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Ohio: Four Radioactive Politicians Who Helped ECOT Milk $1 Billion from Taxpayers

By dianeravitch
August 24, 2018 //
7

Denis Smith writes here about four elected officials, now standing for re-election, who stood by and watched (or helped) the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) as it drained money from the state’s public schools and its taxpayers. $1 billion since 2000!

If you vote in Ohio, watch out for these four:

As damaging as the charter school’s implosion was on the viability of Republican pols, the corresponding explosion ECOT’s demise is causing in state political circles continues to reverberate, particularly for four GOP ECOT stalwarts named Dave Yost, Mike DeWine, Keith Faber and Andrew Brenner.

They are not your friends. They are not friends of public education. They are not stewards of the public trust and treasury.

Rep. Keith Faber is the first case in point. [When the subject is term-limits and running yet again for some other office, you might want to get a scorecard to follow the runs, hits, and mostly errors of this Republican team.] The former Senate president and now House member is currently running for Auditor, seeking to replace current Auditor Dave Yost, who is, you guessed it, term-limited and running for Attorney General.

Faber’s way to brush off the radioactive fallout is to distribute more than $36,000 collected from ECOT to “high quality” charter schools.

Based upon past history, that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?

Then comes Mike DeWine, a candidate for governor:

Then there’s the curious case of Mike DeWine. The term-limited Attorney General, who is now running for Governor, has decided to go after ECOT founder William Lager, his companies, and several others in high ECOT circles, including its former superintendent, treasurer, and accounting administrator.

Voodoo economics begets voodoo public policy begets voodoo charter schools begets voodoo accounting.

In DeWine’s case, his lawsuit seeks to recover from the ECOT hierarchy a portion of the $62 million ECOT is accused of over-billing the state in voodoo student attendance data.

Worst of all is Andrew Brenner, who called public schools “socialism.”

The third usual GOP suspect is House Education Committee Chair Andrew Brenner who is, you guessed it, term-limited and running for the Senate. Brenner has apparently learned the use of pejoratives from his idol, Donald Trump, the undisputed king for crafting pejoratives as a tactic to demean opponents.

Louise Valentine, Brenner’s Democratic challenger for the Senate seat asked in May if Brenner was considering returning the ECOT donations he’s received over the years. In his usual attack mode characterized by splitting hairs and deflecting the subject, Brenner said he never received any money directly from the school.

No, of course, Brenner didn’t get any money from ECOT. He got money from ECOT’s owner, William Lager!

His opponent calls him #ECOTAndy.

Last is the Auditor who claims to have brought ECOT to justice!

The final figure of the fast and furious foursome is Auditor Dave Yost who, like his colleagues memorialized here, served ECOT well as a commencement speaker, endorser, and proponent of the corrupt online charter school. In addition to scooping up more than $29,000 in campaign cash from ECOT, Yost is remembered for bestowing not just one but three awards for the school’s financial reporting.

According to a 2016 press release on the Auditor’s website, “The school’s excellent record keeping has qualified it for the Auditor of State Award with Distinction.”

There is something Orwellian in the fact that a public official offers praise for an entity which does not operate in the public interest, convenience, and necessity. Such an award demonstrates once again that voodoo economics begets voodoo public policy begets voodoo charter schools which begets voodoo accounting. Which begets an Auditor’s Award for Voodoo Accounting. With Distinction, no less.

Wow. You can’t make that one up.

Vote. Sweep out the scoundrels who stood by and applauded the raid on the state’s treasury.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Fraud, Ohio, Privatization

Florida: State Appeals Decision to Knock Amendment 8 Off the November Ballot

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2018 //
11

The state of Florida moved quickly to appeal the judicial decision to knock Amendment 8 off the November ballot.

The decision will be rendered by the state’s Supreme Court.

The Florida League of Women Voters filed suit against Amendment 8 because it bundled three different school-related issues into a single amendment to the state constitution. The case was argued by the Southern Poverty Legal Center. The circuit judge in Tallahassee said the language of the amendment was confusing and misleading.

