#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Texas Took Over Its Largest School District, but Has Let Underperforming Charter Networks Expand
The state took over Houston ISD after one of its schools continuously failed to meet academic standards. But an analysis of records shows it’s been more generous with underperforming charter schools, waiving expansion requirements at least 17 times.
Thrival Indy Academy Innovation school to close after 2023-24 amid low enrollment
Thrival Indy Academy, designed to offer study abroad opportunities to students as an Indianapolis Public Schools Innovation Network high school, will close at the end of the 2023-24 school year after failing to meet enrollment targets.
Parents angry after being told Las Vegas charter school is closed for 4 days due to internal disrupt
Las Vegas Metropolitan police showed up at a Las Vegas valley charter school Thursday morning when parents became upset after being called back to the school to pick up their children because the classrooms would be closed for nearly a week.
Indianapolis charter school closing permanently on Friday
Just weeks into the school year, Vanguard Collegiate has announced it is closing.
Madera charter school audit reveals misuse of $1million in funds
An audit report has revealed potential misuse of $1.06 million in public funds at Ezequiel Tafoya Alvarado Academy, a charter school in Madera, California.The report alleges various instances of misappropriation, including $38,000 spent to finance thehigher education expenses and the purchase of two Ford F-150 Raptors for the sons of ex-executive director Nicolas Retana, costing $80,000.
John Zitzner, co-founder of Cleveland’s Breakthrough Charter Schools, arrested as part of statewide human trafficking operation
Court records show that Zitzner was arrested on Sept. 28 in Westlake and charged with engaging in prostitution. He had his initial court appearance on Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 10.
16 years later, no trial date set for California Charter Academy case
In 2007, Tad Honeycutt and Charles Steven Cox were charged with misappropriating $5.5 million in charter school funds
Charter school’s closure after Indiana count day could leave others without proper funding
The closure of the Vanguard Collegiate charter school four days after the statewide “count day” used to determine each school’s funding could leave students’ new schools without accurate state funding.
Failing grades
But in Indiana and elsewhere, some of the schools run by Virginia-based Imagine Schools and the Michigan-based Leona Group are not performing as well as the public schools to which they were intended to offer an alternative.
Judge shutters troubled Charleston charter school
Chief Administrative Law Judge Ralph King Anderson II on Sept. 26 ordered the school to “immediately cease and desist all operations as a public charter school …. CAA, its board and administration are prohibited from spending any further public money, whether state or federal, directly or indirectly except as required to comply with this order.”
Why a proposed charter school failed to make the grade in Springfield
School Committee member Christopher Collins questioned the dropout rate numbers in Guy’s presentation. About one third or more of the 1,295 students cited are the same person, he said, because the system counts a student each time they re-enroll. That makes the pool of students the charter would draw from smaller, running the risk of appealing to students enrolled in alternative district programs, Collins said.
Michigan Charter Schools Face Scrutiny After Taking Billions in Public Funds
“Fundamentally, as a government, we should not be giving money to for-profit entities not even knowing how they’re spending it. But we do it with the (charter) schools,” said state Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-Beverly Hills). “We don’t ask them what they’re doing with the money.”
Auditor: Board should improve charter school financial oversight
The board that oversees charter schools in Arizona isn’t doing enough to ensure schools’ financial viability, according to the state auditor general. In a report released Tuesday, the Arizona Auditor General found that the methods used by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools to evaluate school finances are not always adequate to pinpoint financial struggles that could cause schools to close midyear, leaving students and families scrambling.
Fraud at local charter school: Wrapping it up
A full accounting of the alleged fraud by Nicholas Retana, former Executive Director of the ETAA Charter School, in the amount of $1,062,590.49, is impossible to report in a single issue of the Tribune.
Cary charter school illegally retaliated against math teacher, federal ALJ rules
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has ruled that Cardinal Charter Academy in Cary engaged in illegal, retaliatory actions when it fired a math teacher who made “protected disclosures,” claiming the school did not provide students with the special education services their Individual Education Plans required.