Archives for category: Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes
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Detroit Now Scrutinizing Byrd-Bennett Contracts

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2015 //
8

The Detroit News reports that investigators are reviewing contracts made during Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s time as chief academic auditor for the Detroit public schools under Robert Bobb.

“Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who was the chief academic and accountability auditor for DPS from 2009-11, was convicted of one count of fraud in federal court. Federal authorities alleged that as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, she steered $23 million in no-bid contracts to two education firms in return for $2.3 million in bribes and kickbacks.

“One of those firms, Synesi Associates LLC, which trains principals and school administrators, was awarded contracts with DPS while Byrd-Bennett was working for the district, according to records posted on the DPS’ website….

“According to six-month expenditure reports from May and November 2011, DPS paid $1,487,654.08 to Synesi for “Consultant Services/Curriculum/Office of Accountability.”

“The report from November 2011 also lists an invoice of $128,698.77 to Synesi as “disapproved.”
In a statement Tuesday, a DPS spokeswoman said the district is cooperating with authorities.”

“

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reform, Detroit, For-Profit, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Jon Pelto: The Shadow of Paul Vallas Hangs Over the Chicago Scandal

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2015 //
13

Yesterday, the ex-CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, pleaded guilty to a kickback scheme involving SUPES Academy. She is facing serious jail time. The owners of SUPES Academy, who made an agreement to pay BBB, have yet to be judged. Mayor Rahm Emanuel would like to pin the guilt squarely on BBB, but the Chicago Tribune revealed yesterday that the owner of SUPES is an ally of Emanuel and recommended first J.C. Blizzard as CEO, then BBB.

Jonathan Pelto, master blogger of Connecticut, sees connections that go beyond what we know so far. He sees Paul Vallas as a player in the Chicago drama. If you like to read truth-is-stranger-than-fiction stories, read his post.

Pelto writes:

Charges were also filed against The SUPES Academy LLC and Synesi Associates LLC, as well as against the owners of those two companies, Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas. According to the indictment, their role in the kick-back scheme includes charges of bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

A third company owned by the two individuals, PROACT Search, a superintendent search firm that provided New Haven with Superintendent Garth Harris and Norwalk with Superintendent Steven Adamowski has also been caught up in the FBI’s investigation into the Chicago scandal….

Prior to being hand-picked by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to run Chicago’s Public Schools, Byrd-Bennett worked as a consultant and lead teacher for The Supes Academy, worked as a consultant for Synesi Associates and was listed as a part of the management team at PROACT Search.

While many key actors in the Corporate Education Reform Industry have been involved with Gary Solomon and his companies, one of the most prominent names on Solomon’s list of close colleagues is the Great Paul Vallas, the Education Reform Guru and former CEO of the Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans public school systems.

More recently, Democratic Governor and education reform disciple Dannel Malloy brought Vallas to Bridgeport, Connecticut and then twisted Connecticut law in knots so that Vallas could stay for two years until local residents had finally had enough and forced Vallas to leave the job and return to Illinois.

As for the situation in Chicago, it could certainly be said that Gary Solomon’s ability to build such a “successful” corporate education reform company is due, in no small part, to his close relationship with Paul Vallas.

Vallas not only hired Solomon and his companies when he worked in Philadelphia, but brought Solomon with him to New Orleans.

And Vallas worked to bring other business to Solomon and his companies as well.

While Vallas has publicly claimed that he has no financial interest in any of Solomon’s consulting activities, in Vallas’ Philadelphia days Solomon’s consulting company advertised that it had “the exclusive rights to Paul Vallas’ model of education reform….”

The story gets weirder and weirder, as Vallas and Solomon play tag team:

When Paul Vallas moved on to New Orleans to head the Louisiana Recovery School District, Solomon picked up even more lucrative contracts.

But it is a story out of Illinois that provides a true snap-shot and insider’s view into how Vallas and the Corporate Education Reform Industry works;

While Gary Solomon and his companies profited greatly via Vallas in Philadelphia and New Orleans, it is the somewhat more hidden story surrounding the Rockford School District (PSD 150) in Illinois the provides telling evidence about how Vallas and the Corporate Education Reform Industry works.

