Follow the money... Weak boards result in $420,000 loss and indictments

Cui Bono (who profits)

I wonder who set up this board?  I wonder who was the treasurer?

By Laura A. Bischoff and Mark Gokavi  Dayton Daily News

Columbus bureau

Columbus —

A federal grand jury indicted four people connected to Arise! Academy, a Dayton area charter school, alleging that they were involved in a bribery and kickback scheme.
Indicted were:
Shane K. Floyd, 42, of Strongsville, who served as Arise! superintendent;
Carl L. Robinson, 47, of Durham, N.C., who operated Global Educational Consultants;
Christopher D. Martin, 44, of Springfield, who served as an Arise! board member; and
Kristal N. Screven, 38, of Dayton, who was also a board member.
Federal authorities charge that Floyd, Martin and Screven solicited and accepted bribes from Robinson in exchange for a lucrative, unbid contract for Global Educational Consultants.
Arise! paid Global $420,919 over 12 months, starting in October 2008 at a time when the charter school had trouble paying its bills and staff, according to federal investigators. In exchange, Robinson paid $5,000 in cash to Floyd and gave cash and a trip to Las Vegas to Martin and he bribed Screven with cash and payments to a security services company that Screven owned with her husband, authorities allege.
All four are charged with conspiracy and aiding and abetting federal program bribery. Floyd, Screven and Martin also are charged with making false statements. And Screven is charged with witness tampering for allegedly telling a witness to lie to the grand jury.
If convicted, they could face years in prison and may have to pay back $420,919.
Floyd, Martin and Robinson will be summoned to federal court but Screven was arrested by FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification agents on Tuesday.
A grand jury indictment is an allegation that crimes were committed. The government still has to prove its case against the defendants, who are considered innocent until proven guilty.

Cashing in on kids

http://cashinginonkids.com/

Another website following who is cashing in on the charter schools and how creative but unethical companies operate on this billion dollar business.

Ohio Public Schools vs. Charter Schools, results

Results Matter!

All Ohio educators knew this test was coming and presumably were working hard to prepare.  Hopefully not at the expense of the other students.

1/3 Failure rate for Charters is terrible.  Profiting from this failure is shameful. 
14% of public schools is nothing to be proud of either.

 

ECOT

ECOT's third grade students passing percentage for the third grade reading guarantee was 52.9%

ECOT over a decade has received $691 million in taxpayer money for a failing charter E-school empire, which is 10% of all the money the state of Ohio has ever spent on charters. $270 million of that has been received in the past three years.

Since Gov. Kasich took office in 2011, Lager, the founder of ECOT has returned the favor to his political benefactors by contributing $658,225 to pro-charter school office holders and candidates, and in true “pay-to-play” fashion, has seen a greater three-year funding increase than in any other three-year period since ECOT opened in 2000. Contributing $658,225 in return for access to $270 million in funding represents an extremely handsome return on Mr. Lager's investment, all coming at the expense of quality schools for Ohio children.

Despite ECOT’s continued support from Ohio officeholders after funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaign coffers, ECOT’s online charter schools rank among the worst schools in the state. Specifically:

• ECOT’s graduation rate on the latest report card was 35.3%. The average for traditional school districts is 91.4%. The lowest traditional district is 49.7%.
• ECOT’s Performance Index score of 68.1 was worse than even the lowest rated of Ohio’s 613 school districts.
• When looking at the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, a signature policy under John Kasich, charter schools, like those run by ECOT, greatly underperform traditional public districts, despite receiving 89% more per pupil than traditional public schools

ECOT's failure for the third grade reading results are not alone.  From the Columbus Dispatch.

Charter schools didn’t fare as well, in general. Nearly 29 percent of students in charters statewide that serve elementary kids and had enough scores to publicly report didn’t meet the minimum. Among central Ohio’s elementary charter schools, 33 percent fell short.

Results matter.

1 Billion Dollar Diversion

From Stephen Dyer's Blog: 10th Period

Ohio's School Choice Funding Scheme Costs Public School Kids

Now that Ohio's sending more than $1 billion this year to privately run Charter Schools and Private Schools through Vouchers, it is important to examine the impact of those decisions made in Columbus have on the 92% of Ohio's kids that do not attend Charters or Vouchers.

The impact is profound. Like asteroid or comet profound.

Looking at the January #1 payment (school districts get paid twice a month by the state), Ohio's new funding formula had allotted $6,666,455,622 to educate 1,713,587 children. However, when the $887,880,706 sent to Charter Schools is subtracted, along with the $143,494,178 in the state's Voucher programs, it leaves $5,635,080,738 to educate Ohio's children who remain in traditional public schools. Subtracting the 123,497 children in Charter Schools and 19,577 taking vouchers from the 1,713,587 listed earlier leaves 1,570,513 children to share in the $5,635,080,738.

