Walton-Funded Reformers Stealing Union from Black Parents? | Cloaking Inequity

Walton-Funded Reformers Stealing Union from Black Parents? | Cloaking Inequity

Walton-Funded Reformers Stealing Union from Black Parents? 

I might be partially to blame for this one. Several years ago I was invited by the National Urban League to serve on a panel about education and school choice. The panelists included Steve Perry and Congresswoman Jahana Hayes. Watch the panel here. I stressed community-based solutions for education instead of privatization and private control. Well, I found out after the panel that it was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. After I came off the stage, a high-level representative from the Walton said to me “Julian, we agree on more than we disagree on.” I looked on, not knowing how to respond. I had never thought of my thinking about community-based reform as being aligned with the Walton Family Foundation’s agenda. The representive said it again and reached out to shake my hand, “Julian, we agree on more than we disagree on.” I looked on again. Well, now the comment is making more and more sense. I wrote some time ago about this emerging astroturf (fake grassroots) strategy when I discussed Innovate, a Walton Funded “community-based” organization. Today I am publishing an exclusive letter about reformers stealing a community-based parents union from Mona Davids, a Black parent and one of the original founders of the original National Parents Union.

‘The Hypocrisy of the Education Reform Movement

There is a quote that is erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein.  The author is unknown but there are citations to the quote appearing since 1982.  The quote:

“The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.” – Unknown

While the author is unknown, the quote reminds me of Education Reformers and the moneyed foundations that fund their AstroTurf organizations.

I have lost count of the defunct local and national AstroTurf organizations during my decade of being an independent, grassroots, unbought and unbossed, parent advocate.  The inauthenticity, arrogance, chicanery and lies, of the many AstroTurf organizations seeded by tens of millions of dollars is what inevitably leads to their failure and downfall.

For those that do not know me, I am a New York City parent.  I am the founder of the New York City Parents Union.  My two children have both attended district schools and charter schools.  I fight for the rights of students and parents in the district schools and charters.  I fight for a parent’s right to choose the school that best fits the educational needs of their child. I hold district schools and charters accountable to the parents and for educating our children.  I fight for school funding and I fight for parents to have a seat at the education policy table.  The only side I belong to is the side of students and their parents.  I am not paid by anyone and I do not have contracts with anyone.  Nobody controls me.  Nobody can bully me.  Nobody can silence me.  You can find my receipts here.

The arrogance and hypocrisy of many (not all) education reformers, their billionaire funders and their AstroTurf leaders who purport to care and advocate for low income, Black and Hispanic parents, is always exposed.  They shoot themselves in the foot every time.

Walton Family Foundation (Walton), Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and John King’s latest, grand, national AstroTurf group, they are planning to launch is to be called the National Parents Union.  Read Walton’s document about the new AstroTurf here.

The problem is the National Parents Union already exists and was founded in 2012.  I know because I am a founding member and it is incubated under the New York City Parents Union since 2012.

 

This new, national, Walton AstroTurf is supposed to take on the teachers’ union, the teachers’ union allies and district schools supporters, stop the teacher strikes, stop the charter moratoriums, make politicians and democratic presidential candidates support charters again.

The president is supposed to be Keri Rodrigues Lorenzo, a White woman from Boston.  She is not Latina although she purposely misleads everyone to think she is.  Rodrigues Lorenzo is founder of Mass Parents United, that was created in 2017.  She is the former Massachusetts state director for the defunct, AstroTurf, Families for Excellent Schools. The ones responsible for the biggest, most expensive, education reform defeat in history.  It was epic.  Not only did the parents and people of Massachusetts see through and reject their hypocrisy, but the chicanery, corrupt, unethical and illegal actions of the education reformers resulted in historic huge fines and banishment from Massachusetts.

The other co-founder is supposed to be Alma Marquez from California who heads up another AstroTurf.  Marquez clearly has failed because education reform defeats in California keep coming with school districts seeking charter moratoriums.  Even high school students are speaking out against charters and for charter moratoriums in California.  Walton has wasted their millions on AstroTurfs in California and Massachusetts led by the same people they plan on giving more millions to steal and hijack a grassroots parents group name.

