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Stephen Dyer: How Many Ohio Supreme Court Judges Received Campaign Cash from Charter Founder?

By dianeravitch
September 15, 2015 //
22

We like to think that judicial decisions are the result of a thoughtful perusal of case law and precedents.

Stephen Dyer, former legislator and current policy analyst, suggests there may be other issues involved.

Money.

“Today, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that White Hat Management — the state’s worst performing large-scale charter school operator — gets to keep all the equipment it uses public money to buy, even if the school was shut down for being one of the state’s worst performing schools.

“White Hat — run by Republican mega donor David Brennan — can sell the equipment how it sees fit, even if it was its own incompetence and failure that led to the school’s closing.

“While this opinion may seem somewhat surprising, what isn’t surprising is that the Supreme Court Justice who wrote the opinion has taken $5,000 in campaign contributions from Brennan and his family. Justice Judith Lanzinger received that money in 2004.

“Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor — whose political career started in Brennan’s Summit County backyard — received money every year she was up for the court in 2002, 2008 and 2010 when she ran for the Chief Justice seat. She has received a total of $11,900. Surprised she signed onto Lanzinger’s opinion?

“Justice Judith French received $7,200 last year when she ran for the high court — as the White Hat lawsuit was pending. Any surprise she voted to uphold White Hat’s right to profit from their failed school management?

“I credit Justice Terrence O’Donnell for recusing himself from the case. He received more money than any other sitting Justice — $15,000.

“Justice Paul Pfeiffer took money from Brennan in the early 1990s, but hasn’t recently and dissented from the Lanzinger opinion.

“The opinions on this case are complex and complicated, with many of the Justices trying to seem like they are with White Hat on some things, but not others. Don’t let them fool you with their strained efforts. On the only thing that mattered — allowing Brennan to profit from his failed operations — they were lock step behind their benefactor.”

The other big charter operator in Ohio, William Lager, received $100 million last year from the state. All of his schools received Fs and Ds. He also gave to the campaigns of Lanzinger, French, O’Connor, and O’Donnell.

Money talks in a loud voice. What about the taxpayers’ dollars? What about the children?

Forget about it. A contract is a contract.

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

Ohio: Charter School Equipment Belongs to Private Manager, Not the Public

By dianeravitch
September 15, 2015 //
116

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that property purchased by the for-profit charter management corporation White Hat using public funds belongs to White Hat, not the public.

I’m no lawyer, but this decision says to me that the schools’ stuff does not belong to the public, but to a private entrepreneur. I take that to be an acknowledgement that White Hat privatized the assets of the school. More evidence that charter schools are not public schools. If they were, their stuff purchased with public funds would belong to the public.

White Hat was sued by the boards of 10 of its charter schools, all of which have closed for poor performance.

“A charter school operator – not the schools themselves – own the classroom desks, computers and other equipment purchased with state-provided tax dollars, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

“The ruling represented a victory for the charter-school operator, White Hat Management Co., and a defeat for 10 now-closed schools in Northeast Ohio that claimed they owned the property since it was bought with public funds.

“Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote in the majority opinion that charter school operators perform a governmental function and establish a fiduciary relationship with the schools they manage in purchasing school equipment, contrary to the position taken by White Hat.

“That finding should allow the public to obtain charter-school operator financial records that long have been withheld, said Karen Hockstad, a Columbus lawyer who represented the ex-White Hat charter schools.

“Current law largely does not address the duties of school operators and does not restrict the provisions of contracts between operators and charter schools, Lanzinger wrote.

“Therefore, a provision in White Hat’s contract allowing it to title property in its name and later require the schools to buy back any property they wanted to keep is enforceable, the opinion stated.

“Unless there is fraud, courts cannot save “a competent person from the effects of his own voluntary agreement,” the opinion said.

“The schools were represented by their own legal counsel and they agreed to the provisions in the contracts. They may not rewrite terms simply because they now seem unfair….”.

