whether nonprofit or for-profit, vouchers, online charter schools, and everything else but public schools. If she is confirmed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, she will do whatever she can to turn public funds over to private and religious schools. Please join with us in opposing her nomination.

 

Dear friends of public schools,

 

If you are receiving this email, I know that is who you are–someone who understands the vital role that public education plays in democracy. You understand that a patchwork quilt of for-profit charters, charter chains, online schools, and vouchers schools cannot work in a democracy.
You understand that public schools will be starved and become the “dumping ground” for children no one wants.

 

Which brings us to Betsy DeVos, who has made it clear that only the “free market” matters, not quality. She claims to be on a mission from God. That is extremism we cannot have at the helm of our education system.

 

We will probably not be able to stop her confirmation, but we can make it a big deal.
We can work to ensure that no Democrat votes for her.
We can raise public awareness. We can send a warning shot across the bow.
And who knows, maybe, just maybe, a few Republicans will vote against her as well.

 

During the next few months the Network for Public Education will be involved in a campaign to accomplish the above.

 

Here is a link to our toolkit.

 

http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2016/12/join-us-in-stopping-the-confirmation-of-devos-npe-toolkit/

 

It is designed to use the holiday recess as a time when Senators are bombarded with pressure to vote no on DeVos.

 

It provides sample letters, phone scripts and a letter to the editor.

 

We will be tracking how many engage in these actions so that we have feedback on effectiveness to share with other organizations.

 

Our senate email campaign motivated near 100k to send an email. But that was easy, these actions take more time.
However, they are also far more effective.

 

Take the time to do them yourself and then share the link.
Post the link everywhere.
There will be future NPE Actions. This is our first and we will learn from it.

 

Trump will pass. But if he destroys public education that will undermine our Democracy for generations.

 

Here is that link again 🙂

 

http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2016/12/join-us-in-stopping-the-confirmation-of-devos-npe-toolkit/

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Network for Public Education, Networkfor Public Education Action Fund, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

California: Anaheim School Districts Sue to Shut Down Online Charter

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2016 //
6

California is awash in charter schools, and in charter school scandals. It allows anyone with a proposal to open a charter school and obtain taxpayer funding.

 

Two school districts in Anaheim, California, are suing to close down an online charter school that they say is “educationally unsound” and should never have been allowed to open. In addition, the district leaders said that the charter school used predatory marketing practices and financial incentives to lure students to enroll. The school districts are represented by a law school dean.

 

Why should low-quality online schools be allowed to drain students and revenue away from community public schools?

 

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction preventing Excellence Performance Innovation Citizenship (EPIC) from continuing to operate its K-12 virtual school, and ordering the Orange County Board of Education to revoke its charter.

“EPIC was illegally authorized by the Orange County Board of Education in violation of the Charter School Act,” AUHSD Superintendent Michael Matsuda said. “The county school board failed to exercise its oversight duty when the flawed petition first came before them. Instead, they approved it with conditions that were never met. The OCBE’s actions have left us with no recourse other than to seek this injunction.”

Supporting the two Anaheim school districts in seeking the injunction is constitutional scholar and founding dean of the UCI Law School, Erwin Chemerinsky.

“In approving EPIC’s petition, the Orange County school board acted in a manner that was contrary to law,” Chemerinsky said. “In light of the many ways that EPIC is not complying with the law, the approval of the petition violates state education requirements and amounts to an improper use of public funds.”

In recommending denial of EPIC’s petition, OCBE staff members raised concern over EPIC’s lack of valid parent signatures, governance issues, and potential civil liability involving the school and the OCBE, stemming from the fraud probe in Oklahoma.

Moreover, the Anaheim elementary district noted in its original rejection of EPIC’s petition that it:
Failed to specify how special education services would be provided.
Failed to outline the types of supports or interventions they would provide at-risk students.
Failed to include an adequate plan for English learners.
Failed to fully identify its financial and operational plans.
Based in Oklahoma—where it operates as a for-profit business—EPIC is under criminal investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for allegedly falsifying records to receive payments from the Oklahoma Department of Education. The fraud investigation was under way when OCBE conditionally approved the EPIC application in November 2015.
”Since the individuals managing EPIC’s Oklahoma program are the same individuals managing the program here in our county, you can see why we have serious concerns regarding EPIC and their operational plan,” Anaheim Elementary Superintendent Linda Wagner said.

 

 

 

 

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

Connecticut: Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto on Charter School Myths and Lies

By dianeravitch
December 18, 2016 //
3

Wendy Lecker,  veteran civil rights attorney, interviews Robert Cotto, member of the Hartford, Connecticut, board of education, about charter schools. Hedge fund managers and billionaires in Connecticut have poured large sums into the coffers of charter schools and of Governor Dannell Malloy to ensure his enthusiastic support for charter schools. They like to claim that charter schools are better than public schools. The interview below says they are wrong. They support privatization, not better schools, just like Betsy DeVos. Governor Malloy’s first state commissioner of education was  a charter school founder (who now works for Governor Raimondo in Rhode Island as director of economic development.)

