Charter school profits using students as chain gangs, child labor, stays open despite prosecution

[Hannah Bell]

Cashing in on the kids: Even after pleading no contest to grand theft, school remains open
By Vicki McClure and Mary Shanklin | Sentinel Staff Writers

For nearly half a decade, Escambia Charter School hired out a group of students to cut roadside grass and weeds during class time for about 32 hours per week.

The privately run high school made about $200,000 by paying the children less than required under a state Department of Transportation contract. Meanwhile, it continued accepting tax money from the state Department of Education to teach the children five hours a day.

Until state prosecutors investigated complaints from teachers at the campus north of Pensacola, the falsifying of attendance records, course schedules and grade reports went unchecked.

Even after pleading no contest to grand theft, the school remains open. No more than 12 percent of its students have ever been able to read at grade level, test scores show.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-special-charterschools-part3,0,6045944.htmlpage


This is one of the oldest charter schools in florida. These are the great things charter schools are doing for low-achieving kids -- using them as chain gangs so private parties can profit.

As part of their "schooling" they work "eight hours per day, Monday through Thursday, for up to 15 weeks during school hours, according to state investigators."

Also: "phony grades; improper spending; administrators and teachers drinking on campus; and students permitted to sleep on floor during class."


Disgusting. And Florida lets them continue.

[gophates]

1. If you don't vote this November, you enable crap like this.

It's just that simple.

[vi5]

2. Please correct me if I'm wrong.....

But doesn't a lot of the current education policy under Arne Duncan, specifically something like Race To The Top, encourage and pave the way towards more acceptance of Charter Schools?

[Catshrink]

4. It most certainly does.

[gophates]

5. You aren't wrong.

But we can't do anything about that right now. We can push things in the right direction by increasing majorities in both houses. Then maybe the WH won't feel the need to give in to the right all the time.

[Catshrink]

7. Unfortunately, it is Arne Duncan pushing this plan

trying to implement the Disaster in Chicago nationwide. I don't think it matters who wins in November, Obama won't fire his basketball buddy. The only thing that will stop this trend is revealing the data to the general public and waking people up. But, since the billionaire boys control the message, it will continue. A massive scandal might cause a blip in their plans, but it's all about the money and the kids be damned. Let them work on chain gangs.

[vi5]

8. We're never going to have a larger majority than we have now....

..it's just not going to happen. It's an incredible opportunity that was squandered in the name of a "bipartisanship" that was never going to happen and that even the most delusional among us knew was never going to happen.

And this current education policy didn't have to get congressional approval. It's a policy put into place only by this administration. You can't blame Blanche Lincoln, or Ben Nelson, or Max Baucus or the Blue Dogs.

Obama put Duncan in that position and presumably he endorses the policies he's put into place. This wasn't anything on which he was "giving in to the right".

[NYC_SKP]

47. This is a Florida State matter, largely.

Sure, one could say that Obama could dictate otherwise, and indeed the justice department could get involved, but education is a state matter.

This shit isn't happening in every other state.

Florida residents need to pipe up and take care of Florida business.

Like Texas, and elsewhere, powerful people at the top need to be removed.

[ibegurpard]

6. Are you fucking KIDDING me??

Charter schools are the CENTERPIECE of Obama's education "reform."
Open your eyes!

[gophates]

9. Eyes open, chief.

You think it's gonna get better if the Pukes pick up seats?

Only with overwhelming majorities can we push the administration to do the right things.

[Hannah Bell]

11. If the pubs were in power the democrats would be forced to *criticise* this bullshit

instead of enabling it.

[Starry Messenger]

27. effing +10 million

[readmoreoften]

32. +1 billion. If Republicans tried to pass this there'd be outrage. With Obama? It's great.

If Bush had done this, Obama supporters would be screaming their lungs out. But they're voting on letters behind names and "trust" not on issues, reality, and facts. The facts are that the Democrats have pushed us into neoliberal territory that Republicans would never be allowed to touch. But you can't unring the bell.

The only thing that would have saved us is CHANGE and COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP. If anything, Obama has sealed our fate, legitimizing Bush era policies and opening the way for the next crop of Republicans to push us further to the right.

