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Today the Fight to Save Our Public Schools Begins

By dianeravitch
February 8, 2017 //
39

The Network for Public Education will watch what Betsy DeVos does and report it to you immediately.

We will keep you informed about what the privatizers are doing in your state and community.

We will help you connect with other people in your state who are mobilizing to stop privatization.

The fight to save public education will happen in communities and districts, at the grassroots level.

We ask you to join us, become active, send us action alerts about meetings, protests and demonstrations in your district or town or city so we can help you get the news out.

Here is information you can use:

Get everyone you can to join NPE. Sign them up

http://networkforpubliceducation.org/become-a-member/

Tell others on Facebook to join. We will be mobilizing in the months ahead.

Create a local group in support of public schools. Use Facebook or create a website. Then join our Grassroots Network.

http://networkforpubliceducation.org/grassroots-education-network-3/

Read our emails. We will be regularly launching campaigns at the national and state level.

Make a donation. If we are to fight this we will need funds. http://networkforpubliceducation.org/about-npe/donate/

Together, we will build a movement so powerful that we can beat Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and all others who aim to privatize our public schools. Together we can keep the for-profit privateers and frauds out of our schools.

Work with us. We need your help.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Democracy, For-Profit, Fraud, Network for Public Education, Networkfor Public Education Action Fund, Privatization, Trump, Vouchers

Jim Hall: Arizona Charter Operator Makes Millions by Real Estate Deals with Taxpayer Money

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2017 //
3

Jim Hall, whom I wrote about in the previous post, has uncovered many charter scams in Arizona. Here is his latest report. Open the link to read his attachments and documentation.

Arizonans for Charter School Accountability

arizcsa1000@gmail.com
602-343-3021

The Consequences of Unregulated Charter Schools:

The Leona Group LLC Reaps Millions in Real Estate Profits While Arizona Taxpayers (and Students) Foot the Bill

Arizonans for Charter School Accountability recently released two reports on charter school classroom spending in 2016 (see links below) finding that 191 Arizona charter schools are efficiently run and spend more money in the classroom than on administration and facilities combined. A majority of charter schools, however, spend less on classroom instruction than on administration and buildings. Imagine Inc. and the Leona Group LLC manage the majority of schools spending more on administration and facilities than in the classroom.

This report focuses on the Leona Group LLC which manages 25 schools in Arizona (and over 60 schools total in five states) to try to understand why Leona Group LLC managed schools spend so little on classroom instruction.

These were the key findings:

In 2007, Bill Coats, the sole owner of the Leona Group LLC, sold 10 schools owned by Leona Group LLC to a non-profit foundation Coats created in 1998, the American Charter Schools Foundation ACSF), for $33,890,485 more than their market value.

Bill Coats maintains the same management control over the schools as he had when Leona Group LLC owned the schools but now has set management fees that are not based on student enrollment.

ACSF schools have declined in enrollment by 25% since their purchase in 2007.

Between 2007 and 2016 overall instruction spending in ACSF schools has declined from $2090/pupil to $1455/pupil while facilities costs increased from $1455/pupil to $2479/pupil.

The real estate windfall Bill Coats received in 2007 by selling schools to his own foundation has caused ACSF to cut classroom spending to among the lowest rates of any school in Arizona – to fund the excessive mortgages.

Jim Hall, founder of Arizonans for Charter School Accountability, stated “ The Leona Group LLC has made tens of millions of dollars selling schools to their own non-profit foundation for double their market value – and still retain complete management control. The schools now spend most of their budgets on mortgages and management. Arizona doesn’t monitor charter school spending so this kind of waste and abuse goes unnoticed.”

Hall continued, “ The Arizona Auditor General needs to monitor charter spending and the Arizona Board for Charter Schools needs to sanction charter schools that divert public funds to corporate profits at the expense of children in the classroom.”

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

Retired Educator Creates “Arizonans for Charter School Accountability,” Exposes Frauds and Scams

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2017 //
13

Jim Hall retired after three decades in education. He founded Arizonans for Charter School Accountability. He explains here:

I retired in June after over 30 years in education and 23 years as a school principal. One day I happened to find my research on charter school financing that was to be my dissertation for a PhD I never completed. I did a little research into one of the charter school companies I was studying and realized there were still major concerns about the financial accountability of charter schools in Arizona. I noticed that the charter organization was having a board meeting on September 10th so I decided to attend.

