Friday, November 23, 2012

Charter school corruption and Other CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Charter school corruption

Posted by Valerie Strauss on November 23, 2012 at 1:27 pm

Text Size
Print
Reprints

Here’s how The Arizona Republic started a story detailing its investigation into charter school corruption in the state:

Board members and administrators from more than a dozen state-funded charter schools are profiting from their affiliations by doing business with schools they oversee.
The deals, worth more than $70 million over the last five years, are legal, but critics of the arrangements say they can lead to conflicts of interest. Charter executives, on the other hand, say they are able to help the schools get better deals on services and goods ranging from air-conditioners to textbooks and thus save taxpayers money.

Timothy Noah of the New Republic cited this and other charter school scandals in a piece entitled “How Charter Schools Fleece Taxpayers” that starts:

In government, if I help myself to taxpayer dollars, we call that embezzlement and I go to jail. In the private sector, if I help myself to taxpayer dollars, we call that innovation and I get hailed as a visionary exponent of public-private partnership.

Noah mentions other charter school scandals:

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below

117 ALEC Members Voted Out of Office in 2012

117 ALEC Members Voted Out of Office in 2012:

117 ALEC Members Voted Out of Office in 2012

Friday, 23 November 2012 11:17By Rebekah Wilce, PRWatch | News Analysis

1
font size
Print
Email

In primary and general elections in 2012 and recall elections in 2011 and 2012, a total of 117 members and alumni of the American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC) were voted out of office, according to research and analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), ColorOfChange, and others.

Arizona Down 14 ALEC Members

As reported by CMD, former State Senator Russell Pearce was voted out of office in November 2011 in what was widely seen as a referendum on Senate Bill 1070, the anti-immigration legislation Pearce introduced. Pearce was a long-time ALEC member and was on the public sector executive committee of the task force thatadopted SB 1070 as a "model" bill.

In addition, ALEC state legislators Representatives J. Ted Vogt (R-10) and Amanda Reeve (R-6) lost in the general election. Representatives John Fillmore (R-23), Nancy McLain (R-3), and Rep. David Burnell Smith (R-7), and Sen. Lori Klein (R-6) lost GOP primary elections in 2012. Representatives Cecil P. Ash (R-18), Steve Court (R-18), Jack W. Harper (R-4), Peggy Judd (R-25), Terri Proud (R-26), and James P. Weiers (R-12) and Sen. Sylvia Tenney Allen (R-5) retired or were ineligible for reelection due to term limits.

Wisconsin Down 11 ALEC Members and Alumni

In Wisconsin, six known ALEC members have been voted out of office since 2011, and prominent ALEC alumnus Tommy Thompson did not win his bid for U.S. Senate. Thompson had been a popular Wisconsin governor and United States Secretary of

Thinking About Schools: One for the "Education 'Signs of the Apocalypse'"

Thinking About Schools: One for the "Education 'Signs of the Apocalypse'":

One for the "Education 'Signs of the Apocalypse'"

Each week Sports Illustrated includes a "Signs of the Apocalypse" - a "can you believe this?" story or event like...

SI May 28, 2012 - "A 12-year-old San Antonio boy received a one-day suspension from middle school after he had a portrait of Spurs forward Matt Bonner—a fellow redhead and his favorite NBA player—shaved into the back of his head; the school declared the haircut a distraction and a violation of the dress code."

SI APRIL 4, 1994 - "In response to scuffles between opposing players at several recent high school basketball games, the Marmonte League in Southern California has outlawed postgame handshakes."

These often remind me of the items on my "What were you thinking?" list I ask all district employees to read and sign.

Well - if there was an Education Signs of the Apocalypse, this training session blurb would make the list.

"As you are aware, school districts are experiencing controversial and troubling times as we navigate through issues of funding, public support and new mandates. These times are fraught with tension, increased workload and job losses that impact us

Chris Hedges on where we are and education as a caste system | Seattle Education

Chris Hedges on where we are and education as a caste system | Seattle Education:

Chris Hedges on where we are and education as a caste system

Posted on November 23, 2012 by seattleducation2011 | Leave a comment

Chris Hedges spoke at West Virginia State University last year just before Occupy Wall Street. He begins about 15 minutes into the video. A highly recommended watch this weekend. For me, his best talk to date.

