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Illinois: Charter School Founder Suspected of Stealing $2.7 Million from School Lunch Funds

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2017 //
11

A charter founder in the suburbs of Illinois is under investigation for theft of $2.7 Million from school lunch Funds, to subsidize her lavish lifestyle.

“Pamela Strain said she’d once dreamed of following in the footsteps of Clarence Darrow, the legendary Chicago attorney known for championing the underdog.

“Strain instead went into education, rising to become an elementary school principal in an impoverished neighborhood in Chicago before founding her own charter school in the south suburbs serving underprivileged kids.

“But federal investigators say instead of championing the less fortunate, Strain has been stealing from the very programs intended to help them.

“Court records made public this week show that Strain is suspected of using the small, nonprofit school she founded in 2005 to loot as much as $2.7 million in funds over a seven-year period, including money from federal school lunch subsidies and other grants designed to provide nutritious food to low-income children.

“Strain, 60, allegedly used the funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle, including her home and other properties, luxury cars, spas, salons and shopping sprees at stores such as Victoria’s Secret and Macy’s, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

“The 54-page filing also contained startling details about the conditions at Strain’s Beacon Hill Preparatory Academy, which operated in various locations in the south suburbs before reopening in Lansing last year under a new name, Lighthouse Christian Academy.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization

Pennsylvania: Every Cybercharter Fails to Meet State Standards, for Fifth Year in a Row

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2017 //
43

For the fifth year in a row, not one cybercharter in Pennsylvania achieved a passing school performance score of 70. When will these scams be held accountable for their poor performance? When will the State close down these failing schools? These “schools” drain hundreds of millions of dollars away from real schools and get poor results, year after year. Two different cybercharter operators were indicted for stealing millions from state taxpayers. One was convicted, the other was tried but the trial ended in a hung jury.

Screen Shot 2017-11-02 at 9.44.37 PM

Categories Education Reform, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Pennsylvania, Virtual Charter Schools

Nevada: The Copy-Cat “Achievement School District” Is Failing

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2017 //
8

Angie Sullivan teaches young children in the public schools of Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. Her school is a Title I School. She often excoriates the legislature for ignoring the needs of the state’s neediest children. In this post, which she sent to legislators and journalists, she reminds them that Nevada’s charter schools are among the lowest performing schools in the state, and that their so-called Achievement School District, modeled on the ASD that failed in Tennessee, is also a massive failure.

The Nevada ASD

The Achievement School District is the biggest reform failure in the state of Nevada.

Built on the flawed premise that charters are a remedy for failing public schools, the ASD forces 6 failing public schools into charters. Unfortunately, the worst academic performers in Nevada are charters. Charters are not a remedy. There are zero excellent charters in Nevada. And certainly zero excellent charters in places needing remedy in Nevada.

This is a description of Nevada ASD.

http://www.doe.nv.gov/News__Media/Press_Releases/2016a/Nevada_Achievement_School_District_Eligibility_List_Submitted_to_State_Board_of_Education/

When implemented, no one wanted the ASD job. Certainly no one in the Nevada community wanted the task.

Eventually a young woman Jana Wilcox Lavin with a background in public relations and marketing was imported from the failed Tennessee ASD model to form the new Nevada ASD.

Jana immediately announced she did not want to “takeover” an older school facility. Her primary concern was plumbing. Seems that her “takeover” in Tennessee had issues with pipes she did not want to deal with again. Also charter vendors are not attracted to rural communities. And charter takeover of a failing charter was not an option. Proving ASD charters were not a remedy for student achievement but a business function since they do not go where a remedy for student achievement is needed the most.

Jana has moved on and is now at Opportunity 180. That organization had $10 million (including funds from Eli Broad) under former Nevada State School Board Member Allison Serafin to bring non-profit charters to Nevada. Opportunity 180 also failed.

Due to low per pupil funding, ASD and Opportunity 180 did not attract any quality charter vendors. It certainly did not attract quality vendors with education experience dealing with high poverty and high language learning populations.

Some scary vendors were chosen – later to be excluded.

As mentioned before, the selection process for the ASD was unfair with schools being “chosen” in urban Vegas because the facilities were new. I believe the ASD thought minority parents would be easily swayed to become a charter. They were wrong.