Critics say the true intent of the amendment is to strip local school boards of their authority over charter schools, cyber charters, and other forms of school choice.

A circuit judge in Tallahassee on Monday ruled Amendment 8 was “misleading” and ordered it removed from the Nov. 6 ballot. He ruled in a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, which argued voters should not be asked to change Florida’s Constitution based on Amendment 8’s unclear and deceptive language…

The most controversial of the three deals with charter schools and the other two with term limits for school board members and the teaching of civic literacy.

The league’s lawsuit focused on the section of Amendment 8 that would add a phrase that says local school boards could control only the public schools they established. It was proposed as a way to make it easier for charter schools — publicly funded but privately run schools — or other new educational options to flourish. Now, charter schools need local school board approval to open, but that requirement would vanish if the proposal passed.

Circuit Judge John Cooper said that the amendment’s wording did not make it clear what it would do and that the three items should not have been packaged together.

Critics of Amendment 8 said it would unconstitutionally take power away from locally elected school boards and allow charter schools — some of which have private, for-profit management companies — to operate with little oversight. Proponents said it would allow the Florida Legislature to open the door to more charter schools and other options, giving parents more choices and a greater ability to decide the school best for their children.

The amendment is an effort by Reformers, led by Jeb Bush and his ally Patricia Levesque, a member of the Constitutional Revision Commission, to deceive voters into approving unlimited expansion of charter schools.

Despite their claims about the popularity of charter schools, they dared not be clear about their purpose. They tried to pull a fast one. Let’s see if the Supreme Court of Florida lets them trick the voters.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Florida, Fraud, School Choice

Bill Phillis: Those Poor, Poor, and Very Few Bad For-Profit Charters in Ohio

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2018 //
5

Bill Phillis, retired for many years as deputy state superintendent of education in Ohio and now the state’s most outspoken critic of charter fraud, writes on his blog about the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s lame defense of for-profit charters:

“The myth of Ohio’s ‘for-profit’ charter school system”: A Fordham Institute’s damage control effort

An August 20 Fordham article suggests the charter industry is getting a bad rap because of the cronyism of a few charter operators. The article also attempts to justify the use of for-profit management companies by charter schools.

The notion proffered is that ECOT and the White Hat Management Company are the only bad actors in the charter industry. What about the 250 or so charter schools that took state and federal money and closed or never opened leaving kids in an education lurch? What about the other charter operations that have been reported as fostering gross irregularities, such as the Gulen charters, but not appropriately investigated by state officials? What about the Imagine Schools Inc. charter school chain that requires the charter schools to pay absurdly high rent to a real estate company allied with Imagine?

Corruption in the charter industry in Ohio and elsewhere is not confined to just a few bad actors. The industry is rife with low performance, cronyism and corruption.

In the article, the author equates a charter board hiring a management company to operate its school to a school district purchasing buses, books, etc. from the private sector. An absurd stretch!

A management company that operates charter schools performs a governmental fiduciary function and thus should be subjected to the same accountability and transparency measures as school district officials. Bus and book companies don’t operate the schools to which they sell products.

The Ohio charter industry seems beyond repair but Fordham keeps defending it.

Be it noted that the NAACP report on charter schools not only called for a moratorium on them, but called for the elimination of all for-profit charters and the for-profit management organizations that manage charters.

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

How I Was Duped on Twitter by the Sheik of Araby

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2018 //
56

I like Twitter and post there daily. All of the posts here go automatically to Twitter, and I often send tweets from the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker, the Onion, etc. whatever strikes my fancy. I often respond to Tweets directed at me, and I scan other’s Tweets for good stories and comments. On the other hand, I deleted Facebook because I object to its invasion of privacy, mine and others.

I have 149,000 followers, and I seldom look at their names. But one day recently I looked at the most recent additions and saw that one identified himself as a Sheik from Dubai, Prince Sheik Hamdan. I was impressed and intrigued. I followed him and asked by private message whether he was interested in American education. He responded promptly and said he was. We then had several exchanges in which he described his background and education and asked about mine. I googled him and he looked authentic. I told him things about me that are public knowledge—what I do, where I was born, where I went to college, in response to his questions.

