Charter school founder facing trial on federal bank fraud charges

Charter school founder facing trial on federal bank fraud charges:



Charter founder facing trial on bank fraud charges

At the start of each academic year, Steven Ingersoll's company took cash advances from the Grand Traverse Academy's bank account as his fee for managing the charter school. By June 30, 2013, school auditors found, Smart Schools Management had accumulated prepayments totaling $2.33 million.

As his liabilities to the school mounted over the years, federal prosecutors say, Ingersoll tried to repay the Traverse City school with proceeds from a bank loan he had received to renovate a building for the Bay City Academy, a second charter he also founded and managed.

Ingersoll is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday, accused of steering $934,000 in loan funds for the renovation project into his own bank account, and sought to use the money to repay Grand Traverse. He is also charged with failing to pay federal taxes on the money. His wife, Deborah Ingersoll, and brother, Gayle Ingersoll, are also charged in the case, which will be heard by U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington at the federal courthouse in Bay City.

If convicted of charges that include conspiracy to defraud Chemical Bank of Bay City, wire fraud and tax evasion, Steven Ingersoll faces up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines and restitution.

The issues raised by his case mirror the findings of an eight-day Free Press series, "State of Charter Schools," that found Michigan's charters receive nearly $1 billion a year in state taxpayer money, often with little accountability or transparency in how those dollars are spent. The June series also found conflicts of interest, insider dealings, and boards that were not aware of their management companies' business practices.

As Ingersoll awaits trial, similar questions of cronyism, conflicts of interest and questionable business practices swirl around his charter schools:

■ Ingersoll was able to advance money from Grand Traverse to his companies without informing the board. Experts say the amount of the advance was unusually large.

■ Shortly before his indictment, the president of the board of Grand Traverse formed a new management company, Full Spectrum Management, to replace Charter school founder facing trial on federal bank fraud charges:

Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors? | cleveland.com

Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors? | cleveland.com:

Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors?

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio doesn't have a simple plan to weed out its bad charter schools.

The state instead has an indirect strategy.

It puts agencies known as "sponsors," called authorizers in most states, in charge of overseeing charter schools, of fixing struggling charters and of closing the ones that can't be fixed. We'll be hearing a lot about Ohio's 69 sponsors this year, since both Gov. John Kasich and House leadership have made them the focus of charter reform plans.

What are they, exactly? Who are they? And why is Ohio just not cleaning up the charter school mess on its own?

We talked this week to Gov. John Kasich, state Superintendent Richard Ross, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, who heads the Senate Education Committee, about the state's focus on sponsors.

Kasich and Ross said sponsors are the best way to push for improvements at charter schools quickly, without overburdening the Ohio Department of Education. And the governor said having sponsors overseeing the schools will prevent a future governor from undermining them.

Lehner, a Republican from Montgomery County, thinks Kasich's approach may be too narrow. She said she hopes the Senate will come up with changes for other parts of Ohio's charter system this spring.

We also talked to Cleveland officials, who have a head start on looking at sponsor standards and quality, thanks to 2012's Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools. 

What is a sponsor, or authorizer?

Charter schools are public schools, just like your local school district.

Should sponsors police charter schools, or should the state? Tell us below.

But they are privately-run and states like Ohio appoint different agencies -- like school districts, state or city panels, colleges and nonprofits -- to "authorize" them to run as a public school.

Those agencies then are responsible for the performance of schools they allow to operate under their good name.

Who are they?

Nationally, 95 percent of authorizers are school districts who agree to back charter schools in the district to give families a choice, according to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA).

Some states also allow the state boards of education or a special state charter board to authorize schools too. 

How is Ohio different?

According to NACSA, Ohio and Minnesota are the only states that allow nonprofit agencies to authorize charter schools in a significant way. In Ohio, according to Ohio Department of Education data, nonprofits authorize more than 40 percent of the state's general education charters.

Some of Ohio's nonprofit authorizers are not education institutions at all. Cleveland has Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors? | cleveland.com:

National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) Group: 1 in 5 charter schools not doing well enough to stay open

A group that oversees more than half of the nation's 5,600 charter schools said as many as one in five U.S. charter schools should be shut down because of poor academic performance. 

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019784379_charterschools29.html

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

Yong Zhao's "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon" Should Wake Us Up - Living in Dialogue

Yong Zhao's "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon" Should Wake Us Up - Living in Dialogue:



Yong Zhao's "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon" Should Wake Us Up 

 By John Thompson.

Yong Zhao’s Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? is a wake-up call. Zhao warns of a “rising tide of authoritarianism” which test-driven reformers have released on American education. He explains how “high-stakes testing is America’s Faustian bargain.” It risks our greatest democratic and dynamic values in order to make statistics look better.