 

The interview  begins like this:

 

Lecker: Do Connecticut charter schools outperform district schools?

 

Cotto: Connecticut charter schools were supposed to raise achievement, innovate, and reduce racial isolation. In terms of achievement, charter schools do not serve similar proportions of students living in poverty, bilingual children, and children with disabilities when compared to the local districts where they are located. Charter schools serve a more advantaged group of Black and Latino students in our cities. Therefore, simple comparisons of test results are like comparing “apples to oranges” and do not really tell us much about academic improvement. The state has never evaluated charter innovation. While some charters may innovate, the majority of charters operate like traditional schools. Most Connecticut charter schools are highly segregated by race (mostly Black students).

 

Lecker: A writer claimed that if Connecticut charters fail to perform, they are shut down, but that you cannot do that to a district school. True?

 

Cotto: The state almost never closes charter schools because of poor academic performance or financial mismanagement. According to State Department of Education reports, only five charter schools closed their doors since 1999. Three closed because of insufficient funds, one charter school was closed for health/safety violations, and one charter school closed because of lack of academic progress.

 

Between 2010-2013, all 17 charter schools in the state were renewed by the state, despite very low overall test results for some, including Stamford Academy and Trailblazers Academy. Additionally, the state did not shut down Jumoke/FUSE Academy charter school despite a massive corruption scandal that invited an FBI investigation.

 

On the other hand, many public schools in Connecticut have closed and been reconstituted for not meeting test score targets. At least a dozen schools in Hartford have been closed and reconstituted in the last decade.

 

Lecker: Can you describe what happened to Milner school in Hartford?

 

Cotto: In 2008, Milner school was “reconstituted” under the No Child Left Behind law for not meeting test score targets. The non-magnet/non-charter school was in one of the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Hartford’s North End. In 2012, Milner school was selected by the Commissioner of Education for a second “turnaround” under the management of a private charter company, Jumoke/FUSE, which would be paid a management fee of around $350,000 a year. The idea was that this private charter company could do a better job operating a public school. Jumoke/FUSE hired convicted felons and engaged in financial improprieties. Academic performance of students at the school did not improve under Jumoke/FUSE. In 2014, Jumoke/FUSE ceased running Milner school and Hartford Public Schools regained control.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Hoax, Privatization

Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Be Afraid of School Choice

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2016 //
36

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel published an opinion article in the Washington Post saying something about how choice is a good thing when it is a good thing, so don’t get your knickers twisted against school choice just because Trump is for it. At least I think that is what he is saying. Read it and tell me why you think he (or someone wrote) wrote this article to get people to think well of school choice.

 

I think he is saying that when Democrats promote privatization by charter school, that is a good thing, and we must keep doing it even though Betsy DeVos wants to turn every school into a charter school and/or give every student a voucher to attend a religious school.

 

Sorry, but I have a hard time reading anything allegedly penned by Rahm about schools without thinking of the day of infamy when he closed 50 public schools at one fell swoop. He will be remembered for the brutal, disruptive, heedless closing of 50 community public schools. That, and the awful youth violence that continues to plague Chicago, promoted to some extent by the deliberate destruction of communities.

 

At the same time that Rahm and his hand-picked board of the city’s elite were closing public schools, they continued opening charter schools. Chicago is not an example of the success of school reform. To the extent that we use the federal NAEP scores as a measure, Chicago is still one of the lowest performing urban districts in the nation. It has some very good public schools, but it also has many very poorly resourced schools. Rahm will not be remembered as an education reformer.

 

In this article, he boasts again of Urban Prep Academy. This is the all-black, all-male school where 100% of the students who reach 12th grade graduate and go to college. This is a school that Gary Rubinstein researched and discovered its high attrition rate and its low test scores, lower than those of students in Chicago public schools. When I googled Urban Prep to find the links, I noticed that newspapers around the country still report the news of its “100% graduation rate” and “100% college acceptance rate.”

 

Knowing what Rahm has done to the Chicago public schools, I find it hard to understand why he thinks he is in a position to offer advice to the nation about school reform. The reality is that he is comfortable with Trump and DeVos and the privatization movement and has no qualms about continuing to implement it in Chicago.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Education Industry, Emanuel, Rahm, Privatization

Sheila Resseger on the Expansion of Achievement First Charter Schools in Rhode Island

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2016 //
2

Sheila Resseger is a retired teacher in Rhode Island. She writes in response to an earlier post about the proposed expansion of the Achievement First charter chain in Rhode Island. The state commissioner, Kenneth Wagner, is enthusiastic about the increase in charter enrollment by 2,000, even though it will strip more than $30 million from the Providence public schools, which enrolls far more students. What is the logic of diverting funding to charter schools for 2,000 while underfunding the education of 12,000?