The new AstroTurf’s advisory board include John King, the former New York State Commissioner of Education, who was chased out of New York by parents and did a phenomenal job of disrespecting grassroots parents throughout the state resulting in the OptOut Movement.  Because of King, everything education reform related CONTINUE READING: 

Walton-Funded Reformers Stealing Union from Black Parents? | Cloaking Inequity

Oregon Teachers Plan “Day of Action” for May 8th; Four Districts Already to Close That Day | deutsch29

Oregon Teachers Plan “Day of Action” for May 8th; Four Districts Already to Close That Day | deutsch29
Oregon Teachers Plan “Day of Action” for May 8th; Four Districts Already to Close That Day

On April 04, 2019, the Oregon Education Association (OEA) announced a “day of action” scheduled for May 08, 2019:

Educators across the state are coming together to advocate for students and fully funding our schools on May 8th. We’re walking out, rallying, and calling on lawmakers to INVEST in schools. Contact your local union, PTA, or email OEA – help@oregoned.org to get involved.

Rallies are planned for the cities of Portland, Salem Eugene, and Medford.

Schools in Eugene and Portland are already planning to close due to staffing shortages, including Eugene’s 4J and Bethel school districts and Portland Public Schools and Portland’s North Clackamas school district.

Some auxiliary services may still be available for May 08, 2019, in some districts, including providing free lunch at some Eugene 4J school sites as well as coordinating child care options.

According to KVAL-TV, May 08, 2019, will be an unpaid day for Eugene’s 4J school district teachers, and students will not be required to make up for the missed day. Portland Public Schools has already determined that students will have to make up the missed day. Meanwhile, in Portland’s North Clackamas school district, the school board has yet to determine whether to extend the school year by one day to make up for the May 08, 2019, closure, a decision the North Clackamas board will address in its April 25, 2019, meeting. North Clackamas will also address what auxiliary services it will offer on May 08, 2019.

According to KPIC-TV, administration and maintenance personnel will still report for work at Eugene’s Bethel school district.

As one can tell, the story of specific Oregon school closures, make-up days, and auxiliary services offered on May 08, 2019, is still developing.

________________________________________________________________________

Interested in scheduling Mercedes Schneider for a speaking engagement? Click here.

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Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Oregon Teachers Plan “Day of Action” for May 8th; Four Districts Already to Close That Day | deutsch29

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part Three | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part Three | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part Three

So far, the first two episodes of StartUp’s podcast series about Success Academy has been completely one sided.  Fortunately, that begins to change in episode 3 (which can be found here).

To education reformers, grade 3-8 state test scores are the proof that schools in this country are ‘failing.’  And the promise that charter school supporters made about 10 years ago was that if charters got a chance to take the money and the students, they would show that they could get the 3-8 test scores up in their district.  For the most part, charter schools were not able to deliver on this promise.  All, that is, except Success Academy.  This episode tries to get under the hood of Success Academy’s very successful approach to getting high test scores, and what conclusions can and can’t be drawn from them.

On one metric, percent of students scoring ‘proficient’ on the state tests, Success Academy performs extremely well.  With over 90% of their students scoring a 3 or 4 on the state tests in math and reading, they have, by this metric, outscored the wealthier suburbs.  And compared to neighboring schools where they may have only 30%, this sounds like Success Academy is 3 times as good as the neighboring school.  But ‘percent getting a 3 or better’ metric can skew the comparison between two schools.  Here’s how:  The fifth grade test in reading takes place over two days and has something like 60 questions on it.  Students take the test and they are scored and rather than get scores based on percent correct, something everyone can relate to, instead they are ‘scaled’ to another number.  For 2017-2018, they were scaled to a maximum score of about 700 and a minimum score of about 500.  Then the cut scores are made.  Last year a score of 3, which counts as ‘passing’ was set at 609 for 5th grade reading.  Now suppose there are two schools, one has 90% ‘passing’ and the other has 50% ‘passing’.  It seems like the 90% passing school is much better than the 50% passing school.  But what if it turns out that in the 90% school, most CONTINUE READING: Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part Three | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Progressive Breakfast | OurFuture.org by People's Action

