Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/20/17

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/20/17

Featured Post

New LA school board member says his election was not about ‘the proliferation of charters’ | EdSource

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING | Education Law Center

by mike simpson / 38min

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING | Education Law Center : VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING ELC AND MUNGER TOLLES TO HELP ADVOCATES PROTECT NATION’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS Education Law Center (ELC) and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP announce the launch of Voucher Watch , an initiative to inform and assist advocates as they op

CURMUDGUCATION: Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard

by mike simpson / 1h

CURMUDGUCATION: Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard : Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard The Great Divide in the reform world continues to be right along the lines of accountability, with DeVos and her DeVotees being pretty much against it in any meaningful sense. Just let the marketplace sort it out, they say, and Jeanne Allen, of the Center for Education Reform (a hard core charter-backing group), p

Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization - Living in Dialogue

by mike simpson / 1h

Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization - Living in Dialogue : Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization By John Thompson. David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise Institute. Callahan may be right and the AEI may have been one of the more intellectually honest of the conservative alt

CURMUDGUCATION: Digital Native Naivete

by mike simpson / 2h

CURMUDGUCATION: Digital Native Naivete : Digital Native Naivete The cliché is a fifty-year-old asking some ten year old student for help in making the computer work. Having trouble making working with your device or your software? Just grab one of those digital natives to handle it for you! Well, not so fast. Here's Jenny Abamu at Edsurge saying what I've been arguing for over a decade -- our dig

NOBODY Wants To Work for Betsy DeVos Staffing Woes at the Education Department

by mike simpson / 2h

Federal pick to lead higher ed policy drops out of consideration : Staffing Woes at the Education Department Claude Pressnell, apparent choice as assistant secretary for postsecondary education, removes himself from consideration, further stalling efforts to fill leadership ranks at the Education Department. The Trump administration’s pick to oversee higher ed policy at the Department of Educatio

Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools

by mike simpson / 3h

Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools : Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The struggle over what American students learn about global warming is heating up as conservative lawmakers, climate change doubters and others attempt to push rejected or debunked theories into the classroom. An overwhelming majority of climate scientists

Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard

by mike simpson / 3h

Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard : Senator Elizabeth Warren: Love Letter to the LGBTQ Community For Gay Pride Month, Billboard asked numerous pop culture luminaries to write 'love letters' to the LGBTQ community. Below, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- a champion of LGBTQ rights -- shares hers. Read more Pride Month love letters here. Right after I

Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges

by mike simpson / 5h

Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges : Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges The owner of Newpoint Education Partners, an organization that managed public charter schools in six Florida counties including Escambia County, has been charged with racketeering and organized fraud. Marcus May, the owner of Newpoint, is accused of misusing more than $1 million in

June Solstice - Summer and Winter Solstice

by mike simpson / 5h

June Solstice - Summer and Winter Solstice : June Solstice: Longest and Shortest Day of the Year The June solstice is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice the Southern Hemisphere. The June Solstice. (Not to scale) The date varies between June 20 and June 22 , depending on the year, and the local time zone . June Solstice in Citrus Heights, California, USA is on T

U.S. Department of Labor Funds States to Link Workforce to Education Data | Truth in American Education

by mike simpson / 6h

U.S. Department of Labor Funds States to Link Workforce to Education Data | Truth in American Education : U.S. Department of Labor Funds States to Link Workforce to Education Data This isn’t new. Student data privacy advocates have warned about the expansion of these databases to track your student from birth or preschool all the way to their participation in the workforce . The U.S. Department o

Is School Choice Just Expanding Privilege? | HuffPost

by mike simpson / 6h

Is School Choice Just Expanding Privilege? | HuffPost : Is School Choice Just Expanding Privilege? Students who need the most support are not well-served by choice policies. When my father was 19 years old, he got into a serious car accident. At the time he was a college student studying to be a math teacher. The car accident kept him out of school for several months, and when he was ready to ret