Top-down accountability hawks have often praised Chinese education outputs. They have pushed a single path to school improvement without considering the long historical effects of high-stakes tests. Zhao, however, explains “the ghost inside” China’s record of creating illusory metrics for students, and for other parts of their economy.

Whether in ancient or modern China, or 21st century America, test-driven accountability “sees education as a way to instill in all students the same knowledge and skills deemed valuable by the authority.” By now, all but the most ideological of American reformers must be growing aware of the damage that has been done by bubble-in accountability, and many say that we need to reign in its worst abuses. However, Zhao makes the case that, “the damage done by authoritarianism is far greater than the instructional time taken away by testing, the narrowed educational experiences for students, and the demoralization of teachers.”

Americans glorifying China don’t understand that they are trying to copy “a survival strategy the Chinese people developed to cope with thousands of years of authoritarian rule.” Zhao explains how China produced the world’s best test scores, but how they did so at the cost of undermining “diverse, creative, and innovative talents.”

Chinese testing grew out of its 1300 hundred year-old keju system that was administered by the empire. But, during the last century, it has deferred to a different authoritarian power structure. Regardless of the persons on the top, testing is a “powerful and cost-effective tool of social control.” It still rewards “obedience, compliance, and homogenous thinking.”

Lest Americans conclude that the harm done by testing is due to the way it was conducted in China and that it is not inherent in the nature of top-down, test-driven accountability systems, Zhao’s accounts of recent incarnations of educational authoritarianism is a must read. It is the nature of such institutions that when the people on top seek an outcome, participants in the system “make it happen” at any cost. The obvious first response is fabricating miraculous data. For instance, China has used schemes known as “small cleverness” to produce a deluge of junk scholarship papers and so-called inventions. Worse, it has created an institutional dynamic so powerful that not even the government has been able to stop the testing epidemic.

In China, the damage done by “upward accountability” is extra extreme because it is the career ladder to a centrally governed society. But, I doubt many open-minded readers of Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? will say that it can’t happen here. Zhao has written a poignant narrative of how human beings conform to enduring historical forces. Humans trapped in top-down systems often do terrible things that they as individuals would never do.  American history is not as long as China’s and we have sought individuality, freedom, and creativity, but we are not some sort of anointed people immune to authoritarianism.

If Americans were not as susceptible as any other people to the coercive power of top-down control, we Yong Zhao's "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon" Should Wake Us Up - Living in Dialogue:

Teachers: A Call to Conscience | Teachers' Letters of Professional Conscience

Teachers: A Call to Conscience | Teachers' Letters of Professional Conscience:

Teachers: A Call to Conscience

FEBRUARY 8, 2015 ~ TEACHERS'LETTERSTOBILLGATES

“My conscience leaves me no other choice.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 4th, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “Beyond Vietnam”speech, declaring “My conscience leaves me no other choice.”  Dr. King went on and “insisted that it was morally imperative for the U.S. to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means (King, ‘‘Beyond Vietnam,’’ 139).  In a Q & A following his speech, Dr. King said:

As I said earlier in the speech, I think the time has come for those of us feel that this war is immoral and unjust to advise young men of the alternative to the draft, which is to serve as conscientious objector. I think this will do a great deal to arouse the conscience of the nation on this whole situation, and certainly if the war is continually escalated I think this will be absolutely necessary. – Dr. King

In a letter to a Navy friend written in 1965, John F. Kennedy wrote on the topic of conscientious objection:

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.   ~ John F. Kennedy, Letter to a Navy friend, quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965), p. 88.

Through No Child Left Behind, through Common Core and its subsequent tests; our own Congress, the US Department of Education, the National Governor’s Association, and the Council for State School Officers have joined corporate education reformers declaring war on America’s public schools. (This war is actually global.)

As a result of this declaration of war – aligned with the passions ofconscientious objectors of previous wars, a spark was lit in the hearts and minds of teachers. As teachers, we passionately object to the way testing dominates and distorts instruction and learning for children, preventing teachers from teaching in ways we know are good for children.

A new movement has risen in the Teachers’ Letters of Professional Conscience.  We believe it is morally imperative to take radical steps to halt toxic high stakes testing around the globe.  We write these letters to arouse the conscience of each nation and believe our actions are absolutely necessary.

A re-write of JFK’s quote is meant to inspire our movement:

Governmental and corporate-led war on public schools will exist until that distant day when the Teacher of Professional Conscience enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the corporate reformer does today.

~ Susan DuFresne

On January 28th, 6th grade teacher, Becca Ritchie delivered her letter of professional conscience to our local school board, re-writing and speaking her words echoing Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, as found here.

