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News! Michelle Rhee is Merging StudentsFirst with 50CAN

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2016 //
31

The world of rightwing corporate reform is ever-changing. It seems like only yesterday that Michelle Rhee announced her intention to challenge teachers’ unions, destroy tenure, and take away due process from teachers across the nation. She said she would raise $1 billion in a year and gather 1 million members for her new organization, which she called StudentsFirst, because (she said) teachers don’t care about students, only billionaires really care. She did raise some money–only $7 million or so, far from $1 billion–and she spent it trying to elect Tea Party Republicans and others who support charters and vouchers. Her organization turned into the public voice of anti-teacher, anti-public school activism. But in 2014, she stepped back from the national stage to help her husband Kevin Johnson, the Mayor of Sacramento (whom she married in 2011), and joined the board of Scott’s Miracle-Gro. She also assumed the chairmanship of her husband’s charter chain, St. Hope.

 

And now we learn that Michelle Rhee is folding the tents of StudentsFirst and merging it with 50CAN. The latter organization is funded by hedge fund managers and the Sackler family of Connecticut, whose fortune was made from pharmaceuticals, specifically the opiod drug Oxycontin, that is now causing so much addiction and death across the nation. Forbes says they are the 16th richest family in America. Jonathan Sackler’s daughter Madeleine made a documentary about Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain called “The Lottery.” It gave viewers the impression that these were the world’s most magical schools, and any child lucky enough to win the lottery would have a blessed life. Never having attended a public school, she bought into the myth that they are horrid places that one must escape from, and that charter schools are sort of like the private school she attended in Greenwich.

 

The leader of StudentsFirst is Jim Blew, who most recently worked for the Walton Family Foundation (e.g., Walmart money), which funds StudentsFirst, Teach for America, KIPP, and every organization that promotes the privatization of public education. Now Blew will head the California branch of StudentsFirst, whatever is left of it after the merger.

 

What a close and tight knit world the corporate reformers live in!

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Testing

Liberians Oppose Privatization of Their Schools

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2016 //
13

As previously reported here, the Liberian government is considering a plan to privatize and outsource control of its schools. The good news is that Liberians are fighting back against this proposal.

 

“Local and international experts have planned to fight tooth and nails to ensure that a plan by the Government of Liberia to outsource all primary education here to a private company do not push through.

 
“Liberia’s plan is to privatise all primary and pre-primary schools over the next five years. Public funding will support services subcontracted to a private company – the Bridge International Academies, a company incorporated in the United States under the name New Globe School Inc.

 
“Already the Liberian Government through Education Minister George Werner has signed a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU with the Bridge International Academies to kick start the process-a pilot project is said to be ongoing with 70 schools.

 
“The cash scrap government of Liberia is expected to spend around US430 million over the five years period. There is also a question as to whether the PPCC rules were followed in awarding such contract to Bridge International Academies.

 
“International and local experts say such arrangement is not only a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution, but will also deny indigents and poor access to quality education.
Mrs. Hester Williams Katakaw is the Proprietress of the Levi Williams School System and a former deputy education minister for instruction under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s first term. She says education stakeholders here will not allow such arrangement to push through.

 
“We will resist it and make sure that it does not go through at the National Legislature”, Mrs. Williams Katakaw told this paper Wednesday. She says government has a responsibility to ensure that all children here are educated and that pushing such responsibility on a foreign firm is not in the best interest of Liberian children.

 
“Mrs. Katakaw questions the performance of Bridge International in other countries saying, “they have failed miserably in other countries and we are not going to allow them to come do the same here”. She says Liberian children at those tender ages should be educated by Liberian teachers and not foreigners.

 
“Education Minister Werner appears very defensive on this arrangement. In his letter dated March 3, 2016 addressed to the Secretary General of the National Teachers’ Association of Liberia or NTAL, Mr. Samuel Y. Johnson, Sr. following the launched of a pilot project involving 70 schools, he said the pilot project is a private partnership and not privatization.

 
“…I must correct your characterization of the pilot as privatization, and somehow threatening the provision of free education. As we have communicated to your members including at the January meeting, the pilot will not involve any privatization of education…”

 
“However, following this communication an agreement was entered into with Bridge International. When this paper contacted officials at the Ministry of Information Wednesday, its Communications Director Maxim Bleteen handed copies of the minister’s letter to the NTAL saying the minister had requested him to give a copy to any reporter seeking information on the privatization deal.

 
“He claimed that the letter addressed the issue of the Public Procurement Concession Commission rules but nothing of such was mentioned. “It is completely unacceptable for Liberia to outsource its primary education system to a private company”, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh said Tuesday in Geneva.

 
“This is unprecedented at the scale currently being proposed and violates Liberia’s legal and moral obligations,” he said. “Such arrangements are a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution,” the Special Rapporteur stated.

 
“This also contradicts political commitments made by Liberia and the international community to the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal which is on education and related targets.” He cautions that public schools and their teachers, and the concept of education as a public good, are under attack with such arrangements.

 
“Provision of public education of good quality is a core function of the State. Abandoning this to the commercial benefit of a private company constitutes a gross violation of the right to education,” Mr. Singh emphasized.

 
The human rights expert noted that “it is ironic that Liberia does not have resources to meet its core obligations to provide a free primary education to every child, but it can find huge sums of money to subcontract a private company to do so on its behalf.”

 
“These sums could be much better spent on improving the existing system of public education and supporting the educational needs of the poor and marginalized,” the Special Rapporteur suggested. Mr. Singh called on the Government of Liberia to approach the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for technical assistance and capacity building, instead of entering into such partnerships with for-profit providers in education, “devoid of any legal or moral justification.”

 
“Before any partnership is entered into, the Government of Liberia must first put into place legislation and policies on public private partnerships in education, which among other things, protect every child’s right to education,” Mr. Singh said.

 
“There also needs to be an independent body or institution established to receive complaints of potential violations of the right to education that might result from this development,” he added. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that “education is an essential public service and instead of supporting business in education, governments should increase the money they spend on public educational services to make them better.”

 
“In a letter addressed to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dated March 21, 2016, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) called on president Sirleaf to halt the planned outsourcing of primary education here.

 
“…this policy will seriously undermine the right to educate and eclipse opportunities for indigent and poor individuals, families and communities to use education to claw out of poverty and hardship,” the letter signed by Kwasi Adu -Amankwah, ITUC-Africa General Secretary said .

 
“The ITUC-Africa (www.ituc-africa.org) is a Pan African trade union organisation representing over 17 million workers in 49 African countries, including Liberia. In its letter ITUC-Africa further stated “ITUC-Africa is supporting and strongly reiterating the calls by the National Teachers’ Association of Liberia (NTAL) and the Educational International (EI) urging your government to halt the proposed measure to outsource Liberia’s primary education system to private for-profit actors.”

 
“ITUC-Africa therefore urges Madam President to use her good offices and goodwill to stay action on the implementation of this policy,” the union added. The PPCC Director of Communications Nathan Bangu promised to return a call requesting information on as to whether Minister Werner got the PPCC barking before signing an MOU with Bridge International Academies.”

 

 

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, International, Privatization

Florida: How Charters Cleaned Up in the Closing Hours of the Legislative Session

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2016 //
12

Paula Dockery, a former Republican legislator in Florida, explains how last-minute legislative maneuvering enables special interests to cram their priorities into overstuffed bills and into law. The writing of a bill in the closing days of the session, she says, is like a train running down the tracks. All kinds of things get added without public discussion.

 

 

The charter industry has been a beneficiary of these tactics.

 

 

Dockery writes:

 

 

“The final bill is a conglomeration of unrelated and contentious education policies. It allows students to transfer to any public school anywhere in the state if there is capacity — a nightmare for school district planning and budgeting. It allows high school athletes who change schools to be immediately eligible to play — which opens up high school athletics to potential recruiting.

 

 

“It financially punishes school districts for overspending on construction while making it easier for charter schools to get access to capital funding. It attempts to weaken the school board membership association that often disagrees with legislative policy changes. It relies on performance measures to determine college and university funding.

 

 

“On a positive note, it creates a funding formula for charter school capital costs that favors charters that serve poor and disabled students.

 

 

“Unfortunately, a key Senate proposal that prevented charter school operators from using public funds to build or improve facilities they own for their private gain was removed from the bill at the House’s insistence. Wasn’t this the reason for the train in the first place?”

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit

Liberia: Government Nears Agreement on Privatization of Its Schools

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
8

The Liberian government is close to signing an agreement with private, for-profit corporations to provide education.

 

The teachers’ union called on the government to consult with all concerned parties before agreeing to privatize and outsource the nation’s schools.

