New Jersey's Failure to Assess Effects of Charter School Expansion on Already Underresourced Newark Schools Moves to Court of Appeals Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

New Jersey's Failure to Assess Effects of Charter School Expansion on Already Underresourced Newark Schools Moves to Court of Appeals

 This from the Education Law Center:

Acting on behalf of Newark school children, Education Law Center has filed an appeal of NJ Commissioner of Education David Hespe’s February 2016 approval of a massive enrollment increase in seven Newark charter schools over the next five years.

At issue in the appeal is the data and research evidence presented by ELC to the Commissioner demonstrating that expanding charter enrollments at this time would exacerbate the budget crisis in the State-operated Newark public schools (NPS) and trigger even deeper cuts to teachers, support staff and programs in already under-resourced NPS schools. ELC also presented evidence to show that expanding charters would further concentrate at-risk students in district schools, especially students with disabilities and English language learners (ELLs). These students require additional programs and interventions that have been reduced and cut in NPS schools over the last several years.

“This appeal is not about the merits of charter schools or district schools, but rather about the State’s overarching obligation to ensure a thorough and efficient education for all public school students in Newark,” said David G. Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. “This appeal raises the abject failure of the Commissioner to perform his mandated constitutional duty to make certain that before charter schools can expand, all Newark children have the resources they need to succeed in school, whether they attend a district or charter school.”

“The Commissioner simply ignored the overwhelming evidence in the record that a further increase in charter enrollment at this time will harm children and schools throughout the city,” Mr. Sciarra added.

In their applications for renewal, seven Newark charter schools submitted requests to Commissioner Hespe that, taken together, would greatly increase overall charter enrollments over the next five years. The Commissioner approved these requests without explanation and without providing reasons. The approved charter increase totals nearly 9,000 additional students over five years, from just under 10,000 to almost 19,000 students. 

Several of the charters sought substantial increases. For example, Team charter school, operated by the New York-based KIPP network, secured the green light to increase enrollment from 3196 to almost 8000 students and to add up to six new charter schools. The Commissioner’s approvals will almost double the current enrollment in these seven charters by the 2020-21 school year.

The approved expansion will also increase the seven charters’ share of Newark’s total charter population from 20% to approximately 37%. If enrollment in the district and in the fourteen other charters remains stable, the Commissioner’s decision will mean that by 2020-21, nearly half of all Newark’s school children will be enrolled in the charter sector.

Before the Commissioner, ELC submitted extensive comments on the charters’ requests for expansion, including detailed research documenting how the State’s decision to rapidly expand charter enrollments from 2009 through Education Law Prof Blog:

Retired school administrator bills Detroit $1.3 million for nonexistent tutoring services

Retired school administrator bills Detroit $1.3 million for nonexistent tutoring services:

This Woman Billed Detroit Schools a Small Fortune for Nonexistent Tutoring. Great Work If You Can Get It!

Detroit Public Schools can’t seem to get anything right. As if the system’s forever-looming bankruptcy, the black mold in its classrooms, and the constant sickouts by frustrated teachers weren’t bad enough, now just two months after a dozen current and former DPS principals were charged with pocketing hundred of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a school-supply vendor, it transpires that the school district paid a former administrator close to $1.3 million for tutoring services that she never provided. Ouch. 

Carolyn Starkey-Darden, DPS’ director of grant development, retired in 2005 after nearly four decades with the district. According to court documents, she proceeded to spend the next seven years submitting fraudulent tutoring invoices through several companies—one of which, “Grants ‘N Such,” gets my enthusiastic vote for best shell company name of the month—that totaled $1.27 million. 

Starkey-Darden’s scam was nothing if not elaborately executed, according to aDetroit Free Press report on the latest scandal to beset Motor City schools: 

She did this, court records show, by submitting phony documents to the district that included doctored test scores, forged attendance records and parental signatures and fake individual learning plans—all of which went on forms that were required by DPS before payment could be made.

