Editorial Voices

The worm is turning...

The sub priming of American education

Where there is profit to be made....

Good analogy!

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.

 

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.

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.

Being a sponser is a pretty profitable gig

As I see it the virtual E-Schools take in $218 million a year.  Using the 3% formula that works out to over $6.5 million per year.

That would be enough to pay 55 people $100,000 per year and still have a million left over for overhead and expense.  With that kind of money you would expect some great oversight and great results.

So what results are we buying Ohio?

"Charter schools are opened by nonprofit organizations called “sponsors” or “authorizers.” Several schools, sponsors and management companies have gotten into trouble – sometimes criminally – for financial problems. Sponsors get 3 percent of the state money that goes to each charter school they open.
The Ohio Department of Education reviewed the new-school approval process for six sponsors. It found:
• The Sharonville-based Education Resource Consultants of Ohio “sought to recycle a school that closed for failing to meet academic requirements.” It said ERCO tried to open the school in the exact location, using the same superintendent and governing authority.
ERCO spokeswoman Jodi Billerman said the state mischaracterized the school. “ERCO would never open a ‘recycled school,’ ” she said. “It’s extremely disappointing that rather than seeking clarification, ODE chose to issue a press release almost immediately after sending the letter to us.”
• The Lebanon-based Warren County Educational Services Center sought to open three charter schools for 175 students each “without performing any basic market research to justify funding.” The state noted the schools’ financials were identical to the Olympus schools that collapsed in the fall. Warren County ESC operates four charter schools, including Greater Ohio Virtual School, a statewide online school.
Isaacs said they provided all the documentation the state asked for, plus some. “They’re in urban areas that have thousands of dropouts. I’m not sure how much more market research they need,” he said.
The schools would have been managed by a company called Cambridge, which operates five dropout schools in Ohio. These would have been run under the same model.
“We’re extremely surprised because (the state) previously approved this model five times by the operator,” Isaacs said.
• Kids Count of Dayton planned a charter school whose developer owes the state $65,000 for another school that closed last year shortly after opening. “The sponsor does not appear to have performed even a basic Internet search to learn about the school developer’s past,” ODE stated.
Kids Count sponsors eight schools, including Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy in the West End, Dohn Community High School in Walnut Hills and Summit Academy of Cincinnati in Spring Grove Village.
Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Ross noted several charter schools statewide had either taken state money but failed to open, or had closed before the end of the school year. ■"

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/04/25/charter-school-sponsors-fire/8173173/

E-Schools, Charter Schools and Governance

The E-schools themselves are set up as nonprofits.  The nonprofits are run by an unelected board.  The K-12’s and Connection Academy’s of the world set up the board. The board agrees to contracts with K-12,  OHDELA or Connections Academy without competitive bidding.

The structure encourages malfeasance and the siphoning of profits to the parent companies.  For all intents and purposes the E-Schools run the boards.  The boards depend on the E-schools for the information to manage the school.  The board members are not paid.

An excellent article by Denis Smith here :

http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/26/ohio-denis-smith-on-charter-school-governance-part-2-who-owns-charter-schools/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=28843&relatedposts_position=2

“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.”

Denis Smith was a consultant with the Ohio Department of Education and reviewed Ohio Charter schools.  His commentary is available through Diane Ravitch's Blog.  http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/25/denis-smith-of-ohio-who-governs-charter-schools/

Raymond Lambert of Connections Academy once had this to say about boards.  I understand that he has set up many boards in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

“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.”

 

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/news/ray_lambert_school_leader.aspx

I know that the superintendent of Ohio Connections Academy, Marie C. Hanna, recruited her close friend and former neighbor, Pamela S. Bowers, to sit on her board.  Independent?  Objective?

 

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.