“The funds were paid by the state to the seven Hope Academies and three Life Skills Centers in the Cleveland and Akron areas that hired White Hat in 2005 to handle operations. White Hat received 95 percent of each school’s state funding to pay teacher salaries, building rentals, utilities and other expenses.

“The schools’ lawyer had argued the funds remained public despite their payment to White Hat and that classroom equipment belonged to the schools.

“About $100 million was paid by the state to the seven Hope Academies and three Life Skills Centers in the Cleveland and Akron areas that hired White Hat in 2005 to handle operations. White Hat received 95 percent of each school’s state funding to pay teacher salaries, building rentals, utilities and other expenses.

“White Hat Management is owned by David L. Brennan, of Akron, one of the early proponents of the publicly funded and privately operated charter schools and a major donor to Ohio Republicans…. ”

Two judges dissented. Their dissents were well-reasoned and common sense:
.

“There has been no quality education, there has been no safeguarding of public funds, and there most certainly has been no benefit to the children,” Justice William M. O’Neill wrote.

“He concluded that the contracts are not enforceable because they “permit an operator who is providing a substandard education to squander public money and then, upon termination for poor performance, reap a bonus, paid for by public money.”

“Justice Paul E. Pfeifer wrote that the court should have overturned the contract.

“The contracts require that after the public pays to buy those materials for a public use, the public must then pay the companies if it wants to retain ownership of the materials,” he wrote.

“This contract term is not merely unwise as the opinion would have us believe; it is extremely unfair, so unfair, in fact, as to be unconscionable. … The contract term is so one-sided that we should refuse to enforce it.”

rludlow@dispatch.com

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, Ohio

Ohio Common Core Test Results: An Innovation

By dianeravitch
September 14, 2015 //
18

Ohio has withdrawn from the federally funded PARCC test, but the results came in from last spring’s tests. A little more than one-third “met expectations.” Put another way, nearly two-thirds “failed.”

Under the old state tests, 75-80% were proficient. Ohio softened the blow of high failure rate by creating a new category called “Approached Expectations.” This reduced the proportion of “failures.”

“That will have, for example, students that “Met Expectations” on PARCC rated as “Accelerated” by Ohio. And students will be labeled as “Proficient” by Ohio, even if they still just “Approached Expectations” of the 12 PARCC states.

“That means that many more kids will labeled as “Proficient” than the PARCC states would consider as meeting expectations.

“Jim Wright, ODE’s director of assessment, told the board this morning that shouldn’t be a concern.

“Educators across the country have warned that scores and ratings would drop with the new tests. The proposed ratings will bring a drop, just not the “cliff” that people warned about, Wright said.”

Categories Common Core, Ohio, Standardized Testing

Ohio: Let Successful Districts Take Over Failing Charters

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2015 //
16

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity notes that significant numbers of charters in Ohio are failing. He has a modest proposal: let high-performing districts take over failing charters.

He writes:

“A proposed plan for high-performing school districts to take over the failing Ohio charter school industry

The idea for this plan was concocted after reading Diane Ravitch’s blog referencing a proposal by the Superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks school district in Texas. He proposed that his high performing district takeover and manage failing charter schools in Texas.

Here is a plan for Ohio. Divide the state into five or more regions. Identify all of the top-rated school districts in each region and assign each low performance charter school to a district. For example–a designated district in central Ohio would take over the management of Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) and other low-performing charter schools in central Ohio. Ohio Virtual Academy and other low performers would be assigned a designated district in northwest Ohio. The charter sponsors would be eliminated to save costs and the management companies would be fired. Charters that don’t meet the expectations of the school district would be closed and students reassigned.

The public school districts, having eliminated the charter profit centers would plow those savings into the education of students.

This plan would have the added benefit of complete transparency and accountability.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

Ohio: Another Charter Collapses

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2015 //
11

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition reports another charter school collapses and wonders why it was ever allowed to open. And he asks, “where’s the money?”

“The FCI Academy charter school in north Columbus closed at the start of this school year

“The closure of FCI Academy sent 300 students scrambling to enroll in another school on the first day of school. The sponsor revoked the contract due to lack of appropriate fiscal management.

“This is a school that should never have been allowed to open. As pointed out in a post a year ago, Section 3314.03 (A)(11)(C) of the Ohio Revised Code states, “The school will be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and will not be operated by a sectarian school or religious institution.”

“FCI Academy charter school was on the campus of Living Faith Apostolic Church in Columbus. It was founded by the church leader, his wife and one other person. The church leader’s wife was president of the school board.

“It should be noted that FCI Academy had already received nearly $400,000 thus far this school year. What will happen to that money?

“This arrangement does not pass the smell test. But, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the sponsor, Lake Erie West ESC, apparently had not sniffed out the nonsectarian prohibition. It appears that ODE has seldom, if ever, used its leadership role to correct abuses in the charter industry.”

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

John Kasich and Ohio’s Corrupt Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2015 //
15

During John Kasich’s governorship, charter schools have been the beneficiaries of political favoritism. The charter operators who give large sums to Republican candidates are never held accountable for their performance. In most states, this practice is called “pay to play.”

This article describes the corruption of the charter sector in Ohio. Some of the lowest performing charter schools in the state give the biggest political contributions. Certain for-profit charter chains have abysmal performance yet they will never be closed. Money talks.

Kasich appointed David Hansen as executive director of Ohio’s Office of Quality School Choice and Funding. “Kasich tasked Hansen with overseeing the expansion of the state’s charter schools and virtual schools, which are online charter schools typically used by homeschoolers.” Hansen had been a board member of a failed for-profit charter school. When Hansen was found rigging charter school grades, he had to resign.

“In July, Hansen resigned after admitting he had rigged evaluations of the state’s charter school sponsors—the nonprofits that authorize and oversee the schools in exchange for a fee—by not including the failing grades of certain F-rated schools in his assessment. Specifically, he omitted failing virtual schools operated by for-profit management companies that are owned by major Republican donors in the state.”

So Hansen is gone, gone, gone, but his wife is Kasich’s campaign manager and his former chief of staff.

And what of Ohio’s charter industry?

“Schools with D or F grades receive an estimated 90 percent of the state’s charter school funding. Virtual schools, which have an even worse academic track record and insufficient quality controls have been permitted to flourish….

“In the four years that Kasich has been in office, funding for traditional public schools has declined by almost half a billion dollars, while charter schools have seen a funding increase of more than 25 percent. Much of that funding appears to have been misspent.”

Ohio has so many low-performing charters, so many scandals, and so much corruption that the state has become “a national joke.”

John Kasich is portraying himself in the campaign as a moderate. Ha! He is no moderate. He tried to eliminate collective bargaining but the voters turned back his effort. He is as far right as Scott Walker. Don’t be fooled.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Ohio, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Ohio: Will Chartergate Be Investigated?

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2015 //
13

Three major newspapers in Ohio have seconded the State Board of Education’s call for an investigation of grade-rigging of charter school data by state officials. They demand that the state open its records but the state has been stonewalling their requests.

Here is one from the Columbus Dispatch:

“If state Superintendent of Education Richard Ross is not covering up something embarrassing or illegal at the Ohio Department of Education, his recent actions aren’t helping his credibility.

“Ross, who formerly worked for Gov. John Kasich as head of the Office of 21st Century Education, has been dragging his feet for a month in honoring a request from several Ohio newspapers for documents that might shed light on why someone at the education department decided to omit the poor performance of online and dropout-recovery charter schools from the department’s evaluation of charter-school sponsors. The omission artificially inflated the rankings of at least one sponsor. Several charter-school sponsors have made large donations to Republican officeholders. These donations are routinely cited as a major reason why Ohio’s lawmakers have failed to reform Ohio’s abysmal charter-school system.