Dora

Talking Turkey on Junk Food in Schools « MomsRising Blog

Talking Turkey on Junk Food in Schools « MomsRising Blog:

Talking Turkey on Junk Food in Schools

by Monifa Bandele

Whatever your cultural or ethnic background, conversations inevitably turn to food this time of year. Do you celebrate Thanksgiving or just “get together”? Do you eat meat and is it free-range? Are the vegetables organic? What is a healthy dessert? Gluten free? What about sugar? And then there is the ever-present concern; how will we all keep off those extra holiday pounds? Getting family members together with different practices, politics and palates for one big meal can be complicated and controversial.

Lots of thought and effort go into the meals we serve at home and on holidays. And there is an equally serious and intense conversation happening right now about the profound impact that school foods have on the health of our children.
Many schools now sell snacks and drinks in lots of places beyond the lunch line. In fact, children consume up to 400 billion calories from junk food though vending machines, stores, and à la carte lines per year. And nearly half of all students can buy snack foods at school. Unfettered access to chips,

Jersey Jazzman: The Incoherent World of Nick Kristof

Jersey Jazzman: The Incoherent World of Nick Kristof:

The Incoherent World of Nick Kristof

by Duke

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, 11/21/12:

So time and again, we see the decline of public services accompanied by the rise of private workarounds for the wealthy.
[...]
Are public schools failing? Well, superb private schools have spaces for a mere $40,000 per child per year. [emphasis mine]

Kristof, 10/14/09:

It’s difficult to improve failing schools when you can’t create alternatives such

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center:

Best of the Ed Blogs

Bruce D. Baker

November 20, 2012

New York Teacher | Edwize

New York Teacher | Edwize:

New York Teacher

by W.J. Levay

Highlights from the latest issue of New York Teacher:

Resupplying relocated students with 30,000 backpacks
Calling it the “best of New York City coming together” UFT President Michael Mulgrew praised the efforts of educators, administrators, elected officials and corporate citizens who all pulled together with the goal of raising $1.5 million to deliver 30,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to students whose schools were flooded by Hurricane Sandy.
Members roll up their sleevesIdea to help in lieu of Election Day PD was born on UFT Facebook page
Hundreds of educators across the city spent Nov. 6 bringing water, blankets and baby supplies to hurricane shelters, walking up 15 flights of stairs in public housing to assess needs, doing demolition work on homes that were flooded, shoveling sand off the Coney Island boardwalk so emergency vehicles could get through and bringing hope and help to those who needed it most.
Repaying a debtUpstate teachers volunteer to help rebuild Staten Island town
They arrived on Staten Island in a bus from Schoharie in upstate New York, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, sneakers or workboots, carrying shovels and crowbars and hammers and utility knives in their workgloved hands. “We came here to work,” one said. “Let’s get started.”
Hundreds of UFT members turn out for Day of Action
Hundreds of UFT members, bolstered by four busloads of members of the union’s national affiliate — the American Federation of Teachers fanned out across the city to assist with the Hurricane Sandy cleanup and recovery effort on Nov. 10, the first of several Saturday Days of Action being organized by the UFT.
Two taken from us by the storm
Two dedicated UFT members lost their lives in Hurricane Sandy. They are Jessie Streich-Kest, a first-year teacher and activist with a wide circle of deep friendships; and Henry Sullivan, a longtime Abraham Lincoln HS teacher known for his generosity, integrity and humor.
Dealing with the trauma
UFT’s Election Day PD switches focus after storm
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the organizers of the UFT’s Election Day safety training quickly refocused the agenda to make it relevant to chapter leaders returning to schools after the storm. They learned about how to address the short- and long-term trauma from the natural disaster affecting both students and staff.
Hard work pays off in national, state elections
Election Day was sweet for UFT members who had worked so hard in the weeks leading up to Nov. 6 to get out the vote for President Barack Obama in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, in a critical Senate race in Connecticut, as well as in key state races.
UCP workers win contract just before strike deadline
Poised to strike if a new agreement were not reached by Oct. 15, workers at United Cerebral Palsy of New York City beat that deadline by one day and then ratified a new contract in the final days of the month.

Pennsylvania’s charter cheaters. « Fred Klonsky

Pennsylvania’s charter cheaters. « Fred Klonsky:

Pennsylvania’s charter cheaters.

by Fred Klonsky

They tried to bury the news of Pennsylvania’s charter school cheaters by releasing it right before the Thanksgiving holiday.
But they got busted anyway.
Cheaters.
The back story is this: The Duncan Department of Education requires schools to meet certain benchmarks to qualify as making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).
They require districts to meet a more lenient benchmark.
So the Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis treated charter schools as districts, not schools. But didn’t ask or tell the DOE that he had done it.
Then the charter school hucksters went around claiming that charter schools were superior based on having

Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, November 23, 2012