Parents Need to Play a Role in Their Children's Education | Knowledge Bank | US News

by mike simpson / 6h

Parents Need to Play a Role in Their Children's Education | Knowledge Bank | US News : Don't Give Parents a Pass on Education Hold schools accountable – but parents play a role helping their kids learn, too. America's schools are caught in a peculiar vise. We've made it clear that we expect schools to succeed with every child. That wasn't always the norm. Over the past 25 years, though, reformers

Texas law bars parents from suing schools — even when their children fall into a den of rattlesnakes

by mike simpson / 7h

Texas law bars parents from suing schools — even when their children fall into a den of rattlesnakes : Texas law bars parents from suing schools — even when their children fall into a den of rattlesnakes According to personal injury lawyer John Kemmrer Ivey, “the State of Texas and the school district doesn’t care” about children harmed due to negligence at school. The Houston Press described the

Seattle Schools Community Forum: SPD Shooting of Mother Sparks Loss for SPS Communities

by mike simpson / 7h

Seattle Schools Community Forum: SPD Shooting of Mother Sparks Loss for SPS Communities : SPD Shooting of Mother Sparks Loss for SPS Communities I was away this weekend and so am just coming to learning about the terrible shooting of a black pregnant mother of three, Charleena Lyles, at transitional housing for people coming out of homelessness. Her children - two in Seattle schools - may have be

Tiny, Decent Things – Live Long and Prosper

by mike simpson / 7h

Tiny, Decent Things – Live Long and Prosper : Tiny, Decent Things PART I: THE WAR AGAINST PUBLIC EDUCATION I began my whine against the overuse and misuse of standardized testing when No Child Left Behind passed in 2001 and Indiana doubled down on student testing. I complained to my principal, the school corporation, my local legislators. I became an officer in my local teachers association, and

Study: Shootings Kill Or Injure 19 US Children Each Day | WBEZ

by mike simpson / 7h

Study: Shootings Kill Or Injure 19 US Children Each Day | WBEZ : Study: Shootings Kill Or Injure 19 US Children Each Day Shootings kill or injure at least 19 U.S. children each day, with boys, teenagers and blacks most at risk, according to a government study that paints a bleak portrait of persistent violence. The analysis of 2002-14 U.S. data is billed as the most comprehensive study on the top

New LA school board member says his election was not about ‘the proliferation of charters’ | EdSource

by mike simpson / 7h

New LA school board member says his election was not about ‘the proliferation of charters’ | EdSource : New LA school board member says his election was not about 'the proliferation of charters' he May runoff election for two seats on the Los Angeles Unified District school board has resulted in a new majority backed by charter school advocates. In addition to incumbent Monica Garcia, who won re-

The Conservative Case for Unions - The Atlantic

by mike simpson / 8h

The Conservative Case for Unions - The Atlantic : The Conservative Case for Unions How a new kind of labor organization could address the grievances underlying populist anger A lthough i was as dumbfounded on Election Day as the next D.C. bubble-dweller, I did feel that I had one scrap of insight into the working-class anger that helped power Donald Trump’s improbable victory. Last year, I got a

More than 120 layoffs proposed in L.A. school district budget - LA Times

by mike simpson / 8h

More than 120 layoffs proposed in L.A. school district budget - LA Times : More than 120 layoffs proposed in L.A. school district budget A $7.5-billion Los Angeles schools budget set for approval Tuesday includes 121 layoffs and 180 “reassignments” that would result in pay cuts and possible additional job losses. Among the hardest hit in the proposal are library aides: 30 would lose their jobs, l

In high-crime areas, education reform needs to expand outside the classroom - The Hechinger Report

by mike simpson / 8h

In high-crime areas, education reform needs to expand outside the classroom - The Hechinger Report : In high-crime areas, education reform needs to expand outside the classroom A science project can be the difference between life and death for kids in New Orleans In the 21st century, our children have one of three options: take something, break something or make something,” says New Orleans nativ

