Ruth
Conniff of “The Progressive” reports that the FBI is
becoming more assertive in its investigation of criminal behavior by charter
schools.
Charter schools receive millions of dollars of public money with
minimal accountability.
In some states, they have gone to court to fight public
audits, claiming that the schools are public but the organization running them
is a private corporation.
Conniff
reports: “From Pittsburgh to Baton Rouge, from Hartford to Cincinnati to
Albuquerque, FBI agents have been busting into schools, carting off documents,
and making arrests leading to high-profile indictments.”
She
adds:
“One
target, covered in an August 12 story in The Atlantic, is the secretive Turkish
cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who runs the largest charter-school chain in the
United States.
“The
Atlantic felt compelled to note, repeatedly, that it would be xenophobic to
single out the Gulen schools and their mysterious Muslim founder for lack of
transparency and the misuse of public funds.
“It
isn’t the Gulen movement that makes Gulen charters so secretive,” writes The
Atlantic’s Scott Beauchamp, “it’s the charter movement itself.”
“Kristen
Buras, associate professor of education policies at Georgia State University,
agrees.
“Originally,
charter schools were conceived as a way to improve public education,” Buras
says.
“Over time, however, the charter school movement has developed into a
money-making venture.”
“Over
the last decade, the charter school movement has morphed from a small,
community-based effort to foster alternative education into a national push to
privatize public schools, pushed by free-market foundations and big
education-management companies. This transformation opened the door to
profit-seekers looking for a way to cash in on public funds.”
And
more:
“”Education
entrepreneurs and private charter school operators could care less about
innovation,” says Buras. “Instead, they divert public monies to pay their
six-figure salaries; hire uncertified, transient, non-unionized teachers
on-the-cheap; and do not admit (or fail to appropriately serve) students who
are costly, such as those with disabilities.”
“Rebecca
Fox Blair, a teacher who helped to found a small, alternative high school
program in Monona, Wisconsin, says she was struck by the massive change in the
charter school movement when she attended a national charter school conference
recently.
“It’s
all these huge operators, and they look down on schools like ours,” she says.
“They call us the ‘mom and pop’ schools.”
“There
are now more than 6,000 publicly funded charter schools in the United States —
a more than 50 percent increase since 2008.
“Over
that same period, “nearly 4,000 traditional public schools have closed,” writes
Stan Karp, an editor of Rethinking Schools. “This represents a huge transfer of
resources and students from our public education system to the publicly funded
but privately managed charter sector.”
“And
all that money has attracted some unscrupulous operators.”
One
big-time operator is K12, whose CEO was paid over $4 million last year. K12 is
active in the corporate-advocacy group ALEC. The corporation, listed on the New
York stock exchange, was founded by the Milken brothers.
“ALEC
added K12 to its corporate board of directors just before its national
convention in Dallas at the end of July.
At
the Dallas meeting, ALEC also trumpeted the launch of a new charter school
working group. Among the measures the group discussed:
- Legislation to exempt charter school teachers from state teacher certification requirements, and allow for charter schools to be their own local education authority.
- A bill to give charter schools the right of first refusal to purchase or lease all or part of unused public school properties at or below market value, and avoid taxes and fees.
- A controversial measure proposed by Scott Walker in Wisconsin to create a statewide charter school authorizing board, bypassing local authority over charter schools, even as charters drain funds from local districts.”
In
addition to the investigations cited by Conniff, the FBI raided the offices of The
Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, whose CEO was eventually indicted
for numerous violations of the law.
Also,
June Brown, the founder of the
Agora charter school in Pennsylvania, was investigated by the FBI,
indicted, and charged along with other executives for the theft of $6.7 million
from three charter schools. When she was tried, the
jury cleared her on some counts, deadlocked on others, and federal prosecutors
vowed to retry her. A local newspaper reported on the trial:
“Two
of Brown’s co-defendants pleaded guilty before the trial, while two others were
acquitted…..
“The
case is the fifth federal prosecution of local charter school operators in
seven years, raising questions about the regulation of the growing charter
school movement.
“Before
2008, Brown collected full-time salaries as the chief executive officer of
three charter schools she founded. In addition, two management firms she owned
collected millions in fees for services to the Agora Cyber Charter School,
which she also established.
“Prosecutors
charged that Brown provided little or no services to Agora in return for the
money.
“Neither
Brown nor her co-defendants testified in the case. Defense attorneys argued
that the charter schools achieved excellent outcomes for students and that
Brown’s compensation, while perhaps generous, was not illegal. They also argued
that prosecutors had not proved that June and other officials had falsified
documents to cover up financial fraud.
“Several
witnesses testified that forged signatures and fabricated documents were used
to support Brown’s claims for compensation.”