Celebrating National Charter Schools Week, 2012 with the Newest Batch of
CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS
National Heritage Academies (huge rent markups @ NYC charter schools)
*“Charter management firm charging huge rent markups to charter schools; Charters’ 1,000% markup.”* New York Post, 4/30/2012 A for-profit education firm is soaking taxpayers by subleasing buildings to the Brooklyn public charter schools it runs at astronomical rates — including one at an incredible 1,000 percent markup, sources said. While the city Department of Education leases buildings in Brooklyn for between $5 and $25 per square foot, the Michigan-based National Heritage Academies subleases to the charter schools it operates for roughly $38 to $45 per square foot, accordin... more »
Florida charter schools (grant tapping-practices)
*“Charter schools get a second helping of free money.”* Miami Herald, 4/28/2012 Established charter schools are able to tap into grants meant to help start-ups by nesting schools within schools. Sometimes the two schools share everything, from staffers to teachers to buildings. From the outside, it looks like a single school, with one main door, one security guard, one principal greeting students. But on paper, the Charter School of Excellence at Tamarac is actually two schools in one — a bookkeeping strategy allowing the school to collect an extra $250,000 in grant money f... more »
Mission Charter School
*“A Fairly Strong Claim of Discrimination.”* Courthouse News Service, 4/25/2012 PHOENIX (CN) - A black, Jewish principal claims a charter school fired her after subjecting her to intolerable treatment: setting up a Holocaust exhibit outside her office, forcing her to walk past a swastika and "to go into the gas chamber in order to go into her office." Millicient McNeil sued the Mission Charter School in Maricopa County Court. She claims the school board ignored her complaints about the swastika in the hall, along with a photo of a lever used to drop chemicals into gas chamb... more »
Charter school expansion has led to more segregation
*“New report provides solutions to reverse disturbing trend of segregation in charter schools*; Expansion of charter schools has led to schools being more segregated today than 30 years ago.” Press release from Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice, 2/21/2012 EAST LANSING, Mich. (Feb. 21, 2012) — The expansion of charter schools has led to classrooms being more segregated today than they were 30 years ago, according to a new report released today that provides policymakers with detailed recommendations on how to ensure all students have access to a quality educat...more »
Schools operated by major CMOs generally spend more than surrounding public schools
*“Charter Schools: How Many Bucks for the Desired Bang?”* *National Education Policy Center *press release, 5/3/2012 BOULDER, CO (May 3, 2012) — Do charter schools live up to their supporters’ claim that they deliver a better education for less money? While previous research has focused on the first half of that claim – education quality -- a new report published by the National Education Policy Center examines the second half – what charters spend. Schools operated by major charter management organizations (CMOs) generally spend more than surrounding public schools, according to S... more »
Florida charter schools (safety concerns)
*“Worries Grow Over Safety Of Charter Schools.”* Sun Sentinel (FL), 10/12/2003 A building inspector was unaware a charter elementary was opening in Davie until a few days before school started. He closed the school for a month because operators had renovated the building without getting required permits. Code violations dealt a severe blow to a three-year-old charter school in North Lauderdale. The county ordered it closed for the entire year a few days before 300 students were to return this fall. A middle and high school sharing the same building in Lauderdale Lakes had to hi... more »
Harriet Tubman Charter School
*“Charter schools boot 2 ‘troubled’ kindergartners; Disciplined kids given psychiatric suspensions.”* NY Daily News, 4/30/2012 Two kindergartners were yanked from separate charter schools after staff deemed them too troubled to attend, their lawyer and parents said... The students — one of them on her first day at a new school — were removed after being placed on so-called “psychiatric suspensions,” according to Nelson Mar, who is representing the two families. In 5-year-old Brianna Pena’s case, relatives say the Bronx girl was probably just anxious because she had just been tra... more »
Birmingham Community Charter High School
*“LAUSD issues notice of violations to Birmingham charter school, first step in revoking charter.”* LA Daily News (CA), 5/1/2012 Birmingham Community Charter High School has until May 23 to respond to concerns that it mishandled admissions, expulsions and claims of racial bias as it fights to prevent Los Angeles Unified from retaking control of the campus. The LAUSD board issued a notice of violations on Tuesday, the first of three steps in revoking the school's charter. As outlined in an April 13 letter from Superintendent John Deasy, the charter faces allegations that include ... more »
High turnover for New York City’s charter school principals
*“High Turnover for Charter School Principals, Report Says.”* SchoolBook, New York Times, 4/30/2012 By their own numbers, New York City charter schools have a tough time holding onto their principals, with nearly one in five of them heading for the door from one year to the next, according to a report released by a charter school advocacy group on Monday. The New York City Charter School Center, a nonprofit group that supports charters, composed the report, which is a close-up look at the 136 charter schools that have sprung up across the five boroughs in the last 13 years. As th... more »
South Bronx Classical Charter School
*“Charter schools boot 2 ‘troubled’ kindergartners; Disciplined kids given psychiatric suspensions.”* NY Daily News, 4/30/2012 Two kindergartners were yanked from separate charter schools after staff deemed them too troubled to attend, their lawyer and parents said. The students — one of them on her first day at a new school — were removed after being placed on so-called “psychiatric suspensions,” according to Nelson Mar, who is representing the two families... Generally, schools are required to evaluate students with special needs or behavior problems. Then the schools are sup... more »
Reading Star Academy of Excellence
*“Volusia School Board votes to close troubled charter.”* Orlando Sentinel (FL), 4/24/2012 Volusia County School Board members voted unanimously Tuesday to shutter a first-year charter school after learning about 21 academic and management violations at the school. Reading Star Academy of Excellence, a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade charter school, will shut its doors in July unless its managers ask for a hearing... District staff told the Volusia board that Reading Star students worked in cramped rooms, and students learning English and those with disabilities didn't get... more »
The Scholars’ Academy (Arizona)
*“Quartzsite school principal, secretary resign after caught making out during class.”*ABC15, 4/27/2012 QUARTZSITE, AZ - A piece of shocking cell phone video has turned an Arizona school into the talk of the town. Students at Quartzsite’s Scholar’s Academy captured their principal kissing and fondling the school secretary. City officials say the video shows Principal Steve McClenning making out with Billie Madewell. Numerous parents, students, and residents told ABC15 the two are both married to different people. What has parents most upset, however, is that the intimate kissi... more »
Connecticut charter schools (cherry-picking students)
*“Are charter schools cherry-picking their students?”* The Connecticut Mirror (CT), 3/5/2012 Hartford -- As students from the highly regarded Jumoke Academy Charter School filed into the gymnasium for a mid-afternoon assembly last week, onlooker Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pointed out that at first glance these students seem to mirror those attending the neighborhood public schools. "Look around," he said, fielding questions about whether this school is teaching the same type of students who attend Hartford public schools. But enrollment numbers tell a different story. Just one of t... more »
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* 17/1/2008 t... 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 s... 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 studen... 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 charter school 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 »
CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS
A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.
Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal
Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below
Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below
