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Florida: Failing Charter School Will Re-Open as a Voucher School

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2017 //
6

A charter school in Clay County, Florida, received two consecutive F grades from the state and is losing its contract.

But never fear!

The Orange Park Performing Arts Academy will not close! It is converting to a private school and has assured its students that they are all eligible to receive scholarships from the state of Florida!

“The charter has been terminated, the school has not closed. The district has no power to close Orange Park Performing Arts Academy, they can terminate their contract. We need to be very clear because at the end of the day, it’s all about the students,” said Chris Norwood, president and founder of the Miami-based Florida Association of Independent Charter Schools Inc.

Yes, it is all about the students!

Here is the letter that the school sent to parents.

Who will save these children from a failing charter school that will now be a failing private school?

#FailureIsAnOption

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Failure, Florida, Privatization

Another Day, Another Charter Scandal: This One in Ohio

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2017 //
10

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, has been tweeting daily with the subject line: Another Day, Another Charter Scandal.

Here is today’s scandal.

Patrick O’Donnell writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cambridge Education Group, the operator of 19 Ohio charter schools and of a new school about to open in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood, is distancing itself from recent fraud and racketeering charges in Florida against founder Marcus May.

But details are trickling out about how much that alleged fraud may have spread from Florida to the 19 schools Cambridge operates here in Ohio.

And Cambridge and its counterpart in Florida, Newpoint Education Partners – a company that is itself under indictment in that state – have had a tight relationship for several years, beyond just being founded by May.

The school logos in both Ohio and Florida for Cambridge and Newpoint have the same theme, featuring a dark blue circle. Executives have talked openly about the connection. And the two companies have shared some of the same officers at times, including Cambridge owner and President John Stack.

Stack has not been charged in the case. His name does not appear in court filings against May. He was vice president of operations of Newpoint when prosecutors say some of the fraud occurred. And he was “executive director” of Cambridge while prosecutors say money was diverted from schools here in Ohio to businesses May had an interest in.

Keep reading….You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, Fraud, Ohio, Privatization

Florida: The Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Behind the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2017 //
15

In some states, like Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, charter operators get what they want by making campaign contributions to state legislators and the governor.

Florida is different. The charter operators and members of their families are members of the legislature. They shamelessly engage in self-dealing. You may well wonder: How can this be legal? I don’t know.

This article in the Miami Herald by Fabiola Santiago describes the flagrant abuse of power that typifies charter legislation.

He writes:

“Florida’s broad ethics laws are a joke.

“If they weren’t, they would protect Floridians from legislators who profit from the charter-school industry in private life and have been actively involved in pushing — and successfully passing — legislation to fund for-profit private schools at the expense of public education.

“Some lawmakers earn a paycheck tied to charter schools.

“One of them is Rep. Manny Diaz, the Hialeah Republican who collects a six-figure salary as chief operating officer of the charter Doral College and sits on the Education Committee and the K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee.

“Some lawmakers have close relatives who are founders of charter schools.

“One of them is the powerful House Speaker, Richard Corcoran, the Land O’Lakes Republican whose wife founded a charter school in Pasco County that stands to benefit from legislation. He was in Miami Wednesday preaching the gospel of charter schools as “building beautiful minds.”

“Other lawmakers are founders themselves or have ties to foundations or business entities connected to charter schools.

“One of them is Rep. Michael Bileca, the Miami Republican who chairs the House Education Committee and is listed as executive director of the foundation that funds True North Classical Academy, attended by the children of another legislator. Bileca is also a school founder.

“These three legislators were chief architects in the passage of a $419 million education bill that takes away millions of dollars from public schools to expand the charter-school industry in Florida at taxpayer expense.

“They crafted the most important parts of education bill HB 7069 in secret, acting in possible violation of the open government laws the Legislature is perennially seeking to weaken. There was no debate allowed and educators all across the state were left without a voice in the process.

“It’s no wonder it all went down in the dark. It’s a clear conflict of interest for members of the Florida Legislature who have a stake in charter schools to vote to fund and expand them. Their votes weaken the competition: public schools.

“This issue has nothing to do with being pro or against school choice. It’s about the abuse of power and possible violations of Florida statutes.

