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Whatever Happened to the Public Audit of K-12 Inc. in California?

By dianeravitch
October 11, 2017 //
16

In June 2016, California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson called for an official audit of the for-profit K-12 Inc. virtual charter school after an expose of its shoddy results in the San Jose Mercury News by investigative reporter Jessica Calefati. See here for all her reports on K-12.

Where is that audit?

Did it happen? Does it exist?

The audit was supposed to be completed by March 2017.

“State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Thursday that the California Department of Education has contracted with the State Controller’s Office to conduct an audit of California Virtual Academies (CAVA) and related charter schools because of serious questions raised about a number of their practices.

“The goal of the audit is to make sure these schools are spending public education funds properly and serving their students well,” said Torlakson.

“In 2015, CAVA’s corporate parent K12 paid its CEO Nathaniel Davis $5.3 million and CFO James Rhyu was making $3.6 million. Their base salaries were $700,000 and $478,500, respectively, which were dwarfed by additional pay and stock for their “performance.”

“In all, K12’s five highest paid executives received a total of more than $12 million in compensation last year. That’s one of the reasons Center for Media and Democracy has called K12 Inc.’s former CEO, Ron Packard, the highest paid elementary and secondary school educator in the nation.

“Nearly 90% of K12’s revenues–and thus its huge pay for executives–comes from Americans’ state or federal tax dollars.”

Should California taxpayers shell out $12 Million for executive compensation in a low-performing charter school?

If anyone knows the whereabouts of the missing audit, please let me know.

There were also supposed to be two separate investigations of CAVA (K-12 Inc), one by the State Attorney General, the other by the Legislature. What happened to them?

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

Mercedes Schneider: The “Parent Trigger”Flops in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2017 //
5

Remember when privatizers came up with the “parent trigger?” It was 2010, right after the release of the charter propaganda film “Waiting for Superman,” and the “reformers” assumed that parents everywhere were longing to seize control of their public school and give it to a charter chain. They thought it was a brilliant idea to turn public schools over to the charter industry and use parents to do the deed. All that was needed was a petition that was sign ed by 50% of parents plus one, and the school could by law be privatized.

The first such bill was passed in late 2010 by the California Legislature. A charter enthusiast named Ben Austin created an organization called Parent Revolution, funded with millions from Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, the Waltons, and other billionaires. Parent Revolution sent organizers to poor communities to foment parent anger and collect signatures.

The producer of “Waiting for Superman” signed up star talent for another movie to promote the idea of the Parent Trigger. The movie was called “Won’t Back Down.” It failed at the box office and was the lowest grossing movie of the year.

Other states passed Parent Trigger legislation, on the assumption that parents were yearning to turn their public schools over to charter operators.

One of those states was Louisiana, which passed a Parent Trigger in 2012.

Mercedes Schneider reports here that the law is On the books, but no parent group has ever applied to turn its public school into a charter.

The only option for those who pull “the trigger” is to join the celebrated Recovery School District. Schneider lists the names of the Failing schools in the RSD.

Guess it is not that easy to fool parents into privatizing their schools.

Seven years after passage of the Parent Trigger law in California, either one or two schools have converted to charter status, and only after a bitter fight among parents about the validity of petitions. Its main effect is to divide communities.

How many millions were spent to convert one or two schools to charters? Billionaires probably for a tax write off. They don’t care.

Categories Failure, Fraud, Louisiana, Parent trigger

ProPublica: The Fraud of For-Profit Charter Schools in Ohio That Run Dropout Recovery Centers

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2017 //
10

ProPublica and USA Today teamed up to conduct an investigation of charter fraud in Ohio (although there is so much charter fraud in Ohio that this piece investigates only one aspect of it).

This story is about dropout recovery centers that collect large sums of money even if the students don’t show up.

It focuses on a “school” run by EdisonLearning, the latest version of the Edison Schools that were launched in the early 1990s with the goal of creating a network of 200 privately run schools.

It begins like this:

Last school year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a Thursday in May, students’ workstations in the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning resembled place settings for a dinner party where most guests never arrived.

In one room, empty chairs faced 25 blank computer monitors. Just three students sat in a science lab down the hall, and nine more in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out, head down, sleeping.

Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all week.

Some stay away even longer. ProPublica reviewed 38 days of Capital High’s records from late March to late May and found six students skipped 22 or more days straight with no excused absences. Two were gone the entire 38-day period. Under state rules, Capital should have unenrolled them after 21 consecutive unexcused absences.

Though the school is largely funded on a per-student basis, the no-shows didn’t hurt the school’s revenue stream. Capital billed and received payment from the state for teaching the equivalent of 171 students full time in May.

It is yet another charter fraud.

Another reform scam. It is not about “the kids.” It is about the money.

Do legislators care?

Question: How many charter scandals and frauds does it take to get the attention of the Ohio legislature?

Speaking of scandals, ECOT (the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) has threatened to close its virtual doors if the state doesn’t leave them alone and stop pestering them to provide a real education to real students. No doubt the owner William Lager is bluffing. But if he does close down ECOT, he will do everyone a favor by shutting down the nation’s biggest dropout factory. He has collected more than a billion dollars since he opened ECOT and given only a few millions to Republican (and a few Democratic) politicians (in Ohio, they sell their votes cheaply). How likely is he to walk away from his fabulous money stream?

I dare you! I double-dare you! Close your doors, ECOT! You won’t be missed.

Although the legislators and other elected officials will miss your campaign contributions.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Failure, For-Profit, Ohio, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

Jeff Bryant: DeVos Dispenses $253 Million to Fund Failures and Frauds in Charter Industry and Undercut Needy Public Schools

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2017 //
13

Jeff Bryant, writing for the Education Opportunity Network, analyzes the U.S. Department of Education’s recent award of $253 Million to the Failing Charter Industry. He is especially appalled by the funding of charters in New Mexico, whose state auditor has identified numerous frauds in the charter sector, and whose public schools are shamefully underfunded.

He writes:

“Previous targets for federal charter grants have resembled a “black hole” for taxpayer money with little tracking and accountability for how funds have been spent spent. In the past 26 years, the federal government has sent over $4 billion to charters, with the money often going to “ghost schools” that never opened or quickly failed.

“In 2015, charter skeptics denounced the stunning selection of Ohio for a $71 million federal chart grant, despite the state’s charter school program being one of the most reviled and ridiculed in the nation.

“This year’s list of state recipients raises eyebrows as well.

“One of the larger grants is going to Indiana, whose charter schools generally underperform the public schools in the state. Nearly half of the Hoosier state’s charters receive poor or failing grades, and the state recently closed one of its online charter schools after six straight years of failure.

“Another state recipient, Mississippi, won a federal grant that was curiously timed to coincide with the state’s decision, pending the governor’s approval, to take over the Jackson school district and likely hand control of the schools to a charter management group.”

(Coincidentally, Stephen Dyer just posted about Ohio’s scandal-plagued charter sector. He wrote that nearly one-third of the charters that received federal funding never opened or closed right after they got the money, I.e., they were “ghost schools.”)

Worst of all, writes Bryant, is the $22.5 Million that will be sent to New Mexico, which has high child poverty and perennially underfunded public schools, as well as a low-performing charter sector.

What possible reason is there to fund a parallel school system when the state refuses to fund its public schools?

“According to a state-based child advocacy group, per-pupil spending in the state is 7 percent lower in 2017 than it was in 2008. New Mexico is also “one of 19 states” that cut general aid for schools in 2017, with spending falling 1.7 percent. “Only seven states made deeper cuts than New Mexico.”

“New Mexico’s school funding situation has grown so dire, bond rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently reduced the credit outlook for two-thirds of the school districts in the state, and parent and advocacy groups have sued the state for failing to meet constitutional obligations to provide education opportunities to all students.

“To fill a deficit gap in the state’s most recent budget, Republican Governor Susana Martinez tapped $46 million in local school district reserves while rejecting any proposed tax increases.

“Given the state’s grim education funding situation, it would seem foolhardy to ramp up a parallel system of charter schools that further stretches education dollars, but New Mexico has doubled-down on the charter money drain by tilting spending advantages to the sector.”

To make matters worse, charter schools are funded at a higher level than public schools, and the state’s three online charters operate for profit. Despite their funding advantage, the charters do not perform as well as public schools. There is seldom any penalty for failure.

The state auditor in New Mexico has called attention to frauds and scams that result from lack of oversight in the charter industry.

So the U.S. Department of Education under Betsy DeVos is now in the business of funding failure. Quality doesn’t matter. Ethics don’t matter. Undermining the educational opportunity of the majority of children doesn’t matter. For sure, money matters, but only when it is spent for privatization.

A few pundits predicted that DeVos would be unable to inflict harm on the nation’s public schools. They were wrong.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Corruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ethics, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Privatization, School Choice

North Carolina Forges Ahead with Plan to Copy Tennessee’s Failed “Achievement School District”

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2017 //
21

Five years ago, Tennessee was flush with cash from its Race to the Top grant, and it created a state takeover plan called the “Achievement School District.” The idea was to identify the schools with the lowest test scores and give them to private companies to manage. The promise was explicit: within five years, the lowest-performing schools would join the ranks of the highest-performing schools thanks to the magic of privatization. In the five years since, two leaders have departed, and the schools that were privatized remain among the lowest performing in the state.

North Carolina had to copy this model–after all, it was recommended by ALEC, the corporate bill mill. They had to copy it even after hearing testimony from a Vanderbilt researcher who found no evidence that the ASD was on track to meet its goal.

Given the failure of the Tennessee ASD, North Carolina continued to pursue the idea but renamed it: the North Carolina Ipportunity School District. Same plan, new name. Six schools across the state are on the state’s list for ending local control.

Educators in Durham are fighting back. Two Durham schools are targeted for takeover, and the Durham community says NO.

The elected school board says it will fight the state takeover.

The legislature hasn’t considered the impact of their budget cuts or their attacks on the teaching profession or the decline of teacher salaries as causes of poor performance. And of course they have not given a thought to poverty and segregation.

For some inexplicable reason, Republicans have become the enemies of local control. They think that only the state can fix schools, despite the abysmal results of the Tennessee ASD.

Recently NC elected a young TFA alum to be its state superintendent. He taught for two years but there’s no reason to believe he knows how to turn around schools, never having done it.

Nothing fails like copying failure.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Failure, North Carolina, Parents, Privatization, Tennessee

Michigan: The House That DeVos Built Is Crumbling. Poor Betsy!

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2017 //
13

Nancy Kaffer, columnist for the Detroit Free Press, attended the annual meeting of the GOP conference in Michigan on Mackinac Island, where Betsy DeVos was the keynote speaker on Friday night.

Kaffer writes that the mood was one of great satisfaction, bordering on exhilaration:

It’s the 32nd time the party has held such a conclave, but this time it’s different: The GOP exercises control of state government. Of the U.S. Congress. Of — as GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel says — the U.S. Supreme Court. And for the first time since 1988, this state, once part of the vaunted Democratic “blue wall,” went red in a presidential election.

The work wasn’t easy. It took years.

And lots and lots of money. That’s the part DeVos didn’t talk about. But in this venue, it’s impossible to ignore.

The DeVos family has made at least $82 million in political contributions nationally, as much as $58 million of those dollars spent in Michigan — with $14 million in the last two years alone.