“David Hansen, former head of the education department’s office of school choice, was blamed for the data omission and resigned. Declaring that Hansen — who happens to be the husband of the woman who heads Gov. John Kasich’s presidential campaign — acted alone, Ross hoped the matter was closed and everyone would move on. But seven members of the State Board of Education instead called for an investigation of the matter.

“That call has gone unanswered. Even State Auditor Dave Yost, who was zealous in the investigation of performance-enhancing data-rigging at Columbus City Schools, is surprisingly incurious about the attempted data-rigging at the education department. He declared himself satisfied that the attempt was disclosed and corrected and that no financial harm had come to the state.

“Nothing to see here, move along, move along.

“Absent any official interest in investigating the matter, Ohio’s newspapers, including The Dispatch, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, the Akron Beacon Journal, The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Dayton Daily News all filed formal requests for records that might show whether Hansen truly acted alone.

“The papers have been waiting for weeks for the education department to comply with state open-records law. The education department says the process is taking so long because the emails are being vetted to ensure that no mistakes are made.”

Here is another, from the Akron Beacon-Journal:

“John Kasich subscribes to the theory of a rogue offender in the Ohio Department of Education. The governor deems “political” the calls to look deeper into David Hansen doctoring the grades of charter schools so they would remain in position to add students and thus collect additional state money.

“I mean, the guy’s gone. He’s gone,” the governor declared, as if Hansen admitting his deed and resigning as the head of the school choice and accountability office ends the matter. Legitimate questions remain. They start with whether other officials, in particular, Richard Ross, the state school superintendent, had anything to do with altering the grading system.

“Perhaps Hansen acted alone. Yet the way this governor and fellow Republicans in charge at the Statehouse have coddled many in the charter school industry, there is much room for skepticism about the claim. More, some state school board members see possible violations of the law, which requires the full inclusion of grades in evaluations.

“The job of investigating is ripe for the state inspector general. Unfortunately, in his case, politics do interfere, Randy Meyer closely aligned with Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. Seven members of the state school board (six Democrats and one Republican) rightly requested an independent investigation. They were rebuffed.

“Which leaves this and other newspapers to dig into what happened. That means, in large part, seeking and examining public records. The trouble is, as Doug Livingston, the Beacon Journal education writer, explained over the weekend, that process has encountered a lengthy delay. The Education Department has been slow in releasing related email messages and other documents.”

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer wrote a scathing editorial as well.

“The Ohio Department of Education needs to stop its inexcusable foot-dragging and turn over emails and other public documents requested by news outlets attempting to determine who was responsible for trying to omit from overall charter evaluations the poor grades of online charter and dropout-recovery schools.

“The scheme, which was first revealed by Plain Dealer Education Reporter Patrick O’Donnell, would, among other results, have helped the academic standing of charter school organizations in which some large GOP campaign donors have a financial stake.”

Thanks to Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition for alerting me to this situation. If Kasich gets onto the GOP ticket, the national press will be digging along with the Ohio press, to see how much payola influenced the grade rigging.

Phillis writes:

“ODE is under a dark cloud, which is of its own creation. Never before, in its history dating back to 1956, has ODE been under such a veil of suspicion. ODE is hiding suspected misfeasance and malfeasance regarding its dealings with the charter school industry. Since the Governor’s office is now in charge of ODE, the probe should include that office.

“According to the ODE website, Frank Stoy is now director of the charter school office. It should be of interest that David Hansen, while heading up the charter school office, brought Mr. Stoy into ODE. Stoy had been associated with the Ohio Council of Community Schools, which as a result of data manipulation ended up as the top-rated charter school sponsor. Just a coincidence?

“An independent investigation, as called for by seven elected State Board of Education members, should reach all the way back to the beginning of the charter industry in 1999.”

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

Denis Smith: 10 Needed Reforms of Ohio Charters

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2015 //
8

Denis Smith worked in the charter school office of the Ohio Department of Education. He knows the problems of oversight of these deregulated schools.

