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Kenyan Court Blocks For-Profit Bridge International Academies

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2017 //
4

For those of us who find for-profit schooling offensive, this is good news:

If you cannot read this email, follow http://bit.ly/2lT2vHG

Dear Diane,

A judgement delivered yesterday by a Kenyan Court upholds the action taken by Busia County Government to close down ten Bridge International Academies – the largest and most contested chain of low-cost private schools – for violating education norms and standards. It marks a turning point and must signal a move towards fulfilling the right to education in Kenya and other countries, say five organisations. This could be a landmark case as the legality of Bridge Academies’ operations is increasingly contested in Kenya and Uganda.

Nairobi, Kenya, 17 February 2017

Just over a month after the High Court of Kampala, in Uganda, allowed the Ugandan Government to close all schools run by Bridge International Academies (BIA) in the country, the High Court of Kenya in Busia County announced yesterday in a similar case that the Busia County Education Board could proceed in closing ten Bridge schools operating in the Busia county for failing to meet education standards.

Hon. Justice Korir ruled yesterday that it dismissed a complaint from Bridge, which sought to contest a decision by the Busia County Education Board to close their schools. The judge allowed Busia County to close 10 of the schools for which there were school inspection reports recommending closure, out of the 12 in the County. He ordered that the Bridge schools remain open until the end of the current school term (in April), for the County to secure placement in a public school for the affected children. The Busia County has 45 days from the date of the judgement to show evidence that another school has been found for the children.

The County Education Board had decided in November 2014 to close Bridge schools in Busia for not complying with the minimum education standards, including failure to employ trained and registered teachers and managers, inappropriate facilities, and lack of an environmental impact assessment. After the Board moved to enforce its decision in March 2016, Bridge International responded by suing it and its director on the ground that they did not follow the adequate process.

“Beyond just the case of Busia, the Kenyan Ministry of Education has held various meetings with BIA to ask the company to comply with regulations. They wrote to the company at least twice on 17th November 2014 and 17th February 2016, based on internal reports raising concerns about BIA’s compliance with the law, apparently without success. The Kenya Ministry of Education wrote again to BIA on 31st August 2016 with a 90-day deadline until 30th November last year to comply with guidelines and standards. It seems that rather than complying with Kenyan laws, which they’ve had ample time to follow since they opened in Kenya in 2009, BIA keeps on using delaying tactics. The decision shows that the County of Busia was right in demanding standards to be enforced. It is time for the rule of law to be respected. Children’s rights are not negotiable, even by powerful international companies,” reacted Abraham Ochieng, from the Kenyan organisation East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights).

The judgement confirms that, contrary to what the company has claimed, BIA had been duly informed by the local and national authorities of the legal requirements it had to follow, but failed to take appropriate action to meet those standards.

Boaz Waruku, from the Africa Network Campaign on Education For All (ANCEFA), commented: “This judgement adds to the similar one in Uganda and is a strong affirmation that Bridge schools do not comply with the minimum education standards in the region. We’re extremely concerned that Bridge Academies, an international profit-driven company with investments that are counted in several billions of Kenya shillings, can come to African countries and charge fees from poor children in our communities without respecting basic laws and education standards of the country.”

Sylvain Aubry, of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) added: “Put simply, together with the Ugandan case, this judgement shows that a multi-million dollars American company, which has the means and resources to comply with regulations, is not fulfilling basic educational standards of two African countries in which it operates. Two UN human rights committee have already raised concerns about this situation. The Government and County authorities are therefore right in taking steps to fulfil their human rights obligations by engaging in dialogue with operators that do not respect standards, and eventually closing them if necessary. It will now be important for the Government to ensure all children affected have access to public schools, as requested by the Judge.”

The decision comes shortly after the Kenya education Cabinet Secretary, Dr Fred Matiang’i, declared that he agreed with a report from the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Education International (EI) which highlighted the low standards of Bridge schools and the contravention with national law. The report, titled Bridge vs. Reality: a study of Bridge International Academies for-profit schooling in Kenya, also emphasised the lack of training and difficult working conditions of the teachers, as well as the high hidden fees charged by the company. During the launch of the report on 5 December 2016, Dr Fred Matiang’i, indicated that he would take a decision soon as to the course of action, as reported in the local and international media.

In line with the civil society statements for the case in Uganda, the five organisations signing this statement call on the Kenyan Government to ensure timely and orderly transition of affected students to nearby government schools to ensure the uninterrupted full realisation of the right to education of all children. The signatory organisations also remain highly concerned that BIA’s shareholders, among them high profile investors such as Mark Zuckerberg, Omidyar, Novastar, the World Bank Group, the British development agency and the U.S. Government’s development finance institution could be failing on their due diligence obligations and responsibilities, which might have legal implications.