Prior to the Charter and Voucher deductions, Ohio provided $3,890, on average, to the state's 1,713,587 children. However, after Charters and Vouchers remove their money and students from the formula, Ohio's kids are left with $3,588, on average. That is a difference of $302 per pupil, or 7.8%.

What does that mean? It means that because of the decisions made in Columbus, the 1,570,513 Ohio schoolchildren in traditional public schools get 7.8% less state money, on average, than the state formula says they need. Four years ago, that number was 5.9%. So Ohio's kids have lost, on average, 2% (a 33% increase) of their state revenue the last four years just because the state has decided to put more money into mostly underperforming Charter Schools and Voucher schools that also do not, on the whole, outperform the public schools.

And don't forget that's on top of the overall $515 million cut traditional districts have seen through the state formula and reimbursements over the last four years, leading to a record number (and cost) of local school tax levies to seek new revenue cover these state funding losses.

My question is this: at what point do Ohio's parents say, "Enough!"?

I get and am sympathetic to the argument that kids need opportunities to escape struggling schools. And I have little problem with the few really excellent school choice options that are out there that genuinely do give kids opportunities to achieve their potential.

But when the vast majority of those opportunities aren't any better (and are usually much worse) than the struggling school, and paying for these mostly worse options means the kids who remain in the struggling public school have far fewer resources with which to achieve, or the school to improve?

Well, I'm sorry. I just don't get that.

ECOT free lunch

No mention of their failing report card.

Some good questions.

"Why charter schools are good for students families & Ohio"
How do you spin seven F's and a D?  I suspect we gloss over that part.

"Online schools-and how its changing public education"
We suck 220 million from the taxpayers and school systems of Ohio

Choice is good but results are important and should be included!

Somewhere somehow the taxpayers are footing this bill.  I hope it is an excellent meal.

One Year With a Bad Teacher Costs Each Student $50,000 in Lifetime Earnings

One year impact

What is the cost of an inferior education for multiple years?  Who will reimburse the students?



http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-12/one-year-with-a-bad-teacher-costs-each-student-50-000-in-lifetime-earnings


http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-12/one-year-with-a-bad-teacher-costs-each-student-50-000-in-lifetime-earnings

By the numbers

Cui Bono (who profits)

Sad but true...

$84 million that the state auditor has uncovered.  Call me a skeptic but this is probably just a portion of the money that is missappropriated.  There are some clever folks (and some that are not) out there.  "Figures do not lie but liers figure."

Charter school treasurer Carl Shye, who worked with schools here and across the state, agreed to repay much of the $800,000 in findings against him when he pleaded guilty last year to embezzlement in federal court. Area charter school CEO William Peterson agreed to pay $275,000 of the $857,963 in findings against him when he pleaded guilty this month in Cuyahoga County court to unlawful interest in a public contract.

Officials with the Auditor of State’s office said they are working together to do better.

“Of course we want to see as much as can be collected recovered,” said Carrie Bartunek, spokeswoman for the state auditor’s office.

Among the findings issued in 2013:

Richard Allen Academy
Issued: Nov. 6 and Feb. 28
Finding amount: $2.2 million
The most recent audits of the chain of charter schools with locations in Dayton and Hamilton have brought the total amount of findings against the group to $2.2 million. The schools are challenging the findings in court, arguing the state auditor is misreading the school’s contract with its management company, which the audits say was over-paid.

General Chappie James Leadership Academy
Released: Aug. 29
Finding amount: $4,335
A finding for recovery was issued for $4,335 against school founder Kecia Williams and Tracy Jarvis for undocumented debit card purchases.

Cincinnati College and Preparatory Academy
Release date: June 18
Finding amount: $520,000
Professional football season tickets, trips to the theater, travel expenses and cocktails are just a few of the nearly $520,000 in items for which taxpayers picked up the tab, according to the special audit of the Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy (CCPA). The findings in this audit led to the indictments of former Superintendent Lisa Hamm and former Treasurer Stephanie Millard.

Cleveland Academy of Scholarship Technology and Leadership Enterprise
Release date: April 23
Finding amount: $1.3 million
Employees’ allegedly illegal relationships with vendors and shoddy bookkeeping led to more than $1.3 million in findings for recovery issued in the special audit of the Cleveland Academy of Scholarship, Technology, and Leadership Enterprise (CASTLE). The school was managed by William Peterson of Dayton, who pleaded guilty last week to having in unlawful interest in a public contract.

