No Excuses for IDEA Charter Schools Theft of Public Funds?

Based on the No Excuses KIPP Model for chain gang schooling of brown and black children, IDEA Public [sic] Schools was founded in 2000 by two former Teach for America recruits, Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama.  The new corporate charter chain saw explosive growth, becoming the largest charter chain in Texas, with 36 schools and 19,000 students by 2015. By the end of 2024, IDEA plans to have 143 schools and 80,000 students in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Ohio.

Early in 2019 the U. S. Department of Education handed IDEA Charter Schools, Inc. a five-year grant for $116 million, ostensibly to open new charter schools. 

By December of the same year, IDEA's corporate board under the direction of IDEA's CEO, Tom Torkelson, had voted unanimously to lease an eight-passenger private jet for $15 million to, well, jet around. When the story came to light, thanks to the Houston Chronicle, the plan was canceled. 

Ah, well, that didn't stop the high rollers at IDEA from spending $400,000 a year for sky boxes to watch the San Antonio Spurs or for other luxuries that were brought to light by a forensic review in 2021.

Co-founder TomTorkelson took his money ($900,000 in severance) and ran in 2020, followed a year later by the firing of the other co-founder, JoAnn Gama, and a number of other corporate welfare queens and kings.  

Even so, the corruption persisted.  Which led to further investigation by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).  That investigation wrapped up in late January, and the San Antonio Report reported on March 6 that TEA has appointed two conservators to oversee operations.  No indictments, no slaps on the wrist, no criminal referrals.  

As a condition, I suppose, of no one at IDEA getting an orange jumpsuit, IDEA has agreed to pay back $28.7 million in federal funds. Why, you ask. No explanation by TEA, which remains a cheerleader for IDEA, so much so that IDEA, specializing as it does in cultural sterilization of brown and black children, has announced a building boom moving forward.

Hillsdale College Proudly Published Putin Paean

Just after Putin helped elect D----- T---- as President, higher ed's highest bastion of Trumpism invited Christopher Caldwell, Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute, to deliver the keynote at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona on February 15, 2017, less than a month after the T---- inauguration (remember the record crowds?).

The speech was entititled "How to Think about Vladimir Putin." The President of Hillsdale College leadership was so impressed that, when he returned to campus, he had the College's ideological organ, Imprimis, to print an adapted version of the speech.

Below is a tiny excerpt, but it offers a strong whiff of the corrupt, xenophobic, white nationalist, anti-intellectual stench that attracts corrupt, xenophobic, white nationalist, anti-intellectual governors like Bill Lee from hundreds a miles away:

Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] is not the president of a feminist NGO. He is not a transgender-rights activist. He is not an ombudsman appointed by the United Nations to make and deliver slide shows about green energy. He is the elected leader of Russia—a rugged, relatively poor, militarily powerful country that in recent years has been frequently humiliated, robbed, and misled. His job has been to protect his country’s prerogatives and its sovereignty in an international system that seeks to erode sovereignty in general and views Russia’s sovereignty in particular as a threat.

. . . if we were to use traditional measures for understanding leaders, which involve the defense of borders and national flourishing, Putin would count as the pre-eminent statesman of our time. On the world stage, who can vie with him? Only perhaps Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.

. . . .

Why are American intellectuals such ideologues when they talk about the “international system”? Probably because American intellectuals devised that system, and because they assume there can never be legitimate historic reasons why a politician would arise in opposition to it. They denied such reasons for the rise of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. They do the same with Donald Trump. And they have done it with Putin. They assume he rose out of the KGB with the sole purpose of embodying an evil for our righteous leaders to stamp out.

If #LAUSD's Nick Melvoin did engage in acts of moral turpitude…

The esteemed Professor Diane Ravitch wrote about one of the newest revelations on the Michael Kolhaas dot org website. She writes:

"He says that [Nick] Melvoin as a member of the board was privy to the LAUSD legal strategy in its perennial struggle with the charter lobby. He says that Melvoin shared this strategy with the charter lobby."

This is very serious.

I don’t have time to look into this closely, but if this Nick Melvoin—an attorney—was sharing confidential information with the opposing party in litigation, then he has likely violated a number of The State Bar of California’s Rules of Professional Conduct. At issue are several parts of Rule 8.4 Misconduct (e.g. 8.4(a), 8.4(c), 8.4(e)), Rule 1.11, and others—particularly those governing conflicts of interest and the duties of honesty and candor.

I strongly encourage people to visit How to File a Complaint Against an Attorney on The State Bar of California’s (CalBar) website. Calbar has the authority to investigate and discipline attorneys. The conduct that Melvoin has allegedly engaged in would likely result in discipline, or even disbarment, given the severity of the acts. However, CalBar will only take action if they’re aware of Melvoin’s alleged conduct.

2016 Week 22 Education Odds and Ends

“[Mike] Feinberg’s fumbling rhetoric and transparent body language cannot conceal the condescending corporate paternalism that is a defining characteristic of KIPP’s abusive corporate reform school testing camps.” — Professor James Horn

Dr. Horn's book just arrived in the mail. To read after my 2L year ends. @MismeasureOfEd #edreform pic.twitter.com/wIjpbBPGRI

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) April 6, 2016

A parent testifies about charter co-location

Parent-Activist Karen Wolfe provides powerful testimony against corporate charter profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's scheme to make it easier for charters to occupy large portions of public schools. Her piece is available here.

New Series Looks At Charter Schools

Jeff Bryant announced this on another site:

Over the next few days Capital & Main, an independent news outlet in California, will be looking at charter school expansions in the state and their impact on school districts, teachers, and students. Given some of the sources involved in the reporting, this should be really good. See the kick-off here.

A Charter With Its Hand in the Cookie Jar?

LAUSD Board Candidate Carl J. Petersen continues to expose the wrongdoing of Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS).

Steve Zeltzer: Connecting The Dots, Charter Schools, Privatization and Public Education In Richmond CA

https://youtu.be/0XymPX9wOqI

Teachers who are members of United Teachers of Richmond UTR and Vallejo Education Association joined with parents and supporters of public education  in Richmond, California  on May 28, 2016 to report on the continuing attack on public education through charters, testing and privatization.

There was also reports on the role of Ron Beller and the Caliber Charter Schools which wants to buy the Adams school site for $60,000.

Additional media:

https://youtu.be/FUER2mOFzEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9n36VzQ14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWO_zxwxZQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrmgFgfoFPw

Production of Labor Video Project

This week's Questions and Answers on Neoliberal Corporate Education Reform

“Our rulers don’t just want exclusive control over the governance and finances of our schools, they want to control both what is taught and by whom.” — Robert D. Skeels

On the average week I answer a few inquiries regarding various education issues. This week I received two that I felt deserved publishing. The first was addressed to a group of us on facebook, the second was a private email. In both cases the identity of others is removed in order to protect them.

Question One

Anyone ever hear of blended schools network or global personalized academics?

They are for-profit firms, both held by Sibling Group Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: SIBE). The former is associated with Gooru, a 501c3 funded by right-wing donors including the Gates and Hewlett Foundations. The latter is Florida based and apparently has worked with privately managed charters associated with Jeb Bush and Joe Biden's brother. They "empower" students by profiting off of them staring mindlessly at computer screens.

Question Two

Robert-

A [reporter] from LA School Report contacted [redacted] today. I told her I've heard that LA School Report is very bad - biased..possibly part of corporate ed reform agenda.

More than one person has told me this about LA School Report. 

What are your thoughts?

The LA School Report  blog (LASR) is owned and operated by Jamie Alter-Lynton, sister of corporate reform cheerleader Jonathan Alter (cf. his attacks on Professor Ravitch), and wife of elitist Sony CEO Michael Lynton.

Alter-Lynton is a wealthy reactionary who sits as a board member on former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy’s LA Fund slush 501c3, and a number of other neoliberal corporate education reform outfits. They used their insider status with Deasy to know when to sell off all of their Pearson PLC stock before it took a big hit when the FBI investigation of LAUSD was announced.

Husband of John Deasy confidant, Jamie Alter Lynton, cashed in big on Pearson PLC's LAUSD iPad Deal

They are virulently anti-labor, hate the public commons, and are against elected school boards. She's sort of a West Coast Campbell Brown, except she was doing this first. The Sony leaks reveal they are connected to all of the worst neoliberal corporate education reformers in the country. She funded the right-wing Coalition for School Reform SuperPAC to the tune of $100,000 once, and continues to support charter industry profiteers taking over our public school boards.

I could go on and on, but nothing sums these wealthy, white hypocrites up like this:

How the Rich Get Into Ivies: Behind the Scenes of Elite Admissions

Let me know if you need any more on them.

Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law

There is a small grass-roots group that has been working diligently to create a ballot proposition to repeal the charter school laws. While a seemingly daunting task, there might not ever be another chance to do this before the privatizers eliminate public schools altogether (Eli Broad just announced his plans to cut LAUSD's public schools in in half). The group has an online petition that now has over 600 signatures. They also have a facebook group. Both of which are linked here:

Ballot Initiative to REPEAL the CA Charter School Act of 1992

Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

Most importantly, they have picked up a handfull of key labor leaders and organizations:

• AFT Local 6161 (Palomar Faculty Federation)
• North County Labor Alliance
• Escondido Public School Advocates
• Bill Freeman- NEA Board member for California
• Alita Blanc- United Educators of San Francisco

The coalition is working hard to get several more organizations on board, including local Democratic party clubs in several large cities. Please consider getting involved, and perhaps even endorsing the efforts of the group.

Dick Cheney's Nina Rees and the US Chamber of Charters wish you a White Christmas

"Public-sector employment, where there is less discrimination in hiring and pay, has traditionally been an important venue for creating a black middle class." — Professor Carol Anderson

Arch-reactionary Nina Rees was a long-time deputy assistant to Dick "rectal feeding" Cheney. Rees was tapped for the US Chamber of Charters (aka The National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools—NAPCS) a few years back, when the lucrative charter industry needed someone adept at the same kind of public relations that spins torture as "enhanced interrogation."

Some time ago the Chamber of Charters put me on their mailing list, meaning I'm subjected to their propagandistic press releases including a recent one spinning the Ohio charter debacles as a positive. This month they've been shilling hard to get folks to attend their big June trade convention at the site where all public schools have been razed—New Orleans. Their trade show will feature Wall Street darling Geoffrey Canada, the vile individual that sacrifices entire classes of students to avoid upsetting the sensibilities of the wealthy bankers on his board.

Amid propaganda releases and advertisements, Rees sent a "holiday card" featuring, apparently, the Chamber of Charters' well-heeled executives and staff. First thing glaringly obvious in the photograph is the decided lack of melanin among its subjects. If you squint really hard, you might make out one or two persons of color in the very back of the crowd, reminding us that tokenism is still the norm in the lucrative nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC). I've included Rees' wishes for a "white" holiday above, and I may have taken some liberties to make minor edits to their text.

While there's no shortage of self-colonized types dabbling in respectability politics who are willing to work for NPICs like the Chamber of Charters, there are rarely good positions persons of color in that sector overall. Typically the top NPIC positions in the neoliberal corporate education reform project are held by wealthy whites, to wit: Rees at the US Chamber of Charters, Jed Wallace at the California Chamber of Charters (aka California Charter School Association), and Ben Austin at Parent Revolution (aka Los Angeles Parents Union). A notable exception to this rule was the snarling Teach for America alumnae who is currently married to the "hands on" Mayor of Sacramento.

Ironically, the tiny fraction of persons of color employed by the charter industry are making things worse overall in that through the aggressive privatization of public schools, they are eliminating the few remaining public sector jobs mentioned in the Professor Anderson quote at the beginning of this piece. A very White Christmas indeed from Nina Rees and the wealthy white billionaires funding the US Chamber of Charters.

This Week's Charter Corruption and Crime Log

Charter schools release teacher salaries, withhold admin pay

Charter school officials face federal bribery charges

Most Michigan charter companies don't follow financial disclosure law

Hartford Charter School CEO Acknowledges Inaccurate Academic Credential

SE Idaho charter school could have charter revoked

Charter schools under more scrutiny

Criminal Convictions Of Charter Schools Group's CEO Raise Questions, Officials Say

Charter School Commission sets conditions for continued existence of troubled Honolulu school

Charter school companies in US face corruption charges

Charter Schools: New Report on Massive Fraud, Abuse, and Mismanagement

  Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, & Abuse

SAMS Academy of Corruption, Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Scott Glasrud oversees about 800 public school students grades 4 through 12, but he makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing it.

That has the state’s attention.

The Schools

Glasrud’s charter schools are high-performing. Southwest Learning Center in the Heights and SAMS Academy, located next to Double Eagle, focus on science and aviation.

Some students can even get a pilot’s license through the schools.

“The program, the school leases the airplanes and we provide ground instruction for students,” Glasrud said.

Glasrud takes in a $210,000 salary – more than any superintendent in the state, other than than Winston Brooks with APS.

He makes even more money on top of that by doing business with his own schools.

Diamond Aviation

“Diamond Aviation is the company we lease the airplanes from, which in full disclosure is a company that I own,” Glasrud told News 13.

Diamond Aviation collected about $800,000 over four years for leasing two planes to the schools.

According to school board members, Diamond was the only company that put in a bid to rent planes.

“One response turned into a lease that the board then approved,” said Larry Kennedy, president of SAMS Governing Council.

State Auditor Hector Balderas says there have been enough red flags to warrant a more thorough look into the schools.

“We’re just ensuring that this district isn’t operating on an actual conflict of interest that would be putting taxpayer dollars at risk,” said State Auditor Hector Balderas.

The audit should be released soon. . . .

Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel steps down from UNO! He was a darling of the AEI

Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel @JuanRangel steps down from #UNO! He was a darling of @AEIeducation http://t.co/svdm81drB5

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) December 6, 2013

Via Professor Diane Ravitch: Powerful Chicago Charter Leader Resigns in Wake of Financial Scandal

My commentary: Thieving charter charlatan-scoundrel Juan Rangel was a darling of the fringe-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In addition to their loving his stuffing of public money into his private pockets, AEI gushed about Rangel and UNO's systematic program of right-wing indoctrination.

Gov. Pence's Pal, Doden, to Collect Over Half-Million in Ft. Wayne Charter Rent

With permission from Karen Francisco:

Charter school charades

Karen Francisco | The Journal Gazette

That sound you heard Wednesday? That was the sound of the Indiana Charter School Board rubber-stamping a real estate deal to benefit a politically connected Fort Wayne business owner.

How else to explain a 5-1 vote to "replicate" an unproven school that has drawn few students in Indianapolis and met strong resistance from the Fort Wayne community during a public hearing held just 7 business days after local school officials and were notified? The application was approved less than 24 hours after the hearing.

Daryle Doden's Ambassador Enterprises has been looking to draw a charter school tenant to The Summit, its education center at the former Taylor University campus, for more than a year. Another charter school applicant, Sun Academy, proposed leasing space there in a charter school application last year, but withdrew its bid. (Sun Academy has submitted a letter of intent to offer another application this spring, along with Global Village International Inc., so as many as three new charter schools could be opening in Fort Wayne next fall.)

Doden is the father of Eric Doden, a former GOP candidate for mayor and Gov. Mike Pence's newly appointed director for statewide economic development. Daryle Doden and his wife contributed $15,500 to Pence's campaign. Daryle Doden's company will be paid $1,000 per student up to 550 students, plus "associated property costs", for providing space for Carpe Diem charter school.

Claire Fiddian-Green, a former Eli Lilly executive who is now executive director of the state charter board, justified the quick vote on the proposal as part of the "mini application" process required under the board's rules to replicate the charter model in another community -- one in which it was not originally proposed. She said Wednesday the Fort Wayne community is in "tumult."

That's apparently because the community doesn't view the Carpe Diem deal as the great educational opportunity the school's founder tried to sell at Monday's hearing. In fact, testimony at the hearing showed the community knows exactly what the deal is – hundreds of thousands of dollars being sucked out of area school districts as rent paid to Ambassador Enterprises.

To help sell the plan, Carpe Diem officials drove nearly a dozen students round-trip from their Indianapolis building on an icy, wet school night to tell a skeptical crowd how much they love their school.

"We're not IPS," the Fort Wayne audience responded.

The so-called school reform crowd backing charter-school expansion insists there should be no excuses for public schools to improve, but they offer plenty of excuses themselves.

Carpe Diem Meridian drew just 87 students last fall, but the reformers insist it was because of problems finding a location. While the reformers wield standardized test scores as a club to punish traditional public schools, they have none to show for Carpe Diem Meridian. The charter board rushed through the application before students there have taken the standardized state tests.

Jamie Garwood, appointed to the state charter board by President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, voted for the new Fort Wayne school. In an interview after the hearing, she quickly dismissed the strong opposition as limited to FWCS teachers and administrators.

"The general public doesn't really know a lot about this," Garwood said. "They didn't really know a lot about the proposal. I think the general public in Fort Wayne still doesn't really have a handle on what charter schools are, or what the options are, or what a high-performing charter is, or what they look like or how do we, as consumers, find that."

If the Fort Wayne community doesn't know enough about charter schools after more than a decade of hosting them, it apparently should trust Garwood and others to make the decisions about opening them here.

I wrote a story nearly three years ago about the diminishing amount of local control over Indiana schools. It's fair to say now that local control has been almost completely eliminated.

Because of its location, the new school will draw primarily from Fort Wayne Community Schools and East Allen County Schools. But it could also draw students from Southwest Allen, Northwest Allen, Northern Wells, Huntington and Whitley counties, and more. Its online focus and a Monday through Thursday school schedule will inevitably attract some students.

Ambassador Enterprises' proposed contract puts it in the unique position of serving not only as landlord, but also in marketing the school. The more students it draws, the more it collects in rent, given the $1,000 per-head fee.

But each student it draws from a northeast Indiana school means thousands of dollars pulled from an existing school. The loss reduces the ability of the existing schools to offer comprehensive programs – well-stocked libraries, guidance counselors, science labs, drama and music, sports programs and more. Carpe Diem's computer instruction model includes none of those features. The Indianapolis school has only five teachers for grades 6-10. Its Arizona school at one time had one math teacher for 240 students in grades 6-12.

Garwood is correct that people don't really understand charter schools. The reformers have cleverly marketed them as philanthropic or nonprofit endeavors. All are supported almost entirely by taxpayers, with money pulled from existing schools. When traditional schools are closed, as Elmhurst High School was two years ago, the frustrated supporters never seem to grasp the connection between the growing number of new charter schools and the loss of financial support for established districts.

The legislation that created the Indiana Charter School Board two years ago received only one Democratic vote – from Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan, a self-proclaimed education reformer. That's because school reform is about politics, not students.

All of northeast Indiana's GOP delegation voted to approve the state board, a poorly disguised end-run around the stricter standards now being used by Ball State Universityand the Indianapolis mayor's office in their authorization reviews. Those northeast Indiana lawmakers, Sen. David Long included, should explain to their local school districts why it was a good idea.

The ALEC-backed "parent trigger" bill proposed this session is the companion piece to the legislation. It allows charter supporters to collect signatures from parents in demanding a school takeover.

School reformers won GOP support by promising lawmakers that charter schools would be restricted mostly to IPS and Gary. But Fort Wayne's experience this week should make them all very nervous. If a well-connected property owner wants to tap into a steady flow of tax dollars by housing students in one of his buildings, there's nothing locals can do to stop him.