Middle school graduation and a travel day. | Fred Klonsky

by mike simpson / 8h

Middle school graduation and a travel day. | Fred Klonsky : Middle school graduation and a travel day. First there was the deluge. Then came the rainbow over Coney Island as my granddaughter graduated with over 400 of her fellow middle school students last night. And I mean the rainbow arched right over Coney Island. In a covered open air arena a few steps from the Cyclone roller coaster and Nath

Marc Tucker: Trump’s Budget Takes from the Poor to Give to the Rich | Diane Ravitch's blog

by mike simpson / 8h

Marc Tucker: Trump’s Budget Takes from the Poor to Give to the Rich | Diane Ravitch's blog : Marc Tucker: Trump’s Budget Takes from the Poor to Give to the Rich Marc Tucker says that Trump’s budget will not make America great again. It is a reverse Robin Hood plan, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. “The first reaction is all gut. The budget, on its face, would represent a gigantic redi

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's latest 'reform". Moving backward in Chicago.

by mike simpson / 9h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's latest 'reform". Moving backward in Chicago. : Rahm's latest 'reform". Moving backward in Chicago. Chicago recorded it's 00th homicide over Father's Day weekend. Among those killed was 17-year-old Tiara Viramontes, a student at Marine Leadership Academy. After a Chicago weekend with 50 more shootings of mostly young people , eight of them fatal, Rahm Emanuel

Budget Expert, Robert Greenstein Explores Trump’s Heartless Budget in Cleveland City Club Address | janresseger

by mike simpson / 9h

Budget Expert, Robert Greenstein Explores Trump’s Heartless Budget in Cleveland City Club Address | janresseger : Budget Expert, Robert Greenstein Explores Trump’s Heartless Budget in Cleveland City Club Address Robert Greenstein, the President of the Washington, D.C., Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, addressed the Cleveland City Club last Friday. Greenstein’s subject was President Trump’s

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/19/17

by mike simpson / 20h

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/19/17 Featured Post A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering Seattle educators demand justice for Charleena Lyles; pledge to rally and wear “Black Lives Matter” shirts to school on Tuesday | I AM AN EDUCATOR by mike simpson / 10min Seattle educators demand justice for Charleena Lyles; pledge to rally and wear “Black

Top Posts This Week

• 

  Think Tanks, Fake News, Astroturfing, and Lies in the Era of Trump and DeVos - The Crucial Voice of the People
• 

  #30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings 2017 ~ Happy Father's day 2017 - # Wishes Quotes Messages #
• 

  Gov. Scott to sign controversial education bill today in Orlando - Orlando Sentinel
• 

  Jessica Tang quietly makes history with Boston Teachers Union election - The Boston Globe
• 

  Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids
• 

  Gov. Brown, Democrats to require school districts to give greater access to unions | EdSource
• 

  Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post
• 

  Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé
• 

  How diplomas based on skill acquisition, not credits earned, could change education - The Hechinger Report
• 

  Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/18/17

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING | Education Law Center

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING | Education Law Center:

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING
ELC AND MUNGER TOLLES TO HELP ADVOCATES PROTECT NATION’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Education Law Center (ELC) and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP announce the launch of Voucher Watch, an initiative to inform and assist advocates as they oppose the establishment and expansion of vouchers in their states.

Voucher Watch, located on the ELC website, will track voucher proposals in state legislatures and from the federal government, provide details on existing state voucher programs, and compile research on the impact of vouchers on student outcomes.

“Vouchers divert public funds from already under-resourced public schools,” said David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. “With Voucher Watch, we’ll be ready to help parents, teachers, advocates and lawmakers oppose vouchers and protect and improve their public schools.”

ELC and Munger Tolles are launching Voucher Watch after their successful collaboration on a legal challenge to Nevada’s unlimited “Education Savings Account” (ESA) voucher program. ELC and Munger Tolles represented public school parents pro bono in Lopez v. Schwartz, which resulted in a Nevada Supreme Court decision finding ESA vouchers unconstitutional because they diverted funding allocated for the public schools to private education expenditures.

