Amendment 8 Behind the Scenes: Political ideology, religion, dark money, billionaires, and of course, the money trail | LWVeducation

Amendment 8 Behind the Scenes: Political ideology, religion, dark money, billionaires, and of course, the money trail | LWVeducation

Amendment 8 Behind the Scenes: Political ideology, religion, dark money, billionaires, and of course, the money trail

Florida’s 652 charters run the gamut from small ‘mom and pop’ charters to large chains organized by for-profit management companies. Some serve children and districts well. Many others tell different stories. They involve not only political ideology but also religion, dark money networks, billionaires, and of course, self-interest.

The Erika Donalds version of the charter story starts simply. A small group of members seceded from the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) in 2015 to form the Florida Coalition of School Board Members (FCSBM). Erika Donalds, a member of the Collier County school board and wife of Florida Representative Byron Donalds, fronts this coalition, but the political network behind it is extensive. It goes all the way to our nation’s capital.
About 14 of the 50 alternative school board association members have been publicly identified, including:

• Rebecca Negron, who has just been defeated for a seat on the Martin County school board even though her supporters raised over $250,000 to unsuccessfully attack her opponent. She is the wife of Senate President Joe Negron. Senator Negron wrote the initial legislation for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program to give corporate taxes to private schools.
Some FCSBM members also have strong dark money ties to national conservative political advocacy groups.
• Erika Donalds openly displays the Americans for Prosperity logo on her Collier 912 Freedom Council website. This is a tea party group supported by the Koch brothers and others.
• In the March 29, 2018 article in the Tampa Bay Times, Speaker of the Florida House Richard Corcoran’s wife Ann, who operates her own charter school, is identified.
• Shawn Frost, who is Chair of the Indian River school board, is part of this coalition. He announced in the Indian River Guardian that he expects to be appointed to the Florida State Board of Education. Frost reported campaign contributions from Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Education. In 2014, Frost received $20,000 in campaign contributions from the American Federation of Children run by Betsy DeVos. Frost lives in Vero Beach, but maintains a room in his father’s house in Indian River to meet the residence requirements for being on the school board. He is also the head of MVP Strategy and Policy which specializes in consulting for school board races.
• A Duval School Board member Scott Shine has reportedly joined the FCSBM. He withdrew from his 2018 reelection campaign due to ‘personal attacks’.
• Sarasota school board members Erik Robinson, a former Republican Party Chairman and Bridgit Ziegler are listed members. Ziegler’s campaign reported $45,000 in donations from the out of state Phoenix Media LLC. According to the Herald Tribune, the money was funneled through a PAC run by fellow board member Erik Robinson, who is often called ‘The Prince of Dark Money’.

Some FCSBM members are collaborating to build a Florida chain of Classical Academy Charters. This isn’t just any group of charter schools. They are sponsored by the Hillsdale College Barney Charter School Initiative. The College, located in Michigan, has a long religious/conservative/libertarian agenda. The DeVos immediate family and close business associates have several Hillsdale  Continue reading: Amendment 8 Behind the Scenes: Political ideology, religion, dark money, billionaires, and of course, the money trail | LWVeducation

Stop the Voucher Tax Scam - Network For Public Education

Stop the Voucher Tax Scam - Network For Public Education

Stop the Voucher Tax Scam

There is no nice way to say it–it’s a tax scam to promote vouchers.

Twelve states have designed ingenious ways to use the U.S. tax code so that businesses and the wealthy can make money when they “contribute” to voucher programs.

Here is how it works. A business or taxpayer makes a donation to a state voucher “scholarship.” Then the state gives all or most of the “donation”  back as a tax credit. The donor then deducts the donation as a charitable deduction on federal taxes, even though they got the money back.

And right now it is perfectly legal.

The profiteering resulting from these tax credit voucher schemes has been marketed by tax accountants, private schools, and voucher proponents. And all of this means less money for public schools in state and federal coffers.

The good news is that the IRS is now trying to stop this.

The bad news is that Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children and EdChoice are mobilizing thousands to pressure the IRS to keep the scam going.

Please file your comment today with the IRS and tell them “close the loophole.”

This is all you have to do.

