Charter School Scandals
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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; misusing local, state, and federal funds; 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

Below are a sampling of the articles on this blog -
of course, all parents know whaat is best for their children (and dont let anyone tell you otherwise), but being knowledgeable about what may be going on during the school day is helpful.

At least, that's what I think. My four children did not attend a charter school, ever.

Betsy Combier

Harlem Village Academies
CATHIE BLACK CLAIMS TO HAVE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE WITH CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD POST, BUT IT'S MOOT; November 28, 2010; NY Daily
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City schools chancellor nominee Cathie Black insists she's connected to public education via a highly touted charter school - but a close look shows she's had no contact with students, parents or teachers there.

Officials at the Harlem Village Academies admit the school's National Leadership Board, which Black joined just five months ago, has never met.

Black primarily advised the school's CEO, Deborah Kenny, on "management, leadership, and the development of a book" Kenny is writing, the school said…

Kenny, who oversees 450 students, is paid $442,000, including a $140,000 "bonus" and $27,780 in "other" expenses.

The schools chancellor gets $250,000 to oversee 1.1 million students.

Many charter schools have a parent representative on their board. Harlem Village does not…

Bloomberg has called the school a national "poster child" for school reform. Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave $5 million toward construction of the new high school.

The school has been lauded nationally for its high test scores, including for pushing 100% of its eighth-graders to pass state math tests.

A look at the overall scores tells a different tale. In the last round of tests, like schools across New York, numbers dropped precipitously after the state made the tests tougher.

Schoolwide English test scores fell from 81% passing to 41%, while math dropped from 91% to 71%. And by eighth grade, the number of students taking the tests is a small fraction of the earlier grades…

An unusually high number of younger students either drop out or are held back. In school year 2003-04, the year the school opened, only 48 of 73 fifth-graders made it to sixth grade. In school year 2006-07, 46 of 68 moved on; in 2007-08, just 40 of 76 fifth-graders made it to sixth grade…

Posted by The Perimeter Primate at 8:51 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: *New York, 2010, Excessive compensation, Extreme administrative and/or teacher attrition, Extreme student attrition, Questionable discipline practices

Sunday, November 28, 2010
Young Women's Leadership Network charter school (Rochester, NY)
PROPOSED ROCHESTER CHARTER SCHOOL HAS TIES TO JEAN-CLAUDE BRIZARD; November 12, 2010; Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)
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Organizers of a new all-girls charter school aiming to open in 2012 have been busy amassing supporters in the city of Rochester.

But they already have one high-profile local education leader behind their effort — City School District Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard, who also happens to be married to one of the new school's would-be founders.

Brizard makes no secret of his support for charter schools, saying that he wants to help more of the privately run programs open in the city school district. Now, K. Brooke Stafford-Brizard could lead one such school, drawing students and state money away from city schools and raising questions about a potential conflict of interest. "We have the vision and the passion and we're working on the application," said Laura Rebell Gross, who is partnering with Stafford-Brizard.

Stafford-Brizard and Gross have been working with the Young Women's Leadership Network, known nationally for opening the first single-sex charter school in the country. Gross also serves on the network's Board of Directors…

Both Jean-Claude Brizard and Gross said they were trying to keep the proposal quiet until the women submitted the application. But word of the proposed school started circulating in the community after they hosted an informational meeting with a number of high-profile community leaders to try to win support for their effort several weeks ago…

The meeting occurred at the Brizards' house after the group went to see Waiting for Superman, a new documentary about the public school system that has been criticized for glorifying charter schools…

Posted by The Perimeter Primate at 7:01 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: **EMO: Young Women's Leadership Network, *New York, 2010, Conflict of interest

Weems School

THE WEEMS WAY: A CHARTER SCHOOL COLLAPSES AMID A HAIL OF SIBLING BATTLES AND UNPAID BILLS; December 29, 2010; Cleveland Scene (OH)
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A regular week at the Weems School was a minefield of surprises for staff and students alike.

For students, that was a blast: The lunch menus were constantly changing, any given day could yield an unannounced field trip, and there was always the possibility you'd show up and find the doors locked and lights out.

For teachers, that wasn't so fun. Bill collectors were clogging up the phone lines, required textbooks weren't on the shelves, paychecks were late, and regular funds from the state got straw-sucked down a gaping black hole. The whole operation, it seemed, was held together by the thinnest strands of authority.

Such was life at the Tremont charter, which was christened in 2005 and ran aground four years later. Behind the wheel was Ruby Weems, the Hummer-driving superintendent with a spotty background in education. Together with her identical twin sister Rory, Weems ran an operation that even her most favorable critics call sloppy. Those who were bilked by the school and left to clean up the mess are less charitable.

The school lasted as long as it did thanks to Weems' stable of rookie teachers, most of them just a year or two free from college. Today, more than a year after the school was shut down, a number of those teachers say they still haven't been fully paid for their work. Two have filed a lawsuit against the school's sponsor, Cincinnati-based Educational Resource Consultants of Ohio (ERCO). The teachers say ERCO should have stepped in before Weems' mess got out of hand…

Not surprisingly, the books were bad from day one. According to a state audit, the Weems school provided few or no financial records to substantiate its expenditures in its first year. The audit lists multiple occasions where Weems cut checks up to $30,000, but failed to properly document where the money went. State auditors threw up their hands, refusing to even provide an official opinion on the books…

Posted by The Perimeter Primate at 1:36 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: *Ohio, 2010, Nepotism, Questionable financial practices, Questionable hiring or termination practices