“Charter school companies, online learning outfits try to wield influence in Tallahassee.”

“Charter school companies, online learning outfits try to wield influence in Tallahassee.” Miami Herald (FL), 10/22/2012

In the looming battle for public education dollars, Jon Hage has launched a pre-emptive strike.

His school management company, Charter Schools USA, has doled out more than $205,000 in contributions to political candidates and organizations this election cycle, state records show. That's more than triple what the Fort Lauderdale-based company spent on political campaigns in 2010, and seven times what it spent in 2008.

"If we don't support our friends in Tallahassee, they are left out there to take the enemy's bullet," Hage said.

For-profit education companies are becoming serious players in lobbying the Florida Legislature. In the current election cycle, charter school companies, school management firms, online learning outfits and for-profit colleges have lavished more than $1.8 million to statehouse candidates, electioneering organizations and political parties, according to a Miami Herald review of Florida campaign finance data.

Ignoring payment of fine for violating contribution cap

“Ohio set to expand school choice as record $5.2M fine imposed on charter group remains unpaid.” Associated Press, 3/29/2011

COLUMBUS — “A school choice group that pumped millions of dollars into helping get its candidates elected in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states has yet to pay a record $5.2 million fine imposed three years ago by Ohio election officials, according to the state attorney general.

The fine imposed on All Children Matter languishes even as Ohio Gov. John Kasich pushes a $55.5 billion budget proposal that would continue to expand school choice, doubling the number of school vouchers in the state and lifting a cap on community schools.

The Ohio Elections Commission unanimously ruled in 2008 that All Children Matter, headed by former Michigan Republican Chairwoman Betsy DeVos and run out of that state, illegally funneled $870,000 in contributions from its Virginia political action committee to its Ohio affiliate. That violated a $10,000 cap on what Ohio-based political-action committees could accept from any single entity.”

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Ohio set to expand school choice as record $5.2m fine imposed on charter group remains unpaid; March 28, 2011; Associated Press / Washington Post (WaPo link no longer working) 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A school choice group that pumped millions of dollars into helping get its candidates elected in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states has yet to pay a record $5.2 million fine imposed three years ago by Ohio election officials, according to the state attorney general.

The fine imposed on All Children Matter languishes even as Ohio Gov. John Kasich pushes a $55.5 billion budget proposal that would continue to expand school choice, doubling the number of school vouchers in the state and lifting a cap on community schools.

The Ohio Elections Commission unanimously ruled in 2008 that All Children Matter, headed by former Michigan Republican Chairwoman Betsy DeVos and run out of that state, illegally funneled $870,000 in contributions from its Virginia political action committee to its Ohio affiliate. That violated a $10,000 cap on what Ohio-based political-action committees could accept from any single entity…

Akron industrialist and charter school operator David Brennan donated $200,000 to the Virginia entity ahead of the transfer back to Ohio. In the Wisconsin case, the Milwaukee-based Alliance for Choices in Education donated $90,000 to the All Children Matter-Virginia PAC, which then donated $35,000 to its Wisconsin affiliate…

Records show Brennan has begun donating to another school choice organization called the American Federation for Children, where some alums of All Children Matter now work. Brennan donated $11,000 to the federation on Oct. 14, records show.

It is unclear whether Ohio will be able to recoup the fine. The elections commission has turned over collection to Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office. Spokeswoman Lisa Hackley said the office could not provide details on the case other than to confirm they were working on behalf of their client to collect the money.

Brennan is a generous Republican donor in the state, having contributed to the campaigns of Kasich, DeWine and elections chief Jon Husted, among many others…

Former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, Betsy’s husband, set up All Children Matter in 2003 to push vouchers in other states and advocate for tax credits for businesses that create scholarships for children to attend private schools…

Wall Street investors prop up little-known candidate

2 SIDES ON CHARTER SCHOOLS ADD CASH TO NEW YORK RACES, September 10, 2010,The New York Times

Mark H. Pollard was a little-known candidate for New York State Senate in Brooklyn facing the herculean feat of ousting a 26-year incumbent. But then he got an unexpected telephone call saying that a group of wealthy investors who supported charter schools wanted to meet with him.

So in June, Mr. Pollard, a Democrat, found himself in Manhattan, sipping wine on a Park Avenue patio with people whose names he can no longer recall. Then “the checks started rolling in,” he said, and by July he had received more than $100,000…