Starkey-Darden’s companies, which the FBI has been investigating since 2011, received $6.1 million in federal programming money, at least $1.2 million of which was “ill-gotten,” per the Free Press.Retired school administrator bills Detroit $1.3 million for nonexistent tutoring services:

Big Education Ape: SES IS A MESS: 
 Tutor center scammed $2M in federal funds |  http://bit.ly/1L714f6

California charter schools involved in multiple political battles | The Sacramento Bee

California charter schools involved in multiple political battles | The Sacramento Bee:

California charter schools involved in multiple political battles

A major front in the perpetual war between California’s educational establishment and school reform groups is the role of charter schools, which function outside the traditional structure and are semi-free to experiment with new methods of teaching.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article79642927.html#storylink=cpy

Like the larger conflict, the charter school battle is waged in multiple venues – within school districts, in the Legislature, in the courts and, ultimately, in the electoral arena.

It pits charter school advocates, who range from billionaire Eli Broad to immigrant parents, against the California Teachers Association and union-allied school officials.

It is almost entirely a battle within the Democratic Party, as this year’s elections in a number of legislative and school board elections will demonstrate anew. Broad and other wealthy reformers are backing Democrats who agree with them on charters and other reform issues while the CTA and its allies have their own slates of candidates.

A fierce clash in the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, typifies the highly emotional issue.

L.A. Unified has seen tens of thousands of its students move into charters, and Broad’s foundation has proposed that charters take in half of the district’s mostly Latino and black students, saying it will give them better shots at high-quality educations.

The district’s board, most of whose members are allied with United Teachers Los Angeles, has unanimously opposed Broad, saying it would “view our communities as a public education marketplace and our children as commodities.”

This month, UTLA issued a report blaming leakage of students to charters for the district’s deep financial problems because charter students take their state and local support with them when they transfer.

Furthermore, L.A. Unified has rejected petitions for new charters based on the state’s “parent trigger” law that allows parents to seek control of their poor-performing schools.

The rationale for rejection is that the Academic Performance Index, which rates schools and has been the basis for parental intervention, has been suspended by the state pending the creation of a new accountability system.

Reformers have accused the state Board of Education of dragging its feet and favoring a “multiple measures” system that, critics say, would not give parents a clear picture of their schools and thus undercut the parent trigger process.

A similar battle is raging in Oakland Unified, whose superintendent, Antwan Wilson, received training at a Broad-supported academy and has tried to make it easier for parents to shift their kids into charters. Wilson has become a lightning rod for criticism by Oakland’s teachers union.

Meanwhile, in the Capitol, legislators allied with the unions have introduced several bills that would hamstring the charter school movement, and one is seeking a critical audit of a college prep charter network in Los Angeles.

However, charters have a friend – most of the time – in Gov. Jerry Brown. As mayor of Oakland, he founded a charter school and he’s placed $20 million in “startup funds” for new charters in his 2016-17 budget.California charter schools involved in multiple political battles | The Sacramento Bee:

Big Education Ape: Charter school advocates flood Sacramento education races with $300,000 | The Sacramento Bee http://bit.ly/1TEcBV1

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article79642927.html#storylink=cpy

Ethnic Studies Bill Gaining Momentum in California - Higher Education

Ethnic Studies Bill Gaining Momentum in California - Higher Education:

Ethnic Studies Bill Gaining Momentum in California

Ethnic Studies Now Coalition http://bit.ly/24vIwvP

Seven months after California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a controversial bill that would mandate the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools across the state, a new bill calling for the instruction of ethnic studies is gaining momentum, with sources close to Brown saying he will likely sign it if it appears on his desk.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, a Democrat, has sponsored a bill (AB 2016) that would require every school district and charter school serving high school students to offer an ethnic studies course beginning in the 2020-21 academic school year. The bill was approved by the Assembly Education Committee in April, and now requires approvals from the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the entire Assembly and from their counterparts in the state Senate before it reaches Brown’s desk for a signature.

Some activists and educators say that the proposed mandate is long overdue.

