Archives for category: Education Reform
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California: Charter Schools Are the Day Lilies of Education

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2019 //
17

 

Larry Buhl of Capital and Main writes here about the transient nature of charter schools. In California, as in other states, they open with bold promises but many close with short notice to patents due to under enrollment  or financial problems or both.

As Buhl writes, parents are left scrambling and students’s lives are disrupted when their charter school closes suddenly.

Buhl begins:

IN LATE AUGUST OF 2018, Donald and Christine Fergusson were looking forward to the start of their daughter’s second year (second grade) at the International Preparatory Academy. The school, part of the Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC Schools), is located in the northeast Los Angeles suburb of Eagle Rock. But three weeks before the start of school, iPrep’s new superintendent, a PUC national board member and the PUC CEO held an emergency meeting where they told parents they would need to bring in more students or the school would close. The Spanish-Mandarin dual immersion school originally aimed to enroll 275 in grades K-2 and 6-8, although the organization told parents it could get by with 200. Panicked parents began distributing fliers in the neighborhood and urging neighbors to register for iPrep immediately.

“They gave us until September 24th to bring in more students,” Donald Fergusson said. “That’s not the parents’ job.”

After scrambling for a few days, the Fergussons decided iPrep was a sinking ship and enrolled their daughter in a Los Angeles Unified School District school with Mandarin immersion, which had been their main reason for choosing iPrep. It turned out to be a good decision. Three days after iPrep opened for its second year of operation — with only 114 students — PUC’s board voted to shut it down.

“Our school was under-enrolled from the very start,” Christine Fergusson said. “They told us it would grow and add one grade per year. I think [the board was] going to close the school anyway. They just strung us along.”

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Jan Resseger: The Long Process of Repairing the Damage to Education in Wisconsin

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2019 //
6

 

Jan Resseger writes here about Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’ efforts to repair the damage done to education in Wisconsin by ex-Governor ScottWalker, who used his time in office to try to destroy education.

She writes about Gordon Lafer’s brilliant book The One Percent Solution as context for the siege of the schools and universities by Walker.

She begins:

In Gordon Lafer’s 2017 book, The One Percent Solution, in the first chapter entitled  “Wisconsin and Beyond: Dismantling the Government,” Lafer makes Wisconsin the emblem of what happened in the 2010 election, as corporate lobbies, the Tea Party, and the collapse of state revenue following the Great Recession converged to fuel a Red-state wave that took over state governments:

“Critically, this new territory included a string of states, running across the upper Midwest from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, that had traditionally constituted labor strongholds… Starting in 2011, the country has witnessed an unprecedented wave of legislation aimed at eliminating public employee unions, or, where they remain, strictly limiting their right to bargain.  At the same time, the overall size of government has been significantly reduced in both union and nonunion jurisdictions. The number of public jobs eliminated in 2011 was the highest ever recorded, and budgets for essential public services were dramatically scaled back in dozens of states.  All of this—deunionization, sharp cuts in public employee compensation and the dramatic rollback of public services—was forcefully championed by the corporate lobbies, who made shrinking the public sector a top policy priority in state after state.”  (The One Percent Solution, pp. 44-45)

Wisconsin was Ground Zero for the attack o the public sector unions, public schools, and public higher education.

Resseger describes Governor Evers’s first steps toward putting together what Walker destroyed.

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

Mercedes Schneider: How “Non-Profit” Charters Make a Profit

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2019 //
8

 

Mercedes Schneider knows that Democratic candidates righteously day they oppose “for-profit” charters. Carol Burris explained that there is little or no difference between for-profit charters and nonprofit charters.

Schneider demonstrates how nonprofits can reap big profits through “related transactions,” that is, self-dealing. 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

California: Is Governor Gavin Newsom Selling Out to the Charter Industry?

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2019 //
23

 

The charter Industry has one thing going for it. Guess what that is. Not superior academic results. No, its trump card is money. In this society, money is power. Politicians always are in search of money for their next campaign. Big donors always find open doors. Follow the money has become a precept more recognizable in this era than the Ten Commandments.

In California, there is a heated battle over how to reform the charter law. That law was designed by billionaires like Reed Hastings (formerly a member of the State Board of Education) to unleash charter schools from any oversight or supervision. The deal was that they would get millions of public dollars, and their authorizers would be hundreds of miles away, and the state would lack the staff to monitor their activities. How great a deal is that: the charter operators collect millions from the state and no one watches them. The rich and powerful California Charter Schools Association lobbies to keep the charters free from oversight.

In the wake of multiple scandals, the Legislature has been considering modest efforts to hold charters accountable and to limit their ability to evade oversight. Of course, the CCSA considers these efforts to be completely inappropriate. Instead of spending their time and resources cleaning their Augean stables, they are intent on squelching laws that threaten their freedom from oversight.

