Thursday, September 20, 2012

Hey Washington State, Do you really want your very own CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS:
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CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE


Hey Washington State, Do you really want your very own CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS
No on 1240 (click on picture)

Velocity International Science and Technology Academy

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 1 hour ago
*“Stockton charter closing after just 10 days.”* The Record (CA), 9/20/2012 STOCKTON - With enrollment less than one-third of what was expected, a charter high school that opened only last week in temporary space at Sherwood Mall will shut its doors for the final time Friday after a 10-day run. The imminent closing of troubled Velocity International Science and Technology Academy leaves about 70 students looking for new schools and six teachers looking for new jobs as September reaches its late stages... VISTA's brief existence followed a turbulent gestation period. It originally... more »

Innovate Manhattan Charter School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 1 hour ago
*“Banned teach gets job at city charter.”* New York Daily News (NY), 9/12/2012 The Manhattan charter school that hired an ex-con heroin dealer also apparently employed a teacher banned from the city workforce. Innovate Manhattan Charter School’s website shows that staff included Bart Ocuto, who got busted in 2011 for asking a public school student if she ever had anal sex and for insulting other students... As of Sept. 2, Ocuto was listed as the science teacher on Innovate Manhattan’s website, but his name has since been scrubbed. The Daily News reported Monday that the school hi... more »

New Millennium Institute of Education

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“Troubled New Millennium charter school keeps getting second chances.”*Fresno Bee (CA), 9/16/2012 In February 2011, after a decade of dismal performance, the New Millennium charter school in west Fresno turned to Dr. Ernie Smith for help... As he dug in, Smith said he was unprepared for the sheer level of dysfunction he encountered at New Millennium -- and the hands-off attitude of Fresno Unified... Students were coming and going in an independent study program that lacked even the pretense of accounting, Smith said. The program was so poorly run that the publicly funded school ... more »

Eagle Charter Academy

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“Financial problems close three charter schools in Broward.”* The Miami Herald (FL), 9/14/2012 Parents, students and teachers are unexpectedly scrambling to find a new school. The abrupt end was punctuated by locked doors and silence at one school, and with a chaotic gathering of parents and students at another. But the story at three Broward charter schools was essentially the same on Friday: financial problems had led to closure, leaving parents and students to unexpectedly scramble to find a new place to enroll. “We should have had way more time to look for other schools fo... more »

Florida virtual schools provider K12 (43 school districts)

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“State Investigating Virtual Schools Provider K12.”* Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FL), 9/11/2012 The Florida Department of Education has launched an investigation of K12, the nation’s largest online educator, over allegations the company uses uncertified teachers and has asked employees to help cover up the practice. K12 officials asked state-certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students they hadn’t taught, according to documents that are part of the investigation. In one case, a K12 manager instructed a certified teacher to sign a class roster o... more »

Delhi Charter School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“ACLUtargets anti-pregnancy rule at Louisianacharter school.”* Associated Press, 8/7/2012 The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana threatened Tuesday to sue a northeastern Louisiana charter school if it doesn't change rules that keep pregnant students out of the classroom and require girls under suspicion of being pregnant to be tested. The four-paragraph "Student Pregnancy Policy" in Delhi Charter School's policy manualsays that if a suspected girl refuses to take a pregnancy test, she can be removed from class or the school. That violates the U.S. Constitution and feder... more »

Robert Russa Moton Charter School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“New Orleans charter school is accused of cheating to help 4th-graders pass LEAP tests.”* The Times-Picayune (LA), 8/26/2012 Staff at the Robert Russa Moton Charter School, one of the highest-ranked open-enrollment schools in New Orleans, violated state testing policy to help fourth-grade students pass standardized exams last year, a district investigation found. The school denies any cheating took place. Correspondence among school, district and state officials obtained through a public records request detail allegations brought by anonymous whistle-blowers, among them a charge ... more »

Touchdowns4Life Charter Middle School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“Financial problems close three charter schools in Broward.”* The Miami Herald (FL), 9/14/2012 Parents, students and teachers are unexpectedly scrambling to find a new school. The abrupt end was punctuated by locked doors and silence at one school, and with a chaotic gathering of parents and students at another. But the story at three Broward charter schools was essentially the same on Friday: financial problems had led to closure, leaving parents and students to unexpectedly scramble to find a new place to enroll. “We should have had way more time to look for other schools for... more »