The underperforming list was very telling. Half the list were rural schools and charters. Many listed were immediately disqualified because they were already charters. Outside charter vendors had zero appetite for rural school takeover. No one had an appetite for rural school takeover. Again proving the ASD is not a function of doing what is best for all Nevada students.

The ASD moved to force the six charter vendors on minority communities in Vegas.

Low Performing Vegas schools were the victims. While a very small handful of parents welcomed becoming a charter, overwhelmingly the community came out by the thousands rejecting “takeover”. The community is tired of failed experimentation on communities of color by outsiders. Decades of invasion has taught our parents to be highly skeptical and critical of crazy ideas imposed by top-down policy makers who do not know or care about our kids.

The ASD ended up taking in the Agassi Charters and a very tiny four teacher Futuro started by Allison Serafin’s TFA friends. Some schools ended up with a “compact” since there was no one willing to take them over.

During the last legislative session, correction of this failed reform was attempted. Unfortunately the revised legislation may have been worse than the current version with teacher voice squelched and parent trigger like language. The correction was about forcing charters with even stronger language. Hard to explain the poison pills the NVDOE wanted to place in the revision but they were nasty. While some pieces of the new legislation were better; other pieces were worse. Unfortunate maneuvering by the NVDOE and the ASD. Taught me a lot about the individuals at the NVDOE and how little they know about my community.

We needed to change the ASD legislation but the poison was too hard to swallow.

We are stuck with a system which parents already rejected.

This years underperforming list looks to be similar to last years list. The lowest of the low performers are obviously charter schools and rural schools once again.

https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/362048046/Nevada-s-2017-Rising-Stars-Schools?skip_app_promo=true

Elementary Schools

CCSD Bottom 5% – 12 Schools (5%)
CCSD Low Performing – 14 Schools (6%)
CCSD has 216 elementary schools. (11%)

Washoe Bottom 5% – 3 Schools (5%)
Washoe Low Performing – 5 Schools (8%)
WCSD has 60 elementary schools (13%)

Rural Bottom 5% – 3 Schools
Rural Low Performing- 8 Schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

Charter Bottom 5% – 1 Schools (4%)
Charter Low Performing – 4 Schools (17%)
24 charters – (21%)

Middle Schools

CCSD Bottom 5% – 2 schools (3%)
CCSD Low Performing – 6 schools (10%)
CCSD has 59 middle schools. (13%)

Washoe Low Performing – 2 schools (13%)
WCSD has 15 middle schools (13%)

Rural Bottom 5% – 5 schools
Rural Low Performing – 4 schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

High Schools

CCSD – 4 schools
CCSD has 49 high schools. (8%)

Rural – 5 schools
** 100% of schools in most places are failing – since often only a singular choice is offered**

Charters – 8 schools (67%)
24 charters – 12 having high schools

Nevada has 24 charters. 11 are on the list. 46% of charters are performing lowest of the low. Mater (Academica) , NV Connections, Nevada Virtual, Quest, Delta Academy, Innovations, Odyssey, Beacon, Encompass, Silver State, and I Can Do Anything.

Elko County has nine schools. 7 are on the list. 78% of its schools.

Places like McDermitt which serves primarily Native Americans – 100% of its schools are on the list for elementary and high school.

Unfortunately the list still includes schools which are obviously credit retrieval and alternative programs. This should be fixed instead of continuing to list obvious programs already identified as specialized.

Alternative Schools
CCSD Burk
CCSD Desert Rose
Nye Pathways

In summary:

If ASD is really about improving student achievement and not a Vegas school grab – it will look at the data.

Reform rural schools first since there is zero other school choice in those locations. Some places have the most obvious and overwhelming need. Start in Elko and McDermitt. ASD should focus on places with 100% of schools failing – which are most of the rural schools listed and a third of the list.

In addition, all schools listed should be allowed to make a compact instead of charter takeover if targeted. This was allowed last year and set a precedent.

If CCSD schools are the only schools targeted again for takeover – it will be obvious to everyone this is unfair according to the data. Also, Vegas offers choice by magnet, zone variance, and location. Parents can move students because we have 351 schools not a singular choice.

