Those who can magically turn a 'C' into an 'A' - The Maddow Blog
Last year in Indiana, a charter school called Christel House had a small problem. Students' poor algebra test scores had dragged down the school's overall letter grade in the state system to a "C," which in turn put state funding in jeopardy.
At the same time, Republican politicians saw a related problem. Christel House is owned and operated by Christel DeHaan, a major Republican donor with great influence in Indiana's GOP circles.
And that's when things got interesting. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Tony Bennett -- Indiana's former schools chief who has since become Florida's education commissioner -- "frantically overhauled" its school grading system last fall in order to ensure the Republican donor's charter school got an "A," even though it earned a "C."
[T]rouble loomed when Indiana's then-grading director, Jon Gubera, first alerted Bennett on Sept. 12 that the Christel House Academy had scored less than an A."This will be a HUGE problem for us," Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12, 2012 email to [then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence's chief lobbyist]. Neal fired back a few minutes later, "Oh, crap. We cannot release until this is resolved." [...]A weeklong behind-the-scenes scramble ensued among Bennett, assistant