“The pro-voucher movement presents a serious challenge for public schools across the nation,” said Tamerlin Godley, the Munger Tolles attorney who argued the Nevada voucher case before the State Supreme Court. “Every effort must be made to ensure that public dollars remain where they are most needed and do the most good – in our public schools.”

ELC, a non-profit organization working to secure the education rights of public school children, opposes using taxpayer dollars to pay for private and religious schooling. Established in 1973, ELC is the nation’s leading advocate for fair public school funding and has assisted advocates and lawyers in advancing school finance reform in almost every state.

Voucher Watch builds on ELC’s national network of advocates, law firms, and civil rights and advocacy organizations working to secure high quality educational opportunities for public school children.

“ELC is pleased to continue our partnership with Munger Tolles through the Voucher Watch initiative,” said Greg Little, ELC Chief Trial Counsel. “Tammy Godley and her team at Munger Tolles did an outstanding job of representing Nevada public school parents in securing a permanent injunction against Nevada’s unlimited ESA vouchers. We look forward to working together to bring much needed help to those fighting vouchers in other states.”

About Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
For more than 50 years, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP has been a full-service law firm known for trying bet-the-company cases and negotiating deals that shape our corporate landscape. Our 200 lawyers represent clients in a broad range of complex and high-profile matters in the areas of corporate, litigation, real estate and financial restructuring. Munger Tolles has been consistently ranked on The American Lawyer’s A-List since its inception in 2004, including four years in the top spot. For more information, please visit www.mto.com.

Please visit the Voucher Watch web pages frequently for up-to-date information.

VOUCHER WATCH LAUNCHED TO COMBAT USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLING | Education Law Center:

CURMUDGUCATION: Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard

CURMUDGUCATION: Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard:

Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard

The Great Divide in the reform world continues to be right along the lines of accountability, with DeVos and her DeVotees being pretty much against it in any meaningful sense. Just let the marketplace sort it out, they say, and Jeanne Allen, of the Center for Education Reform (a hard core charter-backing group), put together a whole book to help argue the point.

It can happen

Several folks have taken a shot at reviewing that tome. I'm not one of them (because I have two week old twins at my house), but here's a good look at parts of the work by Mercedes Schneider. And here's a review by Chester Finn, head honcho emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a reliable backer of education reform, and a guy I generally disagree with (just search his name on this blog). 

So let me mark this occasion on which I not only agree with part of what Finn has written, but would gladly written it myself. Finn first sums up the notion that "the market will provide all the quality control that’s necessary. Quality is in the eye of the beholder, i.e., the parent—and the school operator. The heck with school outcomes." And then he unloads this paragraph:

This is idiocy. It’s also entirely unrealistic in the ESSA era. It arises from the view—long since CURMUDGUCATION: Finn Backs Accountability-- Hard:

Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization - Living in Dialogue

Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization - Living in Dialogue:

Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization 

By John Thompson.

David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise Institute. Callahan may be right and the AEI may have been one of the more intellectually honest of the conservative alternatives to academic research, but still it didn’t abide by the rules of evidence that apply in universities.  These first generation think tanks were designed to “excel at framing the terms of public debates” and to “wage big-picture ideological warfare.” 

The rise of Silicon Valley prompted the growth of what ProPublica’s Jesse Eisenberg called “a society of oligarchs.” I used to think it is an exaggeration to speak of “new Silicon Valley overlords.” After all, the tech world is collaborative as well as competitive.

Besides, as a pro-choice lobbyist, I had personal experience with the care with which the reproductive rights movement, at least, took to obey the spirit and the letter of the laws regulating charitable organizations. We took special care to ensure that it was our 501(c)(4) non-tax exempt organization, not the 501(c)(3), that engaged in political action.  I had no idea that the IRS would allow the shenanigans recently documented by the Washington Post.

The Post’s Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg document the efforts by Donors Capital Fund, Donors Trust, the Bradley Foundation, the Scaife family, and David Horowitz’s Freedom Center as they “financed nonprofit organizations that promoted free enterprise and small government and opposed the environmental movement and other issues favored by progressives.” They also paved the way for the election of Donald Trump. Big donors used tax exempt charities to create what Horowitz dubbed, “a shadow political universe.”

