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.

Jamie's House Charter School

Teacher beats student. Beating gets recorded. Teacher gets fired. Teacher will not loose her teaching certificate because she doesn’t have one; it’s not a requirement for most charter school teachers in Texas. Charter schools have been operating in Texas since 1995.

Houston teacher fired for beating student in class (The Associated Press, May 11, 2010)

HOUSTON — A charter school fired a science teacher after a student shot cell phone video of her beating a 13-year-old classmate.

Sheri Lynn Davis, 40, was fired from her job at the Jamie's House Charter School on Monday night.

Principal David Jones said he reviewed the video and determined there was "no excuse for a teacher to behave in this way with a child."

KRIV-TV in Houston reported that the video was shot in late April.

The student who was beaten, Isaiah Johnson, received a black eye and other bruises in the attack, said his mother, Alesha Johnson.

School spokeswoman Sue Davis, who is not related to the teacher, said Tuesday that Sheri Lynn Davis was put on administrative leave May 5, after the boy's mother notified the school about the incident.

There was no online telephone listing for a Sheri Lynn Davis in Houston. Someone named Sheri Davis had a telephone number but it was unpublished.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident, Deputy Janie Wagner said. She declined to elaborate.

Isaiah Johnson is still enrolled in the school and was attending classes Tuesday, Sue Davis said.

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Watch the video here.

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Texas law on charter schools has big loophole (Houston Chronicle, May 12, 2010)

A Harris County charter school teacher caught on video beating up a student last month could face criminal charges, but she will not lose her teaching certificate.

That's because Sheri Lynn Davis, 40, doesn't have one.

As a science teacher at a charter school, she didn't need to be certified. Texas law requires charter schools to hire certified teachers only in the areas of bilingual and special education.

The state's charter school law is designed to give the campuses more freedom in hiring, but Davis' case illustrates a little-discussed loophole: If teachers aren't certified by the state, then the state has no power to sanction them. Their records are clean if they apply for other teaching jobs. In fact, they don't have a record at all with the State Board for Educator Certification.

Any punishment would have to come through the court system, said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating allegations against Davis, who was fired this week from Jamie's House Charter School in north Harris County. A cell phone video, shot by a student, shows the teacher dragging a 13-year-old boy across the floor, apparently kicking him in the back, slapping his face and slamming his head against a classroom wall.

Davis has not made any public comments.

Jamie's House Charter School did not respond Wednesday to questions about Davis' qualifications but said she had worked there for three years without any complaints. Her 10-month salary was $32,000.

‘Got to be a way'

State Rep. Rob Eissler, who chairs the House Public Education Committee, said he will ask his colleagues to study whether there's a way to ensure that non-certified teachers who get in trouble can't hide in the system.

“There's got to be a way to prevent that,” he said.

The Republican from The Woodlands noted that a 2007 state law requires all Texas public schools, including charters, to fingerprint and conduct national criminal background checks on all teaching applicants. If a noncertified teacher were charged with a crime, the school should be alerted through the check.

State Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Houston Democrat, suggested another solution: Require charter schools to hire certified teachers, just like traditional public schools.

“There are so many avenues available to become certified that I don't think we should be allowing noncertified teachers to teach,” he said.

High school diploma

To get certified in Texas, a candidate must have a bachelor's degree, complete an educator preparation program (through a college or an alternative provider) and pass the certification exams.

State law requires most charter school teachers to have only a high school diploma. But to meet federal standards, those teaching core subjects such as math and science must have a bachelor's and demonstrate competency in the subject they're teaching.

Private school teachers aren't held to any state standards.

David Dunn, the executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, said that simply requiring certification of all teachers wouldn't prevent misbehavior.

“There are certified teachers who misbehave,” he said. “Certification does not equal protection. The real protection around student safety is the criminal history background checks that all public schools in the state of Texas are required to do.”
But certified teachers are held to stricter standards by the State Board for Educator Certification. The board, for example, can investigate certified teachers even if they are not charged with a crime, and their certificate, which is available to the public online, is flagged.

2 comments:

The Perimeter Primate said...: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9FP95VO1.html

Houston teacher who saw videotaped beating quits, 05/18/2010:

A teacher who witnessed another instructor allegedly beat a student in a videotaped attack at Jamie's House Charter School in Houston has resigned.

Principal David Jones says 33-year-old social studies teacher Gabriel Hahn Moseley did not report the April 29 incident.; July 1, 2010 at 4:19 PM
The Perimeter Primate said...: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7024996.html

STATE TAKES OVER CHARTER SCHOOL IN BEATING CASE, May 27, 2010, Houston Chronicle

Excerpt:

The Texas Education Agency assigned a conservator today to oversee Jamie's House Charter School, where a teacher was caught on video beating up a student while a co-worker watched.
The conservator, Shirley Johnson, a veteran administrator, will have the power to overrule the charter school's board, superintendent and principal. Johnson will join a state monitor, Jill Watkins, who has been at the north Harris County campus part-time since April because of problems with the special education department.
“Our investigation found material, systemic and pervasive weaknesses in their disciplinary system, highlighted by the well publicized beating episode,” TEA spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said. “But the problem is wider than that. They just don't do a good job maintaining discipline or keeping adequate reports about what occurred and what they have done.”

