Betsy DeVos, Steve Ingersoll, and Michigan as a “cautionary tale” for American education
The news yesterday that Bay City, MI charter school operator Dr. Steve Ingersoll had been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison after being convicted on three counts of tax evasion and conspiracy should be sending shivers up Betsy DeVos’ spine today. Because while Dr. Ingersoll and Ms. DeVos may not know one another, the connections between them are numerous, significant, and absolutely chilling.
As I’ve written about previously, Dr. Ingersoll (he’s an eye doctor, with no degrees in education), is the poster child for what’s wrong with Michigan’s approach to regulation and oversight of the state’s charter schools…
Charter school proponents claim that charters offer options for parents who are disappointed in what their public schools provide, and this “choice” is about giving children better options. A recent story in the Detroit Free Press spins a “soap opera” style tale of nepotism, cronyism, crazy ideas about how children learn, bank fraud, and embezzlement. Michigan’s charter school “industry”–and that’s what it is, an industry; not an educational system, but rather a business model designed to steal public money and slip it into private bank accounts–is wildly out of control, an unregulated Wild West playground for unscrupulous hucksters, quacks and charlatans who see our school system and our children as an untapped well-spring of profits. And the stream is flowing.Let’s be clear: the charter school “industry” is not about kids, learning or “choice.” This unregulated explosion of charters is about money, and lots of it. This eye doctor funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into his private bank account. This was essentially a money laundering operation, not substantially different from how drug dealers set up a legitimate business, run it at a loss in order to turn “dirty” money into “clean” money, and then walk away when the heat gets too hot. [See: Breaking Bad.]What’s lost here is any discussion of Dr. Ingersoll’s “innovative” approach to learning, “Integrated Visual Learning,” which has to do with rapid eye movements. Here’s a teacher’sBetsy DeVos, Steve Ingersoll, and Michigan as a “cautionary tale” for American education | Eclectablog:
