More charter school problems in FL. Where's the oversight of taxpayer money?

[madfloridian]

These are only 4 examples, there are many others. Those in leadership are aware of the problems, but they are not doing much about it.

Each charter school gets public taxpayer money. When the schools are closed for academic or financial reasons, that money is gone from the schools forever. If they take taxpayer money and fail academically or are closed because of financial shady dealings....someone must see that the money is returned to the taxpayers.

Life Force charter school in Dunedin closed now, but how did it get so bad?

It was one of the most egregious cases of mismanagement in Florida charter school history: a public elementary school that enriched its administrators, impoverished its teachers, failed its students and collapsed in disgrace.

Life Force Arts and Technology's closure this month, after two years of classes and spending more than $1.6 million in public education funds, signaled the end of a charter school that was roundly despised.

Hanan Islam and her company, Art of Management, then fired teachers, starved classrooms of supplies and distributed books and pamphlets written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

For months, Islam evaded warnings and visits from Pinellas County school officials, all the while steering more than $100,000 from the school to her private business accounts.

Another example: From the Tampa Bay Times

Nearly 70 students withdraw from new charter school

Since the school year began, 69 children have withdrawn from University Prep. They are returning to Maximo Elementary, Woodlawn Elementary, Bay Point Middle and other under-performing traditional public schools.

A Pinellas County Schools administrator interviewed parents last month, when 23 children had left, to determine whether University Prep was telling families to leave. But parents said they were pulling their children voluntarily. They were concerned about bullying, missing textbooks and other issues.

...But the Tampa Bay Times found that the large exodus is far from typical among Pinellas charter schools, which operate with public money. In addition, the school, which held itself out as a cut above the rest, allowed key provisions of its charter to lapse as it rushed to open in only a few months.

And more problems with Dennis Bakke's Imagine Charter schools

Troubled St. Pete charter school faces closure

CLEARWATER — Only months after its elementary school was closed due to poor performance, Imagine Charter School in St. Petersburg’s middle school has learned it may face a similar fate.

During its Tuesday meeting, the Florida Board of Education denied the charter school a waiver that would have prevented it from being closed because of years of low school grades. The school earned its second F last school year and earned two D’s in the years prior. Representatives from the school submitted a presentation to the board arguing that the approximately 100 students enrolled at the school had bigger learning gains than those in neighboring public schools; but the numbers weren’t enough to convince board members, who unanimously denied the waiver request with little discussion.

The middle school has the lowest academic performance in the county, with only 25 percent of students considered proficient in reading and only 10 percent proficient in math, according to the state Department of Education.

Nevertheless, Imagine officials said they still provide quality education

Eleven charter schools closed in Broward County last year.

A local station says More regulation of charter schools wanted

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -Two weeks ago, College Bound Academy's 60 students found the newly opened charter school had closed, leaving them scrambling to find new schools.

When Thompson applied to start the charter school, he projected that he'd have 242 students, and received taxpayers' money.

...Another, Ivy Academy, closed this month after accepting nearly $500,000 in taxpayers' money, leaving behind a trail of bad debts and a criminal investigation. The owner of Ivy Academy hasn't returned Local 10's calls for comment.

..."We never get the money back, so it's a loss to the kids that they're not being educated, it's a loss and misuse of taxpayers' dollars," said Osgood. "They just get away with just strong-arm robbery in a sense with what they're doing in the charter schools."

A Florida Democrat is also calling for more oversight.

From the Tampa Bay Times

Changes sought for charter school law

"Charter schools should not be allowed to kick out students for failing the FCAT or whatever test they are being evaluated on," Jones said. "Traditional public schools can't do that. There is supposed to be an even playing field."

Charter schools receive taxpayer dollars, but have private governing boards. Like traditional public schools, they use the FCATs to measure student performance and receive school grades from the state Department of Education.

If Jones' proposal becomes law, a charter school that involuntarily transfers or dismisses a student would have to submit a report to the district school board.

The school would also be required to transfer a share of the student's state funding to his or her new school.

The former principal of McKeel Charter Schools in Lakeland, Florida actually sent letters home to parents when they sent their students back to the public schools. A school board member was furious and read the letter out loud. However the school board has no control over the charter school....so anger was all he had.

School Board member Frank O’Reilly wants district official to start tracking how many students are transferred from charter schools to public schools as a result of their grades, social economic status or behavioral issues. During a work session this morning, O’Reilly read a letter sent by Harold Maready, superintendent of McKeel charter schools, to a parent about their third grader who flunked the FCAT.

“Your child does not meet the criteria to be a McKeel student,” O’Reilly read.

If public schools were to reject students based on their academic performance, then they could be A schools, too, O’Reilly said.

“We must take every child that comes through that door whether we like it or not,” O’Reilly said. ‘‘That is a public school paid by taxpayers’ dollars, and I like to remind Mr. Maready of that.”

FL charter school gets praise and high ranking..yet sent 12.5% of students back to public schools

Reposted from Daily Kos

[djean111]

1. Oh, come on now - you know as well as I do that Rick Scott and his cronies know very well where

that money is going........I predict much worse, if Scott thinks there is a chance he won't be able to purchase his reelection. There will be a rush to empty the coffers and to pass "business-friendly" bills.

[madfloridian]

2. What's scary is that polls show him only slightly behind Crist.

Hope that changes with time. We can not afford more years with Scott.

[BlueToTheBone]

3. As a republicon state, they are overseeing the theft of tax dollars

very closely.

[madfloridian]

4. More about Ivy Academy. Grand theft?

http://www.local10.com/news/ivy-academy-closes-after-bounced-checks-unpaid-teachers/-/1717324/22796218/-/rla539z/-/index.html

Mitchell bounced a $20,000 check at the Signature Grand and the school was kicked out, according to a school board police affidavit.

"We were told Monday we were to report to Fourth Avenue. We didn't know where we were going to be," said Kyle-Jones.

Fourth Avenue was a church at 1237 NE 4th Avenue, which was also unapproved by the school board. Teachers were told they needed to take students on what Mitchell called "field experiences" every day, including a trip to the Miami Seaquarium.

"He wrote a check that we recently found out that it bounced," said Clark. "We started finding out that checks were bouncing all over town. He was just writing checks and no one was being paid."

[madfloridian]

5. No water. Teachers had to provide drinks to students.

"Eighty to ninety degrees weather, no water. You had teachers, myself, going out to purchase drinks for the kids," said Clark. "It just became unbearable."

[dem in texas]

6. Florida can't beat Texas for Charter School mismanagement

There is a 9 acre lot behind my house that has been for sale for well over a year. A charter school purchased this land which was zone residential. The charter school had pie in sky plans to build this huge 2 story building with 700 students and 200 employees. This was on a side street with no easy access, it would be a car nightmare every morning and every afternoon. Plus the lot was too small to support parking lots and play grounds. Needless to say the neighborhood was up in arms against this. The zoning department refused to rezone, so now the school is stuck with the vacant lot until they can sell it. And Texas taxpayers are footing the bill for a foolish decision made by the charter school.

This is when funding is being cut to public schools.

[madfloridian]

7. That's pretty bad, you are right.

I think our two states are pretty much neck and neck to be the worst not only in education but in health care through medicaid.

I think our two states make up about 2 million people losing access to Medicaid because they refused fed funding.

TX a million, FL over 700,000. Sad.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Wow. Not good, is it? Charter schools in general are a disaster.

Even the idea of charter schools is a bad one.

[madfloridian]

9. Trouble is...

the "reformers" have managed to get parents to think that it is an honor and privilege if their child is in one. They have for so long painted public schools as failing (since Reagan's Nation at Risk) that it is sort of accepted now.

It's like nothing we say can correct that impression.

The reformers have excellent propaganda machines, public schools don't.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. I agree. Particularly in right wing states, such as Florida

Republicans have been waging war on public education forever.