At the TEA's urging, the school also has hired two licensed peace officers, Ratcliffe said. The previous security system at the campus, which serves about 100 middle and high school students, many with serious emotional problems, consisted of hiring so-called hall monitors, who didn't need police training.
It's unclear where the hall monitors were on April 29, when an uncertified science teacher, Sheri Lynn Davis, was caught on a student's cell phone camera apparently kicking, slapping and dragging a 13-year-old boy across a classroom floor. The school fired Davis, 40, after the video was aired on television...; July 9, 2010 at 4:00 PM

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH KILLING ED, Mark Hall's feature-length documentary about charter schools, corruption and the rise of the Gulen Movement in America
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

Remainders

1. Bruce Baker's excellent analysis of whether charter schools are public or private.

2. Jim Horn's Top 10 reasons for why 1%ers support urban charter schools.

3. What reporters covering charter schools need to know about miracle schools, vouchers and all that educational flim-flam (i.e. be skeptical and always follow the money).

4. As of May 2013, only eight states do not have a charter school law: Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia.

5. Balkanize: "to break up (as a region or group) into smaller and often hostile units" (Merriam-Webster dictionary)

6. *Phrase coined by John Thompson: "educational civil war"

7. "A system that allows school operators to donate to the officials that regulate them is pretty sorry." h/t "X"

8. Re the Gulen movement. Two important psychological principals of which to be aware: the Backfire Effect and the Black Swan Theory.

Pleas for charter school oversight

AS U.S. AID GROWS, OVERSIGHT IS URGED FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS; February 24, 2010; New York Times

…The president of one influential charter group told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards.
“It’s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, but nothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways,” said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers…

CHARTER BACKER SAYS HOUSE PROPOSAL WEAKENS OVERSIGHT; April 30, 2011; Columbus Dispatch (OH)

A leading school-choice supporter says the sweeping changes proposed by House Republicans would weaken oversight of charter schools severely and threaten to turn Ohio into a "laughingstock of the nation's charter-school programs.

"It's hard for me to say that," said Terry Ryan, vice president of Ohio programs and policy for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors seven charter schools in the state, including two in Columbus...

It was just last year that Mr. Ryan said, "The charter movement must police itself."
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"The idea of regulating charter schools makes no sense because deregulation is the justification for the policy." -- Jim M., retired teacher

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Perhaps it's finally dawning on some charter school supporters that the whole business is a huge can of worms.

Message to readers

With the systematic privatization of public education being conducted via the rapid expansion of charter schools, I regularly receive messages from teachers and parents who have charter school horror stories they want to share, and/or are in need of advice about a charter school situation in their community (e.g., "The charter school I attended has been closed. Do you know how I can get a copy of my transcript?). I also hear from journalists who are seeking information.

Just so you know, this site is a one-woman volunteer operation. Sorry folks, I'm DEFINITELY NOT union-sponsored.

Welcome

Charter School Scandals (CSS) was launched on May 14, 2010 to provide the public with a source of independently collected information about U.S. charter schools.

For instance, compare what you learn from my entry for the 3,500 student CATO School of Reason to the information provided by the pro-charter Center for Education Reform in their compilation: "Closed Charter Schools by State: National Data 2009" (63 page pdf). In the CER's document, the closure reason is "Management" explained as "Inadequate record keeping, suspect relations with private and sectarian schools," but the true story is much bigger and dirtier than that.

CSS is a non-billionaire funded (and un-bought off!), non-union affiliated (!), one-person operation in the name of transparency and public service to our democracy. I post the information as quickly as I can, but have a massive backlog due to the sheer number of stories. Please check back periodically for new additions.

And as you scroll through these stories, be sure to keep a running tally of the estimated legal costs.

Gulen Movement MUST READS!

Under the radar of the American public, the Gulen movement has been quietly advancing its presence in the U.S. via the establishment of charter schools, "cultural centers", and "interfaith dialogue" centers. Politicians, reporters, academics, community leaders, and charter school families have been strategically targeted, influenced, and given gifts, as the Gulenists have steadily built up their political cover. But how many of these Americans have an understanding of the controversies which surround this secretive movement and its worldwide political ambitions? And how would the public respond to finding out that such a movement is opening more and more charter schools, supported by their tax dollars as part of the GM's primary global project, without being willing to admit the connection?

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LEARN MORE

1. Read about the federal investigation into the Gulen Movement's charter schools.

2. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Islam, Secularism and the Battle for Turkey's Future, 23 August 2010, STRATFOR Global Intelligence

3. Video of Joshua Hendrick of the U. of OR and Y. Alp Aslandogan discussing the Gulen Movement. Here are the first 24 pages of Hendrick's 2009 thesis.

