IDEA Charter Chain in Texas Admits Major Scandal and Corruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

IDEA Charter Chain in Texas Admits Major Scandal and Corruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

IDEA Charter Chain in Texas Admits Major Scandal and Corruption

The IDEA charter chain in Texas was one of Betsy DeVos’s favorite grantees. She handed over $200 million from the federal Charter Schools Program to IDEA to spur its expansion. With so much money, the management of IDEA indulged in luxuries. They planned to lease a private jet for $2 million a year but backed off because of adverse publicity. They bought season box seats at the San Antonio Spurs basketball games. When the founder resigned, he was given a $1 million golden parachute.

But the IDEA spending spree didn’t end there. The board of the charter chain received a whistleblower’s letter and commissioned an independent audit of its finances. When the audit was completed, the board fired the chief executive officer and the chief operating officer. Go to this link to read the board’s letter to the public and its recognition of the leadership’s corruption.

This scandal goes to the heart of the basic lie behind the CONTINUE READING: IDEA Charter Chain in Texas Admits Major Scandal and Corruption | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students

Former US ed sec Betsy DeVos did not want to give a formal, in-person account of her decision to side with defunct, for-profit, California-based Corinthian Colleges by not granting monetary relief to hundreds of thousand of students defrauded by this federal-aid-sucking monster.

However, on May 19, 2021, US District Judge William Alsup refreshingly denied DeVos’ “motion to quash a subpoena for her deposition.”

Alsup’s denial includes the backstory, excerpted here (parenthetical case references omitted for ease of reading; highlights mine):

Former Secretary of the United States Department of Education Elisabeth DeVos moves to quash a subpoena for her deposition, issued in co-pending litigation before the undersigned. Exceptional circumstances warranting the deposition, the motion is DENIED.

Our underlying suit, Sweet v. Cardona, concerns the lawfulness of the Department of Education’s eighteen-month halt in issuing decisions on student-loan borrower-defense applications under Secretary DeVos. Our story began in 1993 when Congress directed the Secretary of Education to specify the sort of school misconduct that borrowers may assert as a defense against repayment of their student loans. This “borrower-defense” apparatus lay dormant for its first several decades until May 2015 when the large for-profit college, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., collapsed. Students submitted a “flood” of borrower-defense applications, so Secretary John B. King appointed a special master in June 2015 to adjudicate claims and then updated the borrower-defense regulations in November 2016. But it remained a game of catch up. By the end of the Obama Administration, the Secretary had approved 31,773 applications and found 245 ineligible, for a 99.2% grant rate. Borrowers, however, had submitted 72,877 applications.

In 2017, newly-installed Secretary DeVos moved to rein in the previous CONTINUE READING: Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded

Salon wrote about a

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will have to testify in a class action lawsuit over her handling of the Education Department’s student debt loan forgiveness program.

Judge William Alsup said “exceptional circumstances” warrant issuing DeVos a subpoena, a move that goes against both Devos’ and the Biden administration’s requests to excuse her from providing testimony.

The lawsuit, which has been brought on behalf of about 160,000 borrowers, alleges that the plaintiffs were defrauded by for-profit colleges and then neglected by the federal government.

The controversy dates back to 2018, when the Department of Education unexpectedly stopped making decisions on “student-loan borrower-defense applications,” in which students could petition the CONTINUE READING: Judge Orders DeVos to Testify About Cruel Treatment of Students Who Were Defrauded | Diane Ravitch's blog

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has begun repairing some of the injustice of Betsy DeVos’s policies in the federal college loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

In an extremely significant first step, two weeks ago, Cardona replaced Mark A Brown, who had been appointed by Betsy DeVos in 2019 to oversee the Department’s enormous student loan program. Brown is known to have favored the interests of the for-profit colleges that depend for their existence on tuition derived from student loans. As Brown’s replacement, Cardona has appointed Richard Cordray, a dogged advocate for the students and military veterans who have been preyed upon by for-profit colleges.