I began to have fantasies of flying to Dubai to give him advice about education. I wondered how he would react when he learned I am Jewish.

But, born skeptic that I am, I began to wonder if I was being hoaxed. Everything he told me was on his Wikipedia page, but then a fraudster would know that information too.

He wrote:

“‎I know you maybe asking yourself the meaning of the name Hamdan,(Hamdān) is a name of Arab origin. It is a name of an ancient tribe in Yemen, which can also be found in modern Yemen. It is different from the name Hamdan (Arabic: حمدان Ĥamdān) although in English both names appear with the same spelling. I would love to know you better if you don’t mind.”

Then he wrote:

“I’m the third post-federation ruler, heads the Dubai Executive Council which supervises public sector and development strategies in the emirate. I was Born on November 14, 1982, began schooling in Dubai before moving to Britain, where i graduated from the Sandhurst military academy. Where did you school and how old are you?”

I replied with publicly available information about where I was born and educated.

He wrote:

“I really want us to be good friends. This year marks 11 years since His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, became the ruler of Dubai on Friday He did appoint me Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum as Crown Prince of Dubai.”

Like, how lonely is this guy? I noticed in his bio that he writes poetry, and I complimented him.

He thanked me, then wrote:

“In September 2006 i was appointed as chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, entrusted with overseeing Dubai government entities. Also made significant contributions to the council, which was highlighted particularly by the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 that was launched in February 2007. what do you do for a living??? have you appointed to handle any office since you were born??”

Ah, we hardly knew one another but a day, and he wants to know me. I’m not that lonely. I say I am writing a book. I write:

“So, this is an awkward question. How do I know you are who you say you are and not a fake Twitter account. I am a public figure in the US, perhaps the leading name in US education. There are many pretenders on Twitter.” I was boasting, but then what do you say to a very important prince?

He responds:

“The internet has been grossly abused by scam artist and miscreants whose intention is to hurt. In as much as one should be careful, same time we should not allow negative to kill the positive potential in a realistic business, please read my proposal carefully is 100% Risk-free. So what do you do for a living ??”

Uh-oh. Here comes the pitch. My antennae are way up. I respond:

“I write and lecture for a living. I am writing a book now. What is your risk-free proposal? I am not in need of money or fame. I live to do good for others when I can.”

Pretentious, I know, but I was sending a signal that I am not interested in a big money grab.

But here it comes.

“I discover documents of a late client Mr. Andreas Schranner A German business magnate who work in devolpment of our great country Dubai. I discovered from my employers that Mr. Andreas Schranner, died in the plane crash Monday, 31 July 2000, (an air France jet liner) with his entire family, as you can confirm it yourself via the website below for (BBCNEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/859479.stm … …According to United Arab emirates/Dubai banking law after the expiration of 14 (fourteen ) years, if nobody apply for the claim it will confiscate as state treasury if
nobody apply for the claim, I am seeking for your support to stand as next of kin/ beneficiary to claim these funds”

Can you believe this? Am I that stupid? No. Do I want to claim to be the beneficiary of a stranger who died in a plane crash? No.

I replied:

“Congratulations.

“You don’t need my support. And you don’t need his money either.

“Why are you asking me to help you? You don’t need me.”

His answer:

“$12M (Twelve Million United State Dollars,) I have the power/right to add your name on the list as the legal beneficiary, the scan documents name list is right in my position. I am ready to share with you 40% for you and 60% will be kept for the Charity Project which you will have to help me supervise during the process of building this Charity Foundation.”

I didn’t answer.

No prince. No Sheik. No trip to Dubai.

Beware.

Categories Fake, Fraud

Greg Windle Reports on a Zombie Charter in Philadelphia

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2018 //
14

You know the story about zombies. They are the walking dead. They can’t be killed.

Crack reporter Greg Windle has discovered a zombie charter school in Philadelphia.

It has been warned and warned and threatened with death, but it fails and appeals and fails and never dies.

I remember the early days of the charter movement, the late 1980s, early 1990s. Charter enthusiasts said that the great thing about charters was that they would always be accountable for results. If they didn’t keep their promise, they would promptly be closed.

