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Betsy DeVos Lied to Senate Committee about Cybercharter Graduation Rates

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2017 //
32

Betsy DeVos is a huge fan of cybercharters. When responding in writing to questions from the Senate HELP Committee, she cited astonishing graduation rates for cybercharters.

She lied.

Benjamin Herold of Education Week did the fact-checking:

In her written response to questions from a key Democratic senator, Education Secretary-nominee Betsy DeVos defended full-time online charter schools using graduation rates significantly higher than those used for state and federal accountability purposes. The figures and language cited by DeVos directly mirror those used in a report from K12 Inc., the country’s largest for-profit operator of cyber charter schools, in which DeVos is a former investor.

According to the Ohio education department, for example, the Ohio Virtual Academy has a four-year graduation rate of 53 percent, good for an “F” on the state’s accountability system.

DeVos put the figure at 92 percent….

She was specific in her lies.

In written questions, Murray, who is the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, asked whether it is appropriate to advocate for the schools, despite their poor results.

DeVos responded:

“High quality virtual charter schools provide valuable options to families, particularly those who live in rural areas where brick-and-mortar schools might not have the capacity to provide the range of courses or other educational experiences for students. Because of this, we must be careful not to brand an entire category of schools as failing students.”

She then cited a number of schools and what she described as their graduation rates, which differ markedly from the figures used by each school’s state for accountability purposes:

The Idaho Virtual Academy has a 90 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 33 percent.

The Nevada Virtual Academy has a 100 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 67 percent.

The Ohio Virtual Academy has a 92 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 53 percent.

The Oklahoma Virtual Academy has a 91 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 40 percent.

The Utah Virtual Academy has a 96 percent graduation rate, DeVos said. The school’s most recent publicly reported figure for state accountability purposes is 42 percent.

The schools listed in DeVos’ written response, and the language she used to introduce them—”the following virtual academies have four-year cohort graduation rates at or above 90 percent”—is the same as the language used by K12 Inc. in its 2016 Academic Report.

Here is what she did not mention, but that the Senate HELP Committee–and the full Senate–should know.

The Tennessee Virtual Academy is the lowest-performing school in the state (Senator Alexander must know that). When then-State Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman tried to close it, he was stymied by its friends in high places.

The New York Times reported that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow has the lowest graduation rate in the nation.

Even DFER founder Whitney Tilson inveighed against K12 Inc. because of its “dismal academic results” and “sky high” attrition rates.

Stephen Henderson, the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, warned that Betsy DeVos has a long-standing habit of twisting data to promote her favorite causes (charters and vouchers), and that she is not to be trusted to tell the truth.

He wrote:

A true advocate for children would look at the statistics for charter versus traditional public schools in Michigan and suggest taking a pause, to see what’s working, what’s not, and how we might alter the course.

Instead, DeVos and her family have spent millions advocating for the state’s cap on charter schools to be lifted, so more operators can open and, if they choose, profit from more charters.

Someone focused on outcomes for Detroit students might have looked at the data and suggested better oversight and accountability.

But just this year, DeVos and her family heavily pressured lawmakers to dump a bipartisan-supported oversight commission for all schools in the city, and then showered the GOP majority who complied with more than $1 million dollars in campaign contributions.

The Department of Education needs a secretary who values data and research, and respects the relationship between outcomes and policy imperatives.

Nothing in Betsy DeVos’ history of lobbying to shield the charter industry from greater accountability suggests she understands that.

If she’s confirmed, it will be a dark day for the value of data and truth in education policy.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Graduation rates, Virtual Charter Schools

Los Angeles: Charter School, Raided by FBI, Has Money for Parties, Not for Basic Supplies

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2017 //
31

Last week, federal authorities raided the offices of Celerity charter schools in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times takes a closer look at the Celerity charters in this article.

Teacher Tien Le worked at Celerity Dyad Charter School, where she

taught in a portable classroom on an asphalt lot — not unheard of in this city of tight squeezes and little green space, but her students also had no library, cafeteria or gymnasium. The school didn’t provide most supplies, Le said, so when her sixth-graders needed books, or an extra pencil and paper, she spent her own money to buy them.

Months into her first year at Dyad, Le and her colleagues were invited by the organization that managed the school to a holiday party at a large house on a winding street in Hollywood. She parked in a lot rented for the occasion and took a shuttle to the house with other teachers and staff. Inside, there were two open bars, casino tables for poker and blackjack, and a karaoke room. At evening’s end, a limousine ferried guests back to their cars.

“I remember being really confused that night,” Le said. “When I asked for basic supplies, I couldn’t get those things, yet you have money for this expensive party? I know at big corporations and for-profit places these parties are normal, but for a public school it was not normal.”

Celerity operates seven charter schools in Southern California and four in Louisiana.

The investigation is ongoing. I can’t help but wonder whether Betsy DeVos will call a halt to the investigation when and if she becomes Secretary of Education. True, the FBI is involved, but a phone call to her friend in the White House….

Categories Betsy DeVos, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Fraud, Los Angeles, Privatization

Eliot Cohen: A Clarifying Moment in American History

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2017 //
27

Eliot Cohen is a conservative foreign policy expert. He worked on Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s staff. During the campaign, he signed a statement opposing Trump, which was co-signed by some 200 others who had worked on foreign policy issues for Republican administrations.

In this post, Cohen says that Trump is even worse than he anticipated and warns his fellow Americans to prepare the worst.

He writes:

“We were right. And friends who urged us to tone it down, to make our peace with him, to stop saying as loudly as we could “this is abnormal,” to accommodate him, to show loyalty to the Republican Party, to think that he and his advisers could be tamed, were wrong. In an epic week beginning with a dark and divisive inaugural speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims (including interpreters who served with our forces in Iraq and those with green cards, though not those from countries with Trump hotels, or from really indispensable states like Saudi Arabia), he has lived down to expectations.

“Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better….

“This is one of those clarifying moments in American history, and like most such, it came upon us unawares, although historians in later years will be able to trace the deep and the contingent causes that brought us to this day. There is nothing to fear in this fact; rather, patriots should embrace it. The story of the United States is, as Lincoln put it, a perpetual story of “a rebirth of freedom” and not just its inheritance from the founding generation.

“Some Americans can fight abuses of power and disastrous policies directly—in courts, in congressional offices, in the press. But all can dedicate themselves to restoring the qualities upon which this republic, like all republics depends: on reverence for the truth; on a sober patriotism grounded in duty, moderation, respect for law, commitment to tradition, knowledge of our history, and open-mindedness. These are all the opposites of the qualities exhibited by this president and his advisers. Trump, in one spectacular week, has already shown himself one of the worst of our presidents, who has no regard for the truth (indeed a contempt for it), whose patriotism is a belligerent nationalism, whose prior public service lay in avoiding both the draft and taxes, who does not know the Constitution, does not read and therefore does not understand our history, and who, at his moment of greatest success, obsesses about approval ratings, how many people listened to him on the Mall, and enemies.

“He will do much more damage before he departs the scene, to become a subject of horrified wonder in our grandchildren’s history books. To repair the damage he will have done Americans must give particular care to how they educate their children, not only in love of country but in fair-mindedness; not only in democratic processes but democratic values. Americans, in their own communities, can find common ground with those whom they have been accustomed to think of as political opponents. They can attempt to renew a political culture damaged by their decayed systems of civic education, and by the cynicism of their popular culture.

“There is in this week’s events the foretaste of things to come. We have yet to see what happens when Trump tries to use the Internal Revenue Service or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy his opponents. He thinks he has succeeded in bullying companies, and he has no compunction about bullying individuals, including those with infinitely less power than himself. His advisers are already calling for journalists critical of the administration to be fired: Expect more efforts at personal retribution. He has demonstrated that he intends to govern by executive orders that will replace the laws passed by the people’s representatives.

“In the end, however, he will fail. He will fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible—The New York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are not going away. With every act he makes new enemies for himself and strengthens their commitment; he has his followers, but he gains no new friends. He will fail because he cannot corrupt the courts, and because even the most timid senator sooner or later will say “enough.” He will fail most of all because at the end of the day most Americans, including most of those who voted for him, are decent people who have no desire to live in an American version of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, or Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

“There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.”

Categories Democracy, Ethics, Failure, Fraud, Republicans, Trump

Chicago: Lawsuit Filed Against Gulen School, Charges of Fraud

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2017 //
18

Lawyers for the government of Turkey filed a lawsuit against the Gulen Concept schools in Chicago, claiming that public money was misspent for private gain. At a time when money for public schools is so limited, you do have to wonder why public officials care so little about fraud, waste, and abuse in the charter industry.

 

The complaint alleges Des Plaines-based Concept Schools and its Chicago Math and Science Academy engage in “sweetheart deals” that hurt local taxpayers — but benefit the global movement led by Turkish-born cleric Fethullah Gulen….

 

In their complaint here, lawyers for Turkey accused CMSA’s board of working with Concept and its real-estate arm “to commit ongoing fraud, waste and financial mismanagement of state and federal funds through a series of costly decisions regarding the CMSA property and the construction of a gym.”

 

The complaint centers on complicated land and financial arrangements involving CMSA and New Plan Learning. The Concept-affiliated group owns the site of the 12-year-old school at 7212 N. Clark St. and is also the landlord at Concept-run campuses in Ohio.

 

In 2011, New Plan Learning used money from a bond issue to buy the North Side school building from CMSA, add a gym and expand three schools in Ohio.

 

Under the deal, CMSA was on the hook to pay about $40 million in rent to New Plan Learning, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported.

 

The newspaper also revealed in 2013 that the CMSA board treasurer at the time of the bond issue, Edip Pektas, was paid $100,000 by New Plan Learning as a financial adviser on the deal.

 

The lawyers for Turkey say the lease deal for the school building outlined “extremely poor terms for CMSA” and was renegotiated “for worse terms” a couple of years ago.

 

They also allege CMSA’s $1 million gym has “multiple leaks in its roof, cracks in its foundation, rodent problems, sanitary issue and flooring that peeled upward due to an improperly installed bleacher system.”

Categories Accountability, Chicago, Fraud, Gulen Charter Schools

Ellen Lubic: “The New Normal” is “Alternative Facts”

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2017 //
52

Ellen Lubic is a professor of public policy and a frequent commenter on this blog. This article appeared in City Watch in Los Angeles.

 

 

She writes:

 

 

Many of us in this election season have referred to the Trump ‘anshluss’ as a world of ‘smoke and mirrors’, and we were correct. But now we know from the twisted mouth of his hired gun, KellyAnne Conway, that it is really not so much calculated duplicity, but rather it is a presentation of “alternative facts.” She says we must look at the news as “BROADcast, not NARROWcast.” A whole new political vocabulary has emerged from the Trumpists in our new ‘post factual’ world. Veracity is now in the eyes and ears of the beholder. 
As a student, and then a professor, of public policy, I learned early on that a fact was considered true when, as a thesis, it was proven by non biased investigation. However, we have changed course in epistemology and linguistics to find that we now live in a world where there is a sliding scale of what registers as fact and what is fiction, and either or both can come out in every sentence of the limited vocabulary spouting from Donald Trump’s mouth.
As I listened carefully, admittedly with tears in my eyes, to the inauguration speech of this deplorable new President of the US, and leader of the Free World, who was standing only feet from four of our past Presidents as he defamed each of them with his rhetoric about how he finally, for the first time, is giving the nation back to the people, I was amazed at his bizarre gall, his ignorance, and his despicable manners to insult Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Carter, by asserting that they were all inept, uncaring, and failing in their duty to America. He vilified them in so many ways that it was mind blowing, and watching their faces, the faces of their wives, and the others on the dais, I came to finally understand what a villainous demagogue this new President is, and how dangerous he is, and what is even worse, how dangerous and uninformed his followers are.
I have read much in these past weeks since he won this questionable election by a fluke of the Electoral College, but without the popular vote, and with the interference of both Russian hacking and Comey’s false Clinton report and the NY Times knowing about it all for weeks before the election but choosing not to report any of it. Much has been written by groups of psychiatrists who go beyond his personality disorders like Narcissism and megalomania, to discuss his potential brain dysfunction and the possibility of dementia which rules his lies and loss of control as with the endless tweets at the smallest and the most inconsequential of slights. Yesterday, sending his lackey, now known as Afghanistan Sean Spicer, in to the first formal White House press announcement only to admonish the media for “fake” reporting on how many people were standing to watch this nonsensical reality show of an inauguration was incomprehensible and will be recorded in the history books for posterity. This man continues to make himself, and America, the laughing stock of the planet.
Facts on the emerging Russian connection now being investigated by the CIA and the FBI, not only with the Putin hacking of the US election process, but with the years of contact and ‘deals’ between Trump and Putin and Manafort, and the Russian Oligarchs who now seem to be bankers to Trump, and all of them also possible black mailers of Trump, and purveyors of films of “golden showers” which is a topic most never heard of before this election, all of this boggles the mind of voters and citizens of the US and is even more terrifying to the other nations of the world which have to deal with his nuclear threats and the angst of being his target if he gets insulted. I suspect his family knows how deranged he is and that is why they have Jared Kushner, who is evidently the smartest among them, posted in the West Wing as his closest advisor. Jared strikes me as playing Iago to his father-in-laws madman, Othello.
Not only do we Americans have to worry about his little fingers on the button of the cataclysmic nuclear coded football, but the world now wonders who he will blow up first.
Democrats are asked by Republicans to foster unity and support him…to give him a chance, yet everything he says brings us back to his lack of intellectual stature, lack of political experience, lack of calm judgment, and his over arching greed, mendacity, and self aggrandizement. It is not rational to support anything or anyone he recommends for his edicts do mirror the manipulating and false populist claims of tyrants from Nero to Hitler. His speeches about giving the decision making “to the people” are almost word for word the speeches of the Third Reich and they are a page out of his favorite bedside book, Mein Kampf. The Drumpf family has long been known known to consort with others of the underworld like Roy Cohn, and their Mafia ties, and most probably the similar Russian mob. Why would anyone think that due to this ‘trumped up’ election, Donald has changed from his lifelong playboy, misogynistic, self serving, highly bigoted persona?
Just look carefully at those he has chosen to run OUR country with him as their leader, their Commander in Chief. Keep wearing the pussy cat hats and speaking up without fear. Keep Rex Tillerson at Exxon Mobil instead of in the role of the US Sect. of State where he will be dropping US sanctions (to insure vast profits for the oil barons) against an aggressive Putin Kremlin which is committing war crimes, and keep the ignorant and spoiled, religious ideologue debutante, Betsy DeVos, out of the Dept. of Education, and keep the well determined bigot, Jeff Sessions, from being America’s AG … and send all the rest of this crew of US oligarchs back to their well padded nests under the rocks from which they crawled into Drumpf’s daylight including HUD, Labor, Health and Human Services et al. What a bunch of over privileged thugs they all are.
What can you do about it? For one thing,  join the over 100,000 people that have signed the ‘Impeach Donald Trump Now’ petition and get your voice on record.

(Ellen Lubic is Director of Joining Forces for Education, a public policy educator and journalist and an occasional CityWatch contributor.)

Categories Fraud, Trump

Anita Senkowski: The Evangelical Christian Roots of DeVos’s Favorite Brain Enhancement Investment

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2017 //
18

Anita Senkowski is a fearless investigative blogger in Michigan who is the scourge of charter frauds. Her blogs, for example, exposed fraud at a charter chain that involved the misappropriation of millions of dollars, and the fraudster is bound for prison.

 

In this post, she examines the evangelical Christian roots of Neurocore, the biofeedback company that Betsy DeVos likes so much that she refuses to sell her stock despite the obvious conflict of interest with her role as Secretary of Education. Decisions made by the Department could enrich the company and her stock portfolio. Not that she needs the money.

 

Under normal circumstances, if a nominee for the Cabinet refused to divest a conflict of interest, that would be the end of his or her nomination. But these are not normal circumstances. We have a president who never released his tax returns and refuses to separate himself from control of his business empire, which is rife with conflicts of interest. He hasn’t even given up the 60-year lease on the Trump Hotel in D.C., a block from the White House, even though the lease with the Government Services Administration explicitly says that no elected official may be a beneficiary of the lease. Trump seems to live by the saying, “Never apologize, never explain.”

 

Senkowski also points out that the head of the company received his “degrees” from a for-profit online “university.”

 

Her Facebook site has this motto: “So sue me already.” Apparently no one has, because she is still biting the frauds, cons, and scams in northern Michigan. It sounds like a full-time job!

 

 

 

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, For-Profit, Fraud

Please Watch and Share: What DeVos Did to Detroit

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2017 //
11

Excellent video on DeVos focusing on failure of charter schools in Detroit/Michigan, her support of for-profit charters; privatization agenda. Less than 10 minutes long; well produced; interviews with parents, film clips, etc.

 

Please circulate, especially to people who will call Senators on Health, Education, Labor Committee. DeVos hearing is this Tuesday.

 

Facebook link:

 
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47OC7wZbwzM&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Detroit, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Hoax, School Choice, Segregation

Florida: Former Charter School Employee Accused of Stealing $100,000

By dianeravitch
January 14, 2017 //
16

A former employee of a charter school in Lakeland, Florida, has been accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the school. Don’t expect this to dim the enthusiasm of Jeb Bush or Betsy DeVos for unregulated charters.

 

“45-year-old Ginger Collins was a former Assistant Director of Academics for the school until her resignation on September 16, 2016. She is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the organization and creating fake companies and website to make her purchases appear legitimate.

 

“Collins was charged is facing seven felony charges including Grand Theft, Obtain Property by Fraud, Fraudulent Use of Credit Card, Money Launder Transaction, and three counts of Criminal Use of Personal Identification.

 

“She took trips to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cancun, Rhode Island, Atlanta, and mark these trips down as marketing expenses, and advertising,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

 

“According to investigators her spending didn’t end there. The stolen money was used to buy items such as a fat blaster, a portable urine funnel, and an $85 “Nit Wit” brand beanie. A fitting purchase, according to Sheriff Grady Judd. “Well the nit wit hat goes on a nit wit,” he said.

 

“Despite all of that, it was the purchase of a prom dress and fake eyelashes on a school credit card that finally tipped someone off. “She went on a shopping spree of almost a year,” Judd said.”

 

Which public school employee has the opportunity to steal $100,000? The motive may be there but there are too many checks to provide the opportunity.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, Fraud, Privatization

Monica Crowley, Trump National Security Adviser, Plagiarized Large Sections of Her Book

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2017 //
25

CNN reported that Monica Crowley plagiarized large sections of her best-selling 2012 book, mostly from other conservative writers. Trump selected Crowley as communications director for national security.

 

“The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography.
Crowley did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for HarperCollins told CNN on Sunday: “We have no comment at this time. We are looking into the matter.”

 
“Crowley, a syndicated radio host, columnist, and, until recently, a Fox News contributor, will serve as Trump’s senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council.”

Categories Fraud, Media

Mother Jones: The Declassified Report on Russian Efforts to Elect Trump

By dianeravitch
January 9, 2017 //
89

 

Mother Jones magazine posted the CIA-NSA report on Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win the presidency. As noted in the report, it does not contain the actual sources of the conclusions so as not to compromise them.

 

Sources whom I trust tell me that there are recordings of Russian leaders celebrating Trump’s victory and praising themselves for their success.

 

Folks, we have an illegitimate president who has promised to wreck our federal agencies, eliminate Obamacare without a replacement for 20 million people, wreck public education, purge the EPA and NASA of climate change researchers and funding.

 

#Putinspuppet

#notmypresident

 

Categories Fraud, Trump
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