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Koch Brother Learns the Difficulty in Opening a New School: Allegations of Favoritism, Waste, Fraud, Sexual Harassment, and High Staff Turnover

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2016 //
18

Bill Koch, one of the famous billionaire Koch brothers, decided he wanted to open a great high school, an example for the nation. He created Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the sky was the limit in terms of spending.

 

He recruited the chief financial officer of the U.S. Naval Academy as its headmaster by offering him a financial package worth more than $1 million a year.

 

Koch’s goal was excellence:

 

That’s the aim of Oxbridge Academy, whose roster of teachers and administrators recruited from around the country aspires to the highest of academic ambitions for their 580 students, who populate a sprawling West Palm Beach campus and engage in extracurricular activities that range from horseback riding to sailing and flight simulation and boast a football team that rarely loses.

 

Tuition is $31,500 a year, though many students receive financial aid as part of Chairman Bill Koch’s desire to maintain a diverse student body elevated, as his industrialist father was decades ago, by the generosity of others. Koch, a Palm Beach energy industry billionaire, antiquities collector and America’s Cup winner, founded the West Pam Beach high school in 2011 and estimates he has invested $75 million to $100 million to make Oxbridge one of the finest in the nation.

 

But curtained behind the wooded grounds and low-slung buildings at Military Trail and Community Drive, say past and present employees, exists a working environment led by President and CEO Robert C. Parsons that’s fraught with firings, high turnover, accusations of sexual harassment and an emphasis tilting from academics to athletics….

 

What worries employees is the frequency of firings, the swiftness of departures and absence of explanation. One day a colleague is there and the next, gone.

 

That has been the pattern, not with just teachers but high-level administrators with top credentials, who came attracted by the excitement of creating an innovative, high-powered school only to find themselves out the door, sometimes in a matter of months.
Neen Hunt, for example, came before the school’s opening, to organize operations as academics chief. Hunt, a Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, had earned a Master of Arts in Education and a Doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She came to Oxbridge from New York’s prestigious Calhoun School, where she was head of school.

 

She was gone before the first day of class….

 

Of the inaugural group of 17 teachers that started in fall 2011, many who Hunt recruited from around the country, eight were told in February 2012 their contracts wouldn’t be renewed but that they were expected to finish the term.

 

 

“It was such a horrible atmosphere and so unprofessional,” said one instructor who wasn’t fired. “They wanted me to come back but there was no way I was going to let my career be ruined by those people. The atmosphere felt evil and very controlling. It was one of the most disturbing places I have ever worked in under the guise of being an educational environment. It was shocking.”

 

When interviewed, Bill Koch said the high turnover didn’t bother him, because he works under the Jack Welch philosophy that the bottom 10 percent should be fired every year. Apparently, he didn’t notice that more than the bottom 10 percent were leaving every year.

 

Koch is now paying for an investigative team to get to the bottom of numerous allegations. Several top officials have been placed on paid leave, including the employee who was a whistle-blower.

 

Staff turnover has been amazingly high, considering the seemingly idyllic working conditions:

 

Mark Bodnar, the school’s former second-in-command, said he left the stress of working in that environment to hike trails in Arizona. He estimated that more than 120 people have been fired or quit, some after having left prestigious schools and moving their families cross-country to work at Oxbridge. Another source put the number at 135, including part-timers.

 

The school’s public relations manager, Carey O’Donnell, said that from 2011 to now, 96 employees left, 34 of them fired.

 

In the past two or three months, the school’s treasurer/chief financial officer, an accountant who was out on family leave and its baseball coach were fired and its security director demoted to security guard, according to current employees.

 

Be sure to read the comments on the original story in the Palm Beach Post. Some are from current or former employees.

 

When a reporter from the New York Times called to ask me about this story, in preparation for writing about it, I said that at least Bill Koch is paying for implementing his ideas instead of expecting the public to pay for them, as Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton family, John Arnold, and many other billionaires are doing. Wouldn’t it be great if all of them opened their own private schools and tried out their educational ideas using their own money, instead of imposing them on other people’s children and demanding public support?

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Florida, Funding

NonProfit Quarterly: The Gates Foundation Has Not Learned from Its Failures

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2016 //
25

Martin Levine, writing in NonProfit Quarterly, reviews the latest statement by the President of the Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellman, and concludes that the foundation is unwilling to learn from its mistakes.

 

After Bill Gates had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in creating small schools, he abruptly abandoned that idea and moved on, with little reflection.

 

“The foundation’s lessons learned from this experience did not result in any questioning of their core belief that the answer to building a more equitable society would be found within our public schools. They just shifted their focus to increasing the number of charter schools, creating test-based teacher evaluation systems, improving school and student data management, and setting universal standards through the common core curriculum. Each has struggled, and none appear to have been effective.

 

“In 2014, the BMGF supported InBloom, an effort to create a national educational data management system, shut down after parents protested the collection and storage in the cloud of data on their children. Various states withdrew their support, and NPQ reported last September on the failure of one of these Gates-funded initiatives, Empowering Effective Teachers.

 

“Desmond-Hellman has led the foundation as it has invested heavily in the effort to create a national set of learning standards, the Common Core Curriculum. Despite over $300 million in foundation funding, alliances with other large foundations, and strong support from the U.S. Department of Education, the effort has drawn bitter opposition and decreasing support. The strong push that the DoE gave states to implement the Common Core was seen as an unwanted intrusion of federal power into local schools. The use of Common Core to build a testing regimen for students and teachers was seen as disruptive and ineffective. Test data show little impact on bridging the inequity gap in states using Common Core.

 

“Would not an organization that seeks to be a learning organization want to step back and consider whether their core assumptions are on target in light of their difficult experiences? Perhaps, but not the Gates Foundation. Desmond-Hellmann remains “optimistic that all students can thrive when they are held to high standards. And when educators have clear and consistent expectations of what students should be able to do at the end of each year, the bridge to opportunity opens. The Common Core State Standards help set those expectations.” Not a word about the impact of poverty, or the trauma of community violence, or systemic racism as even small considerations.”

 

In a display of smugness, the Gates Foundation blames public resistance to the Common Core on the critics, not on their assumptions about school reform.

 

What the Gates Foundation has thus far demonstrated is the inability to say, “We were wrong.”

 

 

 

Categories Civil Rights, Common Core, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Poverty, Segregation

California: Unbridled Charter Expansion Threatens Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2016 //
14

Thomas Ultican, teacher of physics and mathematics in San Diego, California, writes about the disastrous impact of charter schools on public schools. According to a study commissioned by the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the district loses $500 million annually to charters.

 

The charter lobby in the state–led by the California Charter School Association– is wealthy and politically powerful.

 

Ultican points to Prop 39, passed into law in 2000, as the mechanism that allows privately managed, lightly regulated charters to expand into public space and gobble up resources and the students they want.

 

“The MGT study illustrates how charter school law in California is fashioned to favor privately operated charter schools over public schools. If a local community passed a bond measure in the 1980’s to build a new public school, it is the law in California that the members of that local community – who still might be paying for that public school – will have no choice but to allow a private operator move into the facility. In addition, the charter school law requires the local school district to incur many direct and indirect costs to support charter schools.

 

“In California, since its statehood, a super-majority (67%) was required to pass a school bond measure. In 2000, after losing an effort that March to mitigate the super-majority rules and the infamous proposition 13 limitations, supporters brought forward proposition 39 that would reduce school-bond super-majorities to 55% and did not seriously threaten proposition 13 protections enacted in 1978. It passed 53% to 47% in November.

 

“In the official ballot summary for proposition 39 in the November 7, 2000 election the support message was signed by Lavonne Mcbroom, President California State PTA; Jacqueline N. Antee, AARP State President; and Allan Zaremerg, President California Chamber of Commerce. The statement against the proposition was signed by Jon Coupal, Chairman Save Our Homes Committee, Vote No on Proposition 39, a Project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association; Dean Andal, Chairman Board of Equalization, State of California; and Felicia Elkinson, Past President Council of Sacramento Senior Organizations.

 

“This proposition was a battle royal with every media source and elected official bloviating endlessly about the righteousness of their side. However, like in the official ballot measure statements, there was no discussion of the charter school co-location funding requirement in article six of the proposition.

 

“When proposition 39 is coupled with the undemocratic charter authorizing system in California, citizens lose all democratic control of their local schools. With the three levels of government having the power to authorize charter schools it is almost impossible to turn down a charter request no matter how bad the schools previous history is or how inundated a community might be with certain types of schools…..

 

“Public education run by democratic processes is a major good. The past two decades of school reform have produced nothing but negative results and profits. The more enthusiastically the corporate and billionaire driven reforms have been embraced the worse the results (see Denver, New Orleans and Washington DC). It is time to stop all new charter school authorizations in California. It is time to reject the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. It is time to embrace professional educators working democratically within local communities to restore public education in America. It is time to protect our great inherited legacy – public education – which is definitely not a privatized market driven education.”

 

 

 

Categories California, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Reform, Funding

Mississippi: Legislators Strike Back at Superintendents for Seeking More Funding

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
6

Mississippi lawmakers punished the state’s superintendents by defunding their association. This was in retaliation for the superintendents support for Initiative 42, a referendum calling upon the legislature to fund the schools adequately.

 

Mississippi has extreme poverty, and Schools that are underfunded. Imagine the nerve of those superintendents, sticking up for the children!

 

“The move creates an uncertain future for what has traditionally been Mississippi’s most powerful school lobbying group. The long-term power of the association was already in question after lawmakers voted this year to make all superintendents appointive. Traditionally, the elected members of the association, especially those in the state’s largest school districts, have wielded the most political power.

“Initiative 42 would have amended the state Constitution to require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” Supporters said it would have blocked lawmakers from being able to spend less than the amount required by Mississippi’s school funding formula, and would have allowed people to sue the state to seek additional money for schools.

“Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders opposed the measure because it could have limited legislative power and transferred some power to judges. They warned that it could have led to budget cuts to other state agencies. Lawmakers placed an alternative measure on the ballot, which made it harder to pass the measure. Voters ultimately rejected any change by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Inequality, Mississippi

Kansas Supreme Court Demands Equitable Funding or Will Close Schools

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
12

The Kansas Supreme Court threw out the legislature’s latest school funding plan and told the legislature to draft a new, equitable one by June 30. If the legislature fails to enact such a plan, the Court will close the schools.

 

Governor Sam Brownback has very little wiggle room because of the tax cuts enacted when he was elected. He is threatening to cut higher education and Medicaid to direct more funding to K-12 schools.

 

 

“The ruling was the latest volley in a long battle over public education in Kansas. A lawsuit from a coalition of school districts led the Kansas Supreme Court to order the Legislature in 2014 to increase funding to poorer districts.

 

“The court and the Legislature have been at odds ever since. In February, the court said that a solution proposed by lawmakers, to use block grants to allocate funds, had failed to address inequities in schools. In response, the Legislature passed a bill that it said gave poorer districts a fair share of funding. Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, signed the measure in April.

 

“In a 47-page ruling, the court rejected that bill, saying the Legislature’s formula “creates intolerable, and simply unfair, wealth-based disparities among the districts.”

 

“This case requires us to determine whether the state has met its burden to show that recent legislation brings the state’s K-12 public school funding system into compliance with Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution,” the ruling said. “We hold it has not.”

 

“The Legislature is expected to meet Wednesday before it officially adjourns for the session.
Ray Merrick, the House speaker, said in a statement, “The court has yet again demonstrated it is the most political body in the state of Kansas.”

 

“Dumping the ruling at 5 p.m. the day before a long weekend and holding children hostage,” Mr. Merrick said. “This despite the fact that the Legislature acted in good faith to equalize the record amounts of money going to schools.”

 

“Satisfying the court could mean spending tens of millions more on public schools, a measure that Mr. Brownback said could be achieved by making more cuts to higher education and Medicaid.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Kansas

Mike Klonsky: The Debacle of School Reform in Chicago

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2016 //
12

The next time you hear boastful claims about “reform,” think Chicago.

 

Poor Chicago! Arne Duncan launched his version of reform there in 2001, with Gates funding. School closings, test scores above all, new schools, charter schools. And what is left now: a public school system struggling to survive. The results of Arne’s reforms: zilch.

 

Then Obama named his basketball buddy as Secretary of Education and the reforms that failed in Chicago were imposed on the nation by the ill-fated Race to the Too, where everyone is a loser.

 

So, Mike Klonsky tells us, reform is business as usual. The Chicago way. Those that have, get more. Those that have not, get ignored.

 

Fifteen years of reform. Think Chicago. Where Democratic leaders pander to billionaires and strangle the public schools.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Funding

New York: 98% of School Budgets Pass, Opt Out Supporters Elected to Local Boards

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2016 //
3

New York appears to be in resistance mode. Governor Andrew Cuomo passed a tax cap when he first took office, requiring a 60% supermajority to raise the school budget more than 2% in any year.

 

Despite the millions spent by billionaires to prove to New Yorkers that their local public schools are failing, the voters gave them a vote of confidence. 98% of districts passed their school budget, some overriding the tax cap.

 

In addition, many new school board members were elected, including supporters of the opt-out movement and teachers.

 

The current estimate, reported in this story, is that the opt out numbers were as large this year as last year, that is, about 20% of all the state’s students in grades 3-8.

 

Opt out continues to be a powerful tide, and there is no indication that it is diminishing. As long as the high stakes testing continues, so will the opt out movement.

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Funding, New York, Opt Out, Supporting public schools

Video: How Charter Schools Hurt Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 19, 2016 //
22

Do you have 3 minutes towatch a video?

 

Watch this graphic video and share it with your friends when they ask you what a charter is.

 

It explains in clear visuals how charters operate and how they hurt public schools by draining away the students chosen by the charter and the resources that previously funded the community’s public school.

 

The he video was commissioned by the Network for Public Education. Help it go viral. Share it. Tweet it. Put it on Facebook.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Class size, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Funding

New Study: How Charter Schools Affect Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 19, 2016 //
39

As the charter industry grows, many observers have wondered how their expansion affects the public schools in the same district. A new study published by the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, addresses that question.

 

Policymakers have assumed that the charter sector would provide healthy competition for district public schools. The promise originally was that they would spur innovation and efficiency, and at the same time would be accountable for results. We know from the example of Milwaukee, which has had charters and vouchers for 25 years, that none of these promises were true. Nonetheless, the claims still are repeated and all too often believed by a gullible media and public, which seldom if ever hears critical views.

 

The present study should be distributed to every news outlet, so they understand the collateral damage that charters inflict on public schools.

 

“Little scholarship has been devoted to the impact of charter schools on, one, how much revenue school districts collect through local property taxes and, two, how school districts budget that revenue.

 
“With “The Effect of Charter Competition on Unionized District Revenues and Resource Allocation,” Jason B. Cook fills this void. Cook, a doctoral student in economics at Cornell University, focuses on Ohio, home to a high concentration of both online and brick-and-mortar charter schools, and examines school budget data in the state from 1982 through 2013. In addition to confirming in detail that charter competition has reduced federal, state, and local support for district schools, Cook finds that charter competition has driven down local funding by depressing valuations of residential property and has led school districts to redirect revenue from instructional expenditures (in particular, teacher salaries) to facility improvements. Cook complements these two important findings with thorough explanations.”

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Funding, Ohio, Teacher Pay

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Will Hold a Hearing on Funding Inequities, Poverty, and Racial Isolation on May 20: Attend or Listen in

By dianeravitch
May 17, 2016 //
7

I received this notice today. I responded and asked if the Commission might investigate how school choice via vouchers and charters was affecting racial resegregation. The growing resegregation of America’s schools should be an urgent concern for this Commission.

 

 
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Announces Date for Briefing Related to its Report, Public Education Funding Inequality in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation

 
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced today that it will hold a public briefing on Friday, May 20, 2016, to examine the funding of K-12 education and how the inequitable distribution of these funds negatively and disproportionately impact the educational opportunities of low-income and minority students. The briefing will also address how the practice of underfunding public schools has exacerbated the academic achievement gap in an era where the nation’s most vulnerable children are increasingly educated in highly segregated and under-resourced schools.

 
The Commission’s public briefing and report titled “Public Education Funding Inequality in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation” will address federal and state law related to public education funding, including Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The report will also offer recommendations on how federal, state, and local government can independently and collaboratively help ensure that all children in the United States have an equal opportunity to quality education regardless of race, national origin, and zip code.

 
Commission Chairman Martin R. Castro stated, “Education is the great equalizer in the United States. When we make access to education for our minority children more difficult and less equal and when the education they received is of less quality, whether de jure or de facto–it is unjust and must be changed. When we diminish educational opportunities for the least among us we diminish ourselves as a nation.”
Commissioner Karen K. Narasaki stated, “Despite Brown v. Board of Education, schools attended by minority children are still more likely to be racially isolated and lacking in sufficient resources with high concentrations of poverty. All students should have meaningful access to a quality education.”

 
WHAT:
Briefing on Public Educational Funding Inequality in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation.
WHEN:
May 20, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST
Please arrive early as seating is limited or participate via teleconference.
WHERE:
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 1150
Washington, DC 20425 (Entrance on F Street NW)

 
LISTEN IN:

 
To listen to the Commission’s Briefing via telephone, please follow the instructions below:
Dial toll-free number 1-888-572-7034; Provide operator conference # 7822144.

 
DOCUMENTS:
The Commission is going green! Electronic versions of the briefing documents will be made available online the day before the briefing.
Deaf or hearing-impaired persons who require the services of a sign language interpreter should contact Pam Dunston at (202) 376-8105.
Follow, share, and be a part of the conversation on Twitter @USCCRGOV

 
Contact: Gerson Gomez
Media Advisor
(202) 376-8371
publicaffairs@usccr.gov

Tweet: https://Twitter.com/USCCRgov/status/725072639279124480

Categories Funding, Poverty, Race, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration
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