How did that work out?

This zombie charter plans to fail forever and live forever. No accountability!

We now know that the charter lobbyists have made it extremely difficult to close a failing charter school. Zombies!

It takes a long time to close a charter school, and the process includes many opportunities to delay closure for years. Khepera Charter School has exhausted all but its final chance and is now appealing to the state’s Charter Appeals Board to overturn the School Reform Commission’s decision to close the school.

Khepera is a K-8 school with 450 students located in Hunting Park. It was awarded its first charter in 2004, which was renewed in 2009. After academic results declined, the charter was renewed in 2014 with explicit conditions, along with the proviso that failure to meet these conditions would lead to the closure of the school.

Many of the conditions were never met; beyond that, the school continued to violate the state charter law. Since signing the 2014 charter, the school failed to hire enough certified teachers. Growth on the PSSAs largely reversed as scores began to plummet. The school promised to revise its discipline policy and reduce student suspensions, but instead, suspensions increased, even among kindergarten students. Board members didn’t file the required conflict of interest forms. Nor did the school submit the required financial reports and independent audits.

In 2015, the SRC’s Charter Schools Office first warned Khepera that it was failing to meet the conditions. Yet the school has been operating ever since and, by all indications, plans to open for the 2018-19 school year.

Khepera’s appeal to the state essentially seeks to dismiss all charges for a variety of reasons. Its lawyers argue, for instance, that a lack of certification paperwork for a given teacher doesn’t prove that the teacher isn’t certified.

The school ignored the first “notice of deficiency” from the Charter Schools Office, sent in October 2015. The charter office sent another notice in May 2016, another in August 2016, and yet another in May 2017.

Khepera did not respond to these notices. So in June 2017, the SRC voted to begin conducting public hearings to determine whether it should revoke the school’s charter — fully two years after the school failed to meet multiple terms of its signed contract. Hearings began Aug. 10, 2017, and ended Sept. 12, for a total of seven sessions.

Then in December 2017, the School Reform Commission voted to close the charter. Case ended? No! The charter appealed to the state Charter Appeals Board, which could keep the charter open for years.

Zombie!

But that’s not all:

After the SRC voted to revoke the charter of Walter Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School in the spring of 2014, the school filed an appeal to the state so that it could open its doors in September for the next school year.

But when it could not pay employees, Palmer abruptly shut its doors in December 2014, stranding students mid-year and forcing the District to scramble to find places for them.

This cut short the hearings before the state Charter Appeals Board, at which administrators for the charter school had invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 77 times.

After closing the charter, Palmer, a longtime civil rights leader in Philadelphia who founded and ran his namesake school, became a consultant to Khepera, where he initially helped with recruitment. At the end of 2016, he was hired to be CEO.

Khepera’s website gives every indication that it intends to operate throughout the 2018-19 school year and is continuing to recruit and enroll new students.

Zombie walks, talks, and enrolls students even though it is a failing school.

Every failing charter in Pennsylvania can find inspiration in the story of this failing charter:

The longest charter revocation process in state history was for Pocono Mountain Charter School. It lasted six years from the initial revocation hearings to the date the school finally closed. The charter revocation hearings ran for two years, starting in 2008, and appealing to the state’s Charter Appeals Board allowed the school to remain open for three more years. Then the school appealed the state board’s decision twice to higher courts, and only closed in 2014 after it declined to file a third appeal.

Toward the end of the process, Pocono Mountain’s CEO was convicted of using the school to funnel more than $1.5 million in tax dollars to himself, his family, and his businesses. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

But taxpayers can take solace knowing that the charter revocation process ended after six years and the CEO was convicted. Justice is slow but sometimes happens.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Failure, Fraud, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Privatization

Oakland: Why is the School Board Trying to Save This Gulen Charter?

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2018 //
13

Oakland, California, has a Gulen problem.

One of its charter schools is a Gulen affiliate, meaning that it has a shadowy connection to a shadowy figure who is an imam who lives in seclusion in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania.

