Will L’affaire Bennett Finally Shine the Light on Charter Schools USA?
When Tampa Tribune reporter William March was sourcing a piece on the controversy over email exchanges Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education had with state education departments, he contacted Charter Schools USA. March got stonewalled: “We’re not interested in being used in an article meant to misrepresent the great work the Foundation for Educational Excellence does to promote posi
YESTERDAY
Bush, the Florida BOE, and Leadership Post-Bennett
Today’s Florida Board of Education emergency meeting was suitably somber. While voting unanimously to appoint Pam Stewart as the interim commissioner a solid decision - this takeaway stood out. Consider this from Kathleen McGrory’s post in the Buzz: During the conference call Friday, board member Kathleen Shanahan called for the creation of a “select committee” of lawmakers, superintendents and ot
Michelle Malkin Rips Jeb Bush’s “Phony Standards, Crony Contracts and Big Government-Big Business Collusion”
Oh…my …word: The resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett couldn’t have come at a better time. His disgraceful grade-fixing scandal is the perfect symbol of all that’s wrong with the federal education schemes peddled by Bennett and his mentor, former GOP Gov. Jeb Bush: phony academic standards, crony contracts, big-government and big-business collusion masquerading as “reform And
What the Bush Foundation’s Spin to Defend Tony Bennett Tells Us About Them
Patricia Levesque, the woman who heads both of Jeb Bush’s foundations, set the tone for the defense of Tony Bennett when the grade fixing story broke Sunday night when she said “they fixed a problem to be accurate and fair — any accusation otherwise is false and politically motived.” The world knows this now to be patently false. Bennett’s emails, a virtual paper trail, show that his main focus wa
AUG 01
Meanwhile, Bennett’s – and Florida’s – Charter Schools USA Problem Explodes
While Tony Bennett was resigning today from his post as Florida’s education commissioner, Indianapolis Star reporter Matt Tully dropped this bomb: In June of 2011, Tony Bennett, then Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction, picked a for-profit education company in Florida to run a group of Indianapolis public schools. The company, Charter Schools USA, set up operations in Indianapolis soon
In Resigning Bennett Calls Email Story “Unfounded, Malicious and Politically Motivated”
A bitter, emotional and defiant Tony Bennett took to the podium at the Florida Department of Education today and resigned as Education Commissioner of Florida saying that “when education becomes about the adults, it’s time for the adult to get out.” Fair enough. Too bad more ed reformers, like say, Michelle Rhee, don’t leave when they become the story. Bennett insisted that the decision to leave w
REPORT: Bennett to Step Down Today
From Peter Schorsch in his Saint Petersblog: Embattled education commissioner Tony Bennett has notified Governor Rick Scott he intends to resign today, according to a source close to the state board of education (the Tampa Bay Times‘ Steve Bousquet is now also reporting that Bennett will resign). Just yesterday, Scott told Channel 5 in West Palm Beach that Bennett is “doing a great job.” Bennett h
Bennett’s Break to Charter Schools Could Have Saved Two Public Schools From Takeover
From IndianaStar.com reporter Scott Elliott: Two Indianapolis Public Schools might never have been taken over by the state if then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett had offered the district the same flexibility he granted a year later to the Christel House Academy charter school. The issue was similar in both cases. Christel House had recently added ninth and 10th grades, and IPS’
JUL 31
Bennett Emails Reveal “favoritism, cronyism, self-interest, and hubris”
Teresa Meredith is the new president of the Indiana Teacher’s Association. She offers this on the Tony Bennett’s cheating scandal in the Chesterton Tribune: It’s time to call the Bennett school letter grade scandal exactly what it is—cheating. Emails obtained by the Associated Press and released Monday show that former Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett and his staff wor
Senator Dwight Bullard Calls For Bennett’s Removal
From Kathleen McGrory in the Miami Herald: Bullard wrote the following in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday: “In light of the recent reports from the Associated Press and other news outlets on Department of Education chief Tony Bennett’s grade changing activities in Indiana, I find it necessary to call on you to request his immediate resignation as Florida’s Commissioner of Education. Given
