Decades of tricky stealing the money; including charter schools

[Sancho]

Jeb and his cronies set up illegal front companies that milked fees, invested in their friends insolvent companies, and lost millions of state retirement dollars. The hidden agenda includes using companies that create charter schools (Edson), educational "consulting" companies (Chartwell) founded by Rod Page (GW Bush's Secretary of Education), and Concorde Career Colleges (for profit higher education). They are probably laughing all the way to the bank today. Take retirement money from teachers and university employees; invest in companies that go bust (but the owners get their profits); charge excessive fees to manage the investments; and destroy public education as you go along. Devious plans indeed!

"State pays $180 million in fees, gets little from long-term investment"

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article1128708.ece

But the State Board of Administration has one pension investment that has been around for nearly 20 years. The deal was negotiated by Ashbel C. Williams Jr., the current SBA executive director, during his first stint with the agency in the early 1990s. - snip -

• The fund's returns are less than one-third of what the pension expected.

• Its managers have charged Florida far higher fees than projected.

• An outside consultant called its performance "unequivocally unacceptable. - snip -

Most Floridians had never heard of Liberty Partners until it made a controversial purchase in late 2003. The firm paid $182 million for Edison Schools Inc., a charter school company that had been in business for a decade but never posted a profit.

When it was discovered that Florida's pension was buying a private operator of public schools, the state's teachers' union was up in arms. The Democratic leader of the Florida House at the time, Doug Wiles of St. Augustine, questioned the acquisition.

"I have deep concerns about investing our state employees' retirement funds in a company that seeks to eliminate public jobs,'' he said.

[Catshrink]

1. Outrageous

But, it's SOP for BFEE. If you recall any of W's business dealings, they went the same way. It's tragic that children's education is a pawn in their greed.

[lonestarnot]

2. In Florida they fuck schools, in Arizona they build private prisons and fuck schools.

[Catshrink]

3. That sums it up nicely.

Even Arizona Libertarians are questioning the wisdom of the privatization of prisons. Remember the gubernatorial debate? I couldn't believe what I was hearing from the Libertarian candidate. (This was in reference to the escapees who cut through the fence and the guards who took a couple of hours to realize they were gone.)

[lonestarnot]

4. The poor make up the greatest number of victims by far.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. In Kansas, they don't believe in evolution and fuck schools