The imam Fethullah Gullen has the same shadowy association with nearly 200 charter schools, meaning his Gulen movement is collecting hundreds of millions of dollars to run “public” schools in which most of the board and teachers are Turkish. The current authoritarian ruler of Turkey, Recip Erdogan, once Gullen’s ally, blames Gulen for a failed coup and wants him extradited. The U.S. is protecting him. That’s okay, but why is this Turkish national running American “public” schools. He used to give free trips to Turkey to key legislators in states like Ohio and Texas, but he can’t do that anymore since Turkey no longer welcomes him or his movement.

Oakland has at least one Gulen school, called BayTech. The principal (Turkish, of course) revised his contract so that he could collect $450,000 if and when he left, and he quit and took off for Australia with $450,000 of taxpayer dollars.

Now the Oakland school board is scrambling to save the school.

Amid a management crisis and allegations of fraud at Oakland’s BayTech charter school, the Oakland Unified School District is exploring the possibility of appointing an independent director to the school’s board. State law allows public school districts to make board appointments to charter schools under their supervision. BayTech has also hired Kathleen Daugherty, a retired superintendent from Sacramento who runs an education consulting firm, to assist with the school’s recovery. Classes began on Monday at BayTech, even though the school’s principal and several other senior administrators all abruptly quit at the end of the last school year.
Meanwhile, OUSD is continuing to investigate allegations that the school’s former principal, Hayri Hatipoglu, defrauded BayTech by modifying his employment contract to obtain a lucrative three-year payout, instead of a standard six-month severance package. BayTech’s three current board members, Fatih Dagdelen, Kairat Sabyrov, and Volkan Ulukoylu, allege that Hatipoglu made the contract modification without their knowledge.

But Hatipoglu wrote in an email to the Express that the allegations are untrue and have unfairly damaged his reputation.

“This allegation is such a big lie that even OUSD, CSMC (BayTech back office) would be able to refute that immediately as they can view/have access to school finances,” Hatipoglu wrote.

OUSD hasn’t commented about the school’s situation or the allegations against Hatipoglu except to confirm several weeks ago that the district is conducting an investigation. School district records show that OUSD has obtained detailed financial information from BayTech.

As is usual in a Gulen school, the management is Turkish.

The article goes on to explain that the school required its student to buy uniforms from a Turkish-owned vendor.

Hatipoglu has maintained in emails sent to the Express that Sabyrov’s allegations are false, and that he is instead being retaliated against for breaking ties with the Accord Institute.

Accord is a nonprofit that was founded by members of the Gülen movement, a Turkish religious sect run by the elderly imam Fethullah Gülen.

In an email sent over the weekend, Hatipoglu wrote that Sabyrov, who is originally from Kyrgyzstan and BayTech’s two Turkish board members are part of a “shady network that is exploiting the school’s resources.”

Hatipoglu didn’t specifically identify this “shady network,” but BayTech’s links to followers of Fethullah Gülen are well-known. The school was founded by Gülen movement members, including the current CEO of the Accord Institute, and BayTech has contracted with several companies that are suspected of being owned and operated by Gülenists. BayTech also paid the Accord Institute about $70,000 a year for various education training services.

Why is the school board trying to keep this Gulen school afloat?

Given the allegations of fraud and mismanagement, why doesn’t the board return the school and the students to the public schools?

Sharon Higgins, an Oakland parent who has been tracking the Gulen movement for years, says that Oakland taxpayers are funding the Gulenists.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Gulen Charter Schools, Privatization

Wisconsin: Two Former Aides of Scott Walker Turn Against Him, Support Evers

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2018 //
9

A former top aide to Governor Scott Walker turned against him and made an ad endorsing his Democratic challenger Tony Evers.

“A second former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker has come out against him, saying the GOP governor’s team told him to meet with payday loan lobbyists and discouraged him from creating documents that could be turned up under the state’s open records law.

“Former Financial Institutions Secretary Peter Bildsten joins ex-Corrections Secretary Ed Wall in excoriating their former boss, claiming they were told not to send emails and cutting digital ads for Walker’s Democratic challenger, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers.