Indiana Mayor and Charter School Operator Livid Over Bennett’s Grade Change Revelations
From Northwest Indiana Times reporter Carmen McCollum: Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott, who founded the Hammond Academy of Science and Technology, a charter school in Hammond that received an F last year, was livid over the report. McDermott, a Democrat, wrote on his Facebook page, “Maybe if I voted Republican, HAST’s grade would have been higher. Maybe if I had donated $130,000 to the Republicans,
Bennett Engaged in “Pay to Play Tactics”
Wow. Florida Democrats are starting to call for Tony Bennett’s ouster. From Times-Herald reporter Kathleen McGrory: Two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called for the resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, saying the school grades scandal in Indiana had called Bennett’s integrity into question. “It’s time for [Gov. Rick Scott] to accept another resignation,” said Rep. Mark P
Bush Foundation Dangerous All-In Defense of Bennett’s Indiana Grade Changes
Bush Foundation boss Patricia Levesque predictably came to the defense yesterday of embattled education commissioner Tony Bennett. From Lisa Gartner in GRADEBOOK: “Commissioner Bennett and his department found and corrected a mistake that would have unfairly penalized 13 schools missing data for grades they did not even serve. They fixed a problem to be accurate and fair – any accusation otherwise
Bennett’s Indiana School Grade Changes Never Made Sense to Begin With
More revelations are emerging about the grade changes that Tony Bennett feverishly put in place last fall to protect one of a major political donor. This from Karen Francisco of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: The scramble to inflate Christel House’s grade also was successful in pushing more than half of the state’s charter schools to a letter grade of C or better, a claim Bennett couldn’t make be
JUL 30
Tony Bennett’s Emails Reveal His Personal Agenda
In the aftermath of revelations that then superintendent of public education Tony Bennett changed a school grade for the charter school belonging to a wealthy campaign donor, editorial boards from Indiana’s newspapers are weighing in. This from the Lafayette Journal and Courier: Everyone wondered what took the Indiana Department of Education so long to report its A-to-F grades — a cornerstone of t
JUL 29
The Emails and the Money Trail in Tony Bennett’s Grade Change Scandal
Tony Bennett knew he was in a bind with Indiana voters last year and so did the wealthy education privatization movement who eventually donated $1,885, 304 to his ill-fated campaign. Along with four members of the current Florida Board of Education, Bennett bagged $200,000 from Alice Walton, $50,000 from Eli Broad, $40,000 from Mike Bloomberg AND $64,000 from Michelle Rhee. Among Bennett’s top don
BREAKING: Bennett Changed Charter School Grade Belonging to Republican Donor to His Campaign
H/T to StateImpact for calling attention to this NY Times story: INDIANAPOLIS — Former Indiana and current Florida schools chief Tony Bennett built his national star by promising to hold “failing” schools accountable. But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett’s education team frantically overhauled his signature “A-
JUL 28
Seabring News Sun: “Somewhere along the way, standardized testing became downright irrational”
The editors of the News Sun blame Tallahassee: After improvement in 2012, this year’s school grades are a major disappointment. The entire state took a step back — 482 schools lost their “A” grades, and 67 more schools are considered failing in 2013. Highlands County has its first failing school, and only two schools improved. Of 13 schools, nine lost a grade. This should be devastating news. It w
JUL 26
Rubio Seperates From Bush in Opposition to Common Core
From Tampa Bay Times reporter Alex Leary: Sen. Marco Rubio has joined growing criticism of the education standards known as Common Core, putting him in conflict with Jeb Bush at a time when Rubio is sharpening his conservative credentials. “Common Core started out as a well-intentioned effort to develop more rigorous curriculum standards,” Rubio said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “However
A Conservative Take Down of the Florida Five’s Common Core Spin
Harvard Law School grad Jane Robbins has penned a blistering dismissal of the Common Core Standards defense published by five former Florida state GOP chairs. Writing for American Principles Project, Robbins effectively dispatches with seven false assertions the republican power brokers make in the letter they wrote to Florida republican legislators. Five former Florida Republican Party leaders