The Sunny Side of Corruption by Jay Mathews

American print media's most prominent charter school cheerleader is at it again.  In his most recent Washington Post column, Jay Mathews is preaching the virtues of IDEA Charter Schools, Inc., which recently lost its CEO founder and other senior leaders due to corruption charges involving private jets, NBA sky boxes, and routine use of public funds for "personal benefit:"

A financial investigation “uncovered substantial evidence that … a small number of IDEA senior leaders directed the use of IDEA financial and staff resources for their personal benefit on multiple occasions,” Board Chair Al Lopez wrote in a letter Tuesday. “Furthermore, their actions appeared to be done in a manner to avoid detection by the standard external audit and internal control processes that the Board had in place at the time.”

None of this corruption or efforts to conceal the crimes could ever dampen Jay's enthusiasm, however.  Nor has Mathews departed from his unique brand of dissembling propaganda. Just one example from this latest column:

Charters are independently run public schools that use tax dollars. Most are no better academically than regular public schools. But a 2013 Stanford University report showed that 25 percent of charters were significantly better in reading achievement and 29 percent were significantly better in math achievement than neighboring regular public schools serving the same kinds of students.

When we go to the actual research report that includes Jay's numbers, we find the details that put a whole new light on Jay's sunny summary.  From the Credo Study, 2013, p. 22 Executive Summary:

Figure 8 shows the performance of charter schools relative to the TPS in their market. Based on our analyses, we found 25 percent of schools had significantly stronger growth than their TPS market counterparts in reading, 56 percent were not significantly different and 19 percent of schools had weaker growth. In math, the results show that 29 percent of charter schools had stronger growth than their TPS market counterparts, 40 percent had growth that was not significantly different, and 31 percent had weaker growth. These results were an improvement over those in the 2009 report.

 

 

 

 

Corporate Welfare Charter Kingpins Try to Buy a New NYC Mayor

With the clueless Bill Deblasio soon vacating the Mayor's office, the hedge funders and the box store  billionaires who want to crush public schools and unionism in order to advance paternalist corporate charters and chain gang pedagogy are dumping tons of dollars into the trough where Eric Adams and Andrew Yang feed. From the NYTimes today:

. . . . Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire who owns the Mets, donated $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC and $500,000 to Mr. Adams’s in mid-May, when the two candidates were leading the polls. But as Mr. Yang’s support appeared to wane and Mr. Adams’s grew, Mr. Cohen cut off Mr. Yang and donated another $1 million to Mr. Adams.

A similar trajectory characterizes the giving patterns of Daniel S. Loeb, another hedge fund billionaire and an outspoken supporter of charter schools and former chairman of Success Academy Charter Schools. He donated $500,000 to Mr. Adams’s super PAC and $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC in mid-May. Three weeks later, as Mr. Adams was cementing his front-runner status, Mr. Loeb gave Mr. Adams’s super PAC another $500,000.

Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang have expressed support for charter schools.. . .

. . . .One thing some may hope to get is an expansion of charter schools in the city. Other billionaires financing super PACs in this primary include four investors who support charter schools, a favored cause of financiers skeptical of district public schools: Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones, who donated $500,000 and $600,000, respectively, to the Adams super PAC; Kenneth Griffin, another hedge fund manager, who has donated $750,000 to both the Adams and Yang super PACs; and Pennsylvania investor Jeffrey Yass, who donated $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC.

As it happens, the president of Mr. Adams’s super PAC is Jenny Sedlis, who is on leave from a charter school advocacy group, Students First NY, and co-founded Success Academy, which has received direct financial support from Mr. Griffin.

If you support public education, do everything you can to make sure that Eric Adams and Andrew Yang are defeated.

KIPP Admin Salaries Soar

Just as a point of comparison, New York City, which has the nation's largest school system with over 1,800 schools, pays the School Chancellor an annual salary of $212,614.

KIPP, Inc. has 209 schools.  The executive director of just one school, KIPP Academy in Lynn, MA, is paid $197,500.

Salaries for KIPP teachers, who work up to 80 hours per week, average just over 50K.

