#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Okla. Supreme Court considers nation’s first religious charter school
The Oklahoma Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether the state can directly fund religious education, with some justices voicing skepticism that a proposed Catholic charter school could pass constitutional muster but others suggesting there may be little difference between such a school and other instances of tax dollars supporting religious entities.
‘Minimize cost, maximize profit’: testimony in Epic Charter Schools hearing outlines multi-level concealment scheme
Brock testified that during Epic’s early years, Harris told Chaney and him the leftover amounts in the Learning Fund could be used for retirement purposes. The state asked if Brock thought that was his, Harris’ or Chaney’s money to spend, and Brock answered it was not and agreed EYS was entrusted to be stewards of the money for the benefit of the students.
Tennessee’s Failed School Takeover Experiment May Finally Shut Down
The Achievement School District grew out of the very 2011 notion that the way to rescue schools was to put them in the hands of a superstar CEO, reflecting the philosophy that gifted and committed outsiders (a la Teach For America) could, if allowed unencumbered autonomy, achieve remarkable gains where the entrenched insiders could not. The notion of fixing schools by having them taken over by talented outsiders has enjoyed bipartisan popularity, but has rarely demonstrated any actual success.
Charter schools imperil neighborhood public schools | Opinion
Providence has a charter school problem. As the city prepares to regain leadership of the school system, public schools are being closed and charters stand ready to take their place. In this critical time of transition, adding more charters would harm, not help, our city’s students. Mayor Brett Smiley has spoken thoughtfully about the care being taken to set our schools up for success. If he wants our school system to succeed, the mayor should reject the opening of new charter schools.
Longtime Epic Charter Schools CFO agrees to 15 years’ probation in exchange for testimony
Mid-morning on the fifth day of the preliminary hearing, Brock was called as a witness and described how he and other acquaintances of Harris and Chaney were recruited into Epic’s operation — and then how many of them got access to money or business for themselves or their relatives.
Letter: A duty to NVUSD
River’s admissions policy was unlike that of any public school in Napa. My daughter had to fill out an application, write a letter, go through an interview and construct an art project. Parents had to agree to volunteer a certain number of hours per month — if they didn’t, their child could be ejected from the school.
Research from pro-charter school group makes case for halting the approval of new charters
The report, “Do Authorizer Evaluations Predict the Success of New Charter Schools?”, looks at the performance of North Carolina charter school authorizations between 2013 and 2019 to determine whether ratings and votes from the Charter School Advisory Board were predictive of charter school academic performance. But rather than making a convincing case for modifying North Carolina’s charter approval process, the data make a stronger case for reinstating the cap on new charter approval.
Letters: Charter schools ruining public education
Public schools should be well-funded, but those funds must be spent carefully so that they benefit students as much as possible, without an expectation of benefit to the opportunists that see children as a commodity and corporate profit as an entitlement. Free and appropriate education should be available to every child and democratically controlled. Subverting voters’ power in the name of “choice” or profit is a mistake that society cannot afford.
San Jose charter school closes as Bay Area districts face declining enrollment and million dollar budget deficits
More than 200 students at DCP Alum Rock High School, a small charter school in San Jose, will have to transfer when the campus closes this summer — a victim of declining enrollment and a hefty budget deficit it cannot overcome and keep the campus open.
Epic embezzlement case: ‘Learning fund’ examined in preliminary hearing
To that end, Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s assigned prosecutors spent Monday and Tuesday asking a series of witnesses how Harris and Chaney — simultaneously the owners of Epic Youth Services, a management company that received 10 percent of the Epic schools’ state funding — handled money, including millions of dollars deposited into the EYS “learning fund.”
Epic Charter Schools: A decade of investigation
Then-Governor Mary Fallin requested the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation look into allegations of fraud. However, the probe remained in the investigation stage for a decade.
Many Houston charter schools are violating state transparency laws. Here’s why it’s an issue
Many Houston-area charter schools are violating state transparency laws designed to make school governance and financial decisions open to the public, a pattern that has drawn minimal scrutiny from state officials. Nearly 85 percent of the 39 charter school networks based in Harris County did not have all their up-to-date transparency records posted online as required by state law, the Houston Landing found this month after reviewing their sites.
Evidence, testimony by CFO expected at weeklong preliminary hearing for Epic founders
“largest abuse of taxpayer funds in the history of this state”
The ‘dark money’ behind the lobbyists opposing a Colorado charter school accountability bill
Pro-charter school organizations don’t agree with this legislative effort to increase accountability as they believe this bill would “kill” charter schools. Republicans have been especially vocal in their opposition to this bill, even though the bill promotes increased local control over charter schools. The pro-charter organizations hired over 30 lobbyists to oppose the bill. Lobbying can be expensive, but the organizations opposing the bill have connections to several billionaire-funded foundations.
It’s definitely painful’: One of Colorado’s oldest charter schools is closing
GLOBE Charter School, one of Colorado’s oldest charter schools, will close its doors upon the conclusion of the 2023-24 schoolyear. The school’s board president Doug Hering sent out a letter to parents and guardians March 20 informing them that the board had voted to close the school. “The news has been, I don’t want to use the word ‘devastating,’ … but it’s definitely painful,” Hering said.