The organisations supporting this statement are ready to work with the County of Busia, the Government of Kenya, and other interested authorities to support the development of a quality public education system in which all schools comply with human rights norms and standards.

*************************
Background on Bridge International Academies
Bridge International Academies Ltd (BIA) is an American based company registered in Delaware. Operating for-profit the company runs a commercial, private chain of nursery and primary schools. With over 400 institutions and 100,000 children in enrolled BIA schools, it is the largest chain of commercial private schools worldwide.

BIA is one of the most controversial chains of private schools. The use of standardised curriculum developed abroad, the poor working conditions of teachers and the robotization of their work, profit-making by charging poor families in informal settlements, and questions about its respect for some national education and health and safety standards are some of the most debated aspects of Bridge’s operations.

BIA has received funding from several large corporations, investors and development partners including the Omidyar Network founded by the billionaire creator of eBay, Pearson (the world’s largest educational business), Novastar Ventures, Kholsa Ventures, philanthropist Bill Gates, Facebook founder’s Zuckerberg Education Ventures, the International Finance Corporation (a branch of the World Bank Group), the UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (with funds from the Department for International Development – DFID) and the US Government Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The company opened its first school in Mukuru kwa Njenga slum in Kenya in 2009, by 2015 the company had 405 schools in Kenya, as well as other schools in Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, and India. BIA seeks to grow further with the aim of reaching 10 million students by 2025.

Key Documents
· Court judgement: http://bit.ly/2kRzxnG
· Information statement on ongoing cases involving Bridge International Academies in Kenya and Uganda: http://bit.ly/2eFckEp
· Human rights bodies statements related to States’ obligations with regards to Bridge International Academies: http://bit.ly/2fXvM11
· Human rights analysis of data on Bridge Academies in Kenya http://bit.ly/2h66Br3 and related blog post http://bit.ly/2kngeEW
· Kenya National Union of Techers (KNUT) and Education International (EI) report (December 2016) on BIA in Kenya: Bridge vs. Reality: a study of Bridge International Academies for-profit schooling in Kenya: https://download.ei-ie.org/Docs/WebDepot/Bridge%20vs%20Reality_GR%20Report.pdf
· Education International report (sept 2016) on BIA in Uganda: Schooling the Poor profitably: the innovations and deprivations of Bridge International Academies in Uganda: http://bit.ly/2cSQidq
· August 2016 statement by civil society on the closure of BIA in Uganda: http://bit.ly/2fTQM8Q
· May 2015 statement signed by 120 organisations related to the World Bank’s support to BIA: http://bit.ly/statementWBprivatisation
· July 2016 UN Resolution urging States to regulate education providers and support public education: http://bit.ly/PRHRC2016eng

Key Contacts
· EACHRights: Abraham Ochieng’, info@eachrights.or.ke; abraham@eachrights.or.ke; +254701670090
· ANCEFA: Boaz Waruku, +254 722 663290⁠, boaz.waruku@gmail.com
· GI-ESCR: Sylvain Aubry, sylvain@globalinitative-escr.org, +254 7 88 28 96 34

Signatories
· Africa Network Campaign on Education For All (ANCEFA)
· East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights)
· Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
· Hakijamii
· Right to Education Project

Categories For-Profit, International

Jeff Bryant: How DeVos Strengthened Progressive Forces in Education

By dianeravitch
February 11, 2017 //
37

Jeff Bryant pulls together persuasive evidence that Betsy DeVos energized a movement that was previously scattered and disconnected. People who had no idea that the privatization of public schools is a genuine threat became informed. Groups began forming at the grassroots level to defend their community’s public schools. Supposedly “progressive” Democrats supported privatization by charters because they were hoodwinked by fake reformers promising fake miracles. For those of us fighting privatization, DeVos clarified what is at stake: the survival of democratically-controlled, community-based public schools, responsible for all children.

Even Senators like Michael Bennett and Corey Booker voted against DeVos, even though they fundamentally agree with her view of school reform by school choice.

Make no mistake: School choice was born in racism and it promotes racism.

Jeff Bryant writes:

“Betsy DeVos may have won her contest in the Senate to become the new U.S. Secretary of Education, but her opposition wasn’t the only thing that went down to defeat that day.

“For decades, federal education policies have been governed by a “Washington Consensus” that public schools are effectively broken, especially in low-income communities of color, and the only way to fix them is to apply a dose of tough love and a business philosophy of competition from charter schools and performance measurements based on standardized tests.

“Since the 1990s, this consensus among Democrats and Republicans has enforced all kinds of unproven “reform” mandates on schools, and by 2012, as veteran education reporter Jay Mathews of The Washington Post noted that year, the two parties were “happily copying each other” on education.

“Democrats have in recent years sounded – and acted – a lot like Republicans in advancing corporate education reform, which seeks to operate public schools as if they were businesses, not civic institutions,” writes Valerie Strauss, the veteran education journalist who blogs for the Washington Post. “By embracing many of the tenets of corporate reform — including the notion of ‘school choice’ and the targeting of teachers and their unions as being blind to the needs of children – they helped make DeVos’s education views, once seen as extreme, seem less so.”

“But with the election of President Donald Trump and the ascension of DeVos to secretary, that consensus appears dead.

“She would start her job with no credibility,” Education Week quotes Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington. “A vote for Betsy DeVos is a vote for a secretary of education who is likely to succeed only in further dividing us on education issues.”

“The DeVos vote reflected the tribal, dysfunctional, polarized nature of our politics,” writes Woodrow Wilson Center senior scholar Linda Killian in USA Today. “It is a harbinger of things to come.”

“But what looks like the death of a political consensus on education could be the beginning of something else: an opportunity for progressives to press a new education agenda. Here’s what should they do.”

He proceeds to write about next steps. Read them.

Here is one you can take right now. Join the Network for Public Education. DeVos caused a huge spike in our membership. She has made parents and educators and graduates of public schools aware that they must stand together and fight the DeVos-Trump agenda of charters, vouchers, cybercharters, for-profit schools, homeschooling. Just remember when she speaks soothing words about public schools, she wants to take funding away from them to share with all those private choices.

When Eli Broad talks about charters, he is endorsing the DeVos agenda. When Democrats for Education Reform, Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children, Bill Gates, and other billionaires sing the praises of charter schools, they are singing from the DeVos privatization hymnal.

When Anthony Cody and I started the Network

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privatization

Leonie Haimsom: After the Confirmation, What’s Next?

By dianeravitch
February 8, 2017 //
21

Leonie a Haimson, leader of Class Size Matter and board member of the Network for Public Education, reviews the drama of the last week and looks ahead.

“So it happened as predicted; Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote for Betsy Devos this afternoon.
Though disappointing it was in its way historic: the only time in US history that a Cabinet secretary needed the vote of the Vice President to be approved.

“The last few weeks have been historic in another way: Never have parents, teachers and concerned citizens been so outraged and activated over an education official or issue. Never have so many called, rallied, protested, faxed and written letters to their Senators, in an “avalanche” that nearly flattened Capitol Hill, overwhelming and shocking Senators of both parties….

“We need to sustain the activism and involvement we exercised in this battle and keep speaking out loudly and firmly to let education policymakers at the federal, state and local levels know that we will not stand idly by while our public schools are defunded, dismantled and privatized.

“One issue little noticed by the media: it was widely recognized how avid Betsy DeVos has been to allow for-profit charters and vouchers to draw funds from the public schools. What was little noticed is her devotion to online learning and questionable ed tech solutions. These will just as surely divert resources from the proven strategies that provide students with the support and human feedback they need. It was reported that the one financial company she refused to divest from is Neurocore that runs “brain performance centers” via biofeedback to treat autism and attention deficit disorder with no evidence of efficacy.

“In 2015, while speaking at SXSW Edu, that annual Kumbaya gathering of the technology tribe, DeVos sounded exactly like Bill Gates:

It’s a battle of Industrial Age versus the Digital Age. It’s the Model T versus the Tesla. It’s old factory model versus the new Internet model. It’s the Luddites versus the future. We must open up the education industry — and let’s not kid ourselves that it isn’t an industry — we must open it up to entrepreneurs and innovators.

This is how families without means will get access to a world-class education. This is how a student who’s not learning in their current model can find an individualized learning environment that will meet their needs.
We are the beneficiaries of start-ups, ventures, and innovation in every other area of life, but we don’t have that in education because it’s a closed system, a closed industry, a closed market. It’s a monopoly, a dead end. And the best and brightest innovators and risk-takers steer way clear of it. As long as education remains a closed system, we will never see the education equivalents of Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal, Wikipedia or Uber. We won’t see any real innovation that benefits more than a handful of students.”

“Surely, we will need all your activism in the battles to come – whether it be against the expansion of charters, the use of tuition tax credits or vouchers, or wasteful ed tech scams — all of which would divert precious resources from our public schools. Now that we’ve woken up our elected officials to the fact that parents and teachers and citizens fiercely love their public schools, and will do nearly anything to preserve, protect and support them, we must continue to speak out.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, For-Profit, Online Learning, Privatization, Technology

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
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