Conference presentation on criminal defendant Ref Rodriguez

Legal scholar Robert D. Skeels gave a twenty minute talk on criminal defendant Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez of the California Charter Schools Association at a conference on school privatization on October 1, 2017.

Criminal defendant Ref Rodriguez, an introduction

Corporate charter school mogul Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez has been in the news lately. First, for his being elected President of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education. Second, he is facing criminal charges of three felony counts, including conspiracy and perjury, and 25 misdemeanor counts of assumed name contribution.

Who is this rising star of the California Charter Schools Association? How did he end up on LAUSD’s board despite having never attended, nor worked at a public school? Why are these charges no surprise to Los Angeles public education activists? All of the questions and more answered in a talk by Robert D. Skeels at 2:30 PM during Defend Public Education NOW’s Opposing Charter Schools Conference. This talk, and topic, is one of many at the event.

Conference: Opposing Charter Schools
Saturday, September 30, 2017 from 11 AM — 4 PM
Southern California Library
6120 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90044

Robert D. Skeels is a Juris Doctor candidate specializing in education policy and the law. His work appears in a range of publications including Jacobin, Truthout, and CounterPunch. He is one of the contributors for schoolsmatter.info

Corrupt Charter Astroturf Group Pays Record Fine in MA

Last year white Alice Walton, New York hedge fund whales, and other Wall Street parasites poured $19 million into an effort in Massachusetts to increase the number of charter schools in the state by eliminating the state cap.  With the help of paid actors and parents who don't know or don't care that their children are being brutalized daily in the charter cultural sterilization camps, large rallies were staged on Boston Common to make it appear that black and brown folks were demanding more charter schools.

The voters of MA weren't fooled.  Tired of having their public school funds go to corporate predators posing as educators, the citizens turned back the charter industry effort in the November referendum.

Now it seems the corrupt shenanigans by the charterites have been exposed.  Be sure to follow this link to the list of contributors, which include some of Governor Charlie Baker's top hands:

A wealthy New York organization that poured $15 million into last year’s unsuccessful ballot question to expand charter schools in Massachusetts was hit Monday with the largest fine in state campaign history after officials found the group was illegally hiding the identities of its donors.

Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy, a nonprofit that was the single largest funder behind Question 2 in Massachusetts, was slapped with a $426,466 fine, the largest in the 44-year history of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

The group was also forced to reveal its donors — showing it was anonymously receiving major checks from two Baker administration officials and numerous wealthy contributors from the world of high finance in Massachusetts, New York, and other states. . . .

On the Charter Feeding Frenzy in Detroit

A clip from NYTimes:

. . . .Detroit schools have long been in decline academically and financially. But over the past five years, divisive politics and educational ideology and a scramble for money have combined to produced a public education fiasco that is perhaps unparalleled in the United States.

While the idea was to foster academic competition, the unchecked growth of charters has created a glut of schools competing for some of the nation’s poorest students, enticing them to enroll with cash bonuses, laptops, raffle tickets for iPads and bicycles. Leaders of charter and traditional schools alike say they are being cannibalized, fighting so hard over students and the limited public dollars that follow them that no one thrives.

Detroit now has a bigger share of students in charters than any American city except New Orleans, which turned almost all its schools into charters after Hurricane Katrina. But half the charters perform only as well, or worse than, Detroit’s traditional public schools.

“The point was to raise all schools,” said Scott Romney, a lawyer and board member of New Detroit, a civic group formed after the 1967 race riots here. “Instead, we’ve had a total and complete collapse of education in this city.” . . . .

Governor Charlie Baker Misleads on State Charter Data

Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker, is pumping hard for his hedge fund buddies to get the charter cap lifted in MA, and he doesn't care if he has to create his own facts to get it done.  Latest evidence: he misstated information from the state auditor's report so badly that the Auditor's Office released a statement this week to clarify the situation for taxpayers.  Here is clip:

It had been my hope that this audit would serve as a tool to provide meaningful, unbiased, and complete data so that when this debate next took place, policymakers and the public would have access to more facts. I have long believed in, and as State Auditor am committed to, the notion that better information makes for better public policy. However, the lack of complete data when conducting this audit made it impossible to provide the tool my office sought to develop. When incomplete information is presented as fact, as is the case by this campaign, policymakers are not afforded the ability to make unbiased decisions and the public is misled. The education of our children is too important to base these important decisions on misleading information.