Fitch Ratings 'Charter School Rating Criteria: Exposure Draft' & anticipated negative effect

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“TEXT-Fitch updates Charter School rating criteria.”* Reuters, 9/19/2012 Sept 19 - Fitch Ratings has updated its Charter School Rating Criteria, incorporating the proposals detailed in 'Charter School Rating Criteria: Exposure Draft' dated July 19, 2012, and available at www.fitchratings.com. The main proposals from the exposure draft that have been incorporated into the criteria are: --Increased Emphasis on External Risk Factors Fitch believes the operating model for charter schools exposes these entities to substantial external risks that are often outside the direct control o... more »

Crown Ridge Academy

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“San Bernardino charter school shut down.”* San Bernardino Sun (CA), 9/19/2012 SAN BERNARDINO - More than 100 students who had been attending a charter school for at-risk children stayed home Wednesday, and they won't be going to Crown Ridge Academy ever again. Neither will the school's teachers, all of whom the charter school director says are owed months of pay without a clear path to collect that money. The board of the San Bernardino City Unified School District, which allowed the school to open in 2009, revoked the charter Tuesday night after determining that there was no... more »

Imagine Academy of Careers Middle School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“Former St. Louis charter school instructor charged with raping student.”*St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/5/2012 ST. LOUIS • Prosecutors have charged a former St. Louis charter school instructor with raping a student last month. Ronald C. Wilkerson, 41, of the 1200 block of North Euclid Avenue, was charged Aug. 31 with two counts of forcible rape, one count of forcible sodomy, two counts of second-degree statutory rape, one count of statutory sodomy and two counts of witness tampering. Authorities said Wilkerson, a former instructor at one of the Imagine charter schools, twice raped a... more »

Tennessee Virtual Academy

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 2 hours ago
*“TN virtual school draws criticism.”* The Tennessean (TN), 9/10/2012 As state officials lambaste the Tennessee Virtual Academyfor low achievement scores and discuss new oversight methods, the school’s management company is facing an investigation in Florida, overcoming a list of citations issued in Georgia and recovering from reports of poor results in many of its schools. The virtual academy allows students in grades K-8 to take all their classes online, monitored by a certified teacher. It is managed by K12 Inc., a publicly traded for-profit company that has contracts for diffe... more »

SMART Charter School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 3 hours ago
*“Financial problems close three charter schools in Broward.”* The Miami Herald (FL), 9/14/2012 Parents, students and teachers are unexpectedly scrambling to find a new school. The abrupt end was punctuated by locked doors and silence at one school, and with a chaotic gathering of parents and students at another. But the story at three Broward charter schools was essentially the same on Friday: financial problems had led to closure, leaving parents and students to unexpectedly scramble to find a new place to enroll. “We should have had way more time to look for other schools for... more »

VLT (Value Learning and Teaching) Academy

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 3 hours ago
*“Audit flags ethics questions at charter school.” *Cincinnati Enquirer (OH), 9/11/2012 A local charter school overpaid an employee $3,333 and committed possible ethics violations, according to the Ohio Auditor’s Office... In one case, the school accepted a bid from a janitorial company even though it was higher than other bids. The company’s owner works for the school and is married to the superintendent. In the other case, the superintendent signed a $17,000 summer contract for her daughter. Both are potential conflicts of interest... Lee said the school has been contracting wi... more »

Excelsior Charter School

The Perimeter Primate at CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS - 3 hours ago
*“Rodeo Clown Stirs Controversy After Making Racist Joke About First Lady.”*CBSLA, 9/18/2012 CRESTON (CBSLA.com) — A rodeo clown didn’t leave many people laughing in San Luis Obispo County this past weekend when he made a racist joke about first lady Michelle Obama. Michael Hayhurst, a professional rodeo clown and barrelman, got on the PA system at the 17th Annual Creston Classic Rodeo Saturday and said, “Playboy is offering Ann Romney $250,000 to pose in the magazine, and the White House is upset about it because National Geographic only offered Michelle Obama $50 to pose for the... more »



Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE



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.
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