By the numbers

• Total amount of findings issued since 2001: $84,568,474
• Amount uncollected: $70,669,366
• Amount uncollectible but to statute of limitations: $32,059,920
• Amount ‘virtually uncollectible’ owed by charter schools: $24,733,164.51
• Amount actively being collected by Ohio Attorney General: $10,380,740.02

Source: Ohio Auditor of State, Ohio Attorney General

Some big bucks here

http://www.plunderbund.com/2013/12/10/ecot-founder-living-very-well-off-ohios-school-funding-dollars/


Sorry kids, but it is good to be king!  Meanwhile the teachers are being paid less than their counterparts.

This weekend we posted about Ohio’s largest charter school, ECOT, being recommended to receive a “bonus” check of $2.9 million that would be quickly rerouted into ECOT owner William Lager’s other private businesses. This is not the first raise that ECOT has received this year. Through the Kasich budget passed this summer, ECOT received the largest increase in state funding for any charter school in Ohio at $4.8 million. This far surpassed the second largest increase of $1.35 million given to Ohio Virtual Academy.
It’s good to buy friends in high places…
Since 2004, Lager, the ECOT CEO, has been donating to Ohio political campaigns with staggering regularity and in staggering numbers for someone whose main livelihood is providing a “public” education to Ohio children:

Lager began profiting off of Ohio taxpayers shortly after opening ECOT at the turn of the century. In 2000, he founded Altair Learning Management Company to “manage” ECOT’s operations. This company began receiving millions in funding that same year according to ECOT’s annual filings with the State Auditor’s office. In FY01, Altair began receiving 10% of ECOT’s funding as a management fee. As enrollment increased, the total amount of funding began to increase, but that wasn’t enough for Lager. In FY05, Lager to increase the management fee to 14%, realizing a raise of nearly $2,000,000.
Finally, in FY08, Lager figured out a way to pocket even more taxpayer dollars. He coordinated a decrease in the Altair’s management fee down to 4% while creating a new contract with Altair to provide curriculum to ECOT at an annual cost of over $8 million dollars.
The next year, FY09, Lager created IQ Innovations, a for-profit software company to develop and provide services to ECOT, while still using Altair as the school’s management company. That first year, FY09, IQ Innovations was paid over $5 million by ECOT and the figure has increased every year since.
The chart below shows the year-by-year breakdown of the payments from ECOT to William Lager’s for-profit companies.

Such grand figures help to explain how Lager can afford to make such astronomical political donations year after year and why, as we mentioned over the weekend, the last thing Lager and his companies need is for Ohio’s Controlling Board to approve another $2.7 million in state taxpayer dollars supposedly allocated for public school funding to be directly funneled into Lager’s pockets.

And deep pockets they are.

In 2002, Lager purchased a $300,000 condominium in downtown Columbus where he could be close to his pals in the legislature and oversee ECOT’s operations. While the small, 1,200 sq ft condo apparently served him well for many years, Lager recently found the need to upgrade. On November 1 of this year, Lager added to his personal real estate portfolio, purchasing a $995,000 mansion (4,600+ sq ft) in Upper Arlington.

What public school superintendent/CEO could donate over $1.3 million to political campaigns over the span of a decade and turn around and purchase a $300,000 condo and a million dollar home? Let alone do so while avoiding the ever-watching eye of the state’s media? Can you imagine how bat-shit crazy the Dispatch would go if this story was about the superintendent/CEO of the Columbus City Schools? What type of outcry would this generate about the misuse of precious taxpayer dollars that we should be spending on educating our children?

The bottom line? William Lager is grandly profiting off of taxpayer dollars that are supposed to be going to our schools.

What can we do?

Start by contacting the State Controlling Board members (see contact information at the end of the post) before they meet this week to Approve the Straight A Fund recipients and tell them to DENY the additional $2.9 million award to ECOT that will further line Lager’s pockets.

Then continue contacting your state Representatives and Senators and tell them to STOP this egregious misuse of OUR public school funding dollars!

And then make plans to vote out Lager’s close friend and ally, Governor John Kasich, in 2014.

State Controlling Board Members (click on a name to send an email)

Randy Cole, President
(614) 728-8778

Sen. Bill Coley (R)
(614) 466-8072
Sen. Chris Widener (R)
(614) 466-3780
Sen. Tom Sawyer (D)
(614) 466-7041
Rep. Jeff McClain (R)
(614) 466-6265
Rep. Ross McGregor (R)
(614) 466-2038
Rep. Chris Redfern (D)
(614) 644-6011

Follow the money, VLT Academy Cincinnati Ohio

Another example of poor governance by a board, sponser and school treasurer.

The superintendent of the VLT Academy, a charter school of 600 some students, was making $140,000 per year; her daughter was making $92,000 per year for data entry; and her husband was making $62,000 in addition to running his company that performs the charter's janitorial services, under a highest bid contract, for $323,000 per year. The family was receiving nearly $1,000 per student for central office duties and cleaning.

The board of this VLT Academy charter school recently voted to start closing procedures. The operator (family) is shopping for another sponsor. The current charter school sponsor is dropping authorization for VLT Academy.

Educational Resource Consultants of Ohio is/was the sponsor.

Larry Lash was the treasurer.

And, big surprise here, the schools results are terrible.

Virtual Drop Out Schools, follow the money!

Another excellent article;

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ohio-s-charter-school-dropouts-soar-push-state-in-opposite-direction-of-u-s-1.490893


"Charter schools such as Life Skills, operated by Akron-based White Hat Management and targeting dropouts, are sending Ohio spinning off in the wrong direction. Dropout rates nationally are on the decline, but Ohio’s rate is on the rise.
Granted, some dropout charter schools graduate nearly half of their students on time, a notable feat considering students enter these programs at least a year behind their peers in traditional high schools.
But that’s not the norm.
Many dropout charter schools, including White Hat’s chain of Life Skills centers, consistently report single-digit graduation rates. Over the course of last school year, more students dropped out of Life Skills than attended on the average day.

In the 2012-13 school year, more than 5,300 dropouts — a quarter of all Ohio dropouts that year — attended one of two online charter schools: the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow or Ohio Virtual Academy. Collectively, these two charter schools have a dropout rate 45 times higher than traditional public schools, and 10 times higher than the state’s eight largest city school districts.
Another 6,829 students ­— about a third of all Ohio dropouts — attended charter schools designed specifically for dropouts, among them Invictus and Life Skills. Last year, these dropout charter schools enrolled one percent of Ohio’s public school students but accounted for roughly the same number of dropout events as did public district schools, which enrolled 91 percent of Ohio’s students."

Ohio taxpayers are funding this mess.  Single digit graduation rates are shameful.  No private business would survive with results like these.

More Marketing with your Ohio Tax dollars

Too bad the results are not as good as the marketing!

I guess that is why I keep gitting these pop up advertising for E-Schools.

I defy you to find any of the report cards in the marketing materials.  Pick an Ohio E- school any of them.

For example Connections Academy Ohio reports 90% parental satisfaction.  No where does it mention the F's on the Ohio report card.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/charter-school-operators-use-key-words-to-entice-families-away-from-public-schools-1.491420

With profits on the line, private charter school companies are advertising on television, radio, billboards, handbills and even automated telephone messages to entice students away from public schools.
And with words such as free, flexible, one-on-one and find your future — and taking opportunities to play on fear — the privately run, publicly funded schools are being quite successful.
Enrollment in Ohio charter schools now stands at more than 120,000 in nearly 400 schools, with seven more schools expected to open next year. These quasi-public schools enroll less than 7 percent of Ohio’s students and receive $912 million in state tax dollars, about 11 percent of all state funds set aside for primary and secondary education.

State audits suggest that some Ohio charter schools spend more than $400 in public money per student to attract them away from public schools, and now public school districts are retaliating by spending their own money in an effort to keep the kids.

A great way to spend Ohio tax dollars.  Marketing wars for failing E-schools.

Virtual Drop out Schools

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/successful-dropout-schools-are-turning-from-white-hat-computer-model-1.491112

Cui Bono (who profits)
Again, profits over results and students.

"With computers replacing teachers and a school day shortened to four hours, the model was profitable.

Funding was and is given on a per-pupil basis. Within a year of opening, enrollment at Bowery Street swelled to 2.5 times the building’s occupancy limit by serving students in shifts and assuming a high rate of absenteeism, according to an administrator who now operates a competing educational management company.
“Students are overenrolled for each session due to the high absence rate, which is not unexpected for this at-risk population of high school dropouts,” David Stiles told the school’s board in 2000. Stiles has since parted ways with White Hat. He now works for Cambridge Education Group, a subsidiary of a Florida company that operates Invictus High School in Cleveland and Towpath Trail in Akron, among other schools.
In 2010, a Florida school district investigated a Life Skills facility, which it sponsored. The investigation found that White Hat over-reported 37 students to the state, which overpaid the company $101,000."

Now Pearson wants into this profitable action by setting up their own drop out schools with the assistance of ex- White Hat employees such as Ray Lambert.