THE BOY WHO CRIED CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL
A MODERN FABLE OF WOLVES, BILLIONAIRES, AND THE DEVOURING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
Once upon a time, in the not-so-fairy-tale land of California, there lived a boy, his parents, his teachers, and a chorus of education scholars, unions, and organizations. They all shared a common fear: a wolf was prowling, and its name was Charter School Scandal. For years, they cried, “Wolf! Wolf!” pointing to the beast of privatization that was gobbling up public education funds. But unlike the fable where the boy’s cries were ignored until it was too late, in this tale, the wolf didn’t just eat the boy—it kept snacking, village by village, school by school, until the very idea of public education teetered on the brink of extinction. The wolf, it seems, had billionaire oligarchs as its trainers, and they were feeding it well.
The Wolf’s Feast: Charter Schools and Vouchers
For over 15 years, voices like Diane Ravitch, the Network for Public Education (NPE), and countless parents have been sounding the alarm on charter schools and voucher programs, warning of fraud, mismanagement, and a deliberate dismantling of public education. Ravitch’s recent post, “Sacramento: How Could a Charter School Misuse $180 Million in Two Years?” is just the latest in a long line of cries, spotlighting yet another scandal where tens of millions in public funds vanished into the maws of unaccountable charter operators. The A3 Education scandal, where executives siphoned off over $400 million through “phantom” student enrollments, is a grotesque highlight—a scheme so audacious it involved enrolling kids from summer sports camps into fake academic programs to rake in state cash. And yet, despite guilty pleas and promises of restitution, the culprits walked away with house arrest, leaving the public to pick up the tab.
The pattern is as old as California’s 1992 Charter Schools Act, which birthed a system now boasting over 1,200 charter schools and $6 billion in annual public funding. But with great money comes great mischief. The state’s oversight is a patchwork quilt of good intentions and gaping holes, relying on self-reporting, whistleblowers, and the occasional audit by the Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). The result? Over $149 million in documented fraud and waste, with estimates suggesting the real figure could be much higher. From the Celerity Education Group’s luxury travel sprees to the Tri-Valley Learning Corporation’s $67 million misadventure, the stories pile up like unpaid bills on a broke district’s desk.
The Billionaire Pack: Wolves in Philanthropic Clothing
Enter the billionaire oligarchs, the wolf-whisperers of this tale. Names like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and Reed Hastings loom large, their foundations and fortunes flooding California’s elections from the statehouse to local school boards. Through super PACs, front organizations like the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), and a blooming field of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofits, they’ve turned democracy into a playground for privatization. The CCSA, with its war chest of billionaire bucks, has pushed charter expansion with the zeal of a televangelist, spending millions to elect pro-charter candidates and block oversight reforms. Eli Broad’s leaked plan to capture 50% of Los Angeles’ school market for charters was less a strategy than a declaration of war on public education.
California, the fourth-largest economy in the world, should be a beacon of educational excellence. Instead, it ranks a dismal 30th in per-pupil funding, flirting with the bottom of the national pile. Once a global leader in education, the state now starves its public schools while charters feast on public dollars, often with little to show for it. Low graduation rates, selective enrollment, and questionable academic outcomes are the norm for many charters, yet the money keeps flowing, and the oversight remains a whisper in the wind.
Heroes and Whistles: The Resistance
Amid this feeding frenzy, heroes like Sharon Higgins of Oakland have emerged, wielding nothing but determination and a self-funded website. Higgins, a parent turned activist, documented the Broad Foundation’s takeover of her local schools, exposing charter scandals and the shadowy Gulen charter movement. Her work, driven by a refusal to let billionaire agendas steamroll her community, stands as a testament to the power of one voice against a cacophony of cash.
The Network for Public Education, led by figures like Ravitch and Carol Burris, continues the fight, publishing reports that detail the decline of the charter movement—closures, disillusionment, and financial carnage from 1998 to 2022. Their critiques of reports like CREDO’s, which often paint charters in rosy hues, reveal a truth the billionaire pack would rather bury: many charters underperform, cherry-pick students, and drain resources from public schools. NPE’s call for accountability echoes Higgins’ mission, but both face a Sisyphean task against a well-funded foe.
The Scandal That Keeps on Giving
The A3 scandal is a case study in everything wrong with California’s charter system. Executives Sean McManus and Jason Schrock paid private schools and youth programs to enroll students who never set foot in their classrooms, funneling millions into offshore accounts and luxury properties. Small, cash-strapped districts were bribed with oversight fees to look the other way, while students were shuffled between online schools without parental consent to double-dip on state funds. The fallout? A $210 million restitution deal, a temporary moratorium on virtual charters, and a task force that’s more Band-Aid than cure. Meanwhile, the Inspire charter network overreported attendance, Ezequiel Tafoya Alvarado Academy’s director splurged on personal expenses, and Ref Rodriguez, a Los Angeles School Board president, faced felony charges for laundering campaign funds to secure a pro-charter majority.
These aren’t isolated incidents—they’re symptoms of a system designed to fail. Audits are reactive, not proactive. Oversight agencies are understaffed and underpowered. Fraud-specific audits are as rare as a unicorn in a standardized test. And while reports like “Fraud and Waste in California’s Charter Schools” and “Risking Public Money: California Charter School Fraud” scream for reform—mandatory fraud risk assessments, regular audits, empowered local boards—the billionaire pack and their CCSA minions keep the legislature in a chokehold.
The Moral of the Story
In the original fable, the boy’s cries went unheeded, and he paid the price. In this modern retelling, the cries are heard but ignored, drowned out by the clinking of billionaire coins. The wolf, fattened on public funds, grows bolder with each scandal, each unpunished theft, each school board election bought and paid for. California’s public schools, once the envy of the world, are starving, while charters and vouchers feast on their remains.
The moral? When the wolf is backed by billionaires, crying out isn’t enough. It’s time for the village to stop begging for accountability and start demanding it—through legislation, through grassroots resistance, through heroes like Sharon Higgins and organizations like NPE. Otherwise, the wolf won’t stop until the village is gone, and public education is just a memory, sold off one school at a time to the highest bidder.
Sources:
Sacramento: How Could a Charter School Misuse $180 Million in Two Years? https://dianeravitch.net/2025/09/08/sacramento-how-could-a-charter-school-misuse-180-million-in-two-years/ via @dianeravitch
Network for Public Education https://networkforpubliceducation.org/
“Fraud and Waste in California’s Charter Schools” by In the Public Interest https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/ITPI_CA_Charter_Fraud_Mar2018.pdf
“Risking Public Money: California Charter School Fraud” https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Charter-Schools-California-Report-b.pdf
A LOS ANGELES SCHOOL BOARD SCANDAL COULD UPEND PLANS BY CHARTER BACKERS TO TAKE OVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS Pro-charter school advocates could lose their grip on the L.A. school board, as its president faces felony charges for laundering his own money into his 2015 campaign. https://theintercept.com/2017/09/27/la-school-board-ref-rodriguez-money-laundering-charter-schools/
THE BOY WHO CRIED CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL A FABLE FOR OUR TIMES https://ru4people.substack.com/p/the-boy-who-cried-charter-school