All the Democrats exist to do anymore is legitimize the Republicans. There is no real opposition to them.

[lostnfound]

17. How do you suggest we get those overwhelming majorities if the Dems positions are so close to Pubs?

When no one in power speaks out against the privatization of public assets, or the profit motive corrupting the charter schools?
I admire Obama but the turnout among lefties AND independents is going to be horrible. We had overwhelming majorities in favor of a public option, what good did that do us?

[LWolf]

14. The support for the destruction of public education,

for privatization, union-busting, and de-regulation will march forward regardless of who votes or doesn't, or which party is victorious.

Instead of trying to twist this thread into campaign bullying, why not address the issue of concern? Charter schools are tools of privatization, union-busting, and de-regulation, those things are harmful, and they are being pushed HARDER by the current administration than they were under the last Republican administration. Which is shocking, to say the least.

[ThomCat]

29. Vote for whom? Obama SUPPORTS Charter Schools!

The Obama Dept of Education is doing everything it can to UNDERMINE teachers unions, destroy public schools, and give as much public money as possible to the creation of Charter Schools.

New York City is Huge Incubator for Charter Schools and Obama and the US Dept of Ed have been big supporters of everything Bloomberg and Klein have been doing here to decimate public schools and union teachers.

Los Angeles too. And Chicago. I'm sure every major city is seeing charter schools growing like a cancer, eating away at Public Schools, leaching away their budgets and being used as a union-busting tool.

No matter which party you vote for you're going to see a hell of a lot more of this shit. :(

It's not enough to just vote by party. Vote for candidates who really stand up for issues and aren't conservaDems. Vote for real Liberal and Progressive Democrats!

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Our president, a Democrat, not only supports charters but wants more of them

Yes, it really is that simple.

[Catshrink]

3. The Obama/Duncan education plan in action

and people must like it because the unreccers are out. Too bad they don't have the nerve to post why they find this an acceptable use of public education money.

[Hannah Bell]

10. I want to see them try to justify this one. Chain gangs as "education". Full-time.

"Bad charter schools are closed *immediately*"

Child labor as a profit center.

This is the biggest con in the history of education.

[whistler162]

26. unrec for not reading the article!

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Ok I'm game

What key info in the article are you referring to? I read it and have no idea what you mean.

[Catshrink]

41. Reminds me of something...

oh yeah, during the HCR debates "Have you read the bill?" RW talking points will only take you so far.

[Starry Messenger]

30. Children need more fresh air?

I'm sure the spin will be very "creative". :sarcasm:

All these decades of labor reform and we're right back to child labor. It's fucking disgusting.

[mike r]

12. Despicable

They call that education? WTF.

[LWolf]

13. This is the direction the current administration is dragging us.

Because this will "fix" public education.

:sarcasm:

[ibegurpard]

15. indeed

[ThomCat]

35. Obama doesn't care that it's not fixing education.

There is too much info already available showing that privatizing schools is a sham. If he gave a damn he wouldn't be backing this shit.

He's backing it for one reason only, because his corporate backers will make money off it it.

Children will suffer, but his sponsors will get rich. That's okay with Obama.
Schools will suffer, but his sponsors will get rich. That's okay with Obama.
Teachers will suffer, but his sponsors will get rich. That's okay with Obama.

Teachers Unions actually backed Obama as a donor/sponsor. But they didn't donate as much money and don't have as much clout as the corporate backers behind charter schools. So the Teacher's Unions will suffer. The other Sponsors will get rich. That's okay with Obama.

We know where Obama stands, and so does he. As long as his corporate sponsors get rich, he doesn't care what happens to anyone else.

He's just going to do whatever dance steps his public relations people and speech writers set out for him so that he can pretend to care about public education while he orchestrates the dismantling and sale of our entire public education system to the highest bidders.

[LWolf]

46. True.

And a big part of why hell will freeze over before Obama gets a vote from me.

[Frustratedlady]

16. This concept is a major mistake. They already have a strong toe-hold

but we can't allow it to continue. Maybe there are good ones out there, but all I've seen/heard of are the contract schools who cheat, abuse and steal.

Not a good record.

[lostnfound]

18. What if it's not a "mistake" but part of an ideology and a plan?

Do you really think the goal of those pushing for charters is to improve education? I don't.

[Hannah Bell]

20. +100.

[Frustratedlady]

38. No, not at all. Nor are contract prisons improving the life of prisoners.

It is all for money and power. I don't doubt that at all.

They've been pushing for contract schools for years. When did they start, George H.W.? Jeb? Wasn't he one that was really kicking the idea closer to the goal post?

I have a lot of teachers in my family and not one of them want anythng to do with contract schools. As far as I'm concerned, we've lost a generation with NCLB, not to mention contract schools.

[Hannah Bell]

40. jebby was one of the folks who directly enabled this chain gang venture.

[Odin2005]

19. Holy Fucking Shit!

:grr:

[Generic Other]

21. WTF?

This is unreal.

[Solly Mack]

22. Damn

[dkf]

23. Obviously this needs to be prosecuted to the Nth degree.

Maybe it's rogue charter schools that need the lesson.

But hey testing worked! It pinpointed a school that was failing it's duties.

[Hannah Bell]

24. bullshit. & they're not closing the school, either.

[dkf]

25. You don't think the failing scores support the prosecution?

I bet it will be used as evidence.

[Hannah Bell]

28. that was in 2004. they're still in business. try reading.

State investigators amassed enough evidence to charge Escambia with one count of organized fraud, a felony, in April 2004.

Thomas said the criminal charge helped him negotiate an end to the student-labor abuses. The road crews were restructured into proper on-the-job training programs. Students attended class the required five hours per day. Grade and attendance reports were no longer falsified.

But Callender, whom state investigators identified as the mastermind of the scheme, remained in charge at the school. Thomas said there was little he could do, because charter governing boards have authority over staff matters.

Warford, the former public-schools chancellor, said the lack of will to improve oversight of charters came from the Governor's Office down through his appointees. Two Education Department workers who proposed more accountability for charters and other school-choice programs were removed from their posts during his tenure, he said.

Warford said he pressed his supervisors to explain what they thought accountability meant, if not better oversight. "The only good answer I got was, 'There is accountability because the parents are free to choose,'ƒ|" said Warford, who resigned in 2005.

Enrollment at Escambia has dropped a quarter, to about 100 students, since the scandal. Only 3ƒ|percent of students could read at grade level last year, and less than a quarter could do math proficiently.

The school received nearly $1 million in tax money last year.

[dkf]

34. That does point to the inability of the system to police charter schools

Obviously that needs to be changed. I don't see how this is not grand theft.

I didn't realize it was such an old article. My bad.

[Hannah Bell]

39. the article is from 2007. it's about the failure of the system, & gives multiple examples.

charter schools = licensed theft & union-busting.

and it just keeps rolling on, despite the crimes.

[suffragette]

31. Actually it was teachers who "pinpointed" the failure

but even then, the people running this stayed on:

Concerns about Callender and Chisolm surfaced in July 2003, when a handful of current and former instructors presented a long list of concerns to the charter's board: phony grades; improper spending; uncertified instructors on staff; no student-discipline program; administrators and teachers drinking on campus; and students permitted to sleep on floor during class.

The charter board directed its personnel agency to investigate. The company substantiated some of the claims and recommended further inquiry on others.

Board members took no action. Callender and Chisolm kept their jobs, and the road crew continued.

Artie Davis, one of the former teachers who complained, said Callender had handpicked the board members, and they were reluctant to go against him. State law is silent on how members of these governing boards are to be selected.

~~~
But Callender, whom state investigators identified as the mastermind of the scheme, remained in charge at the school. Thomas said there was little he could do, because charter governing boards have authority over staff matters.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fumesucker]

42. In the school's defense..

They were doing an excellent job of preparing their students for corporate America.

[Hannah Bell]

43. or prison.

[Fumesucker]

44. Increasingly the one is becoming the other..

[Hannah Bell]

45. yep, kipp schools = prisons. their program = sit up straight, eye contact, etc.

it's all about discipline & test.