Charters under scrutiny by the State Public Charter Authority, in receivership, or under investigation should not be allowed to “escape” by opting in to the ASD. That would include all of them on the low performing lists. Nevada Charters have avoided accountability for too long. They need to be closed if they are failing.

Personal note: Also listed are many schools with ZOOM, Victory, SB178 money. This shows that money is obviously required and the Vegas schools labeled Low Performing are filled with students experiencing high poverty and language learners. Since this funding was recently legislated, especially the weighted funding, those places should be left alone to see if those funds can work.

I will be watching ASD closely to make sure it makes it choices based on student achievement . . . and not nice real estate or extra money.

Forcing a charter on minority communities is not school choice.

And that is why Nevada ASD is a huge policy failure.

Angie.

Categories Charter Schools, Failure, Fraud, Nevada, Tennessee

New Mexico: Charter Founder Pleads Guilty to Stealing Millions

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2017 //
5

The founder of a group of prominent charter schools admitted to stealing millions of dollars and lying to the FBI.

“Scott Glasrud used to be the head of the Southwest Learning Centers, representing three different charter schools. Now, Glasrud faces up to five years in federal prison.

“Glasrud accepted a plea deal in Albuquerque Federal Court Wednesday, admitting to what federal prosecutors call a 15-year fraud scheme. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico say the scheme started in November 2000 and continued until Glasrud left the charter school consortium in 2014.

“According to federal documents, it appears Glasrud stole more than $2 million from the four schools, which include the Southwest Secondary Learning Center, Southwest Primary Learning Center, Southwest Intermediate Learning Center, and the Southwest Aeronautics, Mathematics & Science Academy (SAMS).

“Glasrud and the SAMS Academy’s finances were the subject of a KRQE News 13 report in March 2014. At the time, Glasrud was making an annual salary of $210,000, as well as making money by renting his own private planes to the school.

“At the time, Glasrud said that questions about how he runs the schools were misdirected.

“I recognize people have problems or they don’t like the way we’ve done it. We’re competition for people, but so be it,” Glasrud said in a March 2014 interview.

“However, according to federal prosecutors, Glasrud was taking several illegal actions with charter school money.

“He’s accepted legal responsibility and he’s prepared to accept his punishment,” said Glasrud’s attorney Ray Twohig, who spoke to KRQE News 13 outside of the federal courthouse Wednesday.

“According to Glasrud’s plea agreement, he’s admitted to creating fake companies and funneling school funds for projects into businesses he controlled. The two dummy companies were located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Court documents indicate that Southwest Learning Centers also received money from the legislature for building projects and paid it to one of the dummy companies with fake proposals and invoices.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corruption, Fraud, New Mexico

Gail Collins on Betsy DeVos and Her Crusade to Save Predatory For-Profit “Colleges”

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2017 //
21

This column by Gail Collins is a Must Read.

The bad news from the U.S. Department of Education comes so frequently that it is hard to keep track of it.

DeVos is clear in her goals: roll back the federal role in protecting students and taxpayers’ money.

One egregious example: she is diluting, diminishing, removing federal efforts to rein in for-profit Colleges. In fact, she has hired former executives and lobbyists from the industry to write the regulations. Some of her many investments were in the industry, which she obviously sees as part of the future. And surely she has not forgotten Trump University, the fraud associated with the man who appointed her.

Collins writes:

“DeVos is the superrich Republican donor who once led a crusade to reform troubled Michigan public schools by turning them into truly terrible private ones. Now she’s in the Trump cabinet, and she seems to be dedicating a lot of her time to, um, lowering higher education.

“When no one was watching she hired a lot of people that come from the for-profit colleges,” complained Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who feels the additions are far more interested in protecting their old associates than in overseeing them. Murray is the top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, otherwise known as HELP. These days it’s hard to tell whether that’s a promise of assistance or a cry of distress.

“To oversee the critical issue of fraud in higher education, DeVos picked Julian Schmoke Jr., whose former job was a dean of — yes! — a for-profit university. Specifically a school named DeVry. Last year, under fire from state prosecutors and the Federal Trade Commission, DeVry agreed to pay $100 million to students who complained that they had been misled by its recruitment pitch.