Backfilling Hurts Charter Brands

Despite large numbers of unsuspecting parents clamoring to get their child into one of Litte Eva's hell schools in NYC, many empty seats remain.  Why? 

Bringing in new kids after low performers have been ridden out can hurt the brand.  And with hundreds of million$ at stake, we know the brand is sacred. 

A chart from WaPo showing the dwindling numbers between grades 3 and 8 at Succs Academy:

A Charter Story: Ready for College But Not College Ready

from 2013:

Charter Crime Log This Week

Two closed charter schools’ records unauditable

SC charter school head guilty of embezzlement 

Visalia charter school janitor arrested in drugs for sale


Hedge fund executives give 'til it hurts to politicians, especially Cuomo, to get more charter schools

Federal prosecutor alleges kickbacks at Lee charter school

Jury convicts Michigan charter founder on tax charge  

Ohio online charter school spent more than $2.27M on ads

Old News New to Me

I missed this news in December when it happened, but in EduShyster's spot-on takedown today of the whitest and brightest law firms in Boston, I saw that the Tea Party retread and charterista, James Peyser, is now Sec. of Ed. in MA. 

Horace Mann must be rolling in his grave.  

Edushyster's explanation of how segregated charter schools became the civil rights tool of our era is priceless. 

Here is a link to 2006 when Peyser was bullying schools for Romney, and below is a bio from Peyser's last big gig as bigwig for the charter bundlers at the New Schools Venture Fund.

James A. Peyser

Author Website:http://www.newschools.org/


Author Bio:
Jim Peyser is Managing Partner for City Funds at NewSchools Venture Fund, a non-profit grant-making firm that seeks to transform public education by supporting innovative education entrepreneurs. In this role, Jim leads NewSchools investment activity in Boston, Newark and Washington, DC. From 1999 through 2006, Jim served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. 


Prior to joining NewSchools, Jim was Education Advisor to two Massachusetts Governors, where he helped shape state policy regarding standards and assessments, school accountability, and charter schools. In 1995, he served as Under Secretary of Education and Special Assistant to the Governor for Charter Schools. He spent more than seven years as Executive Director of Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, where he helped to launch the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, which supported the development of the state’s first charter schools. 


Prior to joining Pioneer Institute, Jim held various positions at Teradyne, Inc. in Boston, an electronic test equipment manufacturer. In his role with NewSchools, Jim currently serves on the board of directors for Achievement First, New Schools for New Orleans, Success Charter Network, and Uncommon Schools. He is also chairman of the board of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). 


In June 2011, Jim was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Jim holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School (Tufts University) and a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University.

Guest Post: CJ on Kittredge And Moskowitz talking corporate charter secrets

Apparently a charter spokesman, Jeremiah Kittredge in NYC, has difficulty---or feigns difficulty in order to manipulate folks---with the statistical concept of "average."  

(Kittredge is the high-paid and top spokesman for FAMILIES FOR EXCELLENT SCHOOLS, a non-profit that is funded by the Waltons, Eva Moskowitz' husbands' group, and hedge-funder-backed PACs.)

In a WCNY radio interview, Kittredge was asked to respond to irrefutable data that charters serve significantly less-than-average numbers of Special Ed. and ELL students. He countered by comparing charters' records to that of public schools.  

His proof.

Charters' dismal record for under enrolling Special Ed. and ELL students is no big deal because... try not to laugh... "over 50% of New York City public schools" serve "a less-than-average number of Special Ed. and ELL students."

Yeah, he actually said that.

Hey Jeremiah, when "over 50%" of ANY group does something, doesn't that mean that they will ALWAYS be doing it on a "less-than-average" rate or basis?

Put another way...

51% ALWAYS does something 49% or less (i.e. a less-than-average % or percentage) of the time.

52% will be doing it 48% or less of the time.... 

...and on and on..

This quote is from the NYC BAT's video "UNKNOWABLE":  (watch it, as it presents, then analyzes these and other answers from Kittredge & also from Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz in her interview with the Ayn Rand-ian libertarian website REASON):

https://vimeo.com/120305258

Hmmm... what other brilliant defenses will Kittredge, Eva, and their ilk be making and publicizing next?

(Here goes my audition for THE ONION!)

----------------------------

Re: teachers' attrition & the longevity of TFA teachers (the vast majority of whom leave after two years, three at the most... RINSE & REPEAT ad infinitum) -

KITTREDGE:  "Oh... Attrition Schmmattrition.  The numbers don't lie, and they back us up here.  An impressive result from a key study indicates that up-to-49% of our TFA Corps Members staffing our charter schools have longer-than-average teaching careers, and remain in the classroom longer than their fellow TFA colleagues.  In turn, our charter scholars reap the benefits of this selfless dedication."

or

"And what about the sky-high attrition among unionized public school teachers and THEIR career length?  Nobody ever talks about THAT.  Is their record so much more impressive?  A damning statistical analysis reveals that over 50% of teachers in unionized schools leave teaching and abandon their students, on average, earlier than their fellow unionized teachers.  Just think of the resulting negative impact that is then visited upon their students.  Shame on them!  The system is broken!"

- - - - - - -

re: student attrition -

EVA MOSKOWITZ:  "We're extremely proud of our record on this issue, and never moreso than on Graduation Day.  To see the glowing satisfaction on the faces of our SUCCCESS ACADEMY scholars and parents makes all that we do so worthwhile.  Indeed, we're proving those cynics wrong, as the data incontrovertibly shows that a whopping 100% of our Success Academy scholars who are not kicked... err... 'counseled out' prior to Graduation Day actually walk across that stage to get their diplomas.  I mean, come on!  100 PERCENT??!!! You can't do any better than THAT!" 

- - - - - - -

re: co-location -

EVA MOSKOWITZ:  "This so-called 'co-location crisis' in NYC schools is way overblown by our detractors.  Indeed, 100% of the public schools that do not yet have a charter school co-located on their campus---and there are hundreds of them, mind you---report ZERO percent of the problems typically associated with charter school co-locations.  Why aren't our critics reporting this fact?"

- - - - - - -

re: charter school leaders' refusal to pay rent for the public school buildings---originally built and now maintained by taxpayers---that the charters do/will occupy -

KITTREDGE:  "Look, this is just Business 101.  It's a basic market principle:  the more you SPEND, the less you HAVE... so how can you then charge us rent, and steal money from the education of poor children?  Didn't you see our TV commercials with all those adorable Charter School kids?  How can you do this to them?"

- - - - - - -

re: enormous Charter industry executive & administrator salaries... in the mid-six-figures (i.e. Kittredge, Eva, Dave & Mike at KIPP, Deborah Kenney, etc.) -

KITTREDGE:  "Look, we don't overpay our top people.  Across the city, we see it again and again... and this needs to be reported more... over 50% of charter school executives and administrators take home a less-than-average salary in comparison to their fellow charter school administrators and executives.  The enormous amount of money saved then goes to the classroom, and to meet the needs or our scholars. Why can't our critics see this, then get off this topic, and find something new to whine about?"

- - - - - - - -

re: intensive test-prep for standardized tests, sometimes two hours or more a day (N.Y. Magazine reported this, along with a comment from a Success Academy administrator proudly describing the students as "little test-taking machines") - 

EVA MOSKOWITZ:  ""Look, what's wrong with a little practice before a standardized test?  We make it fun, and it's not even that much to begin with.  Our tracking of our scholars shows that an impressive 50% or more of our students spend a less-than-average time doing drill-and-kill test prep compared to their fellow Success Academy scholars.  That frees up time for ... what, exactly... oh... I dunno... I forget... "

New York Charter School Audit Finds $28,000,000 Wasted

a clip from the Daily News:

. . . The state controller’s office and state Education Department have audited 62 of New York’s 248 charter schools, according to Serrette’s report. All told, Serrette’s group estimates wasteful spending at charters could cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year.

Eighteen audits targeted charters in New York City, representing about 9% of the 197 charters in the five boroughs. Each audit found issues.

A 2012 audit found Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School was paying $800,000 in excess annual fees to the management company that holds its building’s lease.

