Archives for category: Fraud

Bill Phillis writes:


State Inspector General holding up a report of an investigation into a multi-million contract that the state steered to IQ Innovations, a company owned by the ECOT Man

The ECOT Man’s donations to political campaigns and political party organizations opened up several spigots connected to state revenue streams. IQ Innovations, created by the ECOT Man, received millions via a contract steered to it by state officials. The Ohio State University was a section of the pipe through which the funds flowed. The chancellor of the Board of Regents was an operative in turning on the spigot.

The attached news release provides yet another sordid piece of the ECOT scandal.

Why the corruption? Because some state officials not only allow it to happen but helped it happen.

“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”
– John Adams, September 10, 1785

William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org

The virtual charter industry is booming in Michigan, despite its abysmal performance.

Michigan, DeVos’s home state, has outsourced its education system as much as possible to for-profit entrepreneurs. Michigan is the only state where 80% of charters are operated by for-profit corporations.

http://www.wkar.org/post/study-virtual-schools-growing-mi-despite-poor-outcomes#stream/0

According to this report, one-quarter of the 101,000 students attending virtual charters did not pass a single class.

The graduation rate is far below that of public schools.

Michigan’s standing on NAEP has fallen to the bottom 10 since the widespread adoption of school choice.

Michigan is an exemplar of PROFITS MATTER, NOT EDUCATION.

Charter operators don’t get rich on tuition, although many have a business model that relies on cost-cutting, low-wage teachers, TFA, and replacing human teachers with technology. Those wonderful computers don’t expect health or pensions. When they break, you can repair them or discard them.

The big bucks are in real estate!

ESJ properties
https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/08/04/aventura-firm-makes-45m-addition-to-its-portfolio-of-school-properties/

It is traded as EPR properties (Entertainment properties in the graph you show

Investing in Enduring Experiences

And they also own the BASIS schools.
https://insightcenter.eprkc.com/basis-schools/

In Arizona, if the school goes under, they get to keep the property, even though the taxpayers have paid for it.

And look at this
https://insightcenter.eprkc.com/education/

This is what is known as “legal graft.”

It is a theft of public assets.

In plain sight.

The bond industry issued warnings against charter schools, because they endanger the financial ratings of school districts and cities.

Mercedes Schneider: Municipal Analysts Call for Charter Financial Transparency

Municipal Analysts Ask Whether Charter Schools Make the Grade

Moody’s: Charters Pose Serious Risk to Struggling Cities

Arizona has a Charter Law that ignores nepotism, conflict of interest, Profiteering, frauds, scams, etc.

Now Governor Doug Ducey is in a tight race with educator David Garcia, and Ducey wants to “reform” the charter law! And I have a bridge to sell you if you are that gullible.

Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic says that this is hilarious. PS: I love Laurie Roberts and Craig HARRIS of the Arizona Republic, who regularly expose charter corruption (he exposes it, she ridicules it).

She writes, to begin:

“A month ago, Gov. Doug Ducey said he wasn’t concerned that the head of Primavera charter school – which puts just 11 percent of its state funding into instruction — scored an $8.8 million “shareholder distribution” from the for-profit company that runs the online operation.

“I’m not concerned about the CEO,” Ducey told The Republic’s Craig Harris. “That is of very little interest. I’m concerned about the child and the parent and what the child is equipped to do after 12 years of education.”

“Today, Ducey and other Republicans have seen the light and the light is a freight train of public outrage racing right at them as they seek re-election.

“As a result, Ducey is now backing a set of charter school reforms proposed by state Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, who like Ducey is facing a fight to get back to the state Capitol next year.

“While I’m certainly happy to see that Ducey and his Republican colleagues at long last might be willing to plug gaping loopholes that have allowed some charter operators to plunder public money, I have to ask the same question I asked when they suddenly saw the need to prioritize public schools as teachers took to the streets this spring:

“Where’ve you been?”…

“Virtually every year, we hear an outrageous story about a charter school operator who has fundamentally failed the smell test, either by shorting kids or lining their pockets – or both.

“Virtually every year, Democrats in the Legislature propose reforms to fix laughable state laws that require hardly any oversight or public accountability.

“And virtually, every year Republicans ignore all evidence of a problem while joining hands and chanting “school choice, school choice, school choice.” This, to the delight of their dark money pals who shovel campaign money their way.

“Indeed, it is a choice to focus only on charter school successes — and there certainly are some — while ignoring problems rampant in the charter school industry.