Rob Sandusky, a Parent in Ross Valley, California, sent the following warning:

EdSource is reporting that California Governor Gavin Newsom is potentially looking to gut the two pending bills to curb out of control charter growth:

AB1505: restoring local control to public school districts to approve/deny charters including due to fiscal impact to existing public schools

AB1507 would end ability for districts or counties to authorize charters into neighboring counties

https://edsource.org/2019/governors-team-jumps-into-fray-over-contested-charter-school-bill/615053

Newsom is making concessions to the Charter / Privatization to water down these bills. In looking at the Ed Source article, some of the changes make it very easy for charters to make (unsubstantiated) claims of bias to ensure that they get approved at the state level.

Newsom assigned a charter-heavy task force to come up with recommendations from which AB 1505 and 1507 were drafted (if I’m not mistaken), and now he is looking to gut this same legislation.

Voters in California need to contact Newsom’s office, and those of a few key senators, and tell him to stop pandering to the Charter Industry. CCSA has been lobbying hard, paying for protesters to show up in Sacramento with free rides, pizza, t-shirts and who knows what. They have a TON of cash and are backed by direct connections to the Privatization billionaires (check out this chart of how our local charter school – denied by both the district and county – is intertwined with the Privatization pushers and have been destroying and disrupting our community for several years:
[ LINK:. https://coggle.it/diagram/WN_bdOqtdwABB-Hu/t/ross-valley-charter-and-dark-money-networks/f8e5b506af9b2db7e2f2c100eb7ff0e6f430108fc04d0c7e7d74a5e2e2cfb360]

Here is contact information for people to call. People are watching what happens in California, the “Wild West” of charter law. CCSA has been using it as a demonstration and testing ground for taking over a state and will apply learnings across the country.

How else are we to combat the tide of money and influence coming from billionaires overriding common sense legislation?

Governor Gavin Newsom:
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 558-3160

Senate coauthor of AB 1505 is:

Nancy Skinner (D) D9
(916) 651-4009

Senate Education Committee Members:

Senator Connie M. Leyva (Chair) (D) D20
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4020

Senator Scott Wilk (Vice Chair) (R) D21
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4021

Senator Ling Ling Chang (R) D29
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4029

Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D) D24
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4024

Senator Steven M. Glazer (D) D7
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4007

Senator Mike McGuire (D) D2
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4002

Senator Richard Pan (D) D6
Capitol Office: (916) 651-4006

Thank you again for all that you do!

Best,
Rob Sandusky

After Rob posted this comment, another reader in California added this postscript:

Commenting on Rob Sandusky’s request to phone members of the CA Senate Education Committee. This morning the Committee narrowly passed both bills, so these watered down versions are still alive, and are wending their way to a full Senate vote, if they first clear a financial committee. Phoning the Governor’s office, listed, is still a good idea. We would love to see California becoming a model of accountability.

It opus discouraging to see the charter industry snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but bear in mind that the tide is turning against its greed and rapacity. Hold your elected representatives accountable for their votes. Never give up. Never.

Categories Education Reform

BREAKING NEWS! Harvard Suspends Roland Fryer Jr.

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2019 //
25

Roland Fryer Jr.s Education Innovation lab at Harvard was funded primarily by Eli Broad’s Foundation. Fryer received numerous prestigious awards for his work a san economist. He was the “chief equality officer” for the NYC Department of Education under Joel Klein. 

 

 

BREAKING NEWS ALERT

Harvard on Wednesday suspended the prominent economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. for two years without pay and shut down his lab after an investigation found he engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct with multiple women in his lab.

To read the full story, visit www.BostonGlobe.com.
Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Education Reform

Rhode Island: Governor Raimondo Picks a Member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change as State Commissioner

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2019 //
13

 

Governor Gina Raimondo is a bona fide neoliberal  who is part of the DFER clique, having been a hedge fund manager herself.

She recently selected Angelina Infante-Green as State Commissioner of Education. Infante-Green is a member of Jeb Bush’s cohort of Future Chiefs for Change. Now that she is a State Commissioner, she will qualify to join the big boys and girls as a full-fledged member of Jeb’s Club.

Chiefs for Change support privatization and high-stakes testing. It is Jeb’s vehicle to spread Florida’s failed model, whose ultimate goal is the elimination of public schools, unions, and professional teachers.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Rhode Island

BREAKING NEWS: Former Secretary of Education for Puerto Rico Arrested!

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2019 //
13

 

In a major corruption investigation, the FBI arrested former Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher in DC. 

Keleher was brought to the Island to cut costs, impose charters and vouchers, and break the union. She was paid $250,000 a year while preaching austerity and budget cuts.

Puerto Rican educators did not like her, to put it mildly. They referred to her with the hashtag #JuliaGoHome.

Puerto Rican journalist #RimaBrusi tweeted that the new hashtag is #JuliaGoToJail

The charges include wire fraud, money laundering, and theft.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Corruption, Education Reform, Fraud, Privatization, Puerto Rico

Tom Ultican: How Charter Operators Scammed $50 Million (or More) from California

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2019 //
11

 

Tom Ultican writes here about the biggest charter fraud in history (to this date). 

This fraud was not one of those one-day wonders that people read about and forget the next day.

This one should wake up state legislators and produce genuine reforms of the state’s super-permissive charter law.

Ultican writes about the indictment of 11 people for the theft of $50 million. Other writers, however, peg the loss to the state and its students at $80 million.

Whether it’s $50 million or $80 million, it should catch the attention of those who are devoted to ethical behavior.

Ultican explains that charter advocates designed the law so that it would NOT regulate who got the money or how it was spent. The California charter law is an open invitation to graft and corruption.

And they walked through an open door, reaping millions from the state’s lax law. Deregulation and lack of oversight was supposed to spur innovation. But it mostly spurred theft.

He writes:

The state of California puts more than $80 billion annually into k12 education. Because that money is a natural target for profiteers and scammers, extra vigilance is needed. However, California’s charter school law was developed to provide minimum vigilance.

During its early stages, several billionaires like Carry Walton Penner, Reed Hastings and Arthur Rock made sure the California charter school law was designed to limit governmental rules and oversight. For example, charter schools are not required to meet the earthquake standards prescribed in the 1933 Field Act, which hold public schools to higher building code requirements. Since its enactment no public schools have collapsed in an earthquake. The picture of the Education Collaborative School above is evidence that students in a known earthquake zone are now at increased risk of injury and death.

A few weeks ago Louis Freedberg observedthat a key weakness in California’s chartering law is that there are no standards for authorizers and a lack of expertise. He also wrote about the number of charter authorizers saying, “unlike many states, California has hundreds of them: 294 local school districts, 41 county offices of education, along with the State Board of Education.” Among these 336 authorizers, several are school districts of less than 1,000 students which have neither the capacity nor training to supervise charter schools. Some of these small districts look more like charter school grafters than public school districts.

The California law is deeply defective. It assumes that the market will produce better schools. We now know that isn’t right.

Categories Accountability, California, Deregulation, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Virtual Charter Schools

G.F. Brandenburg on the Strange Case of the D.C. Editorialist Who Still Loves Michelle Rhee

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2019 //
21

 

G.F. Brandenburg cannot understand the Washington Post editorial writer Jo-Anne Armao. When Michelle Rhee started her job as chancellor of the D.C. schools in 2007, Armao interviewed her and decided that she was the greatest educator ever. Nothing that has happened in the past dozen years has changed her views. To this day, she still writes lovingly, respectfully about the Miracle that was Michelle Rhee. All her initiatives have failed. A huge cheating scandal was covered up and forgotten. Charter scandals have come and gone. A high school boasted of its 100% graduation rate, but it was a fake.

No matter. The Washington Post editorial board has Rhee’s back, almost a decade after she left.

For a fun trip down memory lane, read the comments on the John Merrow post from 2013 that is included.

Categories Accountability, Cheating, Corporate Reform, Corruption, Disruption, District of Columbia, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Fraud, Rhee, Michelle

Angie Sullivan: The Great Charter Scam in Nevada

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2019 //
8

 

Angie Sullivan teaches children in a Title 1 elementary school in Las Vegas. Many of her children are poor and don’t speak English. Her school is underfunded. Angie frequently sends blast emails to every legislator in the state, as well as journalists. She refuses to allow them to ignore her students, while they cater to the whims of billionaire casino owners, like the chair of the state board of education.

Angie wrote these posts recently:

Ironically as many scream for transparency of public schools  – they also seem intent on making it as difficult as possible to find information on Nevada Charters.  I’m looking at you “fiscal conservatives”.
 
Finding information on Nevada’s charters is like finding a needle in a haystack.
 
You can find it if you have 100 years. Or have time to puzzle it together.  It took me hundreds of hours to develop just a list of Nevada charter campuses a few years ago.
 
I might come across the name.  Or not.
 
Currently the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority (SPCSA) is the only sponsor accepting applications for new charter schools
 
The main source of information I have found is the Nevada Charter Authority.
 
 
You could look there for the names charters use.  As you know, charters can change their names and I have found up to 15 names for the same address.   Multiple campuses with different names are stacked under one charter.
 
The Nevada Secretary of State website can be searched.
 
 
I do know that business licenses with multiple names often come up as a topic in the Las Vegas City Council.  Mainly because charters open many businesses under different names and/or expand without permission (like open an on-line in a brick and mortar).    They forget to get licenses for all their “businesses”.
 
Charters are a nuisance.  They do not consider traffic at pick up and drop off.  They do not monitor kids and often do not have a playground.  The public regularly complains about charter “business practice” in Las Vegas City council meetings.   Sometimes I find information about them because they are a pain and citizens complain in public forums.
 
There should also be a way to follow the money since the receiverships are so plentiful.  But there is not a easy way that I have found.
 
 
Aaron Ford who got a PHD in charters before becoming our Attorney General is not likely to ask for accountability anytime soon.
 
It is for all these reasons – lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and poor business practice:   Nevada Assembly considered a moratorium on charters.  It did not pass but it should have.  
 
So long story short. 
 
I would not surprise me if you found a someone running a charter in Nevada using a sham company.    Who doesn’t?   Throw a rock and hit a charter scam.  
 
The bottom dwellers have all attempted to come here too.   Sometimes as the FBI is chasing them out of other places.  
 
I can hunt and peck around.   The name does not ring a bell but these shady characters come and go and change their name so often in my corporation friendly state – they could be right under my nose and I see nothing.  
 
You are welcome any time to come and I will find a venue for a movie showing.  I’m just a teacher and have no money – we pulled together enough to have a viewing of the Matt Damon Film last year with Congresswoman Dina Titus and Candidate for Governor turned Governor Steve Sisolak.  They did not watch the film but spoke at the beginning of the event.  
 
You have a true champion in Congresswoman Dina Titus if you ever need one. 
 
You need to avoid anyone from Team Harry Reid – he attended the Gulen Coral opening at the Air Force Base and supports Gulen charters fully.  May even be key to bringing them to Nevada. 
 
Teachers are most likely going to strike in the fall – so no union resources.  The union actually owes me one because VP Theo Small held a union event with a charter expert as a headliner. 
 
Gulen is a problem.
 
Academica is the charter monster in Nevada.  It’s a real estate grab.
 
Along with the Agassi-Turner Hedgefund.  It’s also a real estate grab.
 
We need money so badly – all of this is worse than a shame.  Robs all the kids I love.   All of them.   Robs kids.   Hurts kids.
 
Angie Sullivan
I would love to hear what new appointment Rebeca Feiden thinks of all of the above.   Lack of information or accessible information is long running.  And she knows it.
 
TFA creates data monsters who then are well paid to ignore data.
 

Then Angie wrote this post:

The Nevada Department of Education has been very pro-Charter under the direction of Casino Billionaire Elaine Wynn, Nevada State School Board President.
 
The other Nevada Gulens which are named Corals – even displaced the Air Force Teachers by offering to build a new school for the base.  They forced the military wives off the base because the charters could not match salary.  Gulen Corals clumped their data by north and south.   Their administrators came to some meetings I held and became verbally irate telling folks about how great they are.  How would anyone know?   The Gulen Corals have not shown three years of data for their campuses yet. Opened for decade plus and zero data by campus.
 
Now I suspect they will just manipulate the data.  There have been limited campus visits so no one makes sure there are testing protocols in place.
 
How do you keep a Nevada Charter from opening?
 
If someone can figure that out – I will employ that technique non-stop.  It is difficult to even find a place to voice opposition.
 
They have agenda here:
 
Meetings are held during the day when teachers work.  The person in charge of the 100+ charter campuses is a very young former TFA without a curriculum vitae to manage one charter let alone a $350+ million money distribution.
 
Most of the agendas are charter expansion.
 
And talking about charter problems without ever doing anything.
 
I would love to know how to actually prevent Nevada from being scammed by these corporations that other states are kicking out.
 
Please.   Let me know.
 
Reason does not work.
 
Logic does not work.
 
Data does not work.
 
Nevada insists on pouring money into the charter toilet.
 
Crazy folks go nuts for choice – even as it is explained to them it the worst choice in the nation.
 
There is zero accountability.  Nevada does not close charters for financial corruption/receivership.  Nevada does not close charters for lack of data or lack of graduation.  One charter might have closed because it literally had only one student.
 
Basically I keep pointing out to all the elected legislators,  these businesses are failing to educate children.   I try to shame folks taking money $350+ million and not providing anything to the tax payer.
 
Shaming.
 
Put them in the local newspaper.   That is about the best tool I have.
 
Failing charters that are bottom
dwelling scum are what Nevada attracts because our per pupil spending is last in the nation.
 
So of course Gulen wants to open more.
 
What a scam.
 
Angie Sullivan
Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization
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