I started this organization largely because of an incident that occurred when I attended the board meeting. The Board President demanded to know my name – I repeated over and over that I was a member of the public and did not have to give my name. At the end of the meeting, a senior member of the company that manages the charter schools demanded my name in the hallway outside the meeting room. I refused and she pulled out her phone and took my picture saying “I’m taking your picture in case there are problems in the future”. I was completely shocked at this display of arrogance.

Arizonans for Charter School Accountability was born the next day. I filed a complaint with the Attorney General on behalf of ACSA regarding the violations of Arizona’s open meeting law. The AG’s office investigated the charter organization and they were forced to revise their website at each school and provide documents they had neglected to post in the past. The investigation is ongoing. Apparently, from the Board agenda for the October 15, 2014, they are being subjected to a “document audit” by the Attorney General’s office.

The charter organization finally posted their 2015 budget that should have been posted in July. It was a mess – there were significant areas that had they simply left blank. I found that they submitted this budget to the Arizona Department of Education and it was accepted, apparently without examining it. I made official complaints to the Arizona State Board of Charter Schools against the charter organization for filing incomplete budgets. I registered a complaint to the Auditor General’s office because ADE was negligent in accepting the budgets.

This week, on October 15, 2014, the charter organization submitted their Annual Financial Report for 2014 to ADE as is required by law. It too was full of omissions. Looking back over the last five years, all of their annual financial reports were incomplete. Today I filed additional complaints with the Charter School Board and the Auditor General’s office.

The budget and the annual financial report are literally the only documents charters have to submit to the State, since they can request waivers from compliance from both financial regulations and procurement rules. The State of Arizona apparently doesn’t even read these documents.

Charter schools waste millions of education dollars every year, at the expense of public schools and the children of Arizona. Corporate charter schools act with impunity because no one examines their actions.

I now have a passion that will fill my retirement. The Arizonans for Charter School Accountability will continue to examine the financial dealings of this charter organization and others. We will file complaint after complaint. We will go to the media to expose corrupt organizations. We will fight to change the law so that charter schools have financial accountability to the taxpayers of Arizona.

 

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Fraud, Hoax

Politico: Opposition to DeVos “Snowballs into an Avalanche”

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2017 //
25

Politico reports that the offices of Republican Senators are overwhelmed with letters, emails, and faxes opposing Betsy DeVos, according to Politico. She is the most controversial and unpopular cabinet choice of Trump, and Senators have been overwhelmed by negative comments. Most of them have gone into hiding. Their phone lines are jammed or off the hook.

The reasons for the avalanche of opposition:

1. She is unqualified, having no experience as a parent, student, teacher, or local board member in a public school, which 85% of American students attend 10% in private schools and 5% in privately owned charter schools).

2. She is a lobbyist for privatization of public schools.

3. As she demonstrated in her Senate hearings, she is ignorant of federal law and policy.

4. She is hostile to public schools.

5. If appointed, she will transfer federal funds from public schools to non-public schools.

6. She uses her vast fortune to buy votes of Republican senators.

Parents care about their children and their schools and communities. They object to a Secretary of Education who doesn’t care about their public schools and will hurt their children and their communities while prattling about “great schools.” Indeeed, they may even be aware of the damage DeVos has already done to the public schools of Michigan.

If no Republican breaks ranks, voters must remember in November: 2018, 2020, and 2022. Actions have consequences.

Why in the world does the GOP stand fast behind a nominee who is so clearly uninformed? Could it be the millions she and her family have given them? As DeVos once said, we do expect something in return for our money. Payback day arrived and she is getting what she paid for.

Trump has nominated many people who were unfitted to the mission of their Department, like Dr. Carson for HUD, Scott Pruitt for EPA. But DeVos! Our public schools are at risk.

It is not the grizzly bears that are alarmed by DeVos. It’s the Mama Bears. They protect their cubs.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Fraud, Michigan, Parents, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Betsy DeVos Lied to Senate Committee about Cybercharter Graduation Rates

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2017 //
32

Betsy DeVos is a huge fan of cybercharters. When responding in writing to questions from the Senate HELP Committee, she cited astonishing graduation rates for cybercharters.

She lied.

Benjamin Herold of Education Week did the fact-checking:

In her written response to questions from a key Democratic senator, Education Secretary-nominee Betsy DeVos defended full-time online charter schools using graduation rates significantly higher than those used for state and federal accountability purposes. The figures and language cited by DeVos directly mirror those used in a report from K12 Inc., the country’s largest for-profit operator of cyber charter schools, in which DeVos is a former investor.

