This is a handy website that will inform you how much money was diverted from your school district to fund the fraudulent ECOT virtual charter school.
Typing your address and learn how much money you lost, as ECOT man was protected by John Kasich, Mike DeWine (the Republican Candidate for Governor), and other Republican politicians.
https://www.kidsnotcorruption.com/
Betsy DeVos is a big fan of virtual charter schools like ECOT. She wants more of them.
If you live in Ohio’s Senate District 19, please vote for Louise Valentine and help Andrew Brenner return to private life.
He is chair of the Senate Education Committee. He thinks that public schools are “socialism.” He received nice payouts from the ECOT scam. He needs to leave public life and return to private pursuits.
He likes the word “socialist” and uses it to smear anyone or anything he doesn’t like. He doesn’t like public schools. He doesn’t like Louise Valentine. Socialist! She is an Ohio native, a graduate of public schools, Ohio State University, and a businesswoman. Among many other endorsements, she was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and Columbus Firefighters, The Columbus Building Trades Council, also the Ohio Education Association and Emily’s List. Not known as socialists.
As Denis Smith, formerly of the Ohio Department of Education, writes:
“Radical. Socialist. Extremist. This from the guy whose top campaign contributor is still shown to be William Lager of ECOT on Votesmart, a popular campaign finance website. But he has no problem taking money derived from public funds that were diverted from those “socialist” public school districts. This from a guy who is the darling of the National Rifle Association, an extremist group that many believe fits the profile of a domestic terrorist organization through its indifference to the rising number of school shootings and promotion of a weapons culture in this country…
“We’ve read about his views of public schools as examples of socialism. We’ve read that he thinks cursive writing is the most important skill that the socialist schools aren’t currently teaching. We know that he hasn’t returned that socialist public money that was given to him by ECOT. And we know that he loves the Second Amendment while dishonoring the First Amendment by blocking constituents from commenting on his social media pages.
“Andrew Brenner must be willing to show up and answer these questions. He also needs to show his mettle and seeming command of the issues by debating Louise Valentine.
“But don’t hold your breath.
“A candidate who can hurl insults and tag his opponent as #LyinLouise but doesn’t have the courage to face her in front of an audience does not deserve your support. And like his hero, Donald Trump, there comes a time when you just run out of bullshit.
“Andrew Brenner has reached that point.
“On November 6, if you live in Senate District 19, please show up and be counted. Vote for Louise Valentine for Ohio Senate. By doing so, you’ll send Andrew Brenner to retirement so that he can have time to learn more about socialism, attend Jerry Falwell University, and work on becoming a realtor.
“Um, there is one more thing. If Brenner acquires a public pension due to his time in the legislature, he would be submitting to socialism.”
Please save Andrew Brenner from taking socialist government money.
Vote for Louise Valentine.
For years, the politicians in Ohio took campaign contributions from the charter industry, let the charter lobbyists write the law regulating them, and ignored their frauds.
But the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow went bankrupt, and the frauds could no longer be ignored.
Jan Resseger writes here that the ECOT scandal has turned charters into an election issue. This is good news for anyone who cares about accountability and transparency for public funds.
The surprise really ought to be that the 17-year, billion dollar ripoff of tax dollars by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) has remained among high profile election issues in this 2018 election season. After all, when USA Today profiled 28 American cities which have not yet recovered from the 2008 Recession, 9 of them were in Ohio: Warren, Youngstown, Mansfield, Marion, Lorain, Middletown, Sandusky, Akron and Dayton. Besides the economy, the opioid crisis is devastating parts of the state and healthcare more generally is an issue.
But the ECOT scandal hasn’t died as an issue on voters’ minds. Partly this is due to clever work by public education advocates and Democrats. When ECOT’s property was auctioned off, an anonymous purchaser paid $152 in taxes and fees to buy the costume of ECOT’s mascot, Eddy the Eagle. You can watch Eddy on twitter, @EddyEagleECOT, traveling to political events across the state carrying his “Ask Me About Mike DeWine” sign. DeWine, running as Ohio’s Republican candidate for governor, has been Ohio’s attorney general since 2010 but only filed a lawsuit to recover tax dollars lost to ECOT last winter as the school was being shut down.
Because of the way Ohio distributes state aid and the way its charter school law works, over its 17-year life, ECOT ate up local school operating levy dollars in addition to state aid. A tech-savvy opponent of Ohio’s entrenched Republican majority has now set up https://www.kidsnotcorruption.com/ , an interactive website which describes ECOT: “ECOT THE SCANDAL: Wondering just how bad is the ECOT scandal? Well, you should be angry because ECOT is the biggest taxpayer ripoff in Ohio history and Republicans are responsible. Sadly, it’s our kids who were hurt.” At this website it is possible to track how much each Ohio school district has lost to ECOT over the years: for example, from Cleveland’s schools, $ 39,405,981; from Columbus’ schools, $591,000,000; from Cincinnati’s schools, $ 14,648,988.
Several local school districts have now initiated legal action on their own against ECOT to recover lost funds, and three other school districts so far have filed in court to argue that they do not want Attorney General Mike DeWine, who earlier this year filed to recover funds from ECOT, representing them. The Dayton Daily News‘ Josh Sweigart reports: “Springfield City Schools is joining Dayton Public Schools and the Logan-Hocking School District in arguing in court that they don’t want the state representing them in getting money from ECOT. The school districts argue that Attorney General Mike DeWine—the Republican candidate for governor—is soft on charter schools and has received campaign donations from ECOT founder Bill Lager… DPS and Springfield are both working with the Cleveland-based law firm Cohen, Rosenthal and Kramer. The firm is working on a contingency fee, meaning it gets paid only if the districts succeed… (T)he districts are skeptical that DeWine would be as aggressive as their attorney.”
William Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, notes, in his October 11, Daily E-Mail, that Attorney General Mike DeWine has filed a memorandum opposing the intervention of local school districts in this case on their own because their interest is “substantively remote from the claims” in the Attorney General’s lawsuit. Phillis notes that William Lager, ECOT’s founder and operator has made “essentially the same arguments” to oppose the intervention by specific school districts on their own behalf. Phillis comments: “It is curious that both the Plaintiff and Defendant in this case are on the same page. That accord might validate the importance of intervention by the districts. If they agree on this matter, maybe they will agree on more substantial issues.”
On October 8, the Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed Cleveland attorney, Steve Dettelbach for attorney general in the fall election over his opponent Dave Yost, the current Republican state auditor. Yost was elected to that post in November, 2010. He has been accused of moving too slowly against ECOT, and the Plain Dealer‘s endorsement reflects this concern: “There is a tiebreaker in this decision however, and it comes in the form of the long-running ECOT… scandal that has hung like a millstone around the neck of a number of Republicans on the Ohio ballot this year who took large campaign contributions from those connected to the now-shuttered online school. That includes Yost, who announced he’s given more than $29,000 in ECOT-related contributions to charity but denies the campaign donations impacted his actions… But the fact remains that the whistleblower’s warning came in 2014 and Yost’s office did not start investigating with gusto until 2016.”
Read it all.
The politicians eagerly accepted ECOT’s invitation to be its commencement speaker. Even Jeb Bush flew to Ohio to testify to ECOT’s awesomeness.
Every politician in Ohio who facilitated and ignored this massive rip-off of taxpayer’s dollars and waste of kids’s lives should be voted out.
Mike DeWine was State Attorney General abd ignored the ECOT fraud; he is now running for Governor.
Dave Yost was State Auditor and ignored the fraud until it blew up in his face; he is running for Attorney General.
They are responsible for the state’s failure to monitor ECOT and for the favorable treatment ECOT received. Voters should hold them accountable for this massive fraud.
Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy noticed a curious phenomenon. The Ohio State Attorney General Opposes the efforts of school districts trying to recover funds they lost to the fraudulent Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), which went bankrupt last January, having claimed state funds for non-existent students and having lost its authorizer. Why is the Attorney General taking the side of the guy who was indicted?
Bill Phillis writes:
It is baffling that both the Attorney General and the ECOT Man, Bill Lager, oppose the intervention of school districts in the case to recover funds from Lager and some of his former employees.
In his October 9 Memorandum in Opposition to Intervention, the Attorney General argues, “The Districts cannot intervene…because their interest is substantively remote from the claims pressed here,” the Districts “lack standing” and “their intervention would complicate these proceedings.”
William Lager’s memorandum proffers essentially the same arguments against the intervention.
It is curious that both the Plaintiff and Defendant in this case are on the same page. That accord might validate the importance of intervention by the districts. If they agree on this matter, maybe they will agree on more substantial issues.
Boards of education in three districts-Dayton, Logan-Hocking and Springfield-have adopted resolutions to intervene. Other districts are considering a resolution.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org
The “I Promise School” sponsored by LeBron James as part of the Akron public school system is the most innovative school in America. Its focus is on developing healthy children, whose dreams are big and whose education equips them to make a life for themselves. It accepts only children with low test scores. It’s goal is to help children overcome trauma. Its philosophy is informed by LeBron James’ experiences as a child growing up in dire circumstances.
Contrast this school, where children are surrounded by love and caring, with the harsh and punitive “no excuses” charter schools. Read this article and answer the question: Which is better? Love or Fear? Charter advocates should learn about this school and learn from its example.
The greatest of all innovations: a school in which love and kindness are built in as policy.
This article by Eddie Kim goes into detail. I am not posting the whole article. I urge you to read it. It is inspiring.
It begins:
An eight-year-old LeBron James sometimes didn’t attend school because there was no one who could give him a ride. He sometimes skipped class outright, instead playing video games by himself at the ramshackle one-bedroom home in Akron, Ohio, owned by a friend of his mom, who would disappear during the day. Other times, Gloria James and her son were simply too entangled in the task of securing a place to sleep and food to eat that night. “We’ll just skip today,” they’d tell each other. Then another day would rise and fall, and another, with no attendance in class.
Ultimately, James skipped nearly 100 days of school as a fourth grader in Akron. He had moved a dozen times in the three-year span between age five and eight, with Gloria struggling on welfare and relying on a network of friends to give them shelter when the rent ran dry. He didn’t play sports. He barely had friends. He lagged on basic reading, writing and math skills.
What got James back in school was the stabilizing force of Bruce Kelker, the Pee Wee football coach at James’ elementary school who first discovered his athletic talent. Kelker offered to house James, with Gloria (who could live with a friend) welcome at any time to see her son. Toward the end of 1993, Kelker and his live-in girlfriend decided to move, but another youth football coach at the school, “Big” Frank Walker, extended his suburban Akron home to James.
James credits both families for steadying his life and getting him back in school, and the saga between fourth and fifth grades has become one of the superstar’s favorite allegories. But more than just a motivational tale, James has taken his experience and molded it into a philosophy on what it takes to keep poor and stressed-out kids on the right track.
That philosophy now exists in physical form with the I Promise School, a new campus that opened a month ago as part of the Akron Public Schools system. It debuted with 240 third- and fourth-graders who are struggling academically and largely from underprivileged families. The school will grow to include first through eighth grades by fall 2022, but the fundamental features of the program are already in place.
School days are longer, running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as is the school year (from July through May) in order to take pressure off working parents. Students receive free breakfast, lunch and snacks. There’s a new grading system in place for the kids, as well as “support circle” sessions each day to help students learn how to calm their emotions and talk through challenges. Parents, too, are given more feedback at school (in individualized meetings with advisors) and also offered help in the form of housing and job-placement services, GED classes and a food bank — all things that James’ mother, Gloria, could have benefitted from too…
This is where Nicole Hassan and a squad of veteran Akron Public Schools staffers stepped in, organizing half a dozen “design teams” last year to hash out every ambition they could bake into the DNA of I Promise School. The teams spent months debating features that today form a public school unlike any other in the country. It’s supported in part by the LeBron James Family Foundation — it’s pledged $2 million a year to support the school’s growth — but otherwise funded by taxpayers as part of the Akron system. It’s an experiment in what a public institution can do to help kids in the most crucial aspect of their development into adulthood. “The hope is that this can become a model for more schools across the country in urban centers where young students need the most hope,” Hassan says….
The biggest point is with it being public is that it’s something that can carry over across the country. Our mission is to be a nationally recognized model for urban education. The common idea is that it’s easier to do a charter school, or it’s easier to do private because you don’t have to work within the confines of a public school system. But then those schools are only available to certain students, whereas every community has a public school. I want the elements of I Promise to be the norm for our district and spread across the nation so that in Chicago, in Detroit and in other areas where students have a lot of trauma, they’re utilizing these practices as well.
Of course, one of the things we’d love to see is that other communities help support such a school. A lot of our contributions have been from community partners beyond LeBron’s foundation. It’s important that LeBron’s a part of it, but he definitely couldn’t do it alone, and I think other communities could generate the same contribution. Honestly, if we believe that education is the way to create generational change and improve a community, then communities need to start supporting the school system in a real way.
Of course, LeBron James deserves a place on the honor roll. So does the Akron public school system, which thought through the whole child, loving-kindness policies of this innovative school.
Thanks to reader Christine Langhoff for bringing this article to my attention.
This is an outrageous story.
The state of Ohio Plans to take over the East Cleveland school district despite the fact that the state’s data are wildly inaccurate.
CLEVELAND – After digging into the state Department of Education’s report cards for current and planned state takeovers, News 5 found there are some issues within the report cards of at least one district — East Cleveland.
“We found some inaccuracies within the report card,” said Tom Domzalski, East Cleveland School District’s director of research, data and assessments.
Domzalski said “without a doubt,” the district and students are performing better than the state’s report card reflects.
An example of one of the errors in the state report card was that it showed that only 90.9 percent of principals in East Cleveland have a college degree, but state law requires principals to have a bachelor’s and master’s degree. According to East Cleveland officials, all of their principals do.
So where did the state come up with the 90.9 percent? That’s unclear, but it’s not the only problem.
There are errors, inconsistencies and numbers from last year within the document reflecting East Cleveland School District’s 2018 failing grade.
“One times .15 percent is not .075 percent,” Domzalski said, pointing out errors in the math published on the first page. “…the math just isn’t correct.”
According to Domzalski, the inconsistencies don’t stop there.
“In terms of our prepared for success measure, we are showing that students are not taking college credit courses. That’s not true,” he said.
When the state was informed about multiple errors in the East Cleveland report card, the officials said it was too late, nothing could be done.
Is it political meanness or bureaucratic inertia that prevents the state from acknowledging and rectifying its errors?
This is the last of the series of posts by Bill Phillis, which I have posted daily at 11 am. Phillis is a former deputy secretary of education for the State of Ohio. He is passionate about equity and accountability. He has been seeking public records about the Gulen schools and has largely been stonewalled. Schools that take public money and refuse to be accountable or transparent are not public schools.
He writes:
Public Records and Charter Schools – Part Five: Notes About Records, Privately Operated Schools, and Public Trust
Even before the FBI conducted raids in 2014 on Gulen charter schools around the country and the three within Ohio, citizens have been anticipating word of increased scrutiny and accountability for these schools. These raids also occurred at a time of citizen action, with a rally on the Statehouse steps and a march to the Ohio Department of Education by those who wanted a complete investigation of these schools.
Of the hundreds of pages of reports and summaries that were read by individuals assisting the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding (Ohio E & A) in examining these records, one particular incident stands out. On July 15, 2014, this complaint was recorded in one of the reports. Details: Teachers had to assemble desks and chairs using Turkish instructions. The complaint was followed by this note. Sponsor’s Final Investigative Comment: This allegation does not show any violation of law.
Every public school in the nation has its own challenges, from parent complaints about expulsions, appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP) placement, building and student safety, and other issues that cause concern. However, a teacher report about classroom furniture being purchased, apparently with public funds, delivered with assembly instructions written in the native language of the school administrator, should have raised a red flag with the sponsors. In particular, the Washington law firm in its 2017 letter to the state superintendent raised the issue of alleged self-dealing. The 2014 teacher complaint may provide some insight as to whether those and other charges were adequately investigated by the state board of education.
The amount of time spent in examining these records was helpful in framing the issues that still linger about a group of schools that have a practice of hiring persons bearing visas rather than staffing those schools with fully licensed, qualified and available American teachers. But that is only one issue with these schools. There are a plethora of concerns that arise from examining these public records, and this series was designed to bring them to the surface.
We can only hope that citizens will soon insist on addressing these concerns directly to the Ohio General Assembly, the State Board of Education and to the sponsors of the Gulen schools, viz, the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West (ESCLEW) and the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation (BCHF).
Here are the questions that all of these organizations need to address, and soon.
Why were these schools raided by the FBI? Has the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the sponsors shown any interest in encouraging a conclusion to this federal investigation?
In 2014, the Akron Beacon Journal investigated the governance structure of these schools. “Some board members — unlike traditional public school board members who cannot be elected without being registered voters — aren’t U.S. citizens, let alone registered voters,” the newspaper reported. Why is state law allowing charter school boards to be populated by non-citizens? Why haven’t sponsors insisted to the management company, Concept Schools that the practice of having non-citizens on so-called “public” charter boards is a burning issue with critics of these schools and should be ended?
News reports have shown that Concept Schools, the management company that operates these schools in Ohio, has applied major political influence in the Ohio legislature through the Niagara Foundation, another organization with Turkish ties. Several years ago, former Ohio Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and others were supplied with all-expense paid trips to Turkey. Rosenberger resigned from the legislature and is currently under investigation for questionable dealings during his time as a lawmaker.
A 2018 investigative report from one sponsor makes this statement: “The ESCLEW has verified the physical address of all governing authority board members to ensure that geographical locations have not interfered with attendance to the school or to governing authority meetings.” The report submitted by the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation contains that identical sentence, along with this: “No current members live more than 75 miles from the school.” How can these entities be considered “local” “public” schools when board members serve on a minimum of four governing authorities and may live nearly 75 miles from the school? Who appointed these board members, many of whom may be non-citizens? Also, what about ODE’s concern that some of these boards appear to meet at the same time and location? Where is ODE with this issue now, as expressed in the February 5, 2018 email included in the records sent to Ohio E & A? What are the sponsors doing about this, as they are charged with operating in the public interest?
As referenced earlier, a July 13, 2009 corrective action plan contained a statement that “It is Concept Schools’ policy that if an employee’s working visa application is denied by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Concept Schools will refund the expense of the application.” A more important question might be this: why are any tax dollars being spent at all to cover the cost of a visa application or even travel costs for a foreign national to be placed on a “public” charter school staff? Has the Auditor of State or any state official issued an opinion as to the propriety of using funds derived from public sources to pay such expenses? Where is the state on this? What is the opinion of sponsors as to whether reimbursement of such expenses meets the test of a proper public purpose?
Why is state law so lax that it allows charter school heads with no background, experience, and licensure in school administration to be responsible for the education of hundreds of young people? How is the idea of citizenship and community passed on to students who are housed in a building with a board and staff who may not have deep roots in that community or even attained citizenship status? Why don’t charter school sponsors provide leadership about this issue and by doing so force changes in state law and regulation?
Why do reports submitted by two different sponsors appear to have similarity in content, language, style, and conclusions reached about an investigation requested by the Ohio Department of Education?
The records reveal that one sponsor, the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, sponsors nine of the Concept Schools while the other, the ESC of Lake Erie West, sponsors the other eight in the chain that operates in Ohio. BCHF is a non-profit organization, and its attorney advised Ohio E & A that it did not have to comply with its public records request seeking information about these controversial schools. On the other hand, ESCLEW is a public agency and had to comply. Why is it fair for one entity to collect state tax dollars – representing about half of its operating revenue – but not have to assume the responsibility that the other agency, a public entity, had to bear in the same request? Why should any state resident accept that situation, particularly when it fell to ODE to be responsible for revealing some of its dealings with BCHF? Can the public be confident in being informed about correspondence and records held by a non-profit organization that were not otherwise also held by ODE as records?
A comparison of compensation between a charter school sponsor and a public school district superintendent might provide reasons for additional scrutiny of non-profit charitable organizations. According to the IRS filing by the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation for 2015, the total revenue from all sources was approximately $20 million. The head of its school division had a compensation package totaling $277,703.
By comparison, one of Ohio’s largest school districts has total annual revenue of about $900,000,000 but according to data provided by the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, no current Ohio school district superintendent has a compensation package of $277,000. The compensation package of school district employees is often headlined in the media. In the charter world, employee compensation is hard to find but when found is often alarming.
This week, we have tried to inform Ohio residents about lingering questions that surround a chain of 17 charter schools in Ohio, part of a larger nationwide chain of 167 schools that have extensive international ties, mostly to Turkey. It is our purpose to raise questions and hope that some responsible agency of state government will provide the appropriate level of guidance and direction to deal with the issues we have raised.
If any of the information raised here is of enough concern, we recommend that you contact your representatives in the state legislature and start asking some of the same questions that have been raised in the series. In doing so, such questions will continue to raise doubts about the legitimacy, transparency, and accountability of these publicly-funded but privately-operated schools that should exist for a proper public purpose, not for the private agenda of privately-operated entities.
Additional periodic posts regarding the Gulen Movement charter school and business enterprise are forthcoming.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org
Bill Phillis, retired deputy superintendent of the state department of education, is a zealous advocate for accountability and transparency. He has made a public records request about the Gulen charter schools in Ohio. He has written a multi-part series based on what he learned. This is Part 4.
Public Records and Charter Schools – Part Four: Buckeye Community Hope Foundation (BCHF)
According to its website, the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation “was founded in 1991 as a non-profit corporation with the mission of developing affordable housing for low-income families and individuals.” In 2005, the organization decided to expand its core purpose by becoming a charter school sponsor. According to an analysis completed by the Education Commission of the States, 44 states provide for charters by statute. However, only Minnesota and Ohio clearly allow non-profit organizations without a singular, core educational purpose like BCHF to serve as sponsors legally responsible for the oversight of these publicly-funded but privately-operated schools.
Since entering the charter school business, BCHF has become the sponsor for 47 schools, nearly as many as the ESC of Lake Erie West (ESCLEW), one of the original charter school sponsors in Ohio. Nine of these are Concept Schools operating under the Horizon Science Academy and Noble Academy brands. These schools are located in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Lorain, and Youngstown.
Consistent with the public records requests sent to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the ESC of Lake Erie West, the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding (Ohio E & A) sent a letter on May 2 to the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation requesting comparable records for the schools it sponsors. But the reply on June 4 from the BCHF attorney was not unexpected:
“… The Buckeye Community Hope Foundation is not a public entity subject to public records requests. Other places you may get the records you desire are the Ohio Department of Education and the public schools themselves.”
In trying to inform the public about state policy and practices, along with reporting on the condition and needs of schools, it was regrettable, but also predictable, to receive this reply from counsel. Instead of dealing with one agency (ODE and ESCLEW), it was suggested that Ohio E & A deal with nine, along with the state agency, to get the information desired. Irrespective of the statute which allows BCHF to collect significant public revenue but use its non-profit status to be immune from responding to public records requests, legislators need to reexamine the statute and require more transparency and accountability from private organizations that benefit from public funds. We will examine this more in Part Five, the final segment in this series.
A final observation on BCHF and its stance on public records reveal that in fact, the public has to rely on ODE to provide the information about the Concept Schools that are sponsored by the non-profit. For example, we had to find out through records sent by ODE, not BCHF that the non-profit had to deal with the same type of issues in its Concept Schools as the public agency sponsor ESCLEW. When you have to find out information from another source when the first party says no, we are not required to do so, that is not reassuring.
The records available to us from ODE, and not BCHF, clearly demonstrate that it is up to the state education agency and, again, not BCHF, to inform the public regarding the operational condition of nine schools. The ODE records revealed a string of parent concerns regarding student expulsion, Individualized Education Program (IEP) issues, and a teacher complaining about one of the schools cherry-picking students in violation of standard public school admission practices. Again, it is not reassuring to find out about such issues through a third party – ODE.
In our final look in Part Five at the topic of public records requests and charter schools, we will make some recommendations about what we learned and what needs to be done regarding the charter school industry that will better serve the public.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org
Bill Phillis, retired deputy superintendent of the state department of education, is a zealous advocate for accountability and transparency. He has made a public records request about the Gulen charter schools in Ohio. He has written a multi-part series based on what he learned. This is Part 3.
Public Records and Charter Schools – Part Three: Ohio Department of Education (ODE)
Under state law, the ODE is responsible for the legal oversight of the state’s network of charter schools, the distribution of state funds that support them, and the enforcement of such compliance measures which are in place. The Department is also in the awkward position of being a charter sponsor itself, with about 25 schools under its sponsorship. In looking at ODE’s role as the compliance mechanism for charters, the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding (Ohio E&A) requested records from the state education agency pertaining to the 17 Ohio Concept Schools from 2008 to the present.
The records received from ODE are abundant in detailing parent complaints regarding the instructional program offered at the Ohio Concept Schools.
Among the complaints received by the Department are issues regarding the proper placement of students consistent with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requirements that govern students with disabilities.
A review of the correspondence supplied by ODE indicates that a number of the Gulen schools have experienced other issues besides special education, including allegations by a number of teachers in 2014 at the Horizon Science Academy – Dayton, which were reviewed by the state board of education. The report by the school’s sponsor organization (see Part Four) that was submitted to ODE about the charges against the school has formed the basis of much criticism during the last several years. The charges included lax administrative procedures, physical labor required of the staff, and discrimination by administrators against some staff members. Again, this issue will be reviewed in more detail in Part Four.
In late 2017, the records reveal, the law firm representing Concept Schools and the Gulen chain contacted ODE to advise that the FBI investigation into their schools was still ongoing. Counsel stated that the U.S. Attorney in Cleveland is in charge of the government’s efforts to look at possible irregularities into the use of federal funds allocated for these schools.
Prior to that, a Washington law firm representing the Republic of Turkey contacted State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria. In the letter, the attorneys suggested that the state agency look more thoroughly into the affairs of Horizon Science and Noble Academies, the Gulen-related chain managed by Concept Schools. The law firm alleged that these schools, authorized by Buckeye Community Hope Foundation (BCHF) and ESC of Lake Erie West (ESCLEW), “work under a shroud of secrecy and seemingly under the direction of a handful of Turkish religious leaders. Many of these schools and their operators share a history of financial mismanagement, suspected fraud, apparent self-dealing, discrimination, and unusual immigration/visa practices.”
Also found among the documents submitted by ODE were two reports that are both dated January 16, 2018. Both were submitted by the two sponsors of all of the Ohio Concept Schools, BCHF and ESCLEW. Both also bear the same title – Investigation Report: Concept Schools and are similar in nature. They were written in the same format, and only the conclusion part shows a slightly different narrative approach.
Here is one example: “The ESCLEW has verified the physical address of all governing authority members to ensure that geographical locations have not interfered with attendance to the school or to governing authority.” In the report submitted by the BCHF, that identical sentence is found, followed by an additional sentence for each of their schools under contract. That sentence states “No current members live more than 75 miles from the school.” This statement is repeated for all of the schools under BCHF sponsorship.
Both reports end in the same manner, stating that the FBI investigation was disclosed to the sponsor, but no details are offered. Moreover, both sponsors promise to “monitor attendance at (board) meetings, financials, leases, and teacher turnover.”
It is interesting to note that less than a month after these nearly identical reports were submitted to ODE, a staff member in ODE’s charter school office wrote on February 5, 2018 to ESCLEW in Toledo, regarding an observation about Horizon Science Academy Columbus High School:
“Also I would appreciate a copy of the minutes of the GA meeting … And I was surprised that each of the Concept schools in and around Morse Road area of northern Columbus seem to have the same governing authority and they meet on the same day, same place and same time.”
Apparently, this inbreeding among governing boards of Concept Schools does not seem to be an issue with the schools’ sponsors, although it did appear on the radar, however briefly, of ODE. The public would certainly be interested in seeing a graphic of these intersections of boards, along with the traveling distance of the governing board members and the time of day these boards meet.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org
Bill Phillis, retired deputy superintendent of the state department of education, is a zealous advocate for accountability and transparency. He has made a public records request about the Gulen charter schools in Ohio. He has written a multi-part series based on what he learned. This is Part 2.
Public Records and Charter Schools – Part Two: ESC of Lake Erie West
The Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West was formerly known as the Lucas County ESC. This regional educational agency was one of the three original Ohio charter school sponsors, or authorizers as they are called in the rest of the country. ESCLEW, as it is known in shorthand, remains one of the largest promoters of charter schools and sponsors more than 50 of them in Ohio.
On June 7, Amy Borman, an attorney for ESCLEW, replied to Ohio E&A about the records request for the Gulen Schools under its authorization. The request asked for those records held by the ESC which “detail all correspondence relating to the operation” of those particular buildings. Attached with her cover letter was a 239-page document.
A closer examination of this hefty record revealed a plethora of annual reports, mission statements, corrective action plans, and dozens of pages of reviews conducted by the ESC. In one section of the materials submitted, there are 25 pages of mission statements for the eight schools, with five of the statements apparently identical, except for the name of the school.
The records received included a January 2018 document entitled “ESCLEW Investigative Report: Concept Schools,” which showed that during the 2016-2017 school year, one of the schools hired 17 new teachers out of a total staff of 33. While this represents a nearly 50% change in the teaching staff in just one year, the report, which the ESC completed at the request of ODE, says that “Based on the findings of teacher turn over the ESCLEW did not find the numbers to raise concern for the school.”
In a discussion with counsel for the sponsor, she related that there are many factors involved with staff turnover, including new teachers that are at the beginning of their career, and that the range of factors may not be known within the statistics for staff turnover.
There were several other items found in the records that are of note. All of the eight schools contain board members who sit on multiple charter boards, which should raise oversight issues for critics of these schools. This sentence in the 2018 report is of particular interest. “An in depth review of the board membership and affiliation identifies that each governing authority member only sits on four or less governing authority boards which are not all the same boards for each five members, nor are all the schools authorized by the ESCLEW.”
The following sentence in that section of the 2018 report contains this statement: “The ESCLEW has verified the physical address of all governing authority board members to ensure that geographical locations have not interfered with attendance to the school or to governing authority meetings.” We will discuss this concern in more detail at the end of this series on public records.
A final note is made about a statement found in a response to a corrective action plan. On July 13, 2009, an administrator for Concept Schools stated that “It is Concept Schools’ policy that if an employee’s working visa application is denied by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Concept Schools will refund the expense of the application.” In examining this statement, it remains unclear as to who will be reimbursed for this expense – the Ohio Department of Education or another entity. As with the concern about the selection and residence of board members, this question will also be addressed later in this series.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 | ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://www.ohiocoalition.org
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