“That sort of thing is getting to be common in the darkest corners of the for-profit world. For instance, there’s a now-defunct “university” that promised to show students how to get rich quick in real estate and wound up paying $25 million to settle the case. …

“Back to the Department of Education. One of DeVos’s top advisers, Robert Eitel, is on a leave of absence from a company that operates for-profits and once paid more than $30 million to settle charges of deceiving students about the loans they were getting.

“Which is, again, even more than that real estate school, where some students claimed they were encouraged by instructors to increase the limits on their credit cards. …

“There are well over 3,000 for-profit colleges and universities in the country, everything from tiny schools that promise to set you off on a career in cosmetology to conglomerates with campuses all over the world. Some of them have names that might seem intended to be confused with somebody else’s. (Not necessarily thinking of you, Brown College, Berkeley College, Columbia Southern University or Northwestern College.)

“Experts say some for-profits are fine. However, there have been a ton of horror shows in which low-income men and women are promised a path to life-changing jobs but wind up with nothing to show except huge loan bills.”

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

Florida: School Vouchers Gone Wild: Brilliant Investigative Reporting

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2017 //
11

When the Orlando Sentinel published an in-depth expose of Florida’s unregulated, unaccountable, wasteful voucher programs, defenders of vouchers rushed to attack the series.

Remember, Betsy DeVos considers Florida the model that she wants for America.

Scott Maxwell of the Sentinel responds to the critics here.

The nation needs more journalistic scrutiny of the unscrupulous, fraudulent, and incompetent hucksters who are siphoning billions of dollars away from public schools with certified teachers. In Florida, it is $1 Billion a year, and that is only for vouchers, not charters, which has its own share of scams and frauds. In Michigan, the charter industry drains $1 Billion a year away from public schools, and the charters don’t get better outcomes than the public schools; many are far worse, and 80% are for-profit.

Congratulations to the Orlando Sentinel for scrutinizing Florida’s voucher schools.

For the first time ever, I add a newspaper to the honor roll of this Blog.

Here is an excerpt.

“The “Schools without Rules” series exposed scores of problems at these publicly funded schools — everything from forged safety reports to a school run by a pastor accused of lewd or lascivious molestation.

“Just as importantly, it exposed a wicked hypocrisy among politicians who scream for “accountability” for public schools but let anything go when your tax dollars are whisked away to private ones.

“This little-regulated system needs an overhaul. And the world needs more real journalists.

“Among the findings from reporters Beth Kassab, Leslie Postal and Annie Martin:

“Teachers without certification or even college degrees.

“Forged documents: Schools faked up clean bills of health from fire departments, which had found safety problems. Even after the schools were caught, state officials let them remain open.

“Shady hirings: Two teachers worked at voucher schools (the state calls them “scholarship” schools) after being fired from public schools for having porn on their school computers.

“Alleged crime: At one school for special-needs kids, suspicions of impropriety — among parents and even a teacher — continued until authorities arrested the school owner, accusing her of stealing more than $4 million in Medicaid funds.

“Troubling finances and learning environments: Two school were evicted from their locations for nonpayment of rent while the school year was still going on. Another shared office-suite space with a bail bondsman.”

If there were newspapers in every state willing to investigate the privatization of their public schools, the public would understand the scandal that is going on in the dark. In Ohio, local newspapers started paying attention to charter scandals, and it affected public opinion. In the past two years, charter enrollments have fallen in Ohio as the public understands the risks they are taking by enrolling their children in schools without roots and the damage they are doing to their public schools.

More coverage, please!

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Florida, Fraud, Privatization, Vouchers

Nonprofit Quarterly: Corruption Scandal Rocks Los Angeles School Board and Charter Movement

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2017 //
18

Most of the time, scandals come and go and no one remembers them after a day or two. But sometimes scandals cause a seismic reaction. Think Harvey Weinstein. Powerful men have sexually assaulted women in their employ and hoping to be in their employ or just in their proximity for as long as anyone can remember. Despite a number of high profile scandals, the larger phenomenon is ignored. Many people assumed Trump’s gloating about his sexual assaults would doom his campaign but it didn’t. Bill O’Reilly had to leave FOX news, but that passed. The Harvey story has gotten more attention and more outrage than any of the others.