“Why is it that I learned more about George Washington than Booker T. Washington?” asks Rev. Shane Harris, the 23-year-old president of the San Diego chapter of National Action Network, the civil rights group founded in 1991 by the Reverend Al Sharpton. “Students should not have to wait until they go to college to learn about the spirituality, humanity, and cultural history of ethnic communities in the United States.”

Harris, who has been leading the charge in support of Alejo’s bill, recently met with Brown in Sacramento about the pending legislation and said that the Governor told him that he was supportive of the bill.

“He’s open and willing to sign off on the bill,” says Harris. “And when this happens, it will be a history making moment for California.”

While there have been individualized efforts by school districts across California to push an ethnic studies curriculum, there has been no state issued mandate so far. Last year, Brown vetoed the last piece of legislation saying that it duplicated the work of the Instructional Quality Commission, another state panel that was charged with revising standards to include guidance on ethnic studies courses.

Still, in recent years, Los Angeles Unified—California’s  largest school district—and  San Francisco Unified school district  have added courses in their high schools designed to broaden understanding of the roles played by African-Americans, Latinos and other racial and ethnic groups.

In this regard, the school districts have surpassed heir public university counterparts who have been slashing ethnic studies programs over the past decade.

Last month, San Francisco State University and student hunger strikers reached an agreement regarding the College of Ethnic Studies Bill Gaining Momentum in California - Higher Education:

Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident - WSJ

Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident - WSJ:

Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident

Complaint says charter chain has ties to imam wanted in Turkey; schools deny the allegation

Big Education Ape: Every parent and community member should see the Killing Ed film | Parents Across America http://bit.ly/1U2Ph0m

 Lawyers for the government of Turkey filed a complaint with Texas officials that accuses a Houston-based charter school system of discriminatory hiring practices and of having ties to an influential Turkish dissident.

The complaint claims that Harmony Public Schools, a network of 46 Texas campuses started by Turkish graduate students, illegally hired Turkish teachers and favored Turkish contractors. It also alleges the schools are an arm of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher who lives in the U.S. and is wanted in Turkey for allegedly trying to overthrow the government there.

The complaint, filed with the Texas Education Agency, is the latest legal effort by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to combat an opposition movement led by Mr. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

The international political drama is playing out against the unusual backdrop of U.S. charter schools, which lawyers for the Erdogan government says Mr. Gulen’s followers use to amass money and influence.

Allegations against Mr. Gulen and schools allegedly affiliated with his movement have been gathering momentum since Turkey retained Amsterdam & Partners, a Washington, D.C., law firm, in December, expanding its quest to prosecute and destroy the imam’s network.

The influential cleric was once a supporter of Mr. Erdogan, but the two had a falling out in 2013 after Gulen backers accused Erdogan allies of corruption. Mr. Erdogan charged Mr. Gulen with leading a terrorist organization; Mr. Gulen denies the charge.

Mr. Gulen couldn’t be reached comment on Tuesday. Last year, he wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that urged Muslims to combat terrorism.

Alp Aslandogan, a spokesman for Mr. Gulen’s movement in the U.S., accused Mr. Erdogan of using the Texas complaint to send a message to Turkish-Americans, many of whom Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident - WSJ:

Big Education Ape: Update: Gulen Harmony charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing Dallas Morning News http://bit.ly/1TCVGSN

Big Education Ape: Republic of Turkey Targets Houston-Based Charter School | The Texas Tribune http://bit.ly/1U3I7Jk

Common Core Opt-Out Movement Growing | Tenth Amendment Center Blog

Common Core Opt-Out Movement Growing | Tenth Amendment Center Blog:

Common Core Opt-Out Movement Growing

Nationwide opposition to Common Core is on the rise, and more and more students and parents are choosing to opt-out on their own.  According to a story by U.S. News & World Report over half a million school-aged children opted out of Common Core standardized testing last year. In New York around a fifth of students simply didn’t take the tests.

In November 2013, Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan attributed opposition to Common Core to “white suburban moms” who discovered that “all of a sudden, their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought.”

Like so many federal bureaucrats, Duncan was dead wrong, as USA News reports the opt-out movement reflects widespread distaste crossing demographic lines:

When the opt-out movement first gained traction in 2014, it was initially dismissed by some educational policymakers as a movement primarily taken up by middle-class white families concerned that new standardized tests would reveal their children to be lower-achieving than once thought. Data from New York, for example, suggests that those opting out tended to come from more affluent areas and are more likely to be white.

However, data from Ohio have shown a much more inclusive movement, representative of the state population. Early evidence from 2016 suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in communities of color – the Seattle chapter of the NAACP issued astatement in support of opting out, and principals in New York City have publicly voiced support for giving parents the right to opt out.

Teachers have also indirectly expressed their opposition to Common Core, emailing parents about how their students can opt out without fear of punishment.

In other words, Americans have a variety of reasons to not like Common Core. One more reason is that it’s an unconstitutional effort by the feds to stick their nose in an issue they have no business trying to manage.

Constitutionally, education is an issue that is reserved to the states or the people – outside the purview of federal power. Common Core Common Core Opt-Out Movement Growing | Tenth Amendment Center Blog:

Our Students In Jail. Read Their Letters. Demand Their Release! - Lily's Blackboard

Our Students In Jail. Read Their Letters. Demand Their Release! - Lily's Blackboard:

Our Students In Jail. Read Their Letters. Demand Their Release!

From Yefri Sorto Hernández

 Wildin Acosta, Yefri Sorto Hernández and Pedro Salmerón were detained by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on their way to school. Their teachers, school staff, friends and families are calling for their release. In their own words they share what it is like to be behind bars.

I am Pedro Arturo Salmerón Salmerón. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina and I am a student of Vance High School.

I find myself detained in a detention facility called CCA Stewart Detention Center and it is one of the worst detention [centers] in the country, because of the treatment and environment of detention.

The way of life in the detention center is inadequate and really uncomfortable. The food on many occasions is bad and recreation is really insufficient.

At the detention center, one can see disappointment and despair of continued detention on the faces of the detained. The administration of this place is bad and the superiors do not improve the quality of it.

My dream always is to make it as a musician. For this, I have dedicated the majority of my life to it, the long and hard study of it, so that I know how to play multiple instruments.

In addition, I have studied many other topic areas such as information, astronomy, medicine, engineering and literature. These are the studies that at times I have wanted to study professionally and at times I would feel proud of.

For me, the United States of America represents a grand nation and for me, it is a one of the best economically, safety-wise, efficiency-wise and intellectually. The opportunities here are big and here one is able to achieve in the areas that you want, and in contrast to my country of origin, the U.S. represents my future and the family.

The city of Charlotte, North Carolina where I live is for me, my home. And the tranquility of this place is very gratifying. The people are nice and there are many places to discover. The environment is soothing and the work is abundant. The city is my place and [the place] of my family.

My only request is to be free and to be able to live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I do not want to be deported to my country. I have already suffered from these aggressive criminals and lost family members because of them. These are only some of my fears of returning.

Please, I need to be free, I am not a bad person, I don’t deserve to be here incarcerated. I need assistance to leave because like I said before, I am not able to return and my future is here. I ask for compassion, because I consider myself a humble person of good deeds and thoughts.

Hello everyone:

I want to ask for your help to see if they are able to release me so that I can leave and fight my case outside [of jail] because the conditions that one finds here are very difficult. Especially for me who has never been imprisoned, it is very hard because here there is nothing good to do, other than think about my family, [about if] they are good or what they will do, waiting for when I can go back to embrace them again.

There are very sad moments for one. Even the tears come when I remember that I have been separated from my parents for 15 years and now that we have been reunited, they want us to go back to being separated. This is a very hard blow for my family and me. Only God knows how much I have cried in this place.

There are days that my mind is not on this planet, my mind goes flying. I do not remember anything and amongst everything, there is the same thought that I do not want to be deported. I do not want to know anything about my country or my life for these moment put me in a really bad place in my mind. The only thing I see is how the days pass and I am unable to be with my parents and moreover waiting for that special day when I can return to them and feel the love of my parents.

