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.