“The bill funds, to the tune of $140 million, an expansion of for-profit charter schools in the neighborhoods of D and F public schools, handing over to the private sector not only public money but allowing and encouraging charter schools to take the best students. In other words, instead of pouring those public resources into struggling public schools, the Legislature is turning publicly funded education into two school systems. In the struggling but also vibrant public system where choice already exists through magnets, there’s oversight and regulations that ensure standards. The charter system — which since its inception has demonstrated quite a range, including well-documented flops — is a free-for-all. Private corporations operating the schools make the rules.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article151418277.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Funding

Education in Florida–Betsy DeVos’s Model for the Nation–is in Chaos

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2017 //
11

Valerie Strauss summarizes here the mess created in Florida by former Governor Jeb Bush’s harsh accountability policies and the legislation passed recently to enrich the charter industry at the expense of public schools across the state.

She begins:

“The K-12 education system in Florida — the one that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos likes to praise as a model for the nation — is in chaos.

“Traditional public school districts are trying to absorb the loss of millions of dollars for the new school year that starts within weeks. That money, which comes from local property taxes, is used for capital funding but now must be shared with charter schools as a result of a widely criticized $419 million K-12 public education bill crafted by Republican legislative leaders in secret and recently signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott — at a Catholic school.

“Critics, including some Republicans, say the law will harm traditional public schools, threaten services for students who live in poverty and curb local control of education while promoting charter schools and a state-funded voucher program.

“The law creates a “Schools of Hope” system that will turn failing traditional public schools into charter schools that are privately run but publicly funded. The law also sets out the requirement for districts to share capital funding.

“The man behind the Schools of Hope initiative was Republican House Speaker of Florida Richard Corcoran, whose wife founded a charter school in Pasco County. But as this recent Miami Herald opinion piece notes, a number of Republican lawmakers in the state legislature have financial stakes in the charter industry. “Florida’s broad ethics laws are a joke,” wrote Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago.”

School districts are planning to sue to stop the implantation of the charter industry’s raid on public school budgets.

When you read about this mess, bear in mind that this is what DeVos wants to inflict on the nation.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Disruption, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud

Florida: Palm Beach Post Urges School Board to Join the Lawsuit Against Horrendous HB 7069

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2017 //
6

Florida parents and educators opposed HB 7069, a bill which hurts public schools and enriches charter schools (private contractor schools), but the legislature didn’t listen. (Key legislators have financial ties to the charter industry.) They urged Governor Rick Scott to veto it but he didn’t listen.

Now school boards, led by the one in Broward County, are suing to block the law and have it declared unconstitutional.

The Palm Beach Post urges the Palm Beach school board to join the suit. Perhaps the courts will listen.

“Kudos then to the Broward County School Board for being the first to get this legal action started. It has outlined five grounds to challenge the law. Among them, aspects friendly to charter schools such as making it easier for a charter — or “School of Hope” — to open near an academically struggling traditional public school.

“Perhaps the most salient argument, however, will be that the omnibus legislation violates the Florida Constitution’s requirement that each bill deal with a single subject. To help guarantee passage, the law — championed by House Speaker Richard Corcoran — mashed together bills that dealt with, among other things, eliminating a state math exam, requiring most public elementary schools to offer daily recess, and providing more money for teacher bonuses and a school-voucher program for students with disabilities.

“If that doesn’t raise questions about the single-subject rules, how about this: The constitution also requires that a bill’s “one subject” be “briefly expressed in the title.” The title for HB 7069 is more than 4,000 words.

“Corcoran’s office says the law — which essentially rewrites the state’s public school system — falls under the “single subject” of “K-12 education policy.”

“The Speaker called the Broward lawsuit “another example of the educational bureaucracy putting the adults who administer the schools ahead of the children who attend the schools.”

“Not only is it clueless,” he added, “it is also arguably heartless, to sue to stop school children from getting recess, disabled children from getting funding, poor children from getting out of failure factories and teachers from getting more pay.”

“No, Mr. Speaker. What’s “clueless” and “arguably heartless” is holding things such as teacher pay, help for disabled students and recess for elementary school kids hostage in order to siphon more money from struggling traditional public schools to funnel to less accountable, for-profit charter school operators.

“There are many well-run charters in Palm Beach County; and our district is better for it. But there is no evidence that as a group they perform any better for our tax dollars. In fact, hundreds of charter schools have failed in the state of Florida, and dozens more are academically struggling.”

Why is it that Florida wants to divert funding from public schools to contractor schools? Follow the money.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization

Florida: State Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Challenge to Third Grade Reading Test: Kids Lose, Stupidity Wins

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2017 //
16

Peter Greene writes here about the latest setback to Florida parents challenging the state’s law requiring that students take and pass the third grade test or be flunked.

Peter explains why this law is useless, although it does have the result of inflating fourth grade scores.

