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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Why Mavericks Charter Schools Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do | Scathing Purple Musings

Why Mavericks Charter Schools Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do | Scathing Purple Musings:

Why Mavericks Charter Schools Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do

Alternative newspaper NewTimes has done the heavy reporting and has unmasked the massive, unregulated fraud that exists in Florida’s education privatization industry. This summer’s NewTimes story about the abuse of McCay scholarships gives them significant street cred in their reporting of highly questionable activity at Maverick’s Florida charter school chain. ic record isn’t so good.

Maverick’s high-profile president, Frank Biden, is the brother of Vice President Joe Biden. This, coupled with some sketchy, um, paperwork issues has drawn the attention of Washington Post education writer Valerie Strauss. As Strauss points out, Biden is clearly using the family name to influence expansion of the chain in Brevard county. Their academic success isn’t so good. Writes Strauss:

The network’s schools have had academic struggles. (To be sure, so have many regular public schools that cater to highly at-risk populations.) At some Mavericks locations, not enough