“Remember that fear is natural, but there is greater fear in knowing what will happen if we don’t take a stand.”  

- Jia Lee 

Taking this step is a serious matter, and as you can see by the expression on our faces, we knew the seriousness of putting our objections into words, and Teachers: A Call to Conscience | Teachers' Letters of Professional Conscience:

Laura Ingalls Wilder Meets Common Core:

Laura Ingalls Wilder Meets Common Core

FEBRUARY 7, 2015 BY NANCY BAILEY 7 COMMENTS

When I was a child, in 3rd grade, I fell in love with Little House in the Big Woods. I distinctly remember locating it in the little classroom library. I am not sure if I read it before or after Caddie Woodlawn, another fine chapter book about strong pioneer girls. There were no benchmarks—I don’t recall even doing a book report.

Now, if you Google Little House in the Big Woods you will find a gazillion ways to address the Common Core. The books are considered a must read, and it appears that if you aren’t exposed to reading them, early on, you will not go far in life. There are even picture books to pave the way for the chapter books to make sure teachers and their students don’t flub up and miss out.

Those books were not made to appear like I would be a failure if I didn’t read them when I was young. No one warned me that I wouldn’t be able to get into Harvard if I didn’t read them. I, quite frankly, never heard of Harvard or any other college in third grade.

When I first read Little House in the Big Woods, I wasn’t made to learn about Laura Ingalls Wilder the author, or given a whole long list of vocabulary words out of the book to define. I didn’t have to locate descriptive words—no one graded me down if I didn’t know what quinine meant.

I didn’t have to identify alliteration and the syllables in the words. I didn’t need to prove I could identify singular and plural nouns or the parts of speech. I wasn’t made to go back and describe the cliffhangers, although I probably did tell my little friends about some of them. I didn’t even have to write about the story using graphic organizers.

I only remember yearning for time after school and on the weekend to be able to immerse myself in the story. And, much to my delight, when I finished Little House in the Big Woods, I discovered On the Banks of Plum Creek!

I am not saying that it isn’t nice to learn additional things surrounding a novel. I think Laura Ingalls Wilder Meets Common Core:

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test | EduBloggers

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test | EduBloggers:

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test

jonpelto / 2 days ago

Jonathan Pelto is an education blogger and founder and manager of the Education Bloggers Network.  HIs blog, What, What? can be found at: http://jonathanpelto.com/

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test

With the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Testing beginning in less than a month, more and more parents are informing their local school districts that they have decided that their children will not be taking the unfair, discriminatory and inappropriate Common Core SBAC tests this year.

Parents who understand the issues associated with the Common Core SBAC Testing Scam are opting their children out.

Despite repeated posts here at Wait, What? and the work of a number of state-wide efforts to inform state and local officials that they must respect a parent’s fundamental right to opt their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test, a significant number of local school superintendents, and their staff, continue to mislead parents, throw up barriers or harass parents into believing that they have lost their right to protect their children from an unfair test that is rigged to ensure that as many as 7 in 10 children fail.

So once again, let us be clear!

• There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that prohibits a parent or guardian from opting their children out of these inappropriate, unfair and discriminatory tests.

• There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that allows the government or local school districts to punish parents or their children if the parent refuses to allow their child or children to participate in the Common Core SBAC testing scam.

Not only is there no law, regulation or policy that prohibits parents from opting their children out of the Common Core 

Continue reading →

About

EduBloggers: Dedicated to truth-telling for democracy.

The Education Bloggers Network is an informal confederation of more than 200 education reporters, advocacy journalists, investigative bloggers, and commentators.  Members of the Education Bloggers Network are dedicated to providing parents, teachers, public education advocates and the public with the truth about public education in the United States and the efforts of the corporate education reform industry.

Many members of the Education Bloggers Network have their own blogs, some write news analysis and commentary pieces for local, regional and national newspapers and media outlets.  Still others use their Facebook or other social media platforms to write about public education issues.

Like the Committees of Correspondence leading up to America’s War for Independence, education bloggers work alone, in groups and has a broader force to educate, persuade and mobilize parents, teachers, education advocates and citizens to stand up and speak out about the critical issues facing public education today.

The Education Bloggers Network was developed in conjunction with the publication and roll-out of Diane Ravitch’s best-selling book on education reform entitled, “Reign of Error.”

Today, the Education Bloggers Network is a vibrant community working to share information and provide accurate, reliable and timely information about public education issues at the local, state and federal level.

The Education Bloggers Network works closely with the nationally renowned Progressive Magazine and a number of Network members have their articles and commentary pieces cross-posted to Public School Shakedown a website hosted by the Progressive.