 

As we have seen in earlier communiques (see here and here), Western corporations are focused on Africa as fertile territory for low-cost, for-profit education, using ill-trained teachers who read from a script.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, International

What Texas Should Know About Charters, from a Floridian

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
5

A civic leader in Texas asked on the blog whether there was any impartial information about charters and their effects. I forwarded her request to Sue Legg of the League of Women Voters in Florida.

 

Sue wrote the following response:

 

 

We have been studying charter and other choice systems for several years. See: http://lwveducation.com​
In Florida, we have non-profit and for profit management companies. The biggest concern with for-profits are their associated real estate firms that build/purchase facilities and then charge the school excessive amounts for leases. Since the charter schools are privately owned and managed, the facilities are paid for by public tax dollars but revert to private owners if closed. We have relatively few charters located in publically owned buildings.

 

There are issues with charter boards. Most are not independent from the management company. Thus, the business model often depends on high staff turnover and low salaries. There are many regulation problems including conflict of interest and nepotism. Big charter firms create umbrella non profits that receive the charter. Their boards often have overlapping board members. Academica, for example, the largest Florida charter chain created Mater charters, Somerset charters, Doral, and Ben Gamla charters among others.

 

Many small independent charters have inexperienced or profit seeking people who start and then close charters, thus keeping substantial start up money awarded by the state. Some legislation has tried to curb this.

 

Charters in Florida tend to duplicate public school programs. Some do focus on children who need a different approach and many of these are successful. The school grade policies complicate their existence, however. For example, schools that focus on children with dyslexia are chronically called ‘F’ schools because those children struggle to learn even though they do make significant progress. ​

 

Florida has 650+ charters. The evidence of resegregation is clear. The high closure rate has received legislative attention. The practice of selective admission/retention is evident even though the admission process is supposed to be random. Achievement based on test scores does not differentiate charter and traditional public schools if well matched samples are used.

 

We have annual audits of each charter. There are also data on racial and economic demographic characteristics as well as school grades.

 

This legislative session has centered on charter authorization systems that would take even more control away from local school boards. Thus far, these proposals look like they will fail.

 

A Citizens for Strong Schools lawsuit over the failure of the state to support public education begins on March 14th.

 

Let me know if I can help.

 

Sue M. Legg Ph.D.
President, Alachua County LWV
Chair, School Choice Project Florida LWV

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Texas

Video: Ride the Profitship Charter Chain to Success!

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2016 //
5

Here is a very funny video that says in 2 minutes what the public needs to hear as more and more community public schools are run by corporate charter chains. I could explain the same thing with footnotes in a chapter, but skip the chapter and watch the video. It was produced by the Progressive Magazine.

 

This video was made by the same team that created this video. It’s all about the money.

 

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Sue Legg: Florida Republican Proposes to Fix Charter Mess

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2016 //
13

Well, this is a hopeful sign. A Republican the state senate in Florida has proposed to change the charter law so that it focuses on the neediest children, the ones for whom charters were first created. With the house leadership firmly controlled by Rep. Eric Fresen, whose brother-in-law owns one  of the largest and most profitable charter chains in the state, the two houses of the legislature may be on a collision course. Rep. Fresen always takes care of the charter industry.

 

Sue Legg, who has studied Florida charter schools on behalf of the state League of Women Voters, wrote with the following information:

 

 

A recent Senate President, Don Gaetz, proposed a bill this week to curb ‘private enrichment’ facilities schemes by charter school management firms and their real estate arms. He acknowledged that the legislature has gotten away from the original intent for charters schools. His bill would prioritize charters serving impoverished students and/or those with disabilities.

 

Florida has over 650 charter schools, over a third are run by for-profit firms. The legislature, the Governor, the Department of Education and the State Board of Education are all strong charter supporters.

 

This is the first time that a staunch Republican legislator has publically acknowledged the rampant charter exploitation and abuse and taken meaningful steps to curb it. It even addresses public ownership of facilities. The bill is not perfect; it may not pass. However, Senator Gaetz calls for “Charters with a Conscience”. Sometimes you just have to share the good news. 

 

Senator Gaetz is thinking about what is right. He and Rep. Fresen (HB 873) are squaring off over charter school funding for facilities. Both bills would reduce the amount of capital outlay dollars public schools can assess through local property taxes. According to the Miami Herald, Senator Gaetz’s bill would also crack down on ‘private enrichment’ schemes that charter management firms use to build and lease facilities for which they charge exorbitant rates.
Charter board members would have to swear that capital outlay funds would only be used for facilities. Funds would be awarded only to public entities, a 501(c)(3) specifying in its articles of incorporation that all property will return to specified public entities upon dissolution, or is owned by or leased to a person or entity who is not an affiliated party to the charter school.

 

The Senate proposal has some other very good features. It would reconfigure the funding formula to prioritize those charters that offer quality alternative schools for impoverished students or those with disabilities. Certain charters would receive a base capital outlay allocation from state funds, but those that serve at least 75% of children qualifying for free or reduced lunch or 25% of children with ESE, would receive an additional twenty five percent or fifty percent if both criteria are met. The Miami Herald quotes Senator Gaetz who suggested that ‘…we want to weight it for those charters that have a social conscience’.

 

The bill does not take capital outlay money away from traditional public schools for charter schools. It does, however, change the formula for how the money is allocated.

 

There are some ‘gotchas’ in the Senate bill. The legislature still needs to work with districts to create viable policy. Nevertheless, Senator Gaetz appears to recognize that unregulated school choice benefits some companies more than children.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit

Wall Street Journal: Obama Staffers Flee to Broken For-Profit College Sector

By dianeravitch
February 17, 2016 //
10

A few days ago, I posted about the odd circumstance that friends of President Obama had bought one of the nation’s largest for-profit corporations that provide higher education, even though it is generally known that these “colleges” have abysmal graduation rates and are known for predatory practices.

 

Now, the Wall Street Journal is pointing out the irony that the Obama administration harassed these institutions, drove down their value, and former Obama staff and current friends are taking them over at a fire sale price. We know, based on the actions of the Department of Education under Arne Duncan, that the administration has no objection to for-profit charter operators. We know, from Arne Duncan’s selection of Joanne Weiss, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund as his chief of staff, that he has a fondness for the corporate sector. We know, from Arne Duncan’s selection of Ted Mitchell, also a CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, as Under Secretary of Education, that the Department favors entrepreneurs. NewSchools Venture Fund underwrites charter chains and education businesses. It is at the epicenter of the corporate ed reform biz.

 

So, I am not so sure I agree with the WSJ’s characterization of the Obama administration as hostile to for-profit ventures. I think the collapse of for-profit higher education value is due to its poor performance and its lack of value or values. The dropout rates are higher than those in nonprofit institutions, and some employers will not recognize degrees from these diploma mills.

 

In an editorial titled “Regulating Education for Profit,” the WSJ writes:

 

Check out last week’s proposed sale of Apollo Education, parent company of the University of Phoenix. When Mr. Obama was preparing to take office in January 2009, Apollo stock hit a multiyear high above $78 per share. Seven years later, after Washington’s regulatory onslaught that favored nonprofits over for-profits in doling out federal subsidies, the shares had recently fallen below $7.

 

The University of Phoenix was once educating close to half a million students but last month reported an enrollment below 180,000. And with Apollo recently trading below book value, it might be a real bargain—especially for an investor betting that the next Administration might go easier on for-profit colleges. Now comes news that Apollo will be sold to several private equity firms. And coincidence of all coincidences, after the sale closes the company will be run by a former top official in the Obama education department, the same outfit that led the attack on Apollo.

 

The Vistria Group is a Chicago private-equity firm. The company was founded around the time that Mr. Obama was beginning his second term and its founders include Marty Nesbitt, who began playing pick-up basketball with Mr. Obama years before he became President, and Tony Miller, who was the second highest-ranking official in the Department of Education from 2009 until 2013.

 

Once the sale closes, Mr. Miller will become chairman of Apollo’s board….

 

By the way, the Obama education department will have to approve Vistria’s purchase of Apollo, and we’re told the guidelines for approval are notably vague. What better way to win a regulatory blessing than have a former senior education official like Mr. Miller commune with his old regulatory comrades. Hey, Tony, great to see you; any job for me after, say, Jan. 20, 2017?….

 

To summarize, an Obama pal is the day-to-day boss of a department that succeeds in destroying 90% of the value of a politically targeted company. Then he leaves government, buys the company at a fire-sale price and announces that the problems that attracted so much negative government attention are ending—just in time for a new Administration that might not hate for-profit education as much as this one. Government mediation sure can be a lucrative business model.

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, For-Profit, Higher Education

BREAKING NEWS: Lawsuit Filed Against Magnolia Charter Chain in California

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2016 //
11

A lawsuit has been filed against the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia charter chain in California. 
The plaintiffs accuse the chain of significant financial improprieties. 
“The complaint calls for a comprehensive investigation by the State Department of Education. It cites findings made last year by the state in an audit of Magnolia including that 69% of Magnolia’s financial transactions were unaccounted for; that Magnolia routinely awards large contracts to vendors that have overlapping connections with their own employees and board of directors; and that Magnolia has illegally used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to pay for visas for Turkish nationals.
“The complaint states that all three of these activities are hallmarks of Gülen charters. Magnolia has denied ties to Gülen, an organization under investigation by the Turkish and United States governments.  
“Magnolia is headed by Caprice Young, former president of the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and founder of the powerful lobby, the California Charter Schools Association. Under Young’s leadership, Magnolia runs 11 schools, including eight in LAUSD, and recently submitted petitions for eight more schools in Anaheim, LAUSD, Garden Grove, Fremont, and Oceanside. The complaint states that if all eight charter schools were to be approved, the cost to the state of California would be in the billions of dollars.”

Categories California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Funding, Gulen Charter Schools, Hoax

What Does Illinois Governor Rauner Have in Common with Martin Shkreli?

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2016 //
9

Did you know that Governor Bruce Rauner has something in common with that guy who bought the rights to rare drugs and raised the prices sky-high?

 

I learned about it from blogger Glenn Brown.

 

 

“…Rauner is never going to brag about his spoils derived from Ovation because in 2008 the Federal Trade Commission took the company to federal court, accusing it of price gouging and violating antitrust laws. According to the FTC, Ovation acquired control of the only two drugs used to treat heart defects in premature babies. The company then raised the cost of treatment nearly 1,300 percent. (The Star Tribune reported in 2008 that Ovation also bought three other children’s drugs and raised their prices by 864 to 3,437 percent.)

 

 

“Ovation acquired the rights to a drug developed by Merck & Co. called Indocin I.V. Ovation then acquired the drug NeoProfen from Abbott Laboratories about a year later in 2006. The FTC asserted the NeoProfen acquisition was unlawful because Ovation knew it was getting the only competitor to its Indocin I.V. drug.

 

 

“The FTC detailed how Ovation quickly raised the price of Indocin from $36 to nearly $500 a vial. The price of NeoProfen was similarly inflated by Ovation. The FTC brought its complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in 2008. The Minnesota Attorney General joined the FTC as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Acting FTC Bureau of Competition Director David P. Wales issued this statement upon announcement of the legal action:

 

 

“‘While Ovation is profiting from its illegal acquisition, hospitals and ultimately consumers and American taxpayers are forced to pay millions of dollars a year more for these life-saving medications. The action taken today is intended to restore the lost competition and require Ovation to give up its unlawful profits.’

 

 

“The FTC went on to say: ‘Indocin and NeoProfen are the only two pharmaceutical treatments sold in the U.S. for a condition known as patent ductus arteriosus, a disorder that primarily affects very low birth- weight premature infants. In babies with this condition, the blood vessel connecting two major arteries of the heart fails to close on its own soon after birth. Patent ductus arteriosus can be fatal if not treated. The only treatment other than drug therapy is surgery, which carries the risk of serious complications and costs far more than treatment with either Indocin or NeoProfen.’

 

 

“The FTC’s Commissioners approved filing of the federal complaint by a vote of 4-0. Most devastating of all is this statement from Commissioner Jon Leibowitz (appointed by George W. Bush) who wrote separately: ‘Ovation’s profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal. Ovation’s behavior is a stark reminder of why America desperately needs health care reform and why vigorous antitrust enforcement is as relevant today as it was when the agency was created almost one hundred years ago in 1914.’ And U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) said: ‘A company like Ovation knows that when it comes to saving a baby’s life, price is no object. They banked on that, literally…’” (Rauner company raised cost of life-saving drug for babies 1,300% by Doug Ibendahl,Oct. 21, 2014).

 

 

“…As we’ve said repeatedly here at Republican News Watch, it doesn’t matter how much money Bruce Rauner has made. But it does matter what he was willing to do for it, and it does matter who he expected to subsidize his lifestyle. Rauner and his partners made the decision that it was okay to squeeze parents desperate to save the life of their newborn child. What else is it going to take for those still supporting Bruce Rauner?” (Rauner’s former company settled federal lawsuit over infant heart drug by Doug Ibendahl, Oct. 23,2014).
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.

 

 

 

Categories For-Profit, Illinois
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