“Just last fall, the centrist Grand Canyon Institute released the results of a three-year study that found up to up to 77 percent of charter school holders are using public funds on “potentially questionable financial transactions” — often paying themselves or their various relatives to provide goods and services to their charter schools under a price they get to set, courtesy of no-bid contracts.

“The study found that charter school executives earn on average 50 percent more than their school district counterparts while teachers earn 20 percent less. That classroom spending and academic performance are both lower in charters than in district schools.

“Rather than taking a serious look at those findings, our leaders and the charter school industry labeled the Grand Canyon Institute as “anti charter” and did … nothing.”

The Network for Public Education asks you to join us in protesting the voucher scam.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/2018/09/stop-voucher-tax-scam/


There is no nice way to say it–it’s a tax scam to promote vouchers.

Twelve states have designed ingenious ways to use the U.S. tax code so that businesses and the wealthy can make money when they “contribute” to voucher programs.

Here is how it works. A business or taxpayer makes a donation to a state voucher “scholarship.” Then the state gives all or most of the “donation” back as a tax credit. The donor then deducts the donation as a charitable deduction on federal taxes, even though they got the money back.

And right now it is perfectly legal.

The profiteering resulting from these tax credit voucher schemes has been marketed by tax accountants, private schools, and voucher proponents. And all of this means less money for public schools in state and federal coffers.

The good news is that the IRS is now trying to stop this.

The bad news is that Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children and EdChoice are mobilizing thousands to pressure the IRS to keep the scam going.

Please file your comment today with the IRS and tell them “close the loophole.”

This is all you have to do.

Go to https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=IRS-2018-0025-0001

In the ‘Comment” box, type the phrase “I submit the attached comment in response to the IRS proposed regulations on Contributions in Exchange for State and Local Tax Credits.” Then continue with your comment. We give you a model comment to paste in below.

Enter your first and last name.

Follow the directions to submit.

Below is a comment you can use:

—————————————————-

I submit the attached comment in response to the IRS proposed regulations on Contributions in Exchange for State and Local Tax Credits.​ I am writing to thank the IRS for proposing the ending of a tax shelter that allows taxpayers to turn a profit when they fund private schools through state tuition tax credit programs. This comes at the expense of state and federal budgets. Meanwhile, people line their pockets while the rest of us pay our fair share of taxes.

Please stay the course and make sure that tax accountants, private schools, and others can no longer exploit the federal charitable deduction to promote voucher tax credits. Thank you.

It is extremely important that you do this. Please add your comment here today.

Then post this link on your Facebook page. https://networkforpubliceducation.org/2018/09/stop-voucher-tax-scam/

Open the link to read other links.

Jan Resseger nails the politicians who are responsible for ignoring the ECOT scam. The $1 billion that ECOT took to produce inferior education (or none at all) was purchased with campaign contributions, 92% of it to Republicans.

As it happens, the guilty politicians are running for state office this November. In only a few weeks, they will be judged by the voters.

Jon Husted, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; Keith Faber, the Republican candidate for state auditor; Mike DeWine, the Republican candidate for governor; and Dave Yost, the Republican candidate for attorney general.

Will the voters in Ohio remember in November who skimmed millions from their public schools to enrich the owner of ECOT?

In 2016, the General Accounting Office—watchdog of the federal government—published a report warning about waste, fraud, and abuse by charter school operators. Every day, there are new reports of shady real estate deals by charter schools, embezzlement, and Profiteering.

In 2016, the NAACP national convention passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charter schools until they were accountable, met the same standards as public schools, and stopped draining resources from the public schools, which enroll most students.

Yet Congress just agreed to increase annual funding for new charters to $440 Million in the coming year.

Are charter schools more effective than public schools? No.

Do they take resources and the students they want from public schools? Yes.

Do they threaten the viability of public schools? Yes.

Do they already have the overflowing support of the billionaire class? Yes.

Has the charter industry been riddled with waste, fraud and abuse of public dollars? Yes.

Why is Congress pouring more money into expanding this private sector activity which is neither accountable nor transparent?

Write your member of Congress and ask these questions.

Bill Phillis is a retired deputy State Superintendent of Schools in Ohio and a passionate advocate of public schools, equity and accountability.

He launched the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding. You should subscribe to his email list.

ECOT (Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow) wasted $1 billion of taxpayers’ money, diverted funding from real public schools, and was endorsed by Ohio’s most prominent Republican elected officials. Betsy Dezvos wants more virtual charters, which have an abysmal track record.

