http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/c/c9/Outsourcing_Report_Oct_2014.pdf
Some analysis on school boards.
From a prior post: 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"
“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) 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.”
"Ohio’s charter schools, which are publicly funded, are
supposed to be subject to periodic state audits and held to
performance standards by the sponsoring organizations
that contract with operators.
But governing boards may not be as independent as they
ought to be, as a 2014 investigation by the Akron Beacon
Journal found. White Hat shares legal representation with
the boards of many of the charter schools it has contracts
with.
149 And a number of board members have admitted
that they were recruited by White Hat, a clear conflict of
interest.
In a revealing statement, Maggie Ford, chief academic
officer at White Hat, told the
Beacon Journal, “Sometimes
we have one or two people that would like to start a school,
and they don’t have enough for an entire board. So they
want to, they talk to, other board members or ask us to
help recruit board, um, recommend board members.”
In effect, the boards at many “nonprofit” charter schools
were hand-picked by White Hat, which contracted with
those same boards to operate the schools."
Combine a couple of hand-picked board members and combine that with a couple of well-meaning but unqualified parent board members and you have a serious but profitable governance situation. Again, where is the independence?
Keep in mind that a billion dollars has been transferred out of the public schools to charter schools in Ohio.
I note that the folks who set up Connections Academy board are former White Hat employees. I suspect that many of the same management people take what they learn to set up a new charter that primarily benefits their interests. I would submit that the boards are handpicked rubber stamps with little actual power.
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