Progressive Breakfast | OurFuture.org by People's Action

Progressive Breakfast

Iowa Farmers Need A Green New Deal

Nick Schutt

I’m a third-generation farmer from Hardin County, Iowa, and here’s why I support the Green New Deal. Factory farms and corporate agribusiness are bad for our planet, bad for our climate, bad for farmers, bad for rural communities, bad for all of all of us! We need a Just Transition away from the greedy, polluting, corrupting corporate agriculture system to independent, sustainable family farms. This Monday, Earth Day, I’ll stand up to share my story at the Green New Deal tour stop in Des Moines, Iowa. There will be people like me from rural areas, as well as indigenous people, and youth leaders. We’ll stand up together and challenge everyone to join us as we demand a better future. We know we can’t count on politicians to make change for us – we have to organize a movement of people to demand massive changes. We need to stand up and fight for a Green New that will protect the planet, create tens of thousands of new independent, sustainable family farms, and rebuild rural communities in Iowa and across the country. Let’s win a Green New Deal now!

AOC’s Message From The Future On The Green New Deal

We can be whatever we have the courage to see. The Intercept: “The biggest obstacle to the kind of transformative change the Green New Deal envisions is overcoming the skepticism that humanity could ever pull off something at this scale and speed. That’s the message we’ve been hearing from the ‘serious’ center for four months straight: that it’s too big, too ambitious, that our Twitter-addled brains are incapable of it, and that we are destined to just watch walruses fall to their deaths on Netflix until it’s too late. This skepticism is understandable. The idea that societies could collectively decide to embrace rapid foundational changes to transportation, housing, energy, agriculture, forestry, and more — precisely what is needed to avert climate breakdown — is not something for which most of us have any living reference. We have grown up bombarded with the message that there is no alternative to the crappy system that is destabilizing the planet and hoarding vast wealth at the top. But the future isn’t cast into one inevitable course. On the contrary, we could cause the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history, or we could create a prosperous civilization, sustainable over the long haul. Either is possible, starting from now.”

Breaking News: Humans Cause Climate Change

99.9999% chance humans are causing global warming, and other science-based facts on climate change for Earth Day. USA Today: “Climate change is real and increasingly a part of our daily lives. New research and studies out in just the past six months highlight the latest facts about the human-caused shift to our global weather systems and its effects on our planet. First among them, there’s no longer any question that rising temperatures and increasingly chaotic weather are the work of humanity. There’s a 99.9999% chance that humans are the cause of global warming, a February study reported. That means we’ve reached the “gold standard” for certainty, a statistical measure typically used in particle physics. The mechanism is well understood and has been for decades. Humans burn fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, which release carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other gases into the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. CO2 is the greenhouse gas that’s most responsible for warming. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn’t lowered, temperatures will continue to increase. That means that by 2080, New York City could have the climate of Arkansas. Minneapolis could be more like Kansas and San Francisco could have weather closer to Los Angeles than its current foggy climate. Other cities further south could experience climates with no modern equivalent in North America. ‘The children alive today, like my daughter who is 12, they’re going to see a dramatic transformation of climate. It’s already underway,’ said study lead author Matt Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science.”

Stephen Miller’s Dark Shadow Over Immigration Policy

How Stephen Miller made immigration personal. Politico: “The one-time Senate aide is a key architect of Trump’s tough immigration policies — a controversial role affirmed when he helped engineer a recent purge of Department of Homeland CONTINUE READING: Progressive Breakfast | OurFuture.org by People's Action

Seattle Students: Apply today for the 2019 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Seattle Students: Apply today for the 2019 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Seattle Students: Apply today for the 2019 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award

It’s time to nominate your favorite Seattle based anti-racist student activist for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA).

