Dividing Communities since 1991
CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS
Gulen charter schools in North Carolina
*STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* NC 1 2 4 7 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ================================================================ *TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN 2010-2011 = 421 STUDENTS * ================================================================ *SCHOOLS* ================================================================ *TRIAD MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY* *Status* *ACTIVE*, opened 2008 *Management* Triad Math and Science Academy Company *Authorizer* NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education *Term of charter*... more »
Imagine Schools in St. Louis, Missouri (six-school shutdown)
*“Shuttering of Imagine charter schools in St. Louis is daunting.” *St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), 4/20/2012 As they move to close down a network of St. Louis charter schools over the next several weeks, state education officials face a task as monumental and complicated as dismantling an entire school district... In fact, the decision this week by Missouri's Board of Education to shutter six Imagine charter schools in St. Louis will likely result in the largest charter school closure of its kind nationwide, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools... A ... more »
Mavericks High of Palm Beach County
*“Lawsuit alleges high school asked teacher to fabricate grades in classes studentsdidn't take.”* The Palm Beach Post, (FL), 4/14/2012 PALM SPRINGS — A former teacher at the new Mavericks High School in Palm Springs has filed a lawsuit alleging that the school falsifies enrollment records and fabricates student grades in classes the students did not take. The lawsuit, filed by Angenora Mechato, is the third such whistleblower lawsuit to be filed by former employees of the chain of Florida charter schools. The chain is run by a for-profit management company based in West Palm Beac... more »
Truebright Science Academy Charter School
*“SRC begins process to shut 3 charter schools.” *Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 4/19/2012 For the first time in four years, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Thursday night began the process of closing city charter schools. The commission voted to put three schools on notice that their five-year operating charters would not be renewed: Truebright Science Academy, Arise Academy, and Hope... The schools will remain open for the 2012-13 academic year... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *“SRC votesnot to renew three charters.”* The Notebook (PA), 4/19/2012 ... more »
Mavericks in Education Florida LLC
*“Mavericks High Schools Hope to Profit From Education – But at What Cost?”*Broward-Palm Beach New Times (FL), 12/29/2011 ...This is Frank Biden, the brother of Vice President Joe Biden. He's here, at a ribbon-cutting event August 31, to promote the first Palm Beach County location of a local for-profit chain of charter schools called Mavericks in Education Florida... But so far, Mavericks' lofty goals haven't materialized. Most of their schools graduate less than 15 percent of eligible students. On state report cards, the schools get "incompletes" because so few of their stud... more »
Pennsylvania charter schools (re difficulty with oversight and closing schools)
“*Closing a charter school is a long, costly process"*; Allentown board expected to start process against Vitalistic this week.” The Morning Call, 4/22/2012 ...Charter school revocation hearings are costly, rare and time-consuming in Pennsylvania, which has 167 charter schools. Only eight charters have been revoked and those decisions were appealed to the state Charter School Appeal Board, state Department of Education records show... While the law's directions for how a charter can open are precise, its oversight provisions are not. The law states school districts are to overs... more »
“State legislator files ethics complaint against school board member over charter school ad.”
*“State legislator files ethics complaint against school board member over charterschool ad.”* Marietta Daily Journal (GA), 4/21/2012 AUSTELL — State Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Austell) filed an ethics complaint against David Morgan this week, alleging that the Cobb school board vice chair didn’t report the cost of an ad attacking him for voting against the proposed charter school constitutional amendment. Morgan, who is a lobbyist for American Federation for Children [see below], a political action committee advocating school choice, is also a Democrat who lives in Austell. In hi... more »
New Heights Academy
*“Fired exec: Charter-school chief fudged books.” *New York Post (NY), 3/21/2012 The founder of one of the city’s largest charters schools falsified financial records and okayed illegal construction work while serving as its principal, according to a whistleblower suit filed by a former school exec. Stacy Winitt, executive director of the New Heights Academy in upper Manhattan, allegedly justified her shady practices by claiming her school was “too small to get caught,” court papers charge. Former COO Gene Fisch Jr. says he was fired after warning two members of the board of dire... more »
Better Research Needed on the Impact of Charter Schools
“Better Research Needed on the Impact of Charter Schools.” Science, 1/13/2012 View pdf of article @ http://sandera.ucsd.edu/news-and-events/Science-2012-Betts-171-2.pdf * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *“Report: We still don’t know much about charter schools.”* The Answer Sheet, The Washington Post, 1/14/2012 A new study on the effectiveness of public charter schools concludes that most of the research on the subject has been conducted with methods that “tell us little about causal effects.” The study, just published in the journal Science, was conducted by two w...more »
Regis Academy
*“Parish seeks to evict group.”* CourierPostOnline (NJ), 3/16/2012 CHERRY HILL — A Catholic parish here wants a judge to allow eviction proceedings against Solid Rock Worship Center, a church that plans to host a controversial charter school at its Ashland complex. Holy Eucharist Parish said Solid Rock continues to owe back rent under a lease-purchase agreement and that it has missed a deadline to buy the compound at Burnt Mill and Evesham roads. The parish says those actions violate an agreement the parties reached in June, about a month after Holy Eucharist sued for Solid Rock’s... more »