 

She writes:

 

Not only was [Governor Gina] Raimondo’s husband, Andy Moffit, a roommate of Cory Booker’s, but he is a (brief) TFA alum and has been employed by McKinsey for some time. He is the co-author with Sir Michael Barber of Deliverology 101. Now I think that’s enough to know about him.

 

My colleague Wendy Holmes and I wrote a piece about Wagner’s support for the expansion of Achievement First for RI Future. http://www.rifuture.org/achievement-first-education-deform/

 

There have been several fiscal analyses of the impact of an AF expansion on Providence public schools and students, and critiques of the Innovative Policy Lab “report” that Wagner relied on when promoting the expansion. Here are a few:

 

Sam Zurier’s “Report on Fiscal Impacts to Providence Public Schools From Proposed Achievement First Expansion” – http://samzurier.com/public/ upload/11-30-Electronic-Cover- letter-and-Report.pdf

 

“Pro-Achievement First Study is Challenged” from the Providence Journal: http://www. providencejournal.com/news/ 20161208/education-pro- achievement-first-study-is- challenged

 

Mark Santow’s public comments at the December 6 RI Board of Education hearing: http://www.rifuture. org/3-reasons-to-oppose- achievement-first-expansion/

 

Tom Hoffman’s analysis of the Achievement First Fiscal Impact Memo prepared by Brown University’s Rhode Island Innovative Policy Lab – http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2016/ 12/a-closer-look-at-browns- achievement.html

 

There is also a new petition from families of Providence public school students opposing the expansion.

https://www.change.org/p/families-supporting-the-providence-public-schools-and-opposing-achievement-first-expansion?recruiter=1251398&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg

 

I will say that these two particular Achievement First elementary schools do enroll a high number of students from Spanish-speaking homes. I heard many parents speak at a public forum praising the education that their children are getting there, compared to what they experienced in the Providence public schools. However, when the chief measure of high achievement as opposed to failing schools is the fatally flawed PARCC assessment, we need to be very wary. The bottom line is that 12,000 Providence students should not have to suffer severe cuts to their schools and programs so that an extra 2,000 students can go to a well-resourced school. All children in Providence and throughout the country need and are entitled to fully resourced neighborhood public schools. The emphasis on test prep in ELA and math is counter-productive and not the direction that we should be going.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Rhode Island

K12 Inc. Annual Meeting: Shareholders Demand Transparency

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2016 //
4

K12 Inc. is the largest provider of online charter schools. This sector is probably the worst part of the charter industry. CREDO reported last year that for every 180 days of online enrollment, a student will lose 180 days in math, and 72 in reading.

 

At its shareholder meeting on December 15, a group of shareholders proposed that the corporation become transparent as to how much it spends on lobbying.

 

As reported on Valerie Strauss’s blog, shareholders wanted to know more:

 

At a meeting scheduled for Thursday, shareholders are going to ask for a vote on whether the company should be required to publicly disclose details about its lobbying efforts in various states. The Arjuna Capital shareholder resolution asks that K12 prepare an annual report showing:

 

Company policy and procedures governing lobbying, both direct and indirect, and grass-roots lobbying communications.
Payments by K12 used for (a) direct or indirect lobbying or (b) grass-roots lobbying communications, in each case including the amount of the payment and the recipient.
K12’s membership in and payments to any tax-exempt organization that writes and endorses model legislation.
Description of the decision-making process and oversight by management and the board for making payments lobbying payments.

 

It is not known whether their efforts to get the company to disclose its lobbying activities were successful.

 

One of the proponents of transparency is Bertis Downs, who owns K12 Inc. stock and is a member of the board of directors of the Network for Public Education. He is a public school parent in Athens, Georgia.

 

Strauss wrote about him:

 

The new shareholder effort is being led by Bertis Downs, a public school advocate in Athens, Ga., who spent his career providing legal counsel and managing the rock group R.E.M., and who bought K12 stock a few years ago. Asked why he is taking this action, Downs said in an email:

 

My motivation in filing for this disclosure of K-12’s lobbying activities stems from my overall curiosity and interest as a parent and a shareholder in knowing more about what lobbying is done, whether through ALEC or directly, that leads to the so-called “education reform” laws being passed all over the country. How much does the company spend and how do they spend it and what results do they get for it? And is any of that good for meaningful teaching and learning in our schools? And is it good for the company and its shareholders?

 

At some point, parents should wake up and stop sending their children to these “schools.”

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, For-Profit, K12 Inc., Virtual Charter Schools
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