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Friday, December 16, 2011

The Florida Legislatures Own Research Arm Warned of Potential Charter School Fraud in 2000 | Scathing Purple Musings

The Florida Legislatures Own Research Arm Warned of Potential Charter School Fraud in 2000 | Scathing Purple Musings:


The Florida Legislatures Own Research Arm Warned of Potential Charter School Fraud in 2000

Wring in the Miami Herald this morning, Fred Grim reminds readers that a legislative arm – as far back as 2000 – warned  that “numerous news articles questioning alleged conflicts of interest between  governing board members and charter school operations.”
Anyone who has spent time observing government entities knows what can happen  when large amounts of taxpayer money gets disbursed without transparency or  tough rules or real oversight. Predictable stuff. Anyone could see what’s  coming.
Certainly, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government  Accountability, the research arm of the Florida Legislature, foresaw the  hazards. In 2000, back when the state had only 113 charters schools, OPPAGA  issued a report concerned with unseemly expenditures and “business


Jeb Bush, K12 Inc. the Digital Learning Council and Florida Virtual School

At some point Jeb Bush will begin to be seen as what he truly is: a lobbyist and rainmaker for powerful education corporations. His so-called education summit earlier this fall read more like a sales seminar. The only professional educators and public school advocates around were outside protesting. But it is within the list ofBush’s foundation’s financial backers  that introduces  the topic of today’s post.
On-line education giant K12 Inc. is one of Bush’s corporate sponsors. A comprehensive New York Times report last weekend detailed K12 Inc.’s vast reach into the nation’s schools that isn’t so positive.
The business taps into a formidable coalition of private groups and officials promoting nontraditional forms of public education. The growth of for-profit online schools, one of the more overtly commercial segments of the school choice movement, is rooted in the theory that corporate