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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Con Artistry of Charter Schools
from In These Times:
The Con Artistry of Charter Schools
Once an effort to improve public education, the charter school movement has transformed into a money-making venture.
BY RUTH CONNIFF
Theres been a flood of local news stories in recent months about FBI raids on charter schools all over the country.
From Pittsburgh to Baton Rouge, from Hartford to Cincinnatti to Albuquerque, FBI agents have been busting into schools, carting off documents and making arrests leading to high-profile indictments.
The troubled Hartford charter school operator FUSE was dealt another blow Friday when FBI agents served it with subpoenas to a grand jury that is examining the group's operations. When two Courant reporters arrived at FUSE offices on Asylum Hill on Friday morning, minutes after the FBI's visit, they saw a woman feeding sheaves of documents into a shredder.The Hartford Courant, July 18, 2014
The FBI has raided an Albuquerque school just months after the state started peering into the schools finances. KRQE News 13 learned federal agents were there because of allegations that someone may have been taking money that was meant for the classroom at the Southwest Secondary Learning Center on Candelaria, near Morris in northwest Albuquerque KRQE News 13, August 1 2014
Wednesday evening's FBI raid on a charter school in East Baton Rouge is the latest item in a list of scandals involving the organization that holds the charter for the Kenilworth Science and Technology School. Pelican Educational Foundation runs the school and has ties to a family from Turkey. The school receives about $5,000,000 in local, state, and federal tax money. the FBI raided the school six days after the agency renewed the Baton Rouge schools charter through the year 2019.The Advocate, January 14, 2014
The state of Pennsylvania is bringing in the FBI to look into accusations that a Pittsburgh charter school [Urban Pathways Charter School] misspent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on luxuries such as fine-dining and retreats at exclusive resorts and spas.CBS News November 12, 2013
COLUMBUS, OHA federal grand jury has indicted four people, alleging that they offered and accepted bribes and kickbacks as part of a public corruption conspiracy in their roles as managers and a consultant for Arise! Academy, a charter school in Dayton, Ohio. FBI Press Release, June 2014
Whats going on here?
Charter schools are such a racket, across the nation they are attracting special attention from the FBI, which is working with the Department of Educations inspector general to look into allegations of charter-school fraud.
One target, covered in an August 12 story in The Atlantic, is the secretive Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who runs the largest charter-school chain in the United States.
The Atlantic felt compelled to note, repeatedly, that it would be xenophobic to single out the Gulen schools and their mysterious Muslim founder for lack of transparency and the misuse of public funds.
It isnt the Gulen movement that makes Gulen charters so secretive, writes The Atlantics Scott Beauchamp, its the charter movement itself. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/17109/the_con_artistry_of_charter_schools
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The Con Artistry of Charter Schools (Original Post)
marmar
Aug 2014
OP
I'm surprised with so many high profile people pushing them, that the FBI would get involved
BrotherIvan
Aug 2014
#2
bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)1. k and r. all of this was predicted. too sad people have to learn the hard way.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)2. I'm surprised with so many high profile people pushing them, that the FBI would get involved
It is an absolute WASTE of taxpayer monies and should be stopped now.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)3. Kicked and recommended!
DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)4. Just this morning, a charter school in Indianapolis was abruptly closed
after it was discovered there had been widespread cheating on standardized tests.
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2014/08/21/flanner-house-elementary-closes-amid-istep-cheating-allegations/14381599/