We’ve been following this story for a while. Florida has a third grade reading test requirement– Florida’s third graders must show they can score high enough on the state Big Standardized Test, no matter what else they’ve done. Florida’s “Just Read, Florida” (because the way to get students to read is to just insist they do it) is like many versions of this bad idea, and last May, a handful of families put it to the test (with the stubborn assistance of their county school systems– not all Florida counties chose to be part of this exercise in idiocy).

Some children opted out of the Big Standardized Test, so their school district declared that despite the fact that some of those children had exemplary report cards, they would be denied advancement to fourth grade. By the end of the summer, the whole sorry mess as in court. That case was gobsmacking in its wrongheadedness, including the moment in which the state argued that teacher-issued grades were meaningless.

So parents cannot opt out of the testing, even though the federal law says they can.

When it comes to education policy, Florida is one of the worst states in the nation.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Florida, Testing

Florida Editorial: Will the Fight to Save Public Education Spread?

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2017 //
2

Congratulations to the editorial board Of the the Sun-Sentinel in Broward County, Florida, which published a strong editorial lambasting the Legislature for passing HB 7069.

Several school districts are planning a lawsuit to stop the law from being implemented. The law will do massive harm to the state’s public schools while diverting millions to the charter industry. Several key legislators have financial interests in charter schools. The bill is a travesty.

The editorial board of the Sun-Sentinel wrote:

“Last week the Broward County School Board approved a lawsuit against House Bill 7069. Though legislators crammed more than 50 bills into HB 7069, the Legislature passed it with almost no debate. House leaders, including those with ties to charter schools, crafted HB 7069 in the last days of the session. Despite protests from superintendents and school boards, Gov. Rick Scott signed the legislation.

“A memo from Barbara Myrick, the board’s general counsel, lists five grounds for a case that the law violates the Florida Constitution:

*Legislation must cover one subject. HB 7069 changes 69 state statutes;

*The law restricts school district from carrying out their duty to oversee contracts with charter schools;

*The program that allocates $140 million to so-called “Schools of Hope” sets no standard for how charter schools could spend that money and thus illegally circumvents local school boards;

*The law seeks to create a second, private system of public education;

*Under current law, schools can share public money with charter schools for construction. Under HB 7069, districts would have to share it.

“Supporters of the law, which became House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s priority, stuck the controversial provisions into a must-pass budget bill because most couldn’t have passed on their own. Some of the potential damage already is clear. Depriving school districts of construction money could harm their credit rating.

“Given that prospect, the Broward County School Board acted correctly in approving $25,000 to recruit an outside law firm. Next week, the Palm Beach County School Board will decide whether to file a lawsuit. The Miami-Dade County School Board is scheduled to hold a workshop on the issue this month.

“Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that HB 7069 would create “a parallel school system that could be privately managed without the requisite accountability. It would be a shadow, private system that runs on public dollars.”

“Example: The new rule that school districts share money for construction. The source of that revenue is a property tax dedicated to capital projects. There’s oversight when school districts spend that money, but nothing in HB 7069 requires charter schools to spend the money on construction and/or maintenance. There’s no oversight.

“Runcie also notes that the district has shared capital projects money when appropriate. One goal of the district’s 2014 general obligation bond was to reduce the ratio of students to computers, which at the time was six to one. It is now two to one.

“The district gave some of the new computers to charter schools but kept track of the equipment. When the district has had to close some of those schools, the district was able to recover the computers, which are public property.

“Now consider the “Schools of Hope” program. Supposedly, the state would use that $140 million to attract charter school operators that would set up near low-performing traditional public schools and give those students a better alternative.

“Nothing in the law, however, requires charter companies to take just students from those schools. Nor is there language to ensure that new operators would produce better results. No school board approval is required. Again, there is no oversight of public money.

“Supporters of HB 7069 wondered why the teachers union joined superintendents and school boards in opposition, since the bill contained a provision for teacher bonuses. Easy. Teachers wanted raises, not more one-time bonuses that add nothing to their pensions. And the state would continue to base bonuses on teachers’ SAT or ACT scores from years ago, not current performance. There could be no changes to the bonus program until 2021.

“Legislative leaders claim to support local control. HB 7069, however, strips control of local tax revenue from school boards and seeks to undermine Florida’s system of free public schools. The law is terrible public policy done in secret. More important, for the purpose of the lawsuit, HB 7069 is illegal.