Seattle Public School students  (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Award by filling out this application.  Applications for the 2019 award are due by May 10th and award winners will be announced around the end of the month.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1000 package to a deserving Seattle public school student who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against institutional or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.

Criteria for selecting the awardee:
• Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle public school.
• A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.

Application instructions: Nominees must submit required material by May 10, 2019, to be considered for the award.
• Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below.
• Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available.
• In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future.
• Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.

The application for the award is available here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JIqRZxNDUdYtGEsgJLP4ArM0VMaTMbPjfWEh-Bok3zU/edit?ts=58616bba

Application support materials should be sent to StudentActivistAward@gmail.comusing the message line, Black Education Matters Award

The History:

In January of 2015, Jesse Hagopian gave CONTINUE READING: Seattle Students: Apply today for the 2019 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Beutner is Planning to Terminate the HOMELESS UNIT: Teachers, Parents and Advocates - ACTION ALERT

Beutner is Planning to Terminate the HOMELESS UNIT: Teachers, Parents and Advocates - ACTION ALERT 

Teachers, Parents and Advocates, These programs have helped OUR children. PSA Counselors walked with us during the strike, it's our turn to support them because OUR children need them. If we let Beutner terminate these programs he's going to keep destroying LAUSD little by little. PLEASE Email the Board! #Together #UTLAStrong URGENT Please share Beutner is planning to terminate the HOMELESS UNIT and to remove Homeless, Foster youth, Camp returnee and Group Home Scholars counselors. We ask teachers, parents and community advocates to complain to the board on Tuesday and to email or call your board member.

These high risk populations can't be properly serviced without PSA counselors: Homeless Program Foster Youth program Camp Returnee Program Group Home Scholars Program Instead of funding consultants LAUSD must keep the support service staff who have made a positive impact in the lives of these minorities. Parents, teachers, community members YOU need to be our student's advocate and voice these concerns. Please go to the Board Meeting and ask the Board to keep these programs April 23rd Beaudry bldg Individuals wishing to speak at a Board meeting must sign up at the meeting. There will be no sign ups in advance of the meeting. Speakers must sign up prior to the item being acted upon by the Board. Speakers should plan to arrive early as items with no speakers may be acted on at the beginning of the meeting Public Comment speakers to items not on the agenda will be heard beginning at 4 p.m. at the conclusion of the item begun before 4 p.m. For more information please call 213-241-7002 or email secretariat@lausd.net. Email monica.garcia@lausd.net 213-241-6180 george.mckenna@lausd.net 213-241-6382 scott.schmerelson@lausd.net 213-241-8333 nick.melvoin@lausd.net 213-241-6387 kelly.gonez@lausd.net 213-241-6388 richard.vladovic@lausd.net 213-241-6385 PSA Counselors have had much success in the past years in motivating youth towards higher education and improving attendance by providing advocacy, counseling and support for these students. LAUSD promised extra counselors that are supposed to be hired after our historic strike. We need the PSA counselors who provide support to these students! We will fight for our students! Help Us! Thank you

Why the Tests Must Be Kept Secret - Teacher Habits

Why the Tests Must Be Kept Secret - Teacher Habits

Why the Tests Must Be Kept Secret

I’ll be giving my third-graders the state test in another week, which means I had to read this year’s testing manual and something called an “Assessment Integrity Guide.” That’s the one that explains how vital it is that the contents of the tests are kept secret. It’s 44 pages of rules, justifications, warnings, and procedures, all with the aim of helping to “establish, develop, and implement a state assessment system that fairly, accurately, and with validity measures Michigan’s content standards.”

Which, as someone who’s given the test many times and knows the reality, is kind of funny, but I’ll get to that later.

Because states want to ensure the validity of the results (or at least, that’s what they claim), they go to great lengths to keep test items from escaping the classroom walls. Ideally, the items are known only to those who designed them and the students who are subjected to them.

That’s a problem.

