Oversight Needed

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/07/18/oversight-is-needed.html

Some highlights:

Conflicts of interests
Weak Boards
Unqualified professionals
Accountability

"The allegations shed light on just how many things can go wrong in Ohio’s poorly structured and largely unmonitored charter-school system. If they prove true, that will be one more argument for overhauling the way charter schools are created and allowed to operate.

But traditional district schools typically operate under the scrutiny of taxpaying residents and publicly elected school-board members. The widespread data-tampering scheme that developed at the highest levels of Columbus City Schools is atypical; generally, if serious misconduct occurs in a district school, somebody is watching and will blow the whistle. Charter schools don’t have the same oversight.

Traditional school districts, in most cases, employ qualified professionals to manage finances, develop curriculum and ensure that applicable laws are followed. Charter schools are, by philosophy, less traditionally structured.

Ohio could do a lot to head off charter-school problems by reforming the process by which they are created.

A key weakness has been the lack of any way to hold accountable those charter-school sponsors who don’t act as watchdogs over the schools they sponsor. Weak Ohio law allows blatant conflicts of interest — for example, nothing bars sponsors, the supposed watchdogs, from selling services to the schools they are supposed to be holding accountable"

Always a potential conflict when you have poor structure and oversight with the potential for profits at the expense of results.

The sub priming of American education

Where there is profit to be made....

Good analogy!

Pretty soon you are talking about real money

As one senator used to say, pretty soon you are talking about real money.  With a little foresight and the right business plan you can become a millionaire.  That was pretty hard in the public schools with taxpayer elected school boards.

 

From William Phillis:

 

Ohio charter industry: $7.4 billion and counting

The second system of education, which feeds off the public common school system, started as a "harmless" $11 million experiment. This new system has parasitically extracted a total of $7.4 from the Ohio public common school system in 15 years as follows:

 

Deduction	Fiscal Year
$     10,985,021.93	1999
$     51,658,903.14	2000
$     91,199,488.07	2001
$   127,943,077.03	2002
$   203,733,491.59	2003
$   301,139,479.91	2004
$   421,736,138.00	2005
$   481,559,416.48	2006
$   530,582,458.73	2007
$   584,929,196.33	2008
$   646,504,550.76	2009
$   679,872,827.10	2010
$   721,951,119.83	2011
$   774,404,507.49	2012
$   824,032,968.42	2013
$   900,500,252.70	2014
$ 7,352,732,897.51	Total

 

 

Between 40 and 50 percent of the $7.4 billion is local tax money passed by local communities for the support of their local school districts. State officials attempt to argue that no local funds are involved in charter school operations. The fact is that charter school funds are taken from school district budgets via state deductions. On the average, nearly twice as much per pupil funding is deducted from school districts for charter schools as the districts receive in per pupil state funds. The difference does not magically appear.

 

William Phillis
Ohio E & A   

Why not use Ohio Ethics laws in cases of corruption of charter schools?  It is my understanding that this applies to school officials. Surely a job and or a green card has some value. 

(D) No public official or employee shall use or authorize the use of the authority or influence of office or employment to secure anything of value or the promise or offer of anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon the public official or employee with respect to that person's duties.
(E) No public official or employee shall solicit or accept anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon the public official or employee with respect to that person's duties.
(F) No person shall promise or give to a public official or employee anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon the public official or employee with respect to that person's duties.

II. Conflict of Interest

Violations of R.C. sections 102.03, 102.04 and 102.07 are first-degree misdemeanor criminal offenses, punishable by a fine of up to $1000 and/or a maximum of 6 months in jail. See R.C. sections 102.99(B); 2929.21.

 

The profit motive in virtual schools

After digging deeper, the independent folks in Maine came to the right decision.

http://www.pressherald.com/2012/09/01/virtual-schools-in-maine_2012-09-02/

Secret to a good school? School boards?

Cui Bono (who profits)

A recent article indicates that a good school board make the difference in performance.

http://national.deseretnews.com/article/1350/The-secret-to-good-schools-might-surprise-you.html#kmFZI51zT3Df3rPj.03

"The report also found that when board members were professionalized, underwent professional training and in some cases even earned a salary, students performed better. "

It suggests that the timing of elections matter.  "It matters, for example, when elections are held. Holding elections at the same time as state and national-level elections, the authors found, correlates to standardized student proficiency test scores 2.4 points higher than a comparable district that has off-cycle elections."

Compare this to the system now employed by Ohio charter schools.  Who appoints the boards?  The sponsor or the charter school.  There are no elections!  Simplifies your board selection and business model.

What is the main focus of the board?  I would suggest that it is selected for self-preservation of the school management and the jobs and profits it generates for its management.  It is an unpaid job.  The charter schools can and do act like a personal, but funded by taxpayers, business.

SO how does this work in practice?  A recent prime example of this in action.  The Horizon and Noble academies were recently raided by the FBI.  Who selected the board?

"A chain of 19 publicly funded Ohio charter schools, founded by Turkish immigrants, is taking the position that the United States lacks a qualified pool of math and science teachers and is importing perhaps hundreds of Turks to fill the void.

The schools are run almost exclusively by persons of Turkish heritage, some of whom are not U.S. citizens — a new twist in Ohio’s controversial charter-school movement.

In addition, the Horizon and Noble academies, run by Chicago-based Concept Schools, are related through membership, fundraisers and political giving to the nonprofit Niagara Foundation, which provides trips to Turkey for state, local and federal lawmakers.

Among those touring Turkey has been State Rep. Cliff Rosenberger, a Clarksville Republican on the powerful finance and appropriations committee and considered to be a leading candidate for House speaker next year. He was joined on the trip by at least four other state legislators and local government leaders from his area in southwest Ohio.

There have been other trips from Ohio, and in Illinois, there are allegations that state officials who took trips showed favoritism in disbursing public dollars to Concept schools.

Public records show that since late 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor has allowed 19 of these schools in Ohio to hire 325 educators almost exclusively from Turkey.

However, as early as 2002, state audits found thousands of public dollars “illegally expended” to finance the U.S. citizenship process for Turkish employees — some fresh out of college with no classroom experience and broken English. Help with legal and immigration fees also extended to their children and families, including the spouses of directors.

The auditor also cited suspect wire transfers, totaling $36,000, and checks made out to “cash” to repay personal loans issued by individuals in Istanbul, Turkey."

Complete article here:

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/ohio-taxpayers-provide-jobs-to-turkish-immigrants-through-charter-schools-1.501940?localLinksEnabled=false#.U7ngdZ1rYfM.facebook

Quote from Denis Smith from an earlier blog post.
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/25/denis-smith-of-ohio-who-governs-charter-schools/


“All control and direction for the school comes on high from corporate, and such constructs as school governing boards and local governance amount to distractions. Clearly, local control is an oxymoron to the Dennis Bakkes of the charter school industry.

The memo also makes it clear that no autonomy is expected of the boards which are chosen mostly by the company’s regional managers. While the best of our nation’s schools usually feature a collaborative model where teams of teachers work with school administrators, privatization of public schools that are operated by national chains seems to come only with a top-down approach, and any semblance of a governing board to provide guidance and oversight for the school’s operations is not to be tolerated in Bakke’s world.

In Ohio, the Revised Code treats a charter school as a school district, with its own treasurer, chief administrative officer, and governing board. But state law also allows great latitude regarding the operation and governance of the school, and current law requires that each school have a minimum of five board members, with no other qualifications stated in the law.”

Raymond Lambert School Leader of the Year by the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (OAPCS)  and now with Ohio Connections Academy, formerly with WhiteHat once had this to say about boards. 

“I wonder why people sit on Boards? Is it a cheap self esteem boost?”

“ I often think the many Boards I have seen are lead around by the nose anyway.”

This is an expensive experiment.