“The Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade school districts estimate that the property tax provision of HB 7069 could cost them a combined $500 million over 10 years. Add the potential cost of higher borrowing rates and the case for a lawsuit is obvious. With luck, every school board in Florida will fight to overturn HB 7069 and protect public education.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Funding, Privatization

Florida: Charter Operator Charged with Theft, Fraud

By dianeravitch
June 21, 2017 //
13

When will the citizens of Florida say “Enough is enough”?

When will taxpayers stop subsidizing frauds who open charter schools?

The founder of a charter chain in Florida was charged with racketeering and fraud

The founder of a charter school company that managed two schools in Jacksonville was charged Monday, along with a business partner, with racketeering and organized fraud allegedly involving 15 charter schools in Florida.

“Prosecutors say Marcus May, owner of Newpoint Education Partners, is accused of misusing and co-mingling charter school money, as well as taking excessive payments and “kickback” fees, and spending the proceeds on such things as cruises, numerous trips to foreign countries, plastic surgery, home mortgages and a personal watercraft.

“May obtained more than $1 million of public funds from a pattern of thefts from the state department of education, six school districts and 15 Newpoint-managed charter schools,” said District 1 State Attorney Bill Eddins, in a prepared statement.

“In total, Newpoint’s charter schools in Florida received $57 million from the state and from six school districts, including Duval, between 2007 and 2016, the affidavit attached to the charges states.

“In Jacksonville, Newpoint ran the San Jose Academy and San Jose Preparatory High schools on Sunbeam Road. Both are now managed by a different company and serve 310 middle and high school students.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, Fraud, Privatization

Florida: Governor Scott Signs Bill Packed with Millions More for Charters and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
June 15, 2017 //
39

Why do so many Tepublicans hate public schools? They know that funding for education is a zero-sum game. More money for privately-run charters and vouchers means less money for public schools.

Today, Governor Rick Scott of Florida signed into law a bill that transfers more money away from public schools to the privately-run schools.

The charter industry in Florida has been riddled with scandals and frauds. The for-profit charter industry is making money.

In the article cited, Valerie Strauss explains the legislation and the harm it will do to the public schools attended by the great majority of Florida’s students.

Why are Republicans like Rick Scott determined to shift money from public schools to private schools?

It is a scam. Shameful.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Failure, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization

Peter Greene on the DeVos Doctrine: Choice Choice Choice

By dianeravitch
June 15, 2017 //
25

Peter Greene read Betsy DeVos’s speech to the big privatization conference in D.C. and he figured out the DeVos doctrine.

Remember the song from “Oklahoma,” about “the farmers and the ranchers can be friends?” Well, DeVos assured her allies in the privatization movement that voucher-lovers and charter-lovers are on the same team. They both want the money that now goes to public schools!

Greene writes:

“The rise of Betsy DeVos opened up some schisms in the education reformster world, including, notably, voucher fans versus charter fans. Charter fans have been distrustful, even openly resistant to DeVos and whatever agenda she is drifting toward. Charter schools and voucher schools are natural competitors, with vouchers having a distinct edge with the private religious school market. But I think it may be more important that they compete in different ways.

“To grossly oversimplify, the charter model is to attach itself to the public school system, coopting the public system’s financial systems but redirecting public monies to private schools. The voucher model is to keep the public funding from ever entering the public system at all. Charters want to slip the money out of the bank, but vouchers want to grab the armored cars delivering it. Charters flirt with the lottery winner so he’ll buy them a nice dinner, and vouchers mug him before he ever gets to the restaurant. Charters fake their family ties so they can wrangle an invite to Thanksgiving

“So it represents a significant shift that DeVos has delivered a speech loaded with a giant olive branch to charter supporters…

“DeVos holds up Florida as an example of robust choice and its awesome results. Including Pitbull’s school. Florida, land charter scam artists and blatantly racist school policy and slavish devotion to the Big Standardized Test and public schools deliberately gutted in order to make choice look good. Florida is the DeVosian model. It may not do much for actual education, but at least people are free to make money.

“The final chorus of this hymn to privatization is to declare that “education is not a zero-sum game.” But of course as currently conceived, it is exactly that. Among the issues that DeVos doesn’t address is the costliness of running multiple parallel school systems with the same (often inadequate) funds you previously used to run a single system. As long as every taxpayer dollar spent to send a student to a private charter or voucher school is a dollar taken away from the public system, then a zero-sum game is exactly what we have.

“The DeVos Doctrine presented here includes several of her emerging greatest hits, such as the idea that parents choosing a school is a pure exercise of democracy. It is not. There is nothing democratic about requiring the taxpaying public to foot the bill for your personal private choice.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Failure, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization
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