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports: “Education Secretary Miguel Carrdona… named Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to head the federal office that oversees the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. Cordray led the bureau’s crackdown on consumer abuses in debt collection, student loan servicing, and for-profit colleges, garnering the respect of advocates and drawing the ire of those industries. His selection signals tougher oversight of the Education Department’s contractors and enforcement of the rules governing federal student aid… During his six-year tenure at the CFPB, which he joined in 2011, Cordray frequently clashed with the financial industry and conservatives over his aggressive regulation. His efforts to weed out poor servicing of student loans and predatory career training schools at times put him at odds with the Education Department… The CFPB under Cordray’s direction brought some of the most high-profile student lending cases in recent years. Among them: a lawsuit against the now-defunct for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges for steering students into private loans that had interest rates as high as 15 percent.”

In a piece for The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner summarizes some of the outrageous CONTINUE READING: Secretary Cardona Begins to Correct DeVos’s College Loan Policies that Undermined Vulnerable College Students’ Access to Education | janresseger

Emails Show Bush-Led Organization’s ALEC-Like Role in State Policymaking - In the Public Interest

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests - In the Public Interest

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests

Emails Show Bush-Led Organization’s ALEC-Like Role in State Policymaking

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and state education officials show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers.

“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business,” said In the Public Interest Executive Director Donald Cohen. “For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and other business lobby organizations they fund to write laws and promote policies that enrich the companies.”

The emails conclusively reveal that FEE staff acted to promote their corporate funders’ priorities, and demonstrate the dangerous role that corporate money plays in shaping our education policy. Correspondence in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana paint a graphic picture of corporate money distorting democracy.

Correspondence files and summaries for individual state findings are available at the links below:

Florida

Louisiana

Maine

New Mexico

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests - In the Public Interest

Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

In case you were wondering why Greene had been such a disappointment, it turns out it is by design as she has joined Jeb Bush's Chiefs for Change, a group that pushes corporate reforms, i.e., high stakes testing, punish the teacher evaluations, and scabs as teachers, and privatization, the expansion of charter schools and vouchers. Friends, we have met the enemy, and it is Greene.

The Jacksonville Public Education Fund, i.e., a way station for Teach for America alumni, congratulated her on joining the Chiefs for Change, just proving a tiger can't change its stripes, once for privatization, always for privatization. 

From in the Public Interest,

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state education officials, show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations, and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers.

“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business,” said In the Public Interest Executive Director Donald Cohen. “For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

A Decade After Act 10, Wisconsin Students Win, Betsy DeVos and Scott Walker Lose - Education Votes

A Decade After Act 10, Wisconsin Students Win, Betsy DeVos and Scott Walker Lose - Education Votes

A Decade After Act 10, Wisconsin Students Win, Betsy DeVos and Scott Walker Lose

By Amanda Menas

Over the last 10 years since the passage of Act 10 in Wisconsin, educators have been organizing and advocating for pro-public education candidates at every level to ensure their students have safe and healthy learning environments.

Now, students and educators can celebrate the election of Dr. Jill Underly as the next State Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction. Throughout her campaign, Underly showed voters her commitment to public schools and her passion for education equity. WEAC members canvassed virtually and in person, fundraised, and sent information to over 100,000 voters across the state. This victory shows that the political momentum is clearly on the side of those who believe in great public schools and public investment in helping students succeed.

“Dr. Underly has committed to working toward repairing or replacing the school funding formula so it is equitable to all students regardless of their ZIP code,” said WEAC President Ron Martin. Underly is currently the District Administrator Pecatonica Area School District and has decades of classroom experience.

Deb Kerr, Underly’s opponent in the race, spent her campaign attacking LGBTQ+ students, educators, and the labor movement. Her loss was a direct rejection of Senator Ron Johnson, Scott Walker and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Instead, by uniting against anti-worker billionaires, educators across Wisconsin voted for Underly turning out at higher rates CONTINUE READING: A Decade After Act 10, Wisconsin Students Win, Betsy DeVos and Scott Walker Lose - Education Votes

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

Charters vs. Vouchers

While charter schools and vouchers are both members of the school choice family, they are cousins who only occasionally get along. And as a public school fan, I have a definite preferred cousin.

It may seem like a thousand years ago, but when Betsy DeVos first turned up as an education secretary candidate, some charter fans actually expressed concerns. DeVos felt the need to reach out to charter fans and offer an olive branch. That's because DeVos, like many fans of a pay-your-own-way voucher system, was content to back charters as a way to crack apart the public education system and get the school choice foot in the door. But now that the time seems ripe (conservative judges, GOP legislatures, Espinoza, etc), many erstwhile charter fans are dumping the poor old girl for their true love. 

There are many reasons that charters and vouchers are natural competitors. 

The obvious area is simple competition for market share. Both private voucher schools and charter schools are after the disaffected don't-want-to-go-to-public-school crowd. Voucher-accepting schools have an advantage in competing for the religious school market because they can be more direct and explicit about their religious content. And the super-voucher education savings account systems are aiming to bust things up even more--you don't even have to a "school," but can just pick various education odds and ends from various marketplace vendors. In the marketplace, charters (with their constant insistence that they are CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Charters vs. Vouchers

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses

The race became somewhat nationalized with the charter school industry fighting Underly, who was backed by unions

Jill Underly has officially been elected as the new Wisconsin state school superintendent, local news stations reported Tuesday evening.

"State superintendent candidate Deborah Kerr solicited clients and organized branding for her private consulting business through her public school district email address, including several times during work hours, prior to her retirement as Brown Deer School District superintendent last year," said the report.

The race became somewhat nationalized with the charter school industry fighting Underly, who was backed by teachers' unions. Ultimately the normally unnoticed state-wide race brought in over $1 million in out-of-state money, TMJ4 reported.

Betsy DeVos’ hand-picked candidate for Wisconsin state school superintendent loses | Salon.com

CURMUDGUCATION: Jebucation Has New Five Year Plan

CURMUDGUCATION: Jebucation Has New Five Year Plan

Jebucation Has New Five Year Plan

Long long ago, when Jeb! Bush still had White House dreams, he cooked up a Floridian reform group, which then scaled up to national status as the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which has now become ExcelInEd. Headed up by Patty Levesque, the organization  remains a clearinghouse for education disruption ideas pushed by well-heeled, well-connected education amateurs. It is hard to pretend any more that these are serious people who have goals other than breaking up public education so that the private market can profit from the pieces. 

Their website is still chock full of carefully twisted stats (Florida is first in AP test participation!) and same old baloney talking points (US students rank 38th internationally in math on the PISA scores--which is of course right where they've always ranked). The message remains as always that public schools are failing and we must open education to the privateers who want access to all those sweet, sweet tax dollars. (It also includes some celebrity bad quotes).

The group is busy-- they push policy ideas out into the states and have been busy filing briefs in support of ESAs (the newest flavor of education voucher) and just generally supporting the privatization agenda whenever they can. And they put on an annual gathering of privatizers and profiteers called, seriously, EdPalooza.

Recently Levesque was interviewed by Rick Hess. As with his recent exit interview with Betsy DeVos, this is Hess being uncharacteristically soft and fuzzy, allowing his subject to spin her tale without ever questioning or challenging her story. The end result is illuminating only because it gives us an unvarnished picture of the alternate reality that Levesque wants to promote.

Levesque's account of what EIE has done is standard reformy fare-- they're "developed policy CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Jebucation Has New Five Year Plan

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary

The billionaire Trump Cabinet member reaped nine figures during her four years in office, a watchdog group revealed.

Billionaire Betsy DeVos fattened her fortune considerably from various business interests during her four-year run as education secretary under former President Donald Trump.

DeVos, who is reportedly worth more than $2 billion, reported outside earnings from dividends, interest and rents of at least $225 million and “potentially well over $414 million” during her time in the Cabinet role, according to an analysis of her financial disclosures by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“It is impossible to know the exact amount because DeVos’s income is reported in broad ranges, but we do know for a fact that she made nine figures during her four years in office,” the group, known as CREW, said in a statement Monday.

At the most modest end of her reported income, DeVos would have raked in more than $158,000 each day of her 1,422 days in the position. That works out to more than $6,500 per hour.

At the most modest end of her reported income, DeVos would have raked in more than $158,000 each day of her 1,422 days in the position. That works out to more than $6,500 per hour.

DeVos, who pledged to donate her government salary to charity, resigned from her job after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. She cited Trump’s divisive rhetoric as an “inflection point.”

Critics, however, said DeVos’ condemnation of the then-president was too little, too late.

Last month, CREW reported that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned between $172 million and $640 million in outside income during their time in the Trump administration.

Betsy DeVos Raked In Vast Outside Income As Education Secretary | HuffPost

Biden executive order is first step to reverse Betsy DeVos’s sexual assault rules - Vox

Biden executive order is first step to reverse Betsy DeVos’s sexual assault rules - Vox

Betsy DeVos’s sexual assault rules have already hurt survivors

Biden just took the first step to reverse them

Last fall, as students around the country were adjusting to the beginning of a school year in the midst of a pandemic, something else changed too: the rules for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities handling reports of sexual harassment and assault.

A new Trump administration regulation that went into effect last August raised the bar for what constitutes sexual harassment, allowed students who report harassment or assault to be directly cross-examined, and allowed schools to use a standard of evidence that many saw as more favorable to the accused. At the time, survivors and their advocates were deeply concerned that the new rules would discourage survivors from reporting and make it easier for schools to let harassment and assault slide.

Now President Biden has taken his first step toward reversing the rule, signing an executive order on Monday directing the Department of Education to review the issue. “It is the policy of my Administration that all students should be guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence,” the order, signed on International Women’s Day, states.

But reviewing and reversing the Trump administration rule could take months or even years. And in the meantime, advocates say the rule has already harmed survivors at schools across the country. For example, many are now barred from filing a formal complaint because they experienced harassment off campus, because their harasser has graduated, or because what they experienced does not meet the new, stricter standards set forth by the Trump CONTINUE READING: Biden executive order is first step to reverse Betsy DeVos’s sexual assault rules - Vox

Lots of New Voucher Proposals Popping Up in State Legislatures: Did Betsy DeVos Leave a Legacy? | janresseger

Lots of New Voucher Proposals Popping Up in State Legislatures: Did Betsy DeVos Leave a Legacy? | janresseger

Lots of New Voucher Proposals Popping Up in State Legislatures: Did Betsy DeVos Leave a Legacy?

Despite that Trump’s privatizer-in-chief, Betsy DeVos has left Washington, D.C. and that President Biden has focused on supporting neighborhood public schools and finally getting them open full time after months of COVID-19 disruption, there is growing concern about the number of bills currently in state legislatures to expand vouchers of all kinds—plain old private school tuition vouchers, tuition tax credit vouchers, and education savings accounts.

The Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss reports that the Network for Public Education has tracked bills for new voucher programs or expansions of vouchers in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and New Hampshire.  Strauss reminds us that Betsy DeVos’s skewed understanding of the meaning of public education has not disappeared from the fifty statehouses: “DeVos and her allies, especially Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), publicly called for a definition that essentially said: If public dollars are used for any kind of schooling that makes it public education—even if the public has no say in how a school operates.”  She quotes DeSantis: “Look, if it’s public dollars, it’s public education.”

Why have so many voucher bills been introduced in state legislatures right now? The Huffington Post‘s senior education reporter Rebecca Klein explains: “In the few weeks of 2021, state legislators have introduced a wave of new bills designed to expand or create new voucher, tax credit and education savings programs.  While these programs are often controversial—eliciting staunch opposition from public school groups and teachers unions—advocates say they have seen new momentum after a wave of Republican wins in statehouses and a pandemic that has forced millions of schoolchildren to learn from home.  So far, new legislation related to private school choice has been introduced in over 15 states during 2021.”

After exploring the details of some of the state legislative proposals to expand school CONTINUE READING: Lots of New Voucher Proposals Popping Up in State Legislatures: Did Betsy DeVos Leave a Legacy? | janresseger

Jeff Bryant: Voucher Programs and Charter Schools - LA Progressive

Voucher Programs and Charter Schools - LA Progressive

Voucher Programs and Charter Schools

Betsy DeVos Is Gone, But Her Education Agenda Is Rolling Out Across the Country

Supporters of public education and school teachers were relieved to see Betsy DeVos leave her job as head of the Department of Education, knowing full well the education policies she and former President Trump supported would go nowhere in a President Biden administration. But they should remain incensed over how her efforts to privatize public schools are being rolled out in state legislatures across the country.

In states as politically diverse as Washington, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, and New Hampshire, state legislators are introducing bills to increase the number of charter schools and create new school voucher programs or greatly expand current ones.

According to the Educational Freedom Institute (EFI), a think tank that advocates for vouchers, charter schools, and other forms of “school choice,” there are at least 14 states actively considering legislation to pour greater sums of taxpayer dollars intended for public education into privately operated schools. Many of the bills have been introduced since the November 2020 CONTINUE READING: Voucher Programs and Charter Schools - LA Progressive

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing

Betsy DeVos is gone as education secretary — but what we’ll call “DeVosism” certainly isn’t. You only have to look at what Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kansas and some other states are now doing to see that her agenda to privatize public education is alive and thriving.

DeVos, a Michigan billionaire, served as President Donald Trump’s education secretary for four years after working for decades in states across the country to expand initiatives that allowed the use of public funding for schooling outside traditional school districts — including private and religious schools and home schooling.

She made no secret of her disdain for traditional public schools — calling them “a dead end” in 2015 and derogatorily referring to them as “government schools.” Her selection as education secretary was applauded by religious conservatives and detractors of public schools — and decried by those who opposed her evangelism for the privatization of public education.

What it really means when Trump, DeVos and their allies refer to public schools as ‘government schools’

While she was education secretary, she unsuccessfully tried for years to persuade Congress to pass a $5 billion tax-credit program that would have funded scholarships to private and religious schools. Some said her failure to pass education legislation limited her impact — but she always made clear that she believed state legislatures were the vehicle for creating alternative school options for families. CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing. - The Washington Post

Schools Matter: Part 2: Red State Governors Pick Up Where DeVos Left Off

Schools Matter: Part 2: Red State Governors Pick Up Where DeVos Left Off

Part 2: Red State Governors Pick Up Where DeVos Left Off

More than 15 years before the Trumpers arrived in DC to initiate the latest "back to basic stupidity" era in all things social, cultural, economic, and intellectual, there was another Republican, George W. Bush, who had his own particular backwards fixation, which found its way into education policy in general and K-3 reading instruction in particular. 

Following his appointment to the Presidency by the Supreme Court in December 2000, Bush's first big initiative was No Child Left Behind, and reading instruction was the centerpiece of that legislation. 

In shaping NCLB reading policy, Bush leaned heavily on NIH neuropsychologist and self-declared reading guru, Reid Lyon, who viewed learning to read "the right way" as important for neural wiring as it was for academic success.  In a 2002 speech, Lyon told a group of Maryland teachers that "[w]e have to realize that education has to take on the same importance as medicine. . . . Teachers are the best brain surgeons around, the best at developing the nervous system." 

Lyon's enthusiasm for regimented phonics instruction as the best way to hard-wire receptive, convergent learners was matched by his animosity toward professional teacher preparation and research-based methods for teaching reading that go beyond . Just two months after Lyon spoke to Maryland teachers about the importance of their craft, he said this at a national policy forum:  "If there was any piece of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education."

Five years later, however, Lyon was helping to launch a for-profit college of education focused on preparing reading teachers the way God and Reid Lyon intended (my bolds): 

What I learned at NIH and what guides our course development at American College of CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: Part 2: Red State Governors Pick Up Where DeVos Left Off