#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Is it time to end the all-charter school experiment in New Orleans?
Experiments in education are written into Louisiana state law to allow for charter schools, and innovative ways to improve education. But a 2021 Legislative audit and 2016 Stanford study show charters in New Orleans have failed to prove those experiments work.
Cyber charter school funding must change
An inequitable and blatantly unfair funding formula for cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania has inflated the amount of money they receive — at the expense of other public schools.
Charter school proposal roils South Coast
An increasingly acrimonious debate over a proposed grade 6-12 charter school serving students in New Bedford and Fall River. In recent days, opponents have taken the fight to the streets, picketing a local bank whose president was slated to serve on the charter school board of directors and showing up unannounced at the law office of an attorney who had submitted a letter to the state education department in support of the charter application.
SoHo nonprofit The Door settles for $12.9M over fraudulent cost reports
Prosecutors said The Door “knowingly overstated” its number of medical visits and received millions in excess state and federal funding.
Burnsville charter school director takes leave of absence following fraud allegations in Feeding Our Future investigation.
FBI search warrants accuse Abdiaziz Farah, the founder of Gateway STEM Academy, of using child nutrition funds to purchase a Porsche and a $575,000 house. Gateway STEM Academy has not been accused of wrongdoing.
State auditor to lawmakers: Epic Charter Schools mismanagement is largest abuse of taxpayer funds ‘in the history of this state’
Oklahoma’s state auditor and inspector on Tuesday said mismanagement by co-founders of Epic Charter Schools is “the largest amount of reported abuse of taxpayer funds in the history of this state”.
Some Newark charter schools fail to fully comply with transparency rules
Posting charter school board information isn’t just a courtesy to the public — it’s the law. New Jersey charter schools, which are independently operated public schools, are subject to the same transparency requirements as traditional public schools. The requirements include posting board meeting minutes online and releasing agendas at least 48 hours before public meetings.
New revelations point to additional violations at troubled charter schools
Shawntrice Andrews, the daughter of charter operators Don and Cynthia McQueen, was director of exceptional children (EC) programs at both Three Rivers in Bertie County and Torchlight Academy in Raleigh last June when monitors found changed dates and grades in the state’s electronic data management system.
Pennsylvania is the nation’s ‘cyber charter capital,’ with funding and oversight consequences, report says
Enrollment in cyber charter schools grew faster in Pennsylvania last year than in any other state — and how they’re funded results in big costs for local school districts, according to a new report.
Enterprise, Westminster charter schools have two years to improve
Buffalo Public Schools and two charter schools the district wanted to close last year have reached an agreement that will keep them open at least until 2024.
Durango School District 9-R board rejects charter school’s request for early state review
Ascent Classical Academies, the charter school business seeking to open a school in the Durango area, wanted to bypass the school district’s local chartering authority to pursue a more expeditious approval process through the state. A state statutory period allows charter schools to apply between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1.
Another New Orleans charter school will close; declining enrollment cited at IDEA Oscar Dunn
IDEA Oscar Dunn charter school, which opened in New