• Go to https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=IRS-2018-0025-0001
• In the ‘Comment” box, type the phrase “I submit the attached comment in response to the IRS proposed regulations on Contributions in Exchange for State and Local Tax Credits.”  Then continue with your comment. We give you a model comment to paste in below.
• Enter your first and last name.
• Follow the directions to submit.
Below is a comment you can use:
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I submit the attached comment in response to the IRS proposed regulations on Contributions in Exchange for State and Local Tax Credits.​ I am writing to thank the IRS for proposing the ending of a tax shelter that allows taxpayers to turn a profit when they fund private schools through state tuition tax credit programs.  This comes at the expense of state and federal budgets. Meanwhile, people line their pockets while the rest of us pay our fair share of taxes.
Please stay the course and make sure that tax accountants, private schools, and others can no longer exploit the federal charitable deduction to promote voucher tax credits. Thank you.
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It is extremely important that you do this.  Please add your comment here today.
Then post this link on your Facebook page. Continue Reading:Stop the Voucher Tax Scam - Network For Public Education

NPE 2018 National Conference - Network For Public Education - https://wp.me/p3bR9v-2Iy via @Network4pubEd

Incorrect Data Drives Major Education Decisions | The Report | US News

Incorrect Data Drives Major Education Decisions | The Report | US News
When the Data’s No Good
Serious education policy decisions are being driven by data. The problem is, it’s not always accurate.

IT'S BEEN A ROUGH YEAR for education data – one that's challenged the accuracy of federal databases, uncovered discrepancies that call into question major policy decisions and now, with another school year underway, one that will ask states, districts and schools to collect, report and use more data than ever before.

Take, for example, the revelation last month from an NPR investigation that only 11 of the roughly 240 schools that reported a school-related shooting actually experienced one. Or the inexplicable doubling of the number of districts reporting they were under a federal mandate to desegregate racially imbalanced schools, which itself, as Education Week uncovered, comes on the heels of an equally inexplicably 86 percent drop in the number of school districts reporting that. Or the graduation scandal in the District of Columbia, where 1 in 3 students who earned a diploma in 2017 shouldn't have, in large part because of administrators fudging attendance data.

[

READ: 

Poor Students Rarely See Dollars From ‘Free College’ Programs ]

"At some point, wouldn't you think someone would say, 'Two hundred and forty [shootings]? That's more than one a day. Obviously we don't have that,'" says Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a D.C.-based education think tank. "If you are casual about releasing data that at a moment's reflection would say to you, 'No that can't be right,' then are you casual about releasing other data? What does it take for data not to pass the smell test?"

The data discrepancies can have serious ramifications for researchers who rely on federal databases to study any number of things, as well as policymakers and practitioners who use such information to make decisions for their communities. Moreover, that data is often used to determine how billions of dollars in education funding is distributed to states and school districts, making it all the more imperative that it's accurate.

Nora Gordon, an associate professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, says she especially worries about the databases that rely on self-reported information, like the Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection, which was the source of information for both the erroneous school shooting data and the unexplained increases and decreases in desegregation orders.

"I feel like there is a lot of policy attention to that data source, with good reason, but I don't know Continue reading: Incorrect Data Drives Major Education Decisions | The Report | US News

THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY OF LAUSD SUPT. AUSTIN BEUTNER - Perdaily.com

THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY OF LAUSD SUPT. AUSTIN BEUTNER - Perdaily.com

THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY OF LAUSD SUPT. AUSTIN BEUTNER

What is most disingenuous about the L.A. Times "Reporter" Howard Blume's latest article entitled "LAUSD chief signals desire to limit teacher job protections and change funding rules" is that virtually nothing in the article is even remotely true. And worst yet, ersatz "Reporter" Blume knows it's not true. But at least he's got a good excuse for not telling the truth, since at the L.A. Times, they have gone from 1400 to 350 reporters. And where all remaining reporters like Blume know full well that they too will be out the door, if they even attempt to actually report the truth as to what is going on at LAUSD and elsewhere.

Howard Blum knows the truth and at an earlier time in his reporting life, when he was a real reporter, Blum might just have posed some of the following questions:

You now talk about wanting to "limit teacher job protections," but given the assault LAUSD has already waged against more expensive high seniority teachers over at least the last 10 years for their sole "crime" of being at the top of the salary scale, can you tell me Supt. Beutner what real job protections do any LAUSD teachers still have?

How many thousand teachers with no prior negative evaluations- 73% of whom are over 40 and at the top of the salary scale- have you and your immediate predecessors gotten rid of on completely fabricated charges in order to balance your budget and avoid nonetheless impending bankruptcy?

If LAUSD is in such dire financial straits, why has the number of administrators Continue reading: THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY OF LAUSD SUPT. AUSTIN BEUTNER - Perdaily.com