According to the Ohio education department, for example, the Ohio Virtual Academy has a four-year graduation rate of 53 percent, good for an “F” on the state’s accountability system.

DeVos put the figure at 92 percent….

She was specific in her lies.

In written questions, Murray, who is the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, asked whether it is appropriate to advocate for the schools, despite their poor results.

DeVos responded:

“High quality virtual charter schools provide valuable options to families, particularly those who live in rural areas where brick-and-mortar schools might not have the capacity to provide the range of courses or other educational experiences for students. Because of this, we must be careful not to brand an entire category of schools as failing students.”

She then cited a number of schools and what she described as their graduation rates, which differ markedly from the figures used by each school’s state for accountability purposes:

The Idaho Virtual Academy has a 90 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 33 percent.

The Nevada Virtual Academy has a 100 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 67 percent.

The Ohio Virtual Academy has a 92 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 53 percent.

The Oklahoma Virtual Academy has a 91 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 40 percent.

The Utah Virtual Academy has a 96 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 42 percent.

The schools listed in DeVos’ written response, and the language she used to introduce them—”the following virtual academies have four-year cohort graduation rates at or above 90 percent”—is the same as the language used by K12 Inc. in its 2016 Academic Report.

Here is what she did not mention, but that the Senate HELP Committee–and the full Senate–should know.

The Tennessee Virtual Academy is the lowest-performing school in the state (Senator Alexander must know that). When then-State Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman tried to close it, he was stymied by its friends in high places.

The New York Times reported that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow has the lowest graduation rate in the nation.

Even DFER founder Whitney Tilson inveighed against K12 Inc. because of its “dismal academic results” and “sky high” attrition rates.

Stephen Henderson, the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, warned that Betsy DeVos has a long-standing habit of twisting data to promote her favorite causes (charters and vouchers), and that she is not to be trusted to tell the truth.

He wrote:

A true advocate for children would look at the statistics for charter versus traditional public schools in Michigan and suggest taking a pause, to see what’s working, what’s not, and how we might alter the course.

Instead, DeVos and her family have spent millions advocating for the state’s cap on charter schools to be lifted, so more operators can open and, if they choose, profit from more charters.

Someone focused on outcomes for Detroit students might have looked at the data and suggested better oversight and accountability.

But just this year, DeVos and her family heavily pressured lawmakers to dump a bipartisan-supported oversight commission for all schools in the city, and then showered the GOP majority who complied with more than $1 million dollars in campaign contributions.

The Department of Education needs a secretary who values data and research, and respects the relationship between outcomes and policy imperatives.

Nothing in Betsy DeVos’ history of lobbying to shield the charter industry from greater accountability suggests she understands that.

If she’s confirmed, it will be a dark day for the value of data and truth in education policy.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Graduation rates, Virtual Charter Schools

EduShyster: Betsy DeVos’s Alternative Facts

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2017 //
37

Kellyanne Conway may go down in American history for coining the term “alternative facts,” which apparently means that “facts” are whatever you think they are; that if someone says that 2+2=4, there are “alternative” ways to reach a different conclusion. For example, 2+2 might actually equally 3 or 7 or 41, depending on what the meaning of “facts” is. Some people believe that “alternative facts” is actually a synonym for falsehoods. Or, lies.

 

EduShyster  delved deeply into Michigan politics and discovered that Betsy DeVos, on track to become Trump’s Secretary of Education (another of Trump’s little jokes) has her own “alternative facts.” 

 

DeVos has said that if confirmed, she will not give up her financial stake in a company called Neurocore, because–well, Trump didn’t release his tax returns and didn’t end his conflicts of interest, so why should she?

 

But apparently she believes in this company. EduShyster reviews its claims, which are amazing but then learns that this brain retraining is costly.

 

Now for the bad news: brain retraining doesn’t come cheap. Collecting qEEG data to identify neurological weakness, developing a personalized brain performance plan and restoring the brain to optimal functionality, all the while being monitored in a brain room will set you back $2200—which may or may not be covered by insurance. That’s bad news if you’ve got a stodgy insurer who insists on dated data metrics, like peer-reviewed studies (yawn). But wait—good news: Neurocore is now partnering with Prosper Healthcare Lending to assist clients with program financing. Also, be sure to ask a Neurocore team member about the Neurocore Scholarship Program.

 

Seeing green
As I read more about Neurocore, I felt the part of my brain that houses my recollections about Michigan education scandals light up. Had I not just encountered an expensive and, um, experimental miracle cure that claimed to make students smarter? Indeed, I had. I speak, of course, of Integrated Visual Learning, the brain-child of one Steve Ingersoll, the optometrist turnedMitten state edupreneur who was recently sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for tax evasion. While Neurocore is laser focused on the brain’s *neuroplasticity,* Integrated Visual Learning or IVL trained its sights on the gateway to the brain: the ocular orbs. Students at Ingersoll’s charter schools were hooked up to a machine to see if their eyes zigged and zagged across a page of text from the usual left to right. If not, expensive *therapy* was in order. Like Neurocore, IVL posted impressive results as self-reported on its website. At Ingersoll’s charter schools, Ritalin prescriptions were dropping and test scores were rising as throngs of students made the transition to *visual learning.*

 

Say what?
Imagine my surprise, then, when on my travels through Michigan last month, I found myself in the offices of a charter school lobbying org, listening to a lobbyist explain that Ingersoll’s schools were actually shining stars in Michigan’s charter landscape. My own eyes zigged and zagged in response. *But the guy just got sent to jail!* I responded. But as was patiently explained to me, I’d been looking at the matter upside down. Ingersoll’s sentencing was proof that the system works—*checks and balances*—while the fact that kids at the charter schools continued to excel even as the founder of the Excel Institute was being led away in handcuffs, well, that was what we should be talking about…

 

Scams, frauds, cons, coming to your state soon. And just think, the Secretary of Education will own a piece of the action and be able to promote it at the same time!

Categories Betsy DeVos, For-Profit

Anita Senkowski: The Evangelical Christian Roots of DeVos’s Favorite Brain Enhancement Investment

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2017 //
18

Anita Senkowski is a fearless investigative blogger in Michigan who is the scourge of charter frauds. Her blogs, for example, exposed fraud at a charter chain that involved the misappropriation of millions of dollars, and the fraudster is bound for prison.

 

In this post, she examines the evangelical Christian roots of Neurocore, the biofeedback company that Betsy DeVos likes so much that she refuses to sell her stock despite the obvious conflict of interest with her role as Secretary of Education. Decisions made by the Department could enrich the company and her stock portfolio. Not that she needs the money.

 

Under normal circumstances, if a nominee for the Cabinet refused to divest a conflict of interest, that would be the end of his or her nomination. But these are not normal circumstances. We have a president who never released his tax returns and refuses to separate himself from control of his business empire, which is rife with conflicts of interest. He hasn’t even given up the 60-year lease on the Trump Hotel in D.C., a block from the White House, even though the lease with the Government Services Administration explicitly says that no elected official may be a beneficiary of the lease. Trump seems to live by the saying, “Never apologize, never explain.”

 

Senkowski also points out that the head of the company received his “degrees” from a for-profit online “university.”

 

Her Facebook site has this motto: “So sue me already.” Apparently no one has, because she is still biting the frauds, cons, and scams in northern Michigan. It sounds like a full-time job!

 

 

 

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, For-Profit, Fraud

Democrats Ask for Another Chance to Question DeVos, Republicans Say No

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2017 //
44

Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee requested another opportunity to question Betsy DeVos about her financial conflicts of interest, but Republicans quickly rejected their request. 

 

She may may enhance her family fortune by holding on to stocks in her portfolio that her actions will affect. Please don’t believe that billionaires don’t care about making more money. Some do, some don’t. DeVos’s refusal to eliminate all her education investments shows which kind of billionaire she is.

 

DeVos was so ill-informed at her only hearing that her remarks turned her into a national laughing stock. Republicans are protecting her by not giving Democrats another chance to allow her to embarrass herself.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Democrats, Education Industry, For-Profit

Betsy DeVos Refuses to Divest From “Brain Enhancement” Corporation

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2017 //
43

 

The New York Times reports that billionaire Betsy DeVos refuses to sell her interest in Neurocore, a company that uses biofeedback to enhance brain functioning. She has a direct conflict of interest. Will that stop her nomination? I wouldn’t bet on it. It didn’t faze Republicans that she knows nothing about federal law regarding children with disabilities. Why should they care that she will use her position to enrich herself? When is enough enough?

 

The committee vote on DeVos will take place on January 31. Call your Senators’ offices. Speak to his or her aides. Urge them to vote NO on this unqualified, uninformed party debutante. She is not entitled to be Secretary of Education as payback for hundreds of millions of donations to the Republican Party.

 

 

“Betsy DeVos, the billionaire school choice advocate selected by President Donald J. Trump to serve as education secretary, is a strong supporter of using biofeedback technology to help children and teenagers enhance their performance in school.

 
“Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., are major financial backers of Neurocore, a Michigan company that operates drug-free “brain performance centers” that claim to have worked with 10,000 children and adults to overcome problems with attention deficit disorder, autism, sleeplessness and stress.

 
“In an agreement with the Office of Government Ethics made public Friday, Ms. DeVos said that she had stepped down from the Neurocore board but that she would retain her financial interest in the company. She valued that stake at $5 million to $25 million in her financial disclosure statement.

 
“On Friday evening, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he would delay the initial vote on Ms. DeVos’s nomination by a week, until Jan. 31, as Democrats argued that the process had been rushed through, without enough time to answer remaining questions about her financial disclosures.

 
“Ms. DeVos and her husband promote Neurocore heavily on the website for Windquest Group, a family office the couple use to manage some of their many investments. The website, for instance, includes a link to a Washington Post article about Kirk Cousins, a Washington Redskins quarterback who describes how he “retrained” his brain to better perform on the field by going to a Neurocore center.

 
“But the claims that Neurocore’s methods can help children improve their performance in school could present a conflict for Ms. DeVos if she is confirmed as education secretary — especially given that the company is moving to expand its national reach.

 
“Neurocore, founded about a decade ago, operates seven of the brain performance centers in Michigan and recently opened two in Florida. It has said it has plans to open as many as seven other centers across the country this year. Ms. DeVos’s financial disclosure shows that she and her husband have an indirect interest in the company through a family partnership.

 
“Richard W. Painter, a White House ethics adviser under President George W. Bush, said he was familiar with Neurocore and applauded the business and education concepts behind it — but he said the DeVoses would be better off selling their interests in the company.”

 

California teacher Jack Covey sent the following comment on this news story:

 

“I am very sensitive to the needs of students
with disabilities.”
— Betsy Devos, at her confirmation hearing,
in response to a question from Senator Murray.

 

I think we now may have a little clarity as to what
she meant by that remark … as in when such needs
benefit her investment portfolio.

 

QUICK BACKGROUND:

 

Neurocore — a totally unscientific, quack medical
“bio-feedback” company that claims to cure autism, ADHD, etc.
where it operates nine “brain performance centers,” where
the controversial “drug free” cures offered there are not recognized by
any entity or anyone in the mainstream medical establishment.
Despite its grandiose claims of success, Neurocore has never consented
to have these practices tested or investigated in peer-reviewed
studies.

 

… “snake oil” is how Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire
referred to it in a recent tweet:
https://twitter.com/EduShyster/status/822793877614710788

 

 

Indeed, the Michigan Dept. of Insurance has upheld
insurance company denials of coverage for any Neurocore
“cures” on the grounds that there is zero evidence supporting
the efficacy of any of their treatments. These repeated
denials and upholding of these denials contradict
Neurocore’s website, which claims that their treatments
are covered by insurance carriers.

 

Betsy and her husband are two of Neurocore’s main investors
via their umbrella company Windcrest, which also is the
main backer of that Boxed Water being peddled to
the struggling citizens of Flint, Michigan. (a photo
of Betsy at a school site, included a product placement
for this “Boxed Water.”)

 

Her stock ownership and membership on Neurocore board of directors
was discovered two days ago — alas, after her confirmation
hearings.”

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Education Industry, Ethics, For-Profit, U.S. Department of Education

Bald Piano Guy Explains the DeVos Agenda

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2017 //
9

The Trump administration is committed to bashing, trashing, and underfunding the nation’s public schools, while diverting federal funds to charters, religious schools, home schooling, and cybercharters.

 

There are three things we must do:

 

1) Fight back with every resource at hand

 

2) Laugh and keep up our spirits

 

3) Never lose hope

 

In the service of #2, I offer you the Bald Piano Guy, a teacher who will make you laugh out loud as he sings about the DeVos agenda for education.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Religion
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