Her brother Yefri was detained by @ICEgov waiting for the school bus, he loves soccer, she misses him. #freenc6 pic.twitter.com/2M61DX5tzT

— Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA) April 20, 2016

My mind cannot rest day and night thinking about the place that I am in. There are days that I pass just lying down because I feel depressed until my friends tell me that I should not be worried and that I should get up. But this is difficult. They tell me that I could become crazy from all this thinking about my family. But I cannot stop asking  Continue Reading: Our Students In Jail. Read Their Letters. Demand Their Release! - Lily's Blackboard:

Update: Gulen Harmony charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing Dallas Morning News

Texas charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing | | Dallas Morning News:

Texas charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing

Update Turkey Follows Through with Complaint Against Harmony | The Texas Tribune http://bit.ly/1s7Zl23

Harmony Public Schools, Texas’ largest charter school network, is known for its math and science prowess. Now it’s under fire for allegations of discrimination, self-dealing, misspending – and ties to Turkish immigrants.

A law firm hired by the Republic of Turkey is asking the Texas Education Agency to investigate Harmony, which was founded in 2000 by Turkish nationals. Harmony runs 46 schools across the state, including a dozen in the Dallas area.

The firm, Amsterdam & Partners, filed a 32-page complaint today with the state that details “some very concerning issues and some apparent illegal or improper conduct related to these school operators,” said John Martin, senior counsel for the firm.

Among the allegations: Harmony hires under-qualified Turkish teachers and steers business to companies run by Turkish nationals, including some former Harmony employees.

Soner Tarim, Harmony’s superintendent, called the complaint “ridiculous and baseless.” He said it’s a politically motivated attack by Turkey’s president, whom most Turks living in the U.S. don’t support.

“We’re going to continue to serve our students and parents, and nothing will distract us from that,” Tarim said.

More to come.Texas charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing | | Dallas Morning News:

 Big Education Ape: Republic of Turkey Targets Houston-Based Charter School | The Texas Tribune http://bit.ly/1U3I7Jk

Big Education Ape: Every parent and community member should see the Killing Ed film | Parents Across America http://bit.ly/1U2Ph0m

Big Education Ape: TBFURMAN: The Manufactured Federal Blindness Toward The Gulen-Linked Charter Schools http://bit.ly/1SXx0Fm

How the Supreme Court Upheld Education Funding Inequity

EdBuild | Arbitrary:

Power in Numbers - Arbitrary Funding

How the Supreme Court Upheld Education Funding Inequity

In this third installment of Power in Numbers, EdBuild finds that similar school districts across the country spend radically different amounts on their students, even when differences in local costs are taken into account, revealing systemic and unjustifiable inequities in the way we fund our schools.

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In the late 1960’s, parents from Edgewood, an urban school district within the city of San Antonio, brought suit against the state and seven school districts, claiming that the Texas system of funding schools was unconstitutional. Their main claim was that the state’s reliance on local property taxes to fund schools favored more affluent communities, giving them more resources for their schools. While they recognized the state’s attempt to partially compensate for the inequalities with state funding, they argued that since low-income districts still ended up with less money, they were substantially disadvantaged, and the system should be struck down as a violation of the United States Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The case, San Antonio v. Rodriguez, made it to the Supreme Court, and in 1973, the Court ruled that Texas' education finance system did not violate the U.S. Constitution. It based its ruling on two tenets—first, that low-income communities are not a protected class, unlike racial or religious minorities, and second, that education is not a fundamental right under the United States Constitution. Without these two protections, as long as a state's funding scheme has a “legitimate” or “rational basis,” the U.S. Supreme Court could not strike it down, even if it clearly disadvantaged struggling communities[1].

With its ruling in San Antonio, the Supreme Court forfeited any responsibility to level the playing field for poor students, and left their fates to 51 state definitions of “equity” and “opportunity”. Today, there are no federal criteria for what constitutes an education, leaving each state to set its own standards and requirements. In some states, education systems must be “thorough and efficient.” In others, they must be “uniform and general.” Still others expect schools to prepare each child to participate in democracy. These different standards create a system in which your home state and community dictate the level of education to which you are entitled.