4. Charter School Watchdog

5. Gulen Charter Schools (don't miss the entry HERE.)

6. A Guide to the Gulen Movement's Activities in the U.S.

7. Gulen in the International Press

8. "Turkey's survival of the fittest: The Islamic anti-Darwinism movement in Turkey is being helped by an unlikely source - US Christian conservatives," 12 March 2008, ISN Security Watch)

9. "Religious movements in Turkey," 20 December 2010, OpenDemocracy

10. "First Class Revolution: From Medina to Mecca" and "Fethullah Gulen's Missionary Charter Schools Coming under Increasing Scrutiny in the United States and around the World," 24 January 2011 & 26 February 2011, Kurdish Aspect

11. "Turkey: Politics of Identity and Power," 13 August 2010, Congressional Research Service

12. "Turkey's pivotal role in the international drug trade," July 1998, Le Monde diplomatique (more background info)

13. EXTRA CREDIT: Check out the animated Imperial History of the Middle East and this Middle East geography game.

Bad apples, tips of icebergs, and cans of worms

In 2000, the Center for Education Reform wrote:
"A few bad apples shouldn't sour the public on the promising charter school movement, but when a bad apple does turn up, critics of charter schools pounce on it. Charter opponents are quick to claim that "more than a few" schools have closed and even quicker to characterize the movement as one that invites unscrupulous, fly-by-night operators to set up shop.Those mean ol' charter opponents. Isn't it curious how the reformers don't have any problem at all with building up a few negative public school stories into an anti-public teacher-bashing movement of national proportions in order to destroy teacher unions and public schools as a whole?"

But are charter schools really so innocent?

- In 2009, 83 percent of 145 Minnesota charter schools were found to have at least one financial irregularity in their audit.

- In February 2009, a New Mexico state audit found financial problems with 36 of the 44 charter schools in Albuquerque.

- Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz (April 2010): "The fact that there were significant issues at 13 out of 13 [schools] raises the likelihood you would see many of these same issues found in a much larger sampling of the schools.By May 2010, his probe had widened to 18 charter schools."

Relationships terminated

Charter school promoters live in an abstract world where it's perfectly fine to shutter a school when the "need" arises. This reveals a profound detachment and utter disregard for the emotional lives of the children and families who, as a result, end up being subjected to tremendous disruption, stress, termination of meaningful relationships, loss and grief. Kids need security and dependability.

A school going "out of business" takes a very different emotional toll on families and children than when their local gas station or Denny's restaurant does.

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The demise and death of our institutions of social support:

Family............check!
Church............check!
Neighborhoods............check!
Schools............check!

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"It comes down to what ultimately is in the best public interest here -- supporting the growth of charters or not. Does that support ultimately weaken the rest of the school district? You bet it does." (Fred LeBrun, Albany, NY)

Observations

There is no doubt but that an increasing number of inspectors, auditors, investigators, prosecutors and court rooms (and a lot of time and money) will be needed as more state charter caps are lifted.

Part of the problem is that too many people running charter schools see them as their own little fiefdoms. After all the effort and money put into setting up their schools -- and with political leaders and the mainstream media shining their bright spotlights on charter schools -- the stakes are inordinately high for them to be able to show "success."

Another problem I've discovered by doing this research is that the unmonitored access to millions of public education dollars is drawing unscrupulous people into the "business." At other times, new-found access to funds is proving to be too tempting for some people who were perhaps less criminally-minded.

Additionally, I've now discovered that, in this era of high-stakes testing, the education security business is booming. As one company put it, "Cheating on tests isn't the exception anymore; it has almost become the rule."

On competition

From "Deregulation and Charter School Swindles" by Gary Clabaugh (Educational Horizons, Winter 2009):

Two main ideas inform the charter school movement. The first is that competition is an essential ingredient in school improvement. Charters are said to provide that.

The trouble with this argument is that competition doesn't select the best, only the most popular. McDonald's doesn't produce the best-tasting or most-nutritious food, for instance, but its heart attack specials certainly are popular. A second-rate school might prove similarly competitive if it provides a tawdry but reassuring education to the children of the low-information crowd. Fearful your kids will discover you are an ignoramus? Send them to Alpha Charter where they will never learn to doubt.

Dedication

This Web site is dedicated to Eli Broad, Bill Gates, the Walton family, Arne Duncan, Whitney Tilson, Joe Williams, Reed Hastings, Ted Mitchell, Jack O'Connell, Tom Vander Ark, George Miller, Joanne Weiss, Randy Ward, Arnold Swarzenegger, all Milton Friedman-lovers, and any other free-market, pro-school choice, minimally-regulate-what-goes-on-in-charter school supporters who are also proud self-stated "DISRUPTORS" of public school communities, who have almost never, EVER been part of a public school community or local neighborhood, or who rejected being part of any public school community or local neighborhood long, long ago -- but have ended up deciding to help tear apart the tapestry of basic local human connections anyway.

Visitors

A variety of people have been looking at my blog, probably because of the great Gulen charter school information I've posted. This site is regularly visited by readers from Turkey. I get periodic visits from dhs.gov, doj.gov and ed.gov. I've had visits from house.gov and ed.gov, and at least one visit from someone at eop.gov (? Executive Office of the President). I've had a few visits from a couple of mystery IPs that are supposedly associated with the State Department, specifically the CIA. Hmmmmm...

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Jamie's House Charter School

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