A 2012 audit of Williamsburg Charter High School revealed school officials overbilled the city for operations and paid contractors for $200,800 in services that should have been provided by the school’s network.

A 2007 audit of the Carl C. Icahn Charter School determined the Bronx school spent more than $1,288 on alcohol for staff parties and failed to account for another $102,857 in expenses.
The city spends more than $1.29 billion on charters annually.

State Education Department officials and a spokesman for the state controller’s office declined to comment on Serrette’s report.

Northeast Charter School Network CEO Kyle Rosenkrans said the schools already get plenty of oversight because they are subject to audits and must have their charters renewed at least every five years.

“Charter schools are the most accountable public schools there are,” the charter advocate said. “If we don’t perform or we mismanage our finances, we get shut down.

Charter School Crime Log Update

Florida Charters Corrupt as Jeb Bush

By Michael Mayo Sun Sentinel Columnist

 

12:23 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2014

OK class, time for a pop quiz. If you want to open a charter school — a privately run school that gets public money — which of the following will you need to get approval?

a) A suitable building for classes
b) A proven background in education or business
c) A past with no bankruptcies or major blemishes
d) A computer with a cut-and-paste key

If you answered "d," you're right. And that shows something is very wrong.

"The way Florida authorizes charter schools is one of the worst in the country," Broward schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told me Friday, citing the study of a national charter group.

Jim Pegg, director of charter schools for the Palm Beach County school district, said it "all starts with the application process," with school districts handcuffed by state law to prevent proper vetting of applicants.

Basically, our charter-happy Legislature has established a screwy system where the default position is anybody who correctly fills out a lengthy application form must be approved by local school districts. 
 Never mind past performance. Never mind the ability to actually run a school.

And so, once again, another school year has launched with a few bad actors on the charter scene closing abruptly. Three charter schools in Broward and two in Palm Beach County shuttered in the first few weeks of school, creating a mess for students, parents and employees.

In the last three years, 10 charter schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties have closed within two months of opening. Another 17 longer-lasting charters in the two counties have closed or been ordered shut in the last three years.

"It's just not good," said Runcie.

Pegg said the same operator forced to close schools in Delray Beach and Riviera Beach on opening day has four applications pending for future charters. "How am I supposed to take that seriously?" Pegg asked. Yet state law says the district must treat those applications like any other and not consider the operator's track record.

Runcie is still exasperated by the operator who shut the Ivy Charter schools last year, stiffing teachers on paychecks and not paying rent for his buildings, after getting $500,000 in student funding. "Somehow, that's not criminal," Runcie said.

Clearly, it's time for some fixes. Charters schools have exploded in popularity in the last decade — there are now around 100 charters in Broward (serving 38,000 students) and 50 in Palm Beach County (serving 14,000 students). They were created to give parents and students more choice, and there are many good ones (my daughter switched to a charter school last year; so far it's worked out).

So this isn't meant as a rant against the overall concept of charter schools. It's a call for some easy fixes to prevent more fast-closing disasters. The good actors in the charter-school market should be on board with this.

Unfortunately, our Republican-dominated Legislature has let ideology trump common sense when it comes to regulating charter schools. . . .

Little Eva Moves to Wall Street

from Juan Gonzalez at the Daily News:

Eva Moskowitz, the firebrand chief of the city’s fastest growing charter chain, isn’t just backed by Wall Street, she’s officially moved there — with Wall Street-type salaries to boot.

Last November, Moskowitz, who for years boasted of opening her Success Academy Charter Schools in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, quietly shifted her corporate headquarters from Central Harlem to 95 Pine St. (aka 120 Wall St.).

The new offices will cost her organization $31 million over 15 years, according to its most recent financial report.

The same report shows Moskowitz received an eye-popping $567,000 during the 2012-2013 school year. That’s a raise of $92,000 from the previous year, and more than double the $212,000 paid to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gonzalez-eva-moskowitz-isn-backed-wall-street-moved-article-1.1918293#ixzz3Bh2VGDJL

ALEC's Model Bill to Get Public Money for Corporate Charters Before Any Students Enroll

From Politico:

— ALEC will also consider two model bills that could vastly expand funding for charter schools, including facilities funds. One would require states or districts to pay charters for their entire first year of operation based on the enrollment figures administrators projected before they opened their doors — not how many students actually show up. (Any discrepancies would be addressed with adjustments to funding in the second year.) Read the agenda and model bills:http://bit.ly/TAFxCC.

Charter $chool CEOs of New York

The guy at the bottom--that's the Chancellor of 1,600 New York City Public Schools.  Remember--it's all about the children.  From the Daily News:

Backed into a corner by a monster it helped create, LAUSD fights back against charter colocation greed

Although the bungalows are used for after school programs, art classes, festivals and special education speech therapy space, according to the number of enrolled students at Micheltorena, the bungalows have been deemed empty and available for tenancy by any charter that requests them. — Lulu Wilson

The Los Angeles Times' LAUSD fights court order to give more space to charter schools highlights how the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has asked corporate friendly Judge Terry A. Green's "court to reconsider its decision. The school system is also preparing an appeal."

This is in response to the California Charter Schools Association's recent overreach in which they were able to obtain yet another privatization friendly court ruling that allows privately managed charter corporations to norm their classrooms as low as ten students per teacher, meanwhile LAUSD public schools "are crammed with about 50 students" in some classes. Of course, Howard Blume's biased article leaves this (and many other facts) out entirely. Cheryl Ortega was kind enough to address this issue:

The article also fails to mention the issue of smaller norming and how that could affect the home school. The issue of not counting the set asides has been the practice, if not the policy, since the inception of prop 39 in LAUSD.

Green's ruling will result in neighborhood children being displaced from their own schools and a further marginalization of children with special needs. Of course, we already know the charter school industry serves fewer students with disabilities to begin with, so it's no surprise that charters don't mind displacing those children from public schools either.

I left the following comments on The Times site:

These privately managed charters only care about their revenue streams. Displacing services, or even students from their own neighborhood schools, means nothing to the wealthy executives at the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), which continues to pull in tens of millions of dollars from right wing organizations like the Walton Family Foundation.

Meanwhile public school children are being crammed into smaller and smaller spaces, with less and less resources! The CCSA is on record for not caring about "severely disabled students, parent centers and computer labs." Californians were tricked by Prop 39, and now the fruits of that deception are coming to the fore.

Social Justice activists have fought against this charter colocation greed in communities like Echo Park and Silver Lake. What we need is create a large community push-back against the deep pocketed CCSA in every neighborhood. Any organization or law that puts revenues and executive salaries ahead of the needs of children and communities has to go!

I am proud to have been one of the community organizers who, alongside activists like educator Cheryl Ortega and many public school parents, have fought the occupations of our public schools by capricious corporate charter schools in the 90026 zip code. We exposed the illegal incursions by the Gabriella Charter Corporation and were able to convince the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council to vote against colocation by CWC Charter Corporation. We started a facebook support group for people struggling against heavy handed charters ruining their public schools called Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations, please feel free to join.

Given the unlimited amounts of money the charter school industry has access to, it will always be an uphill struggle to battle against their efforts to undermine public education. That said, we must resist, and it's good sign to see that a school district and Superintendent renowned for kowtowing to the corporate charter sector, are, by necessity, beginning to fight back against the tide of neoliberalism and school privatization.

---

ADDENDUM

A reader emailed me the following yesterday. It explains a lot more about the corporate judge mentioned above.

Judge Terry A. Green, the one who ruled that charter school students have more rights than public school students, is a long time right-wing Republican donor who has given to fringe organizations like Economic Liberty PAC as well as the Bush-Cheney campaigns, the Republic National Committee, John McCain, the California Republican Party, and others like Congressman James Rogan and Senator-wannabe Bill Jones.

Go to the link and look for Terry A. Green from CA/Pasadena to see. Sometimes he is listed as Honorable Terry Green and the Superior Court is listed. http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/qind/

In fact, he donated $500 to the Republican National Committee just 8 months ago, perhaps after reading the party platform on charter school/school choice expansion. http://tinyurl.com/d4uztel

Shouldn't a judge who donates thousands of dollars to organizations and individuals who blindly support charter schools recuse himself from these cases? Instead, he rules for—surprise—the CCSA!