In this post, he proposes 10 reforms to rein in corruption and malfeasance in Ohio’s charter sector.

The major reform that is needed is financial transparency. All schools–public and charter–should be subject to public audit.

Most of his recommendations focus on the misuse of public funds, for example, to pay for celebrity endorsements and advertising.

Here are his top three recommendations:

“#3: Administrative qualifications. Incredibly, there are no minimum educational or professional licensure requirements for charter school administrators. This situation needs to be addressed immediately if all charter reform efforts are to be viewed as substantive. After all, school is about education.

“#2: Citizenship requirement. In traditional school districts, board members have to be qualified voters – citizens – in order to serve as overseers of public funds. News reports in the last year have focused on one charter school chain where some of the board members and administrators may not be American citizens. If charter proponents want to emphasize the word public in the term public charter school, they should also agree that requiring American citizenship for board members is a no-brainer for the charter industry.

“And the Number One Needed Charter School Reform –

“Get the money out!

“The influence of charter moguls David Brennan and William Lager on the Ohio Republican party is well-known. Money talks, and in charter world, money speaks loudly. Public funds – the profits gained from running privately operated schools with public money – should not be allowed to unduly influence legislators. The fact that HB 2 stalled at the very time that another $91,726 arrived to replenish state Republican campaign coffers is no coincidence.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Ohio

Marilou Johanek: John Kasich’s Secret Plan to Eliminate Public Schools is No Longer Secret

By dianeravitch
August 24, 2015 //
17

Columnist Marilou Johanek of the Toledo Blade writes that Governor John Kasich let the cat out of the bag, unintentionally, of course. Or, as she put it, he let his mask slip.

It was probably an accident. Ohio Gov. John Kasich let his public education mask slip. He ranted when he should have relaxed.

What Mr. Kasich blurted out to a roomful of incoming legislators, assembled in Columbus for an orientation session last November, was enormously revealing. It was prophetic about a secret effort, already begun, to erode local control of Youngstown Schools and any Ohio district like it.

Representative-elect Michele Lepore-Hagan, a newly elected Youngstown Democrat, wanted to talk to the governor about the troubled school district she represented. “And he threw a tablet into the air and said those Youngstown City Schools are in such a mess I want to shut them down and put one great big charter school in there.”

Later a committee, quietly spearheaded by the Kasich administration, would sign off on a plan to change the Youngstown district and others like it in the state. The plan, crafted behind closed doors by the Youngstown City Schools Business Cabinet, could put traditional public schools out of business.

Do Republican voters really want to eliminate traditional public schooling? Do they really want public money to go to unregulated, for-profit charter schools? Do they really want the state’s children to be sent to religious schools with taxpayer funds?

Let’s hope that Governor Kasich lets the cat out of the bag more frequently and does it in public. Let’s hope that when the Republicans debate again, one of the moderators ask him about his views on privatization of public education. And when they do, let’s hope that the moderator is fully informed about the long list of charter school scandals in Ohio, where charter schools underperform traditional public schools across the state.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/MarilouJohanek/2015/08/22/Governor-Kasich-s-education-agenda-unmasked.html#MxmBbUqjxq2k2F5M.99

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Ohio

Kasich: Abolish Teachers’ Lounges

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
40

John Kasich has been trying, along with Jeb Bush, to present himself as a moderate. Readers of this blog, especially those from Ohio, know that he is no moderate on the subject of education. Ohio is a state where wealthy charter operators pay with campaigb contributions to operate their low-performing schools without accountability. If it were up to Kasich, public education would be replaced with charters and vouchers, unions would be banned, and teachers would serve at-will.

Kasich blew his cover the other day. He said if he were king, he would eliminate teachers’ lounges, so that teachers could not congregate and complain. Free speech seems to be a problem for Kasich.

Categories Ohio, Teachers
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