The map below shows just what that means. It shows the amount by which school funding in every school district in America differs from $11,866, the average per-pupil revenue in all districts in the nation. These numbers are adjusted for local variations in the cost of living, so they are directly comparable across states and across the country. As you can see at a glance, there is huge variation in the resources that each district has available for their students - the poorest districts, in fact, receive 21% less funding than the wealthiest ones do.

School Districts, Difference from National Average

As Justice Marshall predicted in his dissent to the San Antonio v Rodriguez ruling, while school funding systems might discriminate between districts rather than students, "the impact of that discrimination falls directly upon the children whose educational opportunity is dependent upon where they happen to live." To be sure, we at EdBuild believe that there should be differences in the amount of money spent on education in different communities, but this variation should be based on levels of student need, not on the happenstance of location. Education spending today is wildly inconsistent, even between districts serving similar student populations.

In the data presented below, we highlight the 200 largest districts (based on their student enrollment) to reveal large and systemic inequities in the way we fund schools across the country[2]. We have sorted these districts into fourteen peer groups based on their demographics and budget constraints so that it’s easy to compare spending levels in similar districts. Just like the variation among state education budgets, the disparities in the budgets of comparable school districts demonstrates the arbitrariness of education funding in America. As we see again and again in districts around the country, education funding levels are determined by local wealth and state will—not by student need or any legitimate education considerations. 

Peer Group 2, for instance, consists of eight school districts, all middle-income with more than 50,000 students and very high rates of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch under the National School Lunch program. They educate some of the highest-need students in the country, and yet all have revenues well below the EdBuild | Arbitrary:

Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools

Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools:

Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools

Another corruption case has surfaced for the troubled Detroit Public Schools, this one involving a former grants administrator who is charged with pocketing nearly $1.3 million that was supposed to be used for tutoring services for kids.

Carolyn Starkey-Darden, 69, the former director of grant development at DPS, is charged by federal prosecutors with billing DPS $1.275 million over seven years for never-delivered tutoring services through companies she created. She did this, court records show, by submitting phony documents to the district that included doctored test scores, forged attendance records and parental signatures and fake individual learning plans -- all of which went on forms that were required by DPS before payment could be made.

To bolster this claim, federal investigators cited some of Starkey-Darden's emails, which are included in court documents. "I put in some fake scores for a few kids at Denby, just to get their plans approved. When and if we get real ones ... just replace what I put in," Starkey-Darden wrote in a 2008 email to an employee at a tutoring firm owned by her husband.

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS SCANDAL

DPS vendor who lived like king faces 7 years in prison

Detroit Public Schools principal: I spent kickbacks on jewelry, perfume

Corruption schemes ran deep at Detroit Public Schools

2 more Detroit principals plead guilty to cheating kids for gift cards

Third principal admits bribery: 'I got caught up in it'

DPS official admits cheating special ed kids out of supplies

DPS administrator cuts deal in $324K kickback scheme

Vendor in DPS corruption case lived like a king

DPS principal pleads guilty in scam: 'I fell out of grace of God'

Head of Detroit school that got $500K Ellen gift among those charged

Rochelle Riley: Weeding out crooks is first step to remaking DPS

Ellen's $500K gift to Detroit school still a go despite corruption

Feds: 12 Detroit principals stole $1M in kickback scheme

So far, the government has seized nearly $1-million from Starkey-Darden.

"Detroit students were cheated twice by this scheme. Students that needed tutoring never received it, and money that could have been spent on other resources was paid to Ms. Starkey-Darden as part of her fraud scheme,”  Detroit's FBI chief David Gelios said.