Could the Ref Rodriguez corruption scandal awaken the public to the systemic problem of giving public money to private corporations and individuals without regular oversight and accountability? Could this be the Big One that tarnishes the privatization movement?

Nonprofit Quarterly writes:
“Something is rotten in the world of Los Angeles school board politics.

“Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC) charter school network founder and L.A. Unified School District Board member (and, until recently, board president) Refugio Rodriguez faces three felony charges, 25 misdemeanor charges, and conflict-of-interest allegations for laundering money in his school board campaigns in 2014 and 2015. Charges were filed last month by the city’s ethics commission.

“It might seem unusual that a charter school founder (and recent employee) would head the school board for a major city’s public K-12 system, but this was no accident. Rodriguez was part of a slate, “one of four board members who came into power with the strong backing of charter school supporters and who now make up a majority of the seven-member body.” As Rachel Cohen writes for The Intercept, Rodriguez “was backed by the well-heeled charter school movement, which spent more than $2 million to help elect him. This past spring, education reform advocates won three more seats, giving the board a slim pro-charter majority for the first time ever. Rodriguez was then elected board president in July.” After the ethics charges were filed, Rodriguez stepped down as board president, but remains a school board member.

“Then this past Monday, the other shoe dropped and a second investigation was launched. As another Los Angeles Times article explains, “Officials at PUC Schools, a local charter school network, have filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.”

The filing alleges that Rodriguez, who co-founded PUC, ordered the transfer of about $265,000 from PUC to a nonprofit that appeared to be under his control. An additional $20,000 went to a private company in which he might have owned a stake.

““PUC”, according to the Los Angeles Times, “operates 17 schools in Los Angeles and one in Rochester, N.Y. It is a nonprofit that operates under its own board, with L.A. Unified authorizing its local schools individually.”

“Last Friday, PUC accepted the resignation of Rodriguez’s cousin “senior manager Elizabeth Tinajero Melendrez. In PUC records reviewed by the Times, Melendrez is listed as the person who requested eight of the checks Rodriguez authorized, adding up to nearly $188,000.”

“As NPQ has reported previously, conflicts of interest, or even the appearances of them, put the entire organization at risk of losing its credibility. Jacqueline Elliott, the cofounder of PUC, has distanced herself from the scandal in the media, perhaps hoping to maintain the reputation of the charter network with funders. (Elliott is not under any investigation.)

“A large and complicated web of money and influence has been woven under the feet of Los Angeles’ education leaders. Untangling it will certainly cost the district time and credibility, especially since, as noted above, the balance of the school board recently shifted toward charter school supporters, who strongly supported Rodriguez and who now occupy four of the seven board seats.“

NPQ ends hopefully on the note that “Big money and scandal are not, obviously, necessary or even frequent companions to large charter networks.“

As we have seen time and again, “big money” is indeed a necessary and frequent companion of large charter networks. Whether scandal follows depends on the extent to which there is public oversight of public money.

Given the fact that the charter industry controls the school board in Los Angeles, don’t expect LAUSD to clean its own house. Expect it to join the coverup, even if Ref is thrown off the island as a necessary sacrifice.

Will the public wake up to the waste of their tax dollars? Will this scandal be the one that ignites outrage? Should the public pay $1 Million a year for visas for Turkish teachers? Should the public pay charter CEOs over half s Million a year? Should the public pay for executives at virtual charters who collect millions a year in compensation? Should the public turn a blind eye to the millions from hedge fund managers and other financiers and rightwing foundations that want to privatize public education?

When the editorial boards of the nation’s most powerful newspapers—the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times— consistently defend private and unaccountable charters and support privatization, it makes you wonder how big a scandal is necessary before they wake up and defend the public interest? Do they know they are supporting the agenda of ALEC and Betsy DeVos? Do they care?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corruption, Deregulation, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization

Nonprofit Quarterly: When Does Philanthropy Mask Depravity?

By dianeravitch
October 18, 2017 //
20

The invaluable Nonprofit Quarterly asks whether Harvey Weinstein cynically used philanthropy to cloak his unconscionable actions.

We might ask the same questions of many of the heartless corporations and individuals now poring hundreds of millions into charter schools, simultaneously destroying democratic public schools.

