Carl J. Petersen: Petulant Charter School
Charter school proponents often argue that charters are held accountable to the groups that authorize them and that they must meet the requirements of their charter or face the consequences. As Carl Petersen shows in this post about one charter group, it doesn’t always work that way.
The staff at the Los Angeles Office of Education (LACOE) has been in a position before where they have recommended action against the North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) only to have the unelected representatives on the Board ignore their decisions. They, therefore, know that they have to be meticulous in their findings in making the current recommendation to revoke the school’s charter. The result is a wide-ranging indictment of incompetence and wrongdoing that will be considered at a meeting on Tuesday, August 8. The final vote to revoke is scheduled to be taken a week later.
Instead of admitting their errors and pleading for forgiveness, the school’s “Superintendent,” Mark Ryan is attacking the regulatory actions of both the LACOE staff and the Board as “illegal and immoral.” Ryan has manipulated the system for so long that he has forgotten that he agreed to be regulated by the agency when he asked them to overturn the LAUSD’s decision to reject NVMI’s charter renewal.