But those are rightwingers. Surely more progressive and neoliberal donors would respect the rule of law and the principles of our democracy….

Callahan’s new book, along with other research, further documents the overreach of the “Billionaires Boys Club” which Well-Funded Non-Profits Pave the Way to Privatization - Living in Dialogue:

CURMUDGUCATION: Digital Native Naivete

CURMUDGUCATION: Digital Native Naivete:

Digital Native Naivete

The cliché is a fifty-year-old asking some ten year old student for help in making the computer work. Having trouble making working with your device or your software? Just grab one of those digital natives to handle it for you!

Well, not so fast. Here's Jenny Abamu at Edsurge saying what I've been arguing for over a decade-- our digital natives are hugely naïve about technology.

With the adoption of any new technology, there's a curve. In the 1910s, if you owned an automobile, you were also a reasonably savvy mechanic who knew how to work on his own machine. But in the century since, cars have become advanced in a way that has led to fewer and fewer car owners who could actually repair their own vehicle. 

It's a simple fact of marketing-- early adopters may be willing to know the nuts and bolts of the tech, but to expand my market, I have to be able to say to non-savvy buyer, "Don't worry-- the tech will take care of everything for you." I have to make the tech user-friendly, and the friendlier it is, the less my customers need to know. The goal is to move from a product that only an aficionado can handle to a product that any dope can use. We are well into Any Dope territory with computer tech (spoiler alert: Linux is not the PC wave of the future).

Fifteen to twenty years ago, I could count on a few students in each class who could code. I used student helpers to build the school website from scratch. But nowadays I have to explain to my CURMUDGUCATION: Digital Native Naivete:

 

NOBODY Wants To Work for Betsy DeVos Staffing Woes at the Education Department

Federal pick to lead higher ed policy drops out of consideration:

Staffing Woes at the Education Department

Claude Pressnell, apparent choice as assistant secretary for postsecondary education, removes himself from consideration, further stalling efforts to fill leadership ranks at the Education Department.

The Trump administration’s pick to oversee higher ed policy at the Department of Education is out of the running.

In an email last week, Claude Pressnell, president of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, said he was withdrawing his name from consideration for the job of assistant secretary for postsecondary education.

It’s the second time in recent weeks that a candidate for a high-profile role at the department has said “no thanks” to the department deep in the vetting process. And it underscores the slow progress since January in making key political hires to round out Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s team.

Pressnell said in the email to presidents of TICUA member institutions that he and DeVos had discussed since April the possibility of his being appointed to the assistant secretary position by President Trump.

“Whereas it was a great honor to be approached about accepting the appointment, after arduous consideration I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration,” he wrote. “The TICUA Board of Directors very graciously worked with me through this process. This was one of the most difficult decisions of my career, but I am thrilled to continue my work with TICUA.”

Pressnell declined to comment on the email or the reasons for his decision.

The department declined to comment about its hiring efforts. Some well-connected Republicans cautioned Federal pick to lead higher ed policy drops out of consideration:

Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools

Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools:

Debate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The struggle over what American students learn about global warming is heating up as conservative lawmakers, climate change doubters and others attempt to push rejected or debunked theories into the classroom.

An overwhelming majority of climate scientists say manmade emissions drive global warming, but there’s no such consensus among educators over how climate change and its causes should be taught.

Several U.S. states recently considered measures allowing or requiring teachers to present alternatives to widely accepted viewpoints on such topics. For example, a stalled proposal in Iowa would have required teaching “opposing points of view” on topics such as global warming, and proposed science standards in Idaho would have students taught that human impact is driving global warming and that natural factors also contribute.

The debate is arriving on teachers’ doorsteps nationwide, as thousands are being mailed the book “Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming” from a Chicago-area advocacy group called The Heartland Institute that challenges the assertion that there is consensus about a human-caused climate crisis. In a follow-up statement, the institute’s president said science instructors should “keep an open mind” and shouldn’t teach “dogma pushed by some environmental activist groups.”