What about the Waltons? They claim they love poor children and children of color, so they spend at least $200 Million every year to dismantle their community schools and replace them with privately managed charters.

They break the unions that assure the parents of these children a living wage. They refuse to pay their own 1 Million plus workers a living wage.

If they really cared about the children, why don’t they care about the conditions in which they live?

This is what NPQ calls depravity.

The story includes this quote:

“Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker, offers us something new to consider about this ugly story. “The great mystery of evil is not that it persists but, rather, that so many of its practitioners wish to do so while being thought of as saints.” As the idiom “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” warns, beware of the champions of progressive causes with whom contact is dangerous. According to countless reports, Weinstein was apparently a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”

How many corporate reformers are impoverishing the people of Puerto Rico by demanding that PR pays 100% on the bonds they scooped up at a deep discount? Their advice to PR: pay us back and close schools and hospitals and all other public services. Maybe they should send in KIPP, Eva, Uncommon, and Achievement First. Oops. You can’t get blood from a stone. They may have to write off their losses on their tax returns.

Call them what they are: predators.

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Corruption, Education Reform, Fraud

Arizona May Revise Phony School Letter Grades, and They Will Still Be Phony

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2017 //
7

Giving letter grades to schools is a fraud.

In New York City, the Department of Health gives letter grades to restaurants, and almost every restaurant gets an A unless there are unhealthy, unsanitary conditions discovered by inspectors, like mouse droppings in the kitchen.

School letter grades attempt to grade schools largely by test scores, whether performance or growth. The scores largely reflect the affluence or poverty of the students. If you want to understand how stupid it is to judge schools by test scores, read Daniel Koretz’s new book, “The Testing Charade: Pretending to Improve Education.” Give a copy to your superintendent and the school board.

A school is a complex institution with a complex mission, far more complex than a restaurant.

Arizona has decided to recalculate it’s fraudulent school grades.

Could it be because the charter school in Snowflake, Arizona, got an F? That is the Charter beloved by Sylvia Allen, chair of the State Senate Education Committee?

However they are recalculated, they will still be fraudulent.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Education Reform, Failure, Fraud, Testing

BREAKING NEWS: More Charges of Financial Crimes Against LAUSD Member Ref Rodriguez

By dianeravitch
October 16, 2017 //
8

The Los Angeles Times reports that the charter chain founded by LAUSD board member Ref Rodriguez has now accused him of financial misdeeds. He was accused last month of money laundering during his campaign for the board seat. Rodriguez was put into office by the charter billionaires associated with the California Charter School Association. After the defeat of Steve Zimmer by Nick Melvoin last spring, The board had a charter majority for the first time and was on the cusp of privatizing many more schools. After his indictment, Rodriguez stepped aside as board president but refused to give up his seat.

Will Rodriguez cling to his seat? Will Eli Broad and Reed Hastings and Alice Walton have to buy a new board seat?

“The charter school network that L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez co-founded and ran for years has filed a complaint with state regulators alleging that Rodriguez had a conflict of interest when he authorized about $285,000 in payments drawn on its accounts.

“Officials at Partnerships to Uplift Communities, or PUC Schools, filed the complaint Friday with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

“According to the complaint and documents reviewed by The Times, the vast majority of the money transfers that Rodriguez authorized and PUC has flagged went from school accounts to Partners for Developing Futures, a nonprofit under his control.

“An attorney who reviewed the records for the school network said he has found little or no evidence so far of services provided for these payments.

“The payments were made in 2014, but do not appear to have been properly authorized,” said attorney Gregory Moser, whose firm was hired by PUC to conduct the investigation. “Nor are the purposes of the expenditures and benefit to the schools adequately documented, our investigation revealed.”

“PUC’s senior managers said they uncovered the transfers — made in a series of checks — while responding to questions and requests from The Times in compliance with the state’s Public Records Act.

“The conflict-of-interest allegations could add to Rodriguez’s legal problems.

“Last month, prosecutors charged him with three felonies and 25 misdemeanors for alleged money laundering in his school board campaign. Rodriguez is accused of soliciting people to give him donations and then illegally paying them back.”

Charter Schools Education Los Angeles Board of Education

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Dark Money, Fraud, Los Angeles
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