Right now, the Texas legislature is considering a flurry of legislation introduced in the wake of a Texas Monthly article that reported on a CONTINUE READING: Why the Tests Must Be Kept Secret - Teacher Habits

California Facing Teacher Shortage | Capital & Main

California Facing Teacher Shortage | Capital & Main

California Facing Teacher Shortage
A new report reveals that last year the state came up short about 8,000 of the 24,000 fully credentialed teachers it needed.

California remains in the depths of a qualified teacher shortage crisis, says EdSource, despite an uptick in the teacher preparation pipeline. April findings by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing noted that 23,832 prospective teachers were enrolled in state teacher prep programs during the 2016-17 school year (the most recent data available) — an increase of nearly 2,500 over the previous year and 4,000 more than in 2012-13. But that’s still a trickle compared to the 77,705 enrollment over 2001-02. Last year alone the state came up short about 8,000 of the 24,000 fully credentialed teachers it needed. The result, said California’s newly appointed State Board of Education president Linda Darling-Hammond, is that “half the people coming in are not yet prepared and most likely are teaching in the highest-need communities.” The fix? Darling-Hammond said the state must restore discontinued programs, such as scholarships that cover teacher preparation program costs, or student loan forgiveness in exchange for teaching in high-needs schools or hard-to-fill subject areas.

It’s the patriarchy, stupid: Fraternity members and athletes on men’s sports teams are more likely to commit alcohol-involved campus sexual assaults, a new study has found. Inside Higher Ed reports that the findings are the latest to correlate predatory sexual behavior with fraternities at a much higher degree than with the broader student population. Researchers used data from the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, analyzing responses from more than 12,600 male students at 49 two- and four-year colleges and universities in a single, unnamed Midwestern state. Other findings: Although just over five percent of college men committed alcohol-involved sexual assaults, 87 percent of those were by serial perpetrators, who CONTINUE READING: California Facing Teacher Shortage | Capital & Main

Being part of a progressive community has never been more important than it is right now, right here | Eclectablog

Being part of a progressive community has never been more important than it is right now, right here | Eclectablog

Being part of a progressive community has never been more important than it is right now, right here

This isn’t just a website. This is a community.

Today is the last day of our 2nd Quarter fundraiser for 2019 here at Eclectablog. We try not to do this too often. The fact is, none of here enjoys asking you to send us money. In truth, I am probably the worst fundraiser in progressive politics. But, I am so committed to our model where all of our regular contributors are compensated for their work and to not running annoying ads that ruin your experience on the site that I’m willing to put aside the uncomfortableness to do it.

When I took the plunge to stop running ads, I did so with one specific thought: If we are going to keep this going, this has to become a community where people can interact, share their experiences, and debate the important issues we write about on the site. This had to be the foundation of creating a sustainable site that allows us to keep our unique model in place. I wasn’t sure it could be done. As it turns out, it can!

This has been a more quiet fundraising week than most. We’ve only gotten a handful of small donations and no sustaining memberships. If you’ve been waiting to contribute and become a supporter of this amazing community, now is the time.

There are three ways for you to support our efforts. First, you can use the handy PayPal form at the top of the right sidebar to make a one-time donation via Paypal in the amount of your choice.

Second, you can send a check (which avoids Paypal taking out a percentage of your donation) to Chris Savage, P.O. Box 32, Dexter, MI 48130. Please make the check payable to “Eclectablog”.

Finally, you can become a monthly sustainer by making a recurring donation each month by using this form:

Want to make a monthly donation? Enter the amount you want to pay each month: Being part of a progressive community has never been more important than it is right now, right here | Eclectablog If you aren’t able to make a donation of any kind (and we appreciate support at ALL levels), please continue to share our posts and podcasts throughout all of your social media platforms to ensure that the hard work of our most excellent staff is seen by as many folks as possible. Thank you. Being part of a progressive community has never been more important than it is right now, right here | Eclectablog

How schools are using restorative justice to remedy racial disparities in discipline | Salon.com