There’s something really through-the-looking-glass about DeVos addressing a room full of legislators whose campaigns she has funded, lobbyists whose work she has paid for, and activists whose movements she launched. This is, in a very real way, a room DeVos built, in a state her family has shaped, in a country whose educational policy she now plays a key role in administering.

And we should all pay very close attention to what she has in store for us.

If you question the influence of the DeVos family’s spending, a new analysis by the watchdog Michigan Campaign Finance Network should settle that: In 2016, the candidate with the deepest pockets won 80% of contested races for state or federal office.

DeVos is certain that America’s public schools are failing, and Kaffer doesn’t challenge her certainty (suggestion: Read my book Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools–the failure narrative is a hoax).

DeVos is now in a powerful position to spread her philosophy of unconstrained school choice to the rest of the country. But Michigan is left to deal with the mess that the charter movement has wrought.

DeVos’ school-choice movement is predicated on the idea that given options, parents will choose what’s best for their child. She’s not entirely wrong. But this philosophy doesn’t account for parents for whom there are no good options. For many Detroit families, too many neighborhoods offer underperforming public schools and underperforming charters. Not much of a choice for parents desperate to do right by their kids.

And while DeVos says she’s not against traditional public schools, she takes no accountability for the damage done to traditional districts when kids decamp for charters, taking the state’s per-pupil funding with them or the painful reality that while there are strong charter schools that deliver great outcomes, many charters perform worse, or deliver only marginally better results than traditional public schools.

Michigan, far from being DeVos’ proof-of-concept, should be the experiment that gives the lie to the viability of school choice as a panacea to the nation’s educational woes: In Michigan, after two decades, despite some modest gains in science, fewer than half of students test proficient in math and reading.

Parents should have options — strong educational options — and choice alone doesn’t provide them. What would? Investment in what we know works: Highly qualified teachers paid competitive salaries. Wraparound services for children whose parents struggle to provide the advantages some kids are born to. Functional transportation, so that quality choice for parents is something more than a concept. A willingness to look behind an uncompromising ideological agenda at the people whom that agenda should serve.

But poor Betsy! She can’t admit that Michigan is a textbook example of the failure of school choice. That would contradict her life’s work! That would take away her only talking point. She knows only one thing, and it is wrong.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Failure, Michigan

Ben Austin Creates a New Organization After Failure of Parent Revolution

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2017 //
14

You remember Ben Austin? He is the guy in Los Angeles who started an organization called Parent Revolution whose purpose was to organize parents to seize control of their public school and turn it over to a charter operator. This process was made possible by a law passed in 2010 called the Parent Trigger, which says that a majority of parents can sign a petition to grab control of their school and fire the principal, the staff, or give the school to a private charter operator.

A bunch of billionaires, including Eli Broad, gave him millions of dollars to pay organizers to train parents to sign petitions. For a few brief shining moments, the Parent Trigger was the New Coke of education. Rightwing billionaire Philip Anschutz funded a movie to sell the Parent Trigger, but it flopped in the blink of an eye.

Seven years and many millions of dollars later, Parent Revolution can claim the capture of one public school for the charter industry. One. And they got a dedicated Hispanic principal fired. That’s it.

So it’s time for Ben Austin to start a new organization with another pile of money, including billionaire Eli Broad. It is called Kids Coalition. Apparently Austin’s new strategy is to sue and sue until every child has a great education.

That will work about as well as the Parent Trigger, but hey, it’s a living, for as long as the money keeps coming in. Eli has so much. What’s another few million?

The most interesting part of the story is the photograph of Austin. I tried to decipher the books behind him. There is Michelle Rhee’s “Radical.” Steve Brill’s paean of praise to DFER (“Class Warfare”), something by David Brooks. The thinking of a reformer. A real radical. A guy who knows how to start organizations with catchy names. A guy who has his hand on the pulse or purse of very wealthy donors.

http://laschoolreport.com/exclusive-ben-austin-launches-kids-coalition-to-give-la-students-a-legal-right-to-a-high-quality-education/

My favorite quote from the story:

“He also noted that when he drops off his daughters and walks them into their classrooms, the classroom looks, smells, and operates the same way his LA Unified classroom did 40 years ago.”

Maybe he could succeed in changing the smell of the classrooms of L.A. Distribute a spray can to every teacher. That will definitely produce a new smell.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, Los Angeles, Parent trigger

Bill Phillis: Ohio Allows ECOT to Spend $33 Million on Ads, Lobbying, Lawsuits, and Profits

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2017 //
11

Bill Phillis, watchdog extraordinaire for Ohio, reports that the state of Ohio has allowed the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) to use public money in its public relations blitz to avoid accountability for inflation of enrollment and the state’s efforts to claw back more than $60 million. ECOT is notable for having the lowest graduation rate of any high school in the nation, as well as dubious quality standards. Its founder is a major contributor to elected officials. In return, he has collected many millions of dollars of profit.

Bill Phillis writes:

“ECOT has spent $33 million on ads, lobbyists, profits and lawsuits
since January 2016

“According to a September 3 Columbus Dispatch article, ECOT has spent $33 million on TV ads, lobbyists, lawsuits and William Lager’s for-profit companies since January 2016, all in pursuit of gaining state approval to continue to count students that are not participating.

“Over 400 school buses could have been purchased with the $33 million ECOT has spent recklessly. While Ohio students ride on worn-out buses, the ECOT Man spent money extracted from school districts to rev-up his tax-consuming machine.

“It is amazing that public officials have tolerated payments to ECOT’s for students not participating during a span of 15 years. Now that ECOT has finally been audited and exposed, this business is in the process of submitting a plan to transition to the totally unregulated dropout recovery charter scheme.

“Will state officials allow this duplicity to proceed? This will be an ethical and moral test for state officials and the Ohio Department of Education.”

You can contact Bill Phillis or join his organization at:

William L. Phillis
Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding
614.228.6540
ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
http://www.ohiocoalition.org

Categories Failure, For-Profit, Ohio, Online Education, Virtual Charter Schools

Missouri: Results from Two State Tests Thrown Out

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2017 //
13

Missouri officials threw out the results from two tests as useless.

Both tests were constructed by Questar.

“JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri education officials on Wednesday said results from two statewide tests can’t be used to gauge how well public school districts are educating high school students.

“Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven told reporters that the high school Algebra I and English II end-of-course assessments from this past school year are being tossed out because they lacked “year-to-year comparisons.” They won’t be used as part of accountability metrics to determine how well schools are doing and whether they’ve progressed over time.

“That’s absolutely our primary concern, is making sure no one is negatively penalized for this type of experience,” Vandeven said.

“The department noticed potential issues when the results were delivered in late July, Vandeven said. An advisory committee on Aug. 18 recommended that both the Algebra and English test results not be used in school metrics.

“Vandeven declined to provide more details on what went wrong with the tests, but she said they’re holding Minneapolis-based developer Questar accountable. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education attorney Bill Thornton said the agency is hesitant to discuss more specifics because the issue might end up in court.

“A request for comment to Questar was not immediately returned Wednesday.”

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Failure, Missouri, Testing

Missouri: New Push to Expand Charters Despite Lack of Success

By dianeravitch
September 8, 2017 //
10

Missouri legislators are gearing up for a renewed battle to expand charters, despite a lackluster record of existing charters.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-lawmakers-prepare-to-spar-again-over-charter-school-expansion/article_6ae01784-c517-5a65-b5ed-8736671d31c9.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share

When there was a Democratic governor, charter expansion went nowhere.

Now with a Republican governor, the pro-charter forces are ready to push for more.

One of the major out-of-state lobbying groups is Betsy DeVos’s American Federatiob for Children, which has hired a herd of lobbyists to replace public schools with charters and tax credits for vouchers.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Failure, Missouri, Privatization
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