The National Center for Science Education made rebuttal flyers explaining that Heartland relies on debunked theories. The National Science Teachers Association dismissed the mailing as propaganda and urged educators to recycle the books.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from an international agreement aimed at curbing global warming is reinforcing some teachers’ sense of urgency about discussing humans’ role in accelerating climate change.

“This isn’t just something we’re talking about because it’s going to be on the test,” said Jim Reding, a high school teacher in Granville, Ohio, who said he wants his students to think critically and have civil, reasoned conversations on the topic. “This is something that could have an impact on my life or my children’s life going forward.”

An NCSE survey released last year of 1,500 public middle- and high-school science teachers found about three-quarters taught something about climate change during the 2014-15 school year. About a quarter give equal time to “perspectives that raise doubt about the scientific consensus,” the survey found.

Approaches to teaching climate science depend largely on state science standards and decisions by districts and instructors, because the federal government doesn’t dictate curriculum, said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the science education center. Many schools teach climate change in some way, but teachers varyDebate heats up over teaching climate change in US schools:

 

Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard

Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard:

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Love Letter to the LGBTQ Community

For Gay Pride Month, Billboard asked numerous pop culture luminaries to write 'love letters' to the LGBTQ community. Below, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- a champion of LGBTQ rights -- shares hers. Read more Pride Month love letters here.

Right after I was elected, the organizer of Boston Pride asked if I would march again in next year's parade. I said no, absolutely not--I would not march.  

We stared at each other for a minute, and I shouted, "I don't want to march at Pride--I want to dance!"

And that's what I do every year--dance!  I dance with people young and old, black and white, Latino and Asian, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight. And this year I’m happy to dance in the parade once again with my friends from the Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual & Transgender Youth (BAGLY), a terrific group working to support and empower members of the Boston LGBTQ youth community.

Pride shows our country at its best: diverse, inclusive, united, and strong. We'll cheer the progress we’ve made toward building a more welcoming society for all, and we'll recommit to protecting the rights of all Americans, so that everyone in this country is treated with dignity and respect--so everyone gets a chance to dance!Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard:

 Elizabeth Warren: Gay Pride Month Love Letter (Exclusive) | Billboard:

Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges

Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges:

Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges

The owner of Newpoint Education Partners, an organization that managed public charter schools in six Florida counties including Escambia County, has been charged with racketeering and organized fraud.

Marcus May, the owner of Newpoint, is accused of misusing more than $1 million in public funds, according to a news release from the State Attorney's Office.

The state alleges May used "shell companies" he held undisclosed ownership of, or financial interest in, to sell goods and services to Newpoint-managed schools at inflated prices, then pocketed the proceeds.

Hundreds of thousands of state and county dollars meant for Newpoint schools actually went to paying portions of May and his family's property purchases, business dealings, trips abroad, household bills and even plastic surgery, a state affidavit alleges.

May could not be reached for comment Monday.

Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar, who is prosecuting the case for the state, said May is not in custody, but that the State Attorney's Office is in communication with May's attorney. 

The charges against May stem from a wider investigation of grade tampering, teacher misconduct and financial improprieties at Newpoint schools. Newpoint, as a business entity, has been charged with grand theft, money laundering and aggravated white collar crime.

Edgar said May was also charged individually because, "From the evidence, it appears he instigated this."

From 2007 to 2016, Newpoint managed 15 public charter schools in Escambia, Bay, Duval, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Broward counties. All told, the schools received more than $57 million in public funds from the state of Florida and various school districts.

The state affidavit alleges May used those public funds to buy goods and services — at extreme markups — from companies he or his business partners owned.

May created some businesses "solely to do business with Newpoint," according to the Newpoint Education Partners owner faces criminal charges:

The Whole Newpoint Charter School Scandal  – Rick’s Blog - http://ricksblog.biz/?p=53801