The criminal charges against Starkey-Darden come two months after 14 individuals, including 12 DPS principals, were charged with helping a vendor bill DPS $2.7 million for school supplies that were rarely delivered in exchange for kickbacks.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Starkey-Darden, a 38-year employee with DPS, ran her scheme between 2005 and 2012 through several companies she created. One of them was Grants 'N Such, an educational consulting firm for public or private schools.  Court documents show that Darden formed Grants 'N Such on July 20, 2005 -- three months before she retired -- but  she continued to do business with DPS through five companies with the help of her husband and daughter --  neither of whom have been charged.

Darden's lawyer, Gerald Evelyn, was not available for comment.

• Weak control in DPS: For years, officials at DPS missed red flags tied to Shy
• 'I just got caught up in it': Corruption schemes ran deep at DPS

DPS Transition Manager Steven Rhodes, a former federal judge who oversaw Detroit's historic bankruptcy, expressed frustration with the new charges.

"The alleged thievery perpetrated by this individual is inexcusable and represents a clear violation of the public trust that has robbed our students and staff of nearly $1.8 million in resources that should have been used for instruction in our classrooms," Rhodes said. "Everyone invested in the future of Detroit Public Schools should be outraged by the unlawful actions allegedly committed by this individual."

Rhodes said he would continue working with the U.S Attorney's office and Feds: New $1.3M tutoring scam uncovered at Detroit schools:

Big Education Ape: SES IS A MESS: 
 Tutor center scammed $2M in federal funds |  http://bit.ly/1L714f6

What you need to read (and do) - Network For Public Education

What you need to read (and do) - Network For Public Education:

What you need to read (and do) 

There are two important stories that speak to the length to which “reformers” will go to suppress the voices of those who oppose corporate reforms.

The first was the intimidation of a Teachers College professor, Celia Oyler, by PARCC after she posted a column by an anonymous teacher critiquing the 4th grade PARCC exam. You can read a complete account of what occurred here.

Professor Oyler received a warning letter from the CEO of PARCC, Laura Slover, which threatened her with legal action. Slover claimed it violated their copyright, and demanded that she also disclose the name of the teacher who wrote the column and remove the post.

NPE Board member, Leonie Haimson, had her tweet of Olyer’s column deleted by Twitter. She reprinted the original post on her blog, along with the excerpts of the 4th grade exam, and urged other bloggers to do the same as “an act of collective disobedience to the reigning testocracy.”  The Education Bloggers Network, a collection of more than 200 grassroots bloggers, managed by Jonathan Pelto, joined the effort.

Readers can find related blogs and stories in Slate, USA Today, the Progressive, Washington Post Answer Sheet, and posts by Anthony Cody,Julian Vasquez Heilig, Peter Greene, Mercedes Schneider, Daniel Katz, and our President, Diane Ravitch.

The second was an attempt by Campbell Brown and Peter Cunningham to intimidate Diane Ravitch, Carol Burris, and to a lesser extent, Tom Loveless of Brookings because they asked Brown to correct her false claim that two thirds of our nation’s children were below grade level in reading and in mathematics.

Attempts to persuade Ms. Brown to correct the false information led to an exchange on Twitter.  Brown later took down most of her tweets, claiming she had been unfairly attacked and began likening Diane to Donald Trump. You can read more about why Brown’s error is so problematic and one more unfair attempt to disparage our schools here in the Washington Post Answersheet. You can read Diane’s reaction to Brown’s refusal to correct the record here.

NPE needs your help in the fight to raise public awareness on these issues and more. We made progress this year but we have a long way to go.

Here 5 things we at NPE need you to do.

Follow us on Twitter @Network4PublicEd https://twitter.com/Network4pubEd and retweet what we share.

Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/networkforpubliced/ so that our postings appear on your page.

Post some of the links to the stories above on your Facebook page to help educate friends and family.

Ask 5 friends to join us as supporter by signing up. http://networkforpubliceducation.org/become-a-member/

Make a tax deductible contribution to help us carry on our work. http://networkforpubliceducation.org/about-npe/donate/

It is our job to ensure that we help our nation understand why public schools are a pillar of our democracy and must be saved.

And be sure to join us when we march on Washington in July.

Thanks for all you do,

Carol What you need to read (and do) - Network For Public Education: