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Bernie Sanders’ Staff Called Me to Talk About Education Policy

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2019 //
186

 

I got an e-mail recently from Senator Bernie Sanders’s education advisor. She said she reads the blog and wondered if we could talk. I said sure but I was not ready to endorse anyone in the Democratic primaries.

I asked for and got her permission to share that this conversation occurred. As everyone knows who ever gave me confidential information, I never write or speak about what I was told in confidence.

We set a date to speak on the phone since I am in New York and she is in D.C.

She called and conferenced in the campaign’s chief of staff.

Here is what happened.

I told them that I was upset that Democrats talk about pre-K and college costs—important but safe topics—and skip K-12, as though it doesn’t exist. Every poll I get from Democrats asks me which issues matter most but doesn’t mention K-12.

I expressed my hope that Bernie would recognize that charter schools are privately managed (in 2016, he said in a town hall that he supports “public charter schools but not private charter schools). No matter what they call themselves, they are not “public” schools. They are all privately managed. I recounted for them the sources of financial support for charters: Wall Street, hedge fund managers, billionaires, the DeVos family, the Waltons, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, ALEC, and of course, the federal government, which gave $440 million to charters this year, one-third of which will never open or close soon after opening. (See “Asleep At the Wheel: How Athens Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride,” Network for Public Education).

I proposed a way to encourage states to increase funding for teachers’ salaries. I won’t reveal it now. I think it is an amazingly innovative concept that offers money to states without mandates but assures that the end result would be significant investment by states in teacher compensation, across the board, untethered to test scores.

I recommended a repeal of the annual testing in grades 3-8, a leftover of George W. Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind. I pointed out to them that all the Democrats on the Education Committee in the Senate had voted for the Murphy Amendment (sponsored by Senator Chris Murphy of Ct), which would have preserved all the original punishments of NCLB but which was fortunately voted down by Republicans. I suggested that grade span testing is common in other developed countries, I.e., once in elementary school, once in middle school, once in high school.

We had a lively conversation. Our values are closely aligned.

They are in it to win it. I will watch to see if Bernie moves forward with a progressive K-12 plan. No one else has.

My options are open. My priorities are clear.

Let’s draw a line in the sand. We will not support any candidate for the Democratic nomination unless he or she comes out with strong policy proposals that strengthen public schools, protect the civil rights of all students, curb federal overreach into curriculum and assessment and teacher evaluation, and oppose DeVos-style privatization (vouchers, charters, cybercharters, for-profit charters, home schooling, for-profit higher education).

Silence is not a policy.

Democrats support public schools.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Sanders, School Choice, Teacher Pay, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Vouchers

Pearson Invests in the Business of Education

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2019 //
46

 

The British giant Pearson announced that it was creating a venture capital fund to invest in new technologies to transform education.

Yuch!

More tech trash on the way!

Protect your child from tech capitalization and monetization!

Press release:

“We are launching Pearson Ventures, a fund to invest in growth stage start-ups that are building the future of education and employment. Pearson Ventures will build on the success of Pearson’s Affordable Learning Fund and will continue to lead our ongoing partnership with Learn Capital.”

Today Pearson, the world’s learning company, made an announcement regarding how they plan to support startups in building the groundwork for the next era of education and employment.

Here’s the gist of the news:

  • Because education will look very different in 2030, Pearson, like learners all over the world, will need to continue to learn, adapt and reinvent itself: finding new business models, incorporating emerging technologies into its products and services, and finding new ways to collaborate with education institutions, government, and businesses.
  • To do so, Pearson is launching Pearson Ventures, a fund to invest in early stage start-ups who are building the future of education and employment.
  • With an initial capital commitment of $50M over three years, Pearson Ventures will invest in companies building new market opportunities with innovative business models, future technologies and new educational experiences.
  • Pearson Ventures will focus primary in early-stage startups with Series A and B rounds.

Below, please see the blog post regarding the announcement, or find it here.

Let me know if you have any other questions on the news. Thanks!

-XX

Pearson Ventures: The Future of Learning

Jonathan Chocqueel-Mangan, Chief Strategy Officer at Pearson

Students entering school today face the possibility of being the first generation of 100-year-old workers. Just let that sink in. Having a career that lasts late into life means the skills and knowledge learned in childhood, or a degree earned at 20 years old, won’t be enough for success in a rapidly changing economy. Whether it is a student seeking help with math homework, or an adult seeking a masters degree, we know learners need education that is convenient, flexible and life changing. We also know education will look different in the future, so finding new business models, incorporating emerging technologies into our products and seeking new partners for collaboration is becoming more important than ever.

That’s why we are launching Pearson Ventures, a fund to invest in growth stage start-ups that are building the future of education and employment. Pearson Ventures will build on the success of Pearson’s Affordable Learning Fund and will continue to lead our ongoing partnership with Learn Capital. PALF has invested over $20M in some of the world’s most impactful education startups, improving education for underserved populations, while returning more than $7 million to the company. But as we look to the future, this new approach is a way to shift our investment work to align more closely with Pearson’s five-year strategy, especially our focus on lifelong learning and employability.

With an initial capital commitment of $50M over three years, Pearson Ventures will invest in companies building new market opportunities using innovative business models, future technologies, and new educational experiences. While Pearson Ventures will pursue competitive financial returns, equally important is its ability to collect shareable insights and drive organizational learning to help future-proof the company. As a result, we will be doing things a bit differently than a typical venture fund.

Investment Criteria: Pearson Ventures will focus primarily in early-stage startups with Series A and B rounds, typically partnering with venture firms and accelerators through a co-investment structure. While we will have a global remit, we will focus on geographies where Pearson already has a significant footprint, both to maximize the strategic benefits to our investees and the relevance to Pearson.

Investment Focus: We will prioritize companies who are working in areas of high strategic importance, including employability, lifelong learning, and next-generation assessment; offering new technological capabilities such as artificial intelligence, mobile-first delivery, remote proctoring, or augmented/virtual reality; creating social impact through upskilling, income share agreements, or increasing higher-ed access.

Leveraging Pearson’s Scale and Reach:Pearson Ventures will deliver unique benefits beyond just capital. As a global learning company, Pearson Ventures will proactively connect its portfolio companies with relevant experts in content, product design, and business development, as well as advise on geographic and market expansion. In most cases, new investments will have a Pearson advocate or sponsor as a touch point, in addition to the investment team. On a case-by-case, and mutually agreed, basis, portfolio companies can also receive a seconded Pearson employee, or join a Pearson team or office as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Through Pearson Ventures, we will continue our commitment to invest in businesses that have a social impact on learners. Alongside our commitments to improve learner outcomes and use digital to reach more people, Pearson Ventures is one more way we’re becoming more innovative, learner-centered, and future-focused.

Categories For-Profit, Online Education, Pearson

Bill Phillis: Ohio and Indiana Race to the Bottom to Waste Money on Cybercharters

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2019 //
2

 

Bill Phillis, retired deputy superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education, writes here about a sector with a reputation for providing a lossy Education but high profits, this ripping off taxpayers:

 

 

Indiana and Ohio are in a tight race to the bottom in the online charter industry
 
Whether in Ohio or Indiana, the online charter fraud seems to continue unabated.
 
Some entrepreneurs can smell a dollar a mile away. Online charters have an enticing fiscal aroma. The fact is that the online charters have a guaranteed income based on all students whether or not they participate in the program.
 
These privately-operated charters should be shut down. School districts have the capacity to provide online services to the students who need such programs. Let the online entrepreneurs switch to growing earthworms.
 
 
 
 
 
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540| ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| www.ohiocoalition.org
Categories Accountability, For-Profit, Fraud, Indiana, Ohio, Virtual Charter Schools

Alan Singer: Is Promesa the “Worst Charter Chain” in the Nation?

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2019 //
11

 

Alan Singer writes here about Promesa, a charter chain in Texas owned by Southwest Key, the same company that runs detention center for immigrant children.

As is often the case, the big profits are in real estate.

Here is an excerpt from a powerful article:

At one Texas Promesa charter school site, vermin roam the halls, offices, and classrooms and the roof leaks when it rains. The non-profit Southwest Key school pays its non-profit Southwest Key Foundation landlord almost a million dollars a year in state tax money for use of the building. Not only does Southwest Key collect rent from its four Southwest Key charters, but it forces them to purchase services including maintenance and school lunches from Southwest Key affiliate companies at above market rates. Southwest Key Maintenance charges almost $200,000 for janitorial work that an outside company offered to do for $93,000. The food served at Promesa’s schools is purchased from Southwest Key’s for-profit food company, Café del Sol. It is so bad that students have gone on a hunger strike. In addition, Southwest Key charged Promesa over $300,000 this year as a “management” fee and bills the schools for “accounting.”

Southwest Key uses its “non-profit” profits to pay hefty salaries to corporate and charity leaders and to stockpile tens of millions of dollars in reserves. Its former president and his wife were paid a combined $2 million a year. The foundation is now under federal investigation.

Texas Promesea schools are so badly run that when teachers quit they are not replaced. At one school someone hired to teach Spanish was assigned to teach history and someone hired for special-education is teaching photography. At Corpus Christi Promesa graduating senior have difficulty filing college applications and financial aid forms because the chief guidance counselor was laid-off. The Corpus Christi school is in a crumbling former shopping center rented by Promesa for $360,000 a year from a shell company operated by real estate developers tied to Southwest Key’s shelter operation.

The charter operation has tried to escape its reputation by rebranding and now calls itself Promesa Public Schools. It opened new campuses in fall 2018 in Corpus Christi and Brownsville.

As usual, the question is why parents choose to send their children to these terrible profit centers that call themselves “schools.” Betsy DeVos would say that as long as parents “choose” to send their children to vermin-infested profit centers, then all is well. As usual, the answer probably lies in marketing, branding, and promises that ignore reality. Sadly, many parents are gullible and believe the former.

 

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

Houston: Charter Founder Pays Her Companies $17 Million a Year

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2019 //
7

 

The board of Houston Independent School District is reviewing three charter networks founded by one woman, who is both the highest ranking employee and pays her “related companies” $17 million dollars.

Lois Bullock runs the networks and pays rent to companies she owns.

“Over the past half-decade, Bullock’s company has served as the landlord for Energized For Excellence Academy, taking in $10.8 million in lease payments, and received a $4.2 million loan from the organization, records show. Bullock’s company also earned about $2 million over five years for her “labor and job benefits,” an annual amount roughly equivalent to the compensation of HISD’s superintendent. The three charter networks enroll about 4,000 students at eight campuses, while HISD serves nearly 210,000 students.

“HISD trustees are scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to authorize the renewal of contracts with the three charter networks, as well as five other in-district charter operators. The vote will determine whether the eight networks, which have a combined enrollment of about 11,000 students, can remain open past the 2018-19 school year.”

Remember, this is taxpayers’ money, intended for classrooms and instruction.

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

North Carolina: Judge Rules Charter School Requirement of Skirts for Girls Is Discriminatory

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2019 //
10

 

A federal judge ruled that Charter Day School’s dress code–which requires girls to wear skirts and does not permit them to wear trousers or shorts–is unconstitutional.

“Yes, the boys at the school must conform to a uniform policy as well,” Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard wrote. “But plaintiffs in this case have shown that the girls are subject to a specific clothing requirement that renders them unable to play as freely during recess, requires them to sit in an uncomfortable manner in the classroom, causes them to be overly focused on how they are sitting, distracts them from learning, and subjects them to cold temperatures on their legs … .”

Also, the judge ruled that the organization that holds the charter for the Charter Day School, a K-8 school in Leland, N.C., acted under state authority, or “color of state law,” when it incorporated its disparate dress code into its disciplinary code.

“In this matter, CDS, Inc. has brought the uniform policy under extensive regulation of the state by making violations of the uniform policy a disciplinary violation,” the judge said.

Howard went on to rule that the manager of Charter Day School, an entity known as Roger Bacon Academy Inc., was not a state actor because it does not contract with or received funding directly from the state and had no power to change the dress code, which was set by the CDS board.

CDS is a “traditional values” themed school and the school’s founder, Baker Mitchell, has asserted that the dress code requirement that girls wear skirts was part of a climate of “chivalry” and “mutual respect.”

Too bad that Education Week did not delve deeper into the management company of this charter school. Roger Bacon Academy operates the charter school. RBA is a for-profit corporation owned by Baker Mitchell and is a favorite of the Koch brothers. Marian Wang of ProPublica investigated RBA in 2014 and reported that it was making millions for Mr. Mitchell, a politically-connected businessman with deeply libertarian views.

Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell’s chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.

How Public Dollars for Charters Flow to For-Profit Companies

Over six years, Mitchell’s two companies have taken in close to $20 million in fees and rent — some of the schools’ biggest expenses. That’s from audited financial statements for just two schools. Mitchell has recently opened two more.

The schools buy or lease nearly everything from companies owned by Mitchell. Their desks. Their computers. The training they provide to teachers. Most of the land and buildings. Unlike with traditional school districts, at Mitchell’s charter schools there’s no competitive bidding. No evidence of haggling over rent or contracts.

The schools have all hired the same for-profit management company to run their day-to-day operations. The company, Roger Bacon Academy, is owned by Mitchell. It functions as the schools’ administrative arm, taking the lead in hiring and firing school staff. It handles most of the bookkeeping. The treasurer of the nonprofit that controls the four schools is also the chief financial officer of Mitchell’s management company. The two organizations even share a bank account.

Mitchell’s management company was chosen by the schools’ nonprofit board, which Mitchell was on at the time — an arrangement that is illegal in many other states.

Hello, Education Week! How about reporting on Baker Mitchell’s charter chain and its outlandish profits?

.

 

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

Bob Braun Blasts the Weak-Kneed Charter Expose in New Jersey Press

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2019 //
19

 

Bob Braun was a reporter for New Jersey’s biggest newspaper—the Star-Ledger—for fifty years. Now he writes what he wants, without any constraints.

In this post, he lacerates the series of articles about charter school corruption and theft of public dollars in New Jersey because it failed to reach the logical conclusion of the evidence it produced. The logical conclusion would be to call off the heist of public funds by grifters, real estate developers, and corporate chains.

He writes.

“The series, far from calling for an end to the theft of public school funds to finance charter expansion, promotes so-called “reforms” that would make it easier for charters to expand—and further degrade  public schools. ..

“Wrong because, the basic, irrefutable truth about charter schools is this:

“Privately-operated charters take away money (construction and operating funds) from public schools—especially in New Jersey’s largest cities where resources are scarce. They are replacing public schools, using public money that should be used to repair public schools.

“Charters are replacing regular public schools and that was never the intent.

“Following the series’ suggestions would mean more charter schools, less money for public schools, and a continuation–even enhancement–of the racism that propels public education policy in New Jersey’s cities.

“The truth about privately operated charters and how they are built and operated with public funds  has been glaringly obvious for years—but few in the commercial press wanted to look at it, including The Record (northjersey.com).”

Once again, like the series in the Los Angeles Times that documented corruption on a grand scale, the series concludes with a timid proposal that pleases and is sure to embolden the charter lobby.

Braun describes in detail how Governor Chris Christie, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Education Entrepreneur Chris Cerf and their allies engineered the charter school coup, with the help of the Star-Ledger’s zealous Charter love:

“Yes it is too bad that charter schools—with the connivance of Christie, Booker, Cerf, former state-appointed Newark superintendent Anderson and former state education commissioner David Hespe, among others—were able to channel tens of millions of public dollars to privately-owned charter school operations.

“But that wasn’t the worst of it.

              “Children suffered—and the mainstream media didn’t give a damn. Anyone who expressed sympathy for Newark’s children was denounced as a conspiracy theorist.”

To understand the moral and ethical corruption at the heart of charter schools in New Jersey, read Braun’s article in full.

The moral and ethical corruption was even worse than the real estate deals and graft.

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

New Jersey Expose, Part 5: How to Fix the State’s Broken Charter Financing Problem (NOT!)

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2019 //
4

 

This article is the last of a five-part series called “Cashing in on Charter Schools,” published by northjersey.com and USA Today New Jersey and written by Jean Rimbach and Abbott Koloff.

The post examines possible fixes for the problems and profiteering described in previous entries in the series. 

This concluding article in a series that revealed widespread theft of public funds is deeply disappointing. Instead of recommending an end to New jersey’s Ill-fated and disastrous experiment in charter schools, turning public money over to secretive and unaccountable entrepreneurs and national corporate, chains, the authors wimp out.

“A short-sighted law, a lack of funding and inadequate oversight has left New Jersey’s charter schools to find their own way when it comes to filling a basic need: finding a home.

“The result is a system that allows charter school operators to use public money to pay for buildings that are privately owned. It can push charter schools and the support groups that own and finance real estate on their behalf into unusual and costly building deals, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.

“It’s a system in which financial transactions often play out behind a wall of secrecy, away from the public eye and beyond the reach of open records laws.”

The system of financing charter schools is broken.

The article interviews experts about ways to fix it.

The fix must begin with financial transparency. But the major charter chains refuse to open their books for public inspection.

“Private groups tied to charter schools — many of them created solely to hold real estate — also declined to provide records related to projects and their financing, saying they are not subject to public records laws.

“In many cases, both the schools and their support groups declined to discuss details of financial transactions related to construction projects.

”The state Education Department said that it “does not have the authority to review financing or lease agreements before they are signed” and that it “doesn’t oversee private related companies.”

“I disagree; I think they have the authority because they’re using public money,” said Joseph V. Doria Jr., a former state legislator who was an author of the state’s charter school law. “If they feel they don’t have the authority, just introduce legislation.”

But none of the parties to the transactions wants to open their books.

“The dearth of public information means, for example, that taxpayers can’t see why the Friends of TEAM Academy, which supports the Newark charter school, has earned millions of dollars in development fees or how that money is spent.

“Taxpayers won’t know why Uncommon Schools donated millions to North Star Academy but then required that the money be spent on a building owned by a related company.

“Taxpayers can’t see the agreement that the Friends of Marion P. Thomas Charter School signed with a developer that had the Friends pay out $6.4 million in fees as part of a two-building deal. The group’s attorney would not provide it and the charter school said it did not have a copy.”

In other words, the charters want to be treated as “public schools” to get money but insist they are “private” when the public wants to review their finances.

What the article never considers is whether charter schools are needed and whether the state would be wiser to invest the same hundreds of millions millions in improving the public schools that most students attend.

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, New Jersey, Privatization

New Jersey Expose, Part 4: Cashing in on Real Estate Deals in the Charter Market

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2019 //
13

 

This post is part 4 of a series published by northjersey.com and USA Today New Jersey. Written by Jean Rimbach and Abbott Koloff, it is called “Cashing in on Charter Schools.” It explores the many ways that charter operators exploit taxpayers.

This post describes how charter operators and real estate developers are cashing in. 

“Interest-only mortgages with rates that grow each year. Multimillion dollar fees for paying off loans early. Property that quickly doubles in price. And buildings sold with markups as high as 70 percent.

“Deals like these inked by New Jersey charter schools — or the private groups that support them — highlight how tax dollars meant for public education can reap profits for investors.

“But they also illustrate the lack of options some charter schools face when trying to find and finance facilities — and an absence of state oversight in the process.

“State education officials say they have no authority to review financing or lease agreements struck by charter schools before they are signed. And they don’t police the private organizations, often called “Friends of” groups, that are created to support charter schools by owning or financing their real estate and, in many cases, enter into contracts on a school’s behalf.

“That includes groups like the Friends of Marion P. Thomas Charter School, which agreed to buy two former Newark public school buildings and paid a deposit but said they couldn’t get financing to complete the purchase. So the group struck a deal with a developer who bought the buildings, which documents show needed “limited” work, and sold them to the Friends at a $10 million markup.

“Other schools, such as the International Academy of Trenton, turned to a Kansas City-based real estate investment trust, or REIT, for financing. The charter school, which the state shut down in June, signed a lease that didn’t allow it to buy its building for five years. At that point, after spending near $8.4 million in rent, it would have been required to pay 120 percent of the total development cost.”

Open the link and read the whole article.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, New Jersey, Privatization

Anthony Cody Fact-Checks Betsy DeVos on Class Size, and Jeanne Allen Scoffs At Cody

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2019 //
22

 

In this post, veteran teacher Anthony Cody explains how he happened to have a seat directly behind Betsy DeVos at the Congressional budget hearings, and he fact-checks DeVos’ preposterous claim that large classes may be preferable to small ones. No one asked her why wealthy parents who send their children to elite private schools expect and demand small classes. If they listen to our Secretary of Education, they should insist on large classes.

He begins:

“A video of Betsy DeVos responding to questions from Lucille Roybal-Allard of the House Appropriations Committee hearing has gone viral, and has been watched now by many thousands of people. I appear in the background, shaking my head as DeVos asserts that larger class sizes might actually be beneficial since they allow students to collaborate with more classmates, and might allow the best teachers to be paid more. So in this post, I will take a look at the actual research on the subject, and a bit of the history of the idea.”

Rightwing Activist Jeanne Allen slammed Cody on Twitter and advised him to spend his time helping needy students. 

Apparently she did not know that he spent 18 years teaching middle school science in Oakland. Cody asked her whether she had ever been a teacher, but she did not respond. She runs an advocacy group-the Center for Education Reform- that supports vouchers, charters, home schooling, and for-profit schooling. She opposes public schools and teachers unions. She works closely with DFER and other anti-public school organizations. That’s her idea of “helping needy students”: not actually teaching them but closing their public schools. Her salary: $217,000.

Read the other comments on this exchange: Mitchell Robinson says that Anthony Cody has “forgotten more about teaching than anyone in your group [the Center for Education Reform] has ever known.” I doubt that there are any teachers on the CER board.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Class size, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, School Choice, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers
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