Friday, August 16, 2013

Private Schools Dirty Little Secret


 

By Jeff Simpson

There is an epidemic going on and it is going under reported.  The epidemic I am speaking of is cheating in Voucher/private schools.   We have documented numerous times how the private school cadre is in it for one thing - profit.  Heck, even the "education reform" crowd has let it slip that they see "gold" in the classrooms.   When the ranks of the privatize school crowd is run by convicted felon Scott Jensen, and lobbied by people like John Gard - profits come first and ethics never enter the equation. 



When an industry is strictly about profits, you should expect problems and there are.  All over the country!

The first comes to us from Florida via Indiana:


Florida's education commissioner resigned today amid allegations that he changed the grade of a charter school run by a major Republican donor during his previous job as Indiana's school chief.

Tony Bennett announced his immediate resignation at a news conference, saying that he while he did nothing wrong he didn't want to be a distraction to Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to overhaul Florida's education system. Emails published by The Associated Press this week show that Bennett and his Indiana staff scrambled last fall to ensure Christel DeHaan's school received an A, despite poor 10th-grade algebra scores that initially earned it a C.
 In case you missed it:

 Emails published by The Associated Press this week show that Bennett and his Indiana staff scrambled last fall to ensure Christel DeHaan's school received an A, despite poor 10th-grade algebra scores that initially earned it a C.

Bennett, recently beaten as Indiana's head of education,  says that the charges against him are "malicious and unfounded".   Now we can look at his email and marching orders to his staff:

After Bennett learned about a likely low grade for Christel House, he fired off a Sept. 12 email to his chief of staff.
"This will be a HUGE problem for us," Bennett wrote. "They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work."









                           
While he has been disgraced in two red states now in his quest to "reform" education has two supporters left - "Waiting for Superman" right wing movie star - Michelle Rhee.  


Florida Governor and Medicare Fraud recipient Rock Scott, doing his best George Bush impression, said that Bennet is doing "A great job"!


After a couple days of radio silence about the scandal involving Florida's education commissioner, Gov. Rick Scott finally has something to say. He told Channel 5 in West Palm Beach that Tony Bennett is "doing a great job."
Scott praised Bennett for being "very focused on accountability" and reiterated how well Florida's students are doing. Scott didn't say whether Bennett's job is secure, however. See the interview here. Scott has been through several education commissioners during his tenure as governor.

Yes this is the future of public education money in the hands of the anti education republican party!  We have seen it enacted all over the country and we are seeing it right in front of our own eyes in WI.

We can stop it in Wisconsin, in the next election.     WE MUST STOP THIS IN 2014!  

if we allow republicans to maintain total control of our state after the next election, be prepared for more stories like this one.....lots more stories like it actually!  

A Milwaukee County judge has ordered the operator of a defunct private voucher school to repay about $300,000 in taxpayer money, after the state sued him for falsifying documents and forging his college diploma to get into the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, court records show.

But Wisconsin may not be seeing that money anytime soon from Corey C. Reed Daniels, who operated the disastrous Milwaukee Institute of Academic Achievement in 2011-'12 before reports of student endangerment prompted the Department of Public Instruction to terminate it from the choice program.

 His institute, which enrolled between 100 and 180 students in kindergarten through eighth grade at 4920 N. Sherman Blvd., is not the first private voucher school to get shut down by the state. But it remains one of the most recent examples of how quickly an operator — given the right circumstances — could start a private school, enroll students and receive hundreds of thousands of public dollars before being cut off after allegations of impropriety.

 

6 comments:

  1. Any chance this will get the same amount of publicity as the cheating scandal in Atlanta public schools?

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  2. Amen to your comment "WE MUST STOP THIS IN 2014! ".

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  3. Down with choice!!

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  4. What choice would that be? the choice we are making now to take public school money and put it in Scott Jensen's pocket?

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    1. The news that should also be calling us Liberals to action is the reports of voucher schools are not enrolling new students, just accepting tax dollars for current students. What a windfall for wealthy and upper middle class parents who can send their kids to private schools away from "those kids" and now they don't even have to pay for it. Talk about welfare!

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