How schools are using restorative justice to remedy racial disparities in discipline | Salon.com
How schools are using restorative justice to remedy racial disparities in discipline
Too many schools today are pushing children into pipelines of incarceration and violence instead of liberation

Named a “New Civil Rights Leader of the 21st Century” by the Los Angeles Times and the founding director of Restorative Justice of Oakland Youth (RJOY), Fania E. Davis is a long-time social justice activist, civil rights trial attorney, restorative justice practitioner, and writer and scholar with a PhD in indigenous knowledge. In "The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice," Davis examines the still-pervasive, centuries-long cycles of racial prejudice and trauma in America and their repercussions, ranging from educational inequities to mass incarceration. To inspire a positive action toward change, she highlights real restorative justice initiatives that seek to address these issues in schools, justice systems, and communities. This newest addition to the Justice and Peacebuilding series is a much needed and long overdue examination of the issue of race in America as well as a beacon of hope as we learn to work together to repair damage, change perspectives, and strive to do better.

* * *

Education as a Liberatory Practice

From slavery times to the present, black people have treasured education as liberatory. It was unlawful for enslaved blacks to learn to read and write. When the slavemaster learned his wife was teaching young Frederick Douglass to read, he at once forbade it: “[I]f you teach . . . [him] how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Upon hearing these words, Douglass had an epiphany, understanding in that moment that education was “the path way from slavery to freedom” and was the most important thing he and other slaves could do to free themselves. Douglass went on to become a leader in the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements, a best-selling author, and a US diplomat.

Author and educator bell hooks continues this black tradition, exhorting educators to enact a revolutionary pedagogy of resistance that is profoundly anticolonial and anti-racist. This is education as the practice of freedom, as famed critical pedagogist Paulo Friere puts it, and it means implementing practices that both challenge curricular and pedagogical biases that reinforce systems of domination like racism and sexism while simultaneously creating innovative ways to teach diverse groups of students. Instead of creating pathways to liberation and opportunity, however, too many schools today are pushing children into pipelines of incarceration and violence.

Restorative Justice in Schools

There are growing numbers of studies establishing the effectiveness of school-based restorative justice in reducing suspensions, expulsions, and police referrals, while improving academic outcomes and decreasing violence. For instance, according to a 2015 implementation study of whole-school CONTINUE READING: How schools are using restorative justice to remedy racial disparities in discipline | Salon.com

Florida: The State That Welcomes Conflicts of Interest | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: The State That Welcomes Conflicts of Interest | Diane Ravitch's blog

Florida: The State That Welcomes Conflicts of Interest

In most states and in the federal government, conflicts of interest are prohibited and even illegal. But not in Florida!

State legislators regularly vote on legislation that enriches themselves and family members, and NO ONE CARES!

Conflicts of interest are peachy keen. Doesn’t everyone line their pockets at the public trough?

This article in the Miami Herald describes a master at the game of doing what’s good for himself and his loved ones.

Fred Grimm of the Herald writes:

If Erik Fresen was … say … a county or city commissioner, a blatant conflict of interest would keep him from voting on charter school funding issues.

As my Herald colleagues Christina Veiga and Kristen Clark reported Sunday, laws governing ethical behavior would bar local officials from even discussing proposals at public meetings that have a direct or indirect financial impact on their interests. Or their families’ interests.

The Fresen clan has a lot riding on charter school construction funds. Erik Fresen earns $150,000-a-year as land consultant for Civica, an architecture firm that specializes in charter school construction. Civica has designed a number of schools for Academica, the largest charter school management company in Florida. Fresen’s sister and brother-in-law just happen to be Academica executives.

But state Rep. Fresen’s ethical deportment in the state Legislature is governed by such tepid regulations that the chairman of the House Education Budget Committee can get away with sponsoring legislation that would deliver a windfall to the family business.

The Miami Republican has fast-tracked a bill that would not only limit what school districts spend on their own CONTINUE READING: Florida: The State That Welcomes Conflicts of Interest | Diane Ravitch's blog