More consulting contracts. Follow the story. Pelto is an amazing investigative reporter.

Categories Chicago, Connecticut, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Vallas, Paul

Los Angeles: Eli Broad’s Stealth Plan to Control LAUSD Public Schools

By dianeravitch
October 14, 2015 //
32

Eli Broad already announced his intention to privatize the schools of half the children in the Los Angeles public schools. He will gather $490 million from his billionaire friends to open 260 new charters. Some of these will presumably be housed in empty public schools.

The Broad coalition of Broad-funded organizations has already demanded a role in vetting the new superintendent.

The elected school board has made clear that it wants to hear from many communities, not just the Broad coalition.

But who do you think is in charge of community outreach for the school board? A certified insider in the corporate reform movement!

As Karen Wolfe, a parent activist, details here, Beth Doctor Gibbons has a sparkling “reformster” resume. She was a lobbyist for Michelle Rhee’s anti-teacher, anti-union StudentsFirst for three years; she is an alumna of TFA; she taught in Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy chain; she worked for Educators for Excellence (E4E), the Gates-funded group that opposes due process rights for teachers. What a resume!

Wolfe notes:

“Now at LAUSD
Since January, 2015, Gibbons has been an external affairs and legislative liaison in LAUSD’s Office of Government Relations, according to her LinkedIn profile. That’s before the new board convened; certainly before new board member Scott Schmerelson vowed not to let Eli Broad bully the school board, before Steve Zimmer was board president, and before he said that Broad’s plan was a “gross perversion” of charters in an NBC television interview.”

This is the person who will lead community discussions of Eli Broad’s hostile takeover and privatization of LA schools. What a clever man he is!

Will the board go along with Eli’s silent coup or will they choose someone to represent the public interest?

Steve Zimmer? Time to stand up and be counted.

Categories Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Los Angeles, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Journalists: Ask The Candidates These Questions

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2015 //
9

The Network for Public Education created a list of questions that journalists should ask the candidates. In this post on Salon.com, I explained NPE’s agenda to improve our public schools and to repel the corporate assault on them.

K-12 education issues, of huge importance to the future of our nation, were almost completely ignored in 2012. They should not be overlooked in 2016 because the very existence of public education is under attack. Billionaires hope to privatize urban districts, then move into the suburbs and elsewhere.

For those of us who believe that public education is a public responsibility, the time to become active is now.

We oppose the status quo of testing and privatization. We seek far better schools, equitable and well-resourced, where creativity and imagination are prized, not test scores. We seek equality of educational opportunity, not competition for scarce dollars.

Please join the Network for Public Education and help us build a new vision of education for each child.

Categories Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reform, Data and Data Mining, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Politics, Privatization, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, School Choice, Standardized Testing, Vouchers

Chicago: Barbara Byrd-Bennett Pleads Guilty, Might Get 7 1/2 Years in Prison

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2015 //
48

The former CEO of Chicago public schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a kickback in exchange for a $23 million contract for SUPES Academy, her former employer.

Prosecutors recommended a reduced sentence of 7 1/2 years in prison in return for her cooperation. Her sentencing comes later.

Further down in the story, one reads that Mayor Rahm Emanuel concealed his knowledge of the deal. Even more interesting, Byrd-Bennett’s co-conspirator is a close ally of Rahm Emanuel. He recommended Emanuel’s first CEO, J.C. Brizard, then recommended Byrd-Bennett. Emanuel claimed that his administration asked “hard questions” about the no-bid contract before it was approved.

This story illustrates what is wrong about mayoral control: no checks or balances. A perfect set-up for corruption.

“A federal indictment unsealed Thursday accused Byrd-Bennett in a massive scheme with the co-owners of SUPES Academy, a company she worked for before joining CPS. The federal probe was revealed in April after CPS acknowledged receiving grand jury subpoenas seeking an array of documents on the SUPES contract. Soon after, Byrd-Bennett took a paid leave of absence and then resigned in May.

“SUPES owners Gary Solomon, a consultant with ties to the Emanuel administration, and partner Thomas Vranas also were charged in the 23-count indictment, as was SUPES and another education consulting company the two ran. Solomon and Vranas are scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m. Wednesday, records show.

“The heart of the indictment involved more than $23 million in no-bid contracts awarded to SUPES to train CPS principals and other administrators beginning in 2012. A CPS committee set up to evaluate no-bid contracts initially balked at awarding SUPES a noncompetitive deal but less than a month later approved the plan, records show.

“According to the charges, Solomon agreed to kick back 10 percent of the total value of any contracts awarded to SUPES while Byrd-Bennett held the No. 2 post with CPS. She was later elevated by Emanuel to CEO.

“Much of the indictment centers on emails sent between Solomon and Byrd-Bennett that seem to make no effort to conceal the alleged kickback scheme. In one message, Byrd-Bennett even implied she needed cash because she had “tuition to pay and casinos to visit,” according to the charges.

“In a December 2012 message, Solomon assured Byrd-Bennett that trust accounts had been set up in the names of two of her young relatives — identified by sources as twin grandsons — and that they would be funded with a combined $254,000 as a “signing bonus” for her help in obtaining the contracts.

“The cash would be hers once she stepped down from her public post and rejoined his firm, Solomon wrote in the email….

“While Byrd-Bennett became the public face of the scandal, the Tribune has reported previously that Solomon’s ties to the Emanuel administration go back to the beginning of Emanuel’s tenure in office, predating the arrival of Byrd-Bennett. In fact, Solomon helped recruit Emanuel’s first schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard, at the request of the mayor-elect’s transition team in February 2011.

“Solomon went on to recommend Byrd-Bennett, who was the lead trainer at SUPES when CPS hired her as chief education officer in April 2012.

“Emanuel and his aides have maintained that the mayor’s office had nothing to do with the SUPES contract. When asked in April if his administration had any role at all in the SUPES contract, Emanuel told reporters, “No, you obviously know that by all the information available. And so the answer to that is no.”

“On Monday, Emanuel acknowledged for the first time that his office had prior knowledge of the deal, saying his staff “asked some very hard questions” about the no-bid contract before the Chicago school board approved it.

“The comments came on the same day the Tribune reported the mayor’s office was more involved in the $20.5 million contract than previously disclosed and was fighting the release of public records that could shed more light on how the deal came to be.

“As part of that fight, the Tribune in June sued the city under the state Freedom of Information Act after the mayor’s office redacted or withheld about two dozen emails emanating from Emanuel’s office.

“While much of the picture remains missing, the email logs and documents the administration did release show frequent communication among key Emanuel aides, Chicago school leaders and the heads of the SUPES Academy consulting firm in the months, weeks and days leading up to Emanuel’s hand-picked school board awarding the contract.”

We are left to wonder: What did Mayor Emanuel know and when did he know it?

An afterthought: I served on two different boards with Barbara BB. I thought she was smart and honorable person. I liked her. I am sad for her. She swam with sharks, and she lost her moral center. Very sad.

Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Chicago: More Barbara Byrd-Bennett Contracts Investigated

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2015 //
15

Barbara Byrd-Bennett, former CEO of the Chicago public schools, is expected to plead guilty to charges of taking a kickback from a $23 million contract to a company she once worked for. Now, other contracts are under scrutiny, including a contract to a company owned by Robert Bobb, former leader of the Educational Achievement Authority in Detroit.

““Chicago Tonight” has learned of a probe into another contract where a firm with ties to Byrd-Bennett received CPS business. This as Byrd-Bennett is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to charges that she steered $23 million in CPS money to SUPES Academy and Synesi Associates in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.

“The arrangement in question: a $31 million contract to help CPS manage the controversial closing and consolidation of 50 schools that took place two years ago. It’s under scrutiny, “Chicago Tonight” has learned, because of ties between former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and one of the companies that received that business.

“A company called Global Workplace Solutions won the $30.9 million bid to help close the schools. The duties involved relocating records, removing contents, furnishings and equipment from the closed schools, and then securing the closed schools. A portion of the business was subcontracted to a company called The Robert Bobb Group, a company run by Robert Bobb, the former Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools. Bobb hired Byrd-Bennett in Detroit in 2009 as Chief Academic Auditor and paid her a salary of $18,000 per month.”

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

U.S. Department of Education Continues to Pay Billions to Predatory For-Profit Colleges

By dianeravitch
October 13, 2015 //
16

If you have read recently that the U.S. Department of Education cracked down on predatory for-profit colleges, don’t believe it.

Read this story in today’s New York Times.

When the Obama administration agreed to erase the federal loan debt of some former students at Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit school that filed for bankruptcy in the face of charges of widespread fraud, education officials promised to “protect students from abusive colleges and safeguard the interests of taxpayers.”

But the Education Department, despite a crackdown against what it calls “bad actors,” continues to hand over tens of millions of dollars every month to other for-profit schools that have been accused of predatory behavior, substandard practices or illegal activity by its own officials or state attorneys general across the country.

Consider the Education Management Corporation, which runs 110 schools in the United States for chefs, artists and other trades. It has been investigated or sued in recent years by prosecutors in at least 12 states. The Justice Department has accused the company of illegally using incentives to pay its recruiters. And last year, investors filed a class-action lawsuit, contending that the company engaged in deceptive enrollment practices and manipulated federal student loan and grant programs.

Education Management nonetheless received more than $1.25 billion in federal money over the last school year.

The career training and for-profit college industry has been accused in recent years of preying on the poor, veterans and minorities by charging exorbitant fees for degrees that mostly fail to deliver promised skills and jobs.

Despite stepped-up scrutiny, hundreds of schools that have failed regulatory standards or been accused of violating legal statutes are still hauling in billions of dollars of government funds. They include tiny beauty schools with staggering loan default rates and online law schools with dismal graduation records and no bar association accreditation. Without government funds, which account for the overwhelming bulk of revenue, few of these institutions could attract students or stay in business.

 

The for-profit higher education industry hired the best lobbyists from both parties, and this is the result. Government-funded fraud against students goes on. Business as usual.

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Higher Education, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Nominee for Best Charter School Scandal of the Year

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2015 //
17

Just when I think I have heard the most absurd story possible about charter schools that pillage taxpayers’ dollars, I discover a story like this one (thanks to a reader in Florida).

This is only part of the story:

With roughly 270 students, the new Paramount Charter School in Sunrise has already received $740,000 in taxpayer-funded money and is slated to get about $3 million during the school year.

Despite the infusion of public cash, Paramount — an elementary-level school that, like all charters, is privately owned but publicly funded — is riddled with problems. According to a school board member, it’s already had three principals, lost nearly all of its teachers after the first month due to firings and resignations and has some parents alleging their children aren’t learning there.

The president of the company that owns the school, Jimika Williams Mason, drove away from a Local 10 News camera in her vehicle. It was discovered the listed vice president of the company, Ashley Challenger, is a 22-year-old Nova Southeastern University student who said she was given a spot on the school’s board of directors through the college and had no idea she had even been listed as a corporate vice president of the Advancement of Education in Scholars Corporation.

She said she had met once with Mason but had no idea what was happening at the school and had yet to attend a board meeting.

More findings about the troubled charter school include:

Mason, the president, lists no experience in the education field in the application, instead noting that she spent six years in management at a Miramar company that specializes in unsecured home improvement loans.

Former NFL player and reality TV star Hank Baskett is listed in the application as a “non-voting board member” who will “aid in the Sports and Fitness program.” But Baskett’s agent, Jim Ivler, said Baskett is not affiliated with the school. “They reached out to us more than five years ago interested in establishing a relationship with Hank,” Ivler wrote Local 10. “It never went anywhere and we haven’t heard from them in years.”

The corporate office goes to a building in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park, but a manager there told Local 10 the company doesn’t actually rent physical office space, but rather has a “virtual office” where it can receive mail and phone messages.

After promising at least two teachers who spoke to Local 10 on condition of anonymity a salary of $36,000 and full benefits, the school after the first month instructed them that if they wanted to keep their jobs they would have to take a $6,000 pay cut and forego benefits. Both teachers were among those who resigned, while numerous teachers were fired. “I don’t understand how you can give someone a school just based on paper,” said one teacher. “Not only the school, how can you give them the children,” said the other.

A member of the local school board said:

“Everything is a free-for-all basically…And the sad part is we’re going to find this generation of kids, many of them, who are not educated properly in these schools.”

To learn more about this school, read Mercedes Schneider’s description here.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Florida, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Mike Klonsky: The Scandal Goes Way Beyond Barbara Byrd-Bennett

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2015 //
27

Mike Klonsky comments on the latest scandal in Chicago, where ex-CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty in a scheme to take a kickback from a no-bid contract.

Klonsky says Mayor Rahm Emanuel hand-picked Byrd-Bennett. The Mayor hand-picked the school board. No one question the $23 million contract to SUPES, which had a s secret deal with the CEO.

Klonsky writes:

“My take is that the SUPES scandal goes way beyond BBB and her crew. Mayoral control of the schools has created a culture of corruption that goes all the way up to the top of the system. Turning CPS into a wing of City Hall — one of the most disreputable institutions in history — with an autocratic mayor in charge, was a mistake for which we all now will pay a tremendous price.

This is familiar to those of us who live in Néw York City. The board of education approved hundreds of millions on no-bid contracts during the Bloomberg years. The mayor-controlled board supinely approved each one, never challenging them (8 of 13 members were appointed by the mayor). The only dissident voice was Patrick Sullivan, appointed not by the mayor but by the Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer. Other than Sullivan, the board went along to please the mayor, no questions asked.

Democracy implies the need for checks and balances, transparency and accountability.

Categories Chicago, Democracy, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Chicago: Ex-Superintendent Barbara Byrd Bennett Will Plead Guilty in Kickback Scheme

By dianeravitch
October 8, 2015 //
31

Barbara Byrd Bennett, who served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools for Rahm Emanuel, pleaded guilty in a scheme to profit from a no-bid contract.

The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, will plead guilty to charges in an indictment released Thursday that alleges she steered more than $23 million in no-bid contracts from CPS to her former employer, authorities said Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon made the announcement at a news conference Thursday. He declined to discuss the details of any plea agreement, including possible prison time.

Fardon said Byrd-Bennett and others “entered into a scheme to secretly profit from schools.”

Byrd-Bennett — Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked choice — becomes CPS’ first chief executive officer to face criminal charges in connection with her job. Federal authorities have been investigating the most controversial of those contracts — a $20.5 million no-bid CPS deal for principal training, the largest in recent memory — for more than a year.

Receiving that contract in 2013 to train principals was The SUPES Academy, owned by former Niles West High School dean Gary Solomon and his former student Thomas Vranas. It generated controversy at the time because SUPES was not known for training principals while many other, respected organizations did that very job. The deal continued to draw criticism as some educators questioned the quality of SUPES’ training.

Solomon, 47, of Wilmette, and Vranas, 34, of Glenview, also were charged, as were SUPES and another company they owned that was given CPS contracts, Synesi Associates LLC.

Solomon’s attorney suggested Thursday his client would plead guilty in the case as well.

The feds allege in a 43-page indictment that Byrd-Bennett, 66, and Solomon set up a kickback scheme, detailed in emails, in which Byrd-Bennett would get 10 percent of any CPS contracts she steered to SUPES and Synesi. The feds don’t allege how much money, if any, was paid to Byrd-Bennett.

In one email discussing the alleged scheme, Byrd-Bennett wrote: “I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit (:”

“I think those emails reflect greed,” Fardon said.

The scheme started right around the time Byrd-Bennett started her job as chief education officer at CPS, the post she held before becoming CEO, the feds allege.

Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes
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