The Education Bloggers Network also works closely with the Network for Public Education, the nation’s leading public education advocacy group, founded my Diane Ravitch and other pro-public education leaders.  The NPE’s mission is to “protect, preserve, promote, and strengthen public schools and the education of current and future generations of students.”

In addition, a number of leading voices in public education host platforms that provide readers with access to articles and blogs written by a variety of different education writers.  These platforms include websites such as Diane Ravitch’s blog, Network for Public Education, Living in Dialogue, the BAT blog, K12News Network, Big Education Ape, and the list goes on.

As Diane Ravitch noted in a post about the Education Bloggers Network, “If you blog and if you support public education as a pillar of our democracy, consider joining the Education Bloggers Network.”

To become part of the Education Bloggers Network contact Jonathan Pelto, founder and manager of the Network atjonpelto@gmail.com

CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORM INDUSTRY /IMPROVING PUBLIC EDUCATION / JIA LEE

Jia Lee’s Call to Action: Let all Teachers be “Teachers of Conscience”

“Remember that fear is natural, but there is greater fear in knowing what will happen if we don’t take a stand.”   – Jia Lee  The following is a War Report on Public Education and Living in Dialogue exclusive interview with Jia Lee.  By Lucianna Sanson. Jia Lee, a special education teacher at the Earth School in…

ARNE DUNCAN / BILL GATES / CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORM INDUSTRY / CUOMO / DAVID COLEMAN / ELI BROAD / EVA MOSKOWITZ / JEB BUSH /MICHELLE RHEE / THE KOCH BROTHERS / THE WALTONS

The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education

From author, educator and education blogger Lloyd Lofthouse.  His writing can be found at: http://crazynormaltheclassroomexpose.com/ The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education This list reveals the most dangerous enemies of public education and how they earned their spot in infamy. To discover why they landed on this list, click the links included with each name…

COMMON CORE / NEW JERSEY / PARCC /STANDARDIZED TESTING

12 questions every parent must ask about the #PARCC

From education advocate and education blogger Marie Corfield.  You can read her blog at: http://mcorfield.blogspot.com/ 12 questions every parent must ask about the #PARCC Parents, print this out and bring it with you next time you meet with representatives from the NJ State Board of Education, the NJ DOE, or any administrator anywhere who tries to…

CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORM INDUSTRY /IMPROVING PUBLIC EDUCATION / TEACHERS

When You See A Teacher: A Poem

From teacher advocate and champion Mark Naison.  More more go to: http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/ When you see a teacher You are looking at someone dangerous They can destroy our economy And our country By encouraging students to think And worse yet have fun They have to be Scripted Intimidated Put under observation And if necessary Fired To save…

Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity

Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity:

Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education

From Cambridge Forum:

“The Massachusetts School Law of 1642 laid out the rationale for public education: “Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any Common-wealth.” How do contemporary efforts to privatize public education square with the civic role that education has played in American democracy? Internationally recognized leader in education policy Julian Vasquez Heilig examines the variety of ways in which public education is being privatized in the name of “reform” and suggests ways for citizens to respond that both improve educational experience and strengthen the societal and civic role that education plays.

Cambridge Forum programs are held in the historic First Parish (Unitarian Universalist) at 3 Church Street (Harvard Square), in Cambridge. The format includes a relatively brief introductory statement (20 minutes) from the speaker, with a 10 minute response, followed by a moderated discussion with our live audience that would last approximately 60 minutes. Cambridge Forum is also inviting a teacher with experience in a broad range of Boston-area schools to serve as respondent and moderator.

This forum is part of Cambridge Forum’s 2015 series on “The Health of Democracy.” During the winter, our programs will focus on the relationship between a healthy democracy and a robust social contract, with particular speakers examining the role that social immobility, wealthy inequality, privatization, polarization, the corporate media, and disenfranchisement play in our society today. After the speaker has described the threat posed by each of these factors, moderators will discuss ways that citizens can take action to respond to these challenges.

Questions that were key in conceptualizing this forum include: How do contemporary efforts to privatize public education square with the civic role that education has played in American democracy? What are the various ways in which public education is being privatized in the name of “reform”? How can citizens respond with efforts that both improve the educational experience and strengthen the societal and civic role that education plays?

In fall of 2014, Cambridge Forum began its 48th year of presenting free, public lectures with guest speakers in Harvard Square. Featuring prominent scholars, writers, scientists and artists, Cambridge Forum is dedicated to presenting ideas and topics of public interest and concern from a variety of fields and points of view. Our roster of speakers has included Buckminster Fuller, Kevin Phillips, Lani Guinier, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Lester Brown, Naomi Klein, Howard Gardner, Jonathan Kozol, Lawrence Lessig, Garrison Keillor, Marian Wright Edelman, Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity: