CURMUDGUCATION: PA Cyber Charters Failing

CURMUDGUCATION: PA Cyber Charters Failing: Let me be clear up front-- I reject the use of standardized tests to measure the education of students, the effectiveness of teachers, and t...

The worm is turning

The charter school industry has had a big advantage in marketing  and presenting a positive reform minded message to the consumers and voters of Ohio.

Although the schools themselves may be non-profits, the  for profit parent companies are very profitable.  The K-12s and White Hats, Pearsons,  can lobby politicians, buy TV and radio ads, and push the freedom of choice message.  The message is loud, attractive and professional.  Combined, they can spend millions and massage their message.

What the message fails to convey are  the actual results of the schools and the cost of this transfer from public to private.

My sense is that the worm is turning.  I now see letters to the editors concerning the transfer of dollars to charters from concerned parents and taxpayers.  I see grass root organizations of parents pushing back.  I see websites like knowyourcharter.com providing information.  I see Facebook pages like cashing in on kids.  I see blogs covering education issues.  I see the press asking why politicians are taking trips to Turkey.  I see investigations and indictments.  I see questions on where the money is going and what we are getting for that money.  I see proposals for reform and accountability. 

I did not see this push back for several years.   I saw only positive spin on the charter school saviors coming to help.  They left out some important details, like results.  The devil is in the details.

Bloomberg takes on K-12

Not a good investment.  Good article

Plagued by subpar test scores, the largest operator of online public schools in the U.S. has lost management contracts or been threatened with school shutdowns in five states this year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association ruled in April that students can no longer count credits from 24 K12 high schools toward athletic scholarships

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/k12-backed-by-milken-suffers-low-scores-as-states-resist.html#disqus_thread

The results for Ohio:
The 2012-2013 Ohio Department of Education report card shows 1 C, 1 D and 6 F's With a performance index of 73.0% and Indicators met of 45.8%^[2

The 2013-2014 Ohio Department of Education report card shows 1 C, 1 D and 6 F's With a performance index of 73.6% and Indicators met of 41.7% ^[3]

http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Archives%20TS/Community%20Schools/142950/142950_2012-2013_BUILD.pdf

http://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Pages/School-Report.aspx?SchoolIRN=142950

Ethics and Charter Schools

Ohio is number 4, and that is not good

Follow the money!

I sense that the pendulum is swinging back towards sanity after a failed billion dollar experiment.  More articles in the papers.  More letters to the editor.  More pressure on the politicians. 

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ohio-s-for-profit-charter-schools-drag-state-into-group-of-nation-s-worst-performers-1.539387?localLinksEnabled=false

"Ohio’s charter schools have a national reputation for hiring for-profit companies that produce poor academic results.

Only three of 26 states had lower performing charter schools, according to a Stanford University study of states with schools in operation long enough to compare results.

A factor in the difference appears to be the motivation to make money.

Tennessee, New York and Rhode Island, which the study reckons have the highest-performing charter school sectors, are among the six states that ban for-profit companies.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ohio trails only Michigan and Texas in the percentage of taxpayer-funded charter schools run by for-profit companies, according to the Colorado-based National Education Policy Center.

• Of the 16 lowest performing networks, 14 were managed by for-profit companies.

• The online charter schools Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow and Ohio Virtual Academy, which account for a quarter of all charter enrollment, averaged the lowest student growth in the state.

• Of the 12 highest-performing charter school networks, eight hired nonprofit management organizations.

• $503 million of $920 million in public funding went to charter schools managed by for-profit companies. A little over half of the $920 million went to out-of-state companies.

• Out-of-state and for-profit companies enrolled 74,458 of the 119,271 Ohio charter school students."

Another pissed off superintendent

An opinion letter on charter school and the waste of tax dollars from Tom Dunn, Superintendent of Troy Schools

http://tdn-net.com/news/opinion_columns/150385462/You-really-want-to-know-about-this

In a previous article, I criticized state superintendent Dr. Richard Ross for his claim that the state’s quest for transparency is the driving force behind the Ohio Department of Education’s (ODE) School District Report Card. I suggested that his, the ODE’s, and the legislature’s quest for transparency seems to end where their pet project, the charter school movement, begins. I challenged readers to visit the independently created web site known as http://knowyourcharter.com/ to become better informed about the charter school debacle and how it impacts you.


Realizing that the percentage of readers who accepted my challenge would likely be small, I wanted to follow up by sharing some of the information contained on the site. My hope is that your interest will be piqued enough that you will visit it to learn what is really being done with your tax dollars. As a taxpayer, you should be very interested in both the financial and academic information contained there, and you should be outraged by it.
Before we even begin to discuss the complete academic failure of charter schools in Ohio, which you can see by clicking on each charter’s name on the web site, let’s start with the fact that $2.1 million were deducted from Miami County school districts last year and sent to charter schools, nearly two million of which went to for-profit entities operated by private corporations. You read that right — $2 million!


In other words, public funds that were approved for local districts, otherwise known as yours and my
tax dollars, are being sent to for-profit companies under the pretense that these schools are better than yours. Even worse, the money is often used to lobby our legislators to create the laws that further benefit charter schools.
Keep in mind that public dollars can’t be used to lobby for votes, but for-profit charter school operators, along with some of their lawmaker buddies, argue that it is perfectly acceptable for them to do so, because their company is private. So, to underscore the ridiculousness of this argument, charter schools, which the state champions as public schools, can be run by private companies that use public funds in ways that public funds can’t be used. That shouldn’t be acceptable to any of us.


The fact is that once these dollars enter the for-profit black hole, there is no oversight as to how they are being spent, and the folks at ODE, in the legislature, and in the governor’s office simply turn a blind eye to the practice as if it doesn’t occur. In fact, when State Auditor Dave Yost tried to increase the oversight on these kinds of activities, Governor Kasich and members of the legislature were less than pleased. After all, this money helps get them elected.


It should tell you something that the people who should care about this scam don’t care at all,
especially considering they tell us they are so enamored with keeping us informed. In fact, if not for independent researchers like those who created this web site and media outlets uncovering the shenanigans of these companies, we wouldn’t be any wiser about how our tax dollars are being inappropriately used.
To see one example, take a few minutes and read the article at http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/13/crony-capitalism-for-ohio-charter-schools-draws-criticism. If that doesn’t raise your ire, nothing will. A simple Google search can uncover many similar articles, all of which should interest you, since they are talking about your money.


It has become painfully obvious that the folks who should be providing the oversight have no intention of changing what they do, so apparently we must be the change agents for them. Learning what is happening is the first step. Putting a stop to it should follow.


Tom Dunn of Troy is superintendent of the Miami County Education Service Center. He may be reached at tom.dunn@mcapps.org

A .375 GPA

Some insights from a recent auditor’s report.  I think  I am reading this correctly. 

Imagine Schools Inc. has been justifiably  criticized for paying a subsidiary more money in rent than it does for its teaching staff and producing poor results.  The national benchmark for rent is 15% according to an article in the Columbus Dispatch. 

A recent audit of Ohio Connections Academy shows that teaching and administration total $5,268,575.  Overhead totals $6,003,793.   113% more than the money for teaching salary and benefits.  Overhead is undefined.  This money flows out of the state to a Maryland management company, Connections Learning,  who does with it as they wish.  There is little in bricks and mortar expense.  Compare that to 15% rent benchmark.

The management company can recycle the same software year after year.  They can sell essentially the same software to multiple states.  The transfer and accounting of the overhead expense insures that the non-profit altruistic E-school never will show a profit.  Useful to show why they cannot pay teachers more or to elicit sympathy from parents or politicians.  They are the underdog. 

Yet it is a very profitable business for the management company. Connections Learning, K-12 and others are aggressively expanding in every state possible.  Underdog status also justifies the need for more money and more students.  See page 20 on the attached link. 

What are the latest state report card results for this E-school?  1 C, 2 D’s and 5 F’s.  A .375 GPA.  It would be nice if they could move the decimal point.

To help manage the multimillion dollar budget they hired a part-time treasurer  who is under indictment for her role as treasurer with Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy.  I guess there is no need for an on-site full time treasurer. 

The audit also shows unresolved title money issues totaling $668,642 (see page 46).  When will this be resolved?  To paraphrase a politician, pretty soon we are talking real money.  At best it shows that they are sloppy with their record keeping.  At worst is suggests that they are playing with the allocations to put more of scarce title money in their pockets at the expense of taxpayers. 

https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/Reports/2013/Ohio_Connections_Academy_11-Hamilton.pdf

There is an obvious problem.  Look at the proliferation of E-schools in Ohio.  Who benefits?

What is needed?  Transparency, strong boards (which are not lead around by the nose by the management company), and oversight.  These characteristics exist in the vast majority of our public school districts.  Oh by the way, results  would be good too.