He writes:


The ECOT scandal could have been stopped many times since its beginning

After ECOT ripped off a billion dollars from Ohio school districts and collected a couple hundred million from the federal government during a 17-year run, the corrupt operation was finally exposed. How did this business enterprise feed illegally at the public tax trough in plain sight without being held accountable? That critical question is being debated in the final days before the November 2018 election. Candidates are debating who is to blame.

One person said; don’t blame Bill Lager-he is a businessman trying to make a buck. Lager used millions of tax dollars gobbled up from the public trough to buy political favors. Public officials turned a blind eye to the corruption.

Who should have been watching ECOT and other bad actors in the charter industry?

State Board of Education
Ohio Department of Education
State Superintendents
State Auditors
State Attorney Generals
Governors
Legislators
Private watchdog groups

Over the years state officials have shut down small charter operations-the kind that had meager political campaign budgets. But ECOT wasn’t on their radar.

The ECOT scandal should prompt state officials of all political stripes to put the spotlight on the other big time charter operators such as K12 Inc., Imagine Schools, Gulen Islamic charters, Accel, etc.

“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”
– John Adams, September 10, 1785

William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org

At last, a gubernatorial candidate who wants to rebuild public education and throw out the profiteers, frauds, and grifters! Voters in Florida have a chance to clean the Augean stables and elect a great Governor for public education!

The Network for Public Educatuon Action Fund is thrilled to endorse Andrew Gillum for Governor of Florida!

The Network for Public Education Action is proud to announce its endorsement of Andrew Gillum for Governor of Florida.

Andrew Gillum is a strong supporter of public education and he calls Florida’s corporate school reforms “a failure.” He has proposed a $1 billion increase in funding for public schools, which would include a minimum starting salary of $50,000 for teachers and an expansion of Pre-K opportunities.
Mr. Gillum believes that high-stakes testing reforms have failed our students and schools.

When it comes to charter schools and vouchers, Andrew Gillum had the following to say:

“Charter schools have a record of waste and unaccountability that we would never tolerate from public schools. Yet, our state’s education budget continues rewarding charter schools at the expense of public schools; for example, the 2018-19 budget allocates $145 million to charter school maintenance — three times the amount allocated to public schools. As a product of Florida’s public schools, I believe we make a promise to our state’s children to provide high-quality, accessible, public schools. We weaken that promise every time we divert taxpayer funds into private and religious education that benefits some students, but not all.”

On November 6, please cast your vote for Andrew Gillum.

Yesterday we learned that Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to ban for-profit charters. This sounded great, but there are very few for-profit charters in California other than K12 Inc. Even K12 Inc.’s CAVA (California Virtual Academies) won’t close until their charter comes up for renewal. It can go on ripping off students, families and taxpayers until then.

The fact that the California Charter Schoools Association celebrated the ban is evidence that it will do nothing to curtail the graft and corruption that is commonplace in the California charter industry.

How timely that Steven Singer explains that there really is no difference between for-profit and non-profit charters. They all drain resources and the students they want from public schools, undermining them and threatening the future of public education.

He writes in part:

“Stop kidding yourself.

“Charter schools are a bad deal.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re for-profit or nonprofit.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re cyber or brick-and-mortar institutions.

“It doesn’t matter if they have a history of scandal or success.

“Every single charter school in the United States of America is either a disaster or a disaster waiting to happen.

“The details get complicated, but the idea is really quite simple.

“It goes like this.

“Imagine you left a blank check on the street.

“Anyone could pick it up, write it out for whatever amount your bank account could support and rob you blind.

“Chances are you’d never know who cashed it, you’d never get that money back and you might even be ruined.

“That’s what a charter school is – a blank check.

“It’s literally a privately operated school funded with public tax dollars.

“Operators can take almost whatever amount they want, spend it with impunity and never have to submit to any real kind of transparency or accountability.

“Compare that to a traditional public school – an institution invariably operated by duly elected members of the community with full transparency and accountability in an open forum where taxpayers have access to internal documents, can have their voices heard and even seek an administrative position.

“THAT’S a responsible way to handle public money!

“Not forking over our checkbook to virtual strangers!

“Sure, they might not steal our every red cent. But an interloper who finds a blank check on the street might not cash it, either.

“The particulars don’t really matter. This is a situation rife with the possibility of fraud. It is a situation where the deck is stacked against the public in every way and in favor of charter school operators.”