“A third former top aide to Walker has also contended he was told not to create documents that would have to be turned over under the public records law.

“I was told to avoid creating electronic records,” Bildsten says in a digital ad debuting Monday. “I thought Scott Walker was different, but he’s just another politician looking out for himself.”

The people of Wisconsin should throw this charlatan out of office. Walker has earned a stunning defeat. Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end for this puppet of the Koch brothers.

Categories Fraud, Koch Brothers, Walker, Scott, Wisconsin

Breaking News! Florida Judge Throws Amendment 8 Off the November Ballot

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2018 //
8

In a huge victory for the Florida League of Women Voters and the public, a Florida Judge struck down a proposed amendment to the state constitution that was written by privatizers and intended to confuse and deceive voters.

“A judge in Tallahassee this morning struck Amendment 8 from Florida’s November ballot, saying the three-pronged measure about schools was “misleading” and failed to inform voters about its purpose.

“The ruling was a victory for the League of Women Voters of Florida, which last month filed a lawsuit seeking to block it from the ballot, saying voters should not be asked to change Florida’s Constitution based on unclear and deceptive language.

“Amendment 8 includes three proposed changes to the state constitution, unrelated except that they all deal with public schools. The most controversial deals with charter schools and the other two with term limits for school board members and the teaching of civic literacy.

“The lawsuit focused on the section of Amendment 8 that would add a phrase that says local school boards could control only the public schools they established. It was proposed as a way to make it easier for charter schools — publicly funded privately run schools — or other new educational options to flourish. Now, charter schools need local school board approval to open, but that requirement would vanish if the proposal passed.”

In another report from Florida:

A circuit judge threw out a proposed constitutional amendment intended to advance the privatization of public schools. The amendment contained several topics including one to eliminate the state’s responsibility to provide a uniform system of public schools. Patricia Levesque, leader of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, was a member of the Constitutional Revision Commission. It is telling that the commission dared not put the question honestly to the public but concealed it.

“A Florida judge is throwing a proposed amendment dealing with charter schools off the November ballot.

“Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled Monday that the amendment proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission is misleading and does not tell voters what it really does.

“Amendment 8 combines several ideas into one amendment including term limits for school board members. But the amendment also makes it easier for charter schools to get set up around the state. Charter schools receive public money, but are run privately.”

“Cooper pointed out that the amendment does not even use the words charter schools but would affect their creation.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Florida, Fraud, Hoax, Lies, Privatization

Gail Collins on The Bane that Is Betsy DeVos

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2018 //
13

A very welcome column about our odious Secretary of Education by the brilliant Gail Collins.

The Bane That Is Betsy DeVos https://nyti.ms/2MvmgC5?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Today let’s talk about the evil deeds of Betsy DeVos.

We’ve been distracted, what with Omarosa and the Manafort trial and that $90 million military parade we were so looking forward to. At the same time, our secretary of education has been busy, working to protect for-profit colleges from their students.

Yes! We keep being told that Donald Trump was elected because working-class Americans were worried that their kids wouldn’t be able to move up in the world. And now DeVos is making it easier for those very same kids to be cheated when they try to prepare for a career.

It’s quite a story, just as DeVos is quite a gal. Probably the first secretary of education with a $40 million family yacht that’s registered in the Cayman Islands, presumably to avoid American taxes.

Is that the yacht that got mysteriously untied the other day?

Yes, it was moored in Ohio and an unknown person set it adrift, causing up to $10,000 in damage. We do not approve of this sort of behavior, people! Somebody could have gotten hurt. And the DeVos family might have been without a floating residence, except for the other nine yachts they own.

But before I permit any more distractions, we need to discuss policymaking at the Department of Education:

The Obama administration worked very hard to weed out bad for-profit colleges. The policy it finally came up with was to compare an average graduate’s debt with the average graduate’s earnings. Then cut off federal grants and loans to the schools that had a really terrible ratio. And give the students who’d gotten a raw deal a chance to get their loans forgiven.

Excuse me, but does this apply to, say, philosophy majors? My grandson is finishing up at the state university and I do not see how all these courses on Heidegger are going to get him work.

No, we’re talking about schools that are just there to prepare students for a career, whether it’s computer engineering or cooking or auto mechanics. Your grandson is in a privileged minority. If you want an American college student to worry about, Suzanne Martindale of Consumers Union says you should think less about a kid on a four-year campus and more about “someone 29 with three kids.”

Or Stephanie Stiefel, who enrolled at the now-defunct for-profit International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa to get a B.A. that she was assured would lead to a good-paying position in interior design: “They made it seem so simple — just do well in class and finish the program.” She graduated with a 3.8 and $62,000 in debt, then discovered that the only jobs she could land were minimum-wage positions she could have gotten without any training at all. Other schools wouldn’t accept her credits when she tried to get an advanced degree. Now, 10 years later, she’s finished a tour of duty in the Army and owes $110,000. “At this point I just make the payment and cry about it,” she said.

DeVos, meanwhile, is worried about the government making “burdensome” demands on the for-profit schools. We will take a break for a minute to sigh.

Oh gosh, this is so depressing. I hate thinking about the things this administration is doing to ordinary people. Is there any chance you could distract me by working in Omarosa?

Well, be a good citizen and stay with me for a minute.

DeVos loves for-profit education — you may remember she championed an overhaul of the Michigan school system, which replaced troubled public schools with truly terrible charter schools, most of them for-profit.

So she’s chipping away at anything the for-profits don’t like. Like the Obama rule allowing aggrieved students to petition to get their loans forgiven. The new idea would pretty much limit relief to people who’ve fallen into deep financial distress. Nobody seems to have seen that one coming.

And lord knows what’s next. Amy Laitinen, at the nonpartisan think tank New America, is worrying that the department will “allow a college to outsource its program to an unaccredited provider.” Which in theory could mean that when you pay your tuition to what seems to be a legitimate school, you could find yourself bused over to Trump University for classes.

I’m so glad you got Trump University in there.

DeVos has stuffed her department with people from the for-profit education industry. The guy who’s supposed to be overseeing fraud investigations is a former dean of a for-profit named DeVry University, which paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit over misleading marketing tactics.

But you still promised me Omarosa. Find a way to work her in.

The famous memoir claims Trump calls his secretary of education “Ditzy DeVos” and vowed to get rid of her. The first certainly sounds likely. But by now we are well aware that the current president of the United States is incapable — oh, irony of ironies — of firing anybody. And I don’t want to give you the impression that Trump has any reservations about for-profit colleges that make grandiose promises to their students about future careers, while taking their money and preparing them for nothing whatsoever.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Higher Education

California: Torlakson Creates a Task Force to Review State Charter Laws

By dianeravitch
August 18, 2018 //
12

Tom Torlakson, the outgoing state superintendent of public instruction in California, has created a task force to review the charter school laws in the state.

California has more charter schools than any other state. The California Charter School Association is the richest, most powerful lobby in the state and has been able to stymie any overhaul of the law. The CCSA has staunchly opposed any revision of the law that might require accountability or transparency from charter schools and that would, for example, bar conflicts of interest or for-profit charters.

Governor Jerry Brown, who has been a progressive leader on so many major issues, has been a faithful defender of charter schools, vetoing any legislative efforts to update the law.

But, it now appears that the new governor will be Gavin Newsom, and he has no debts to the CCSSA, which directed millions of dollars to Antonio Villairaigosa in the primaries, who ran a distant third.

Given the reshuffling at the top, it is time to fix the conditions that allow frauds and scandals to go undetected in the charter sector.

Responsible members of the charter industry should work diligently to remove the fraudsters and grifters from their sector, as should everyone.

Charters should not have the ability to appeal from the district board to the county board to the state board, where they are certain to win approval, no matter how ill-qualified their staff.

At present, given the lack of any accountability for the expenditure of public money by charters, the state has experienced many scandals. To learn more about the woeful state of California’s charter industry, read Carol Burris’s carefully researched “Charters and Consequences.”

The Torlakson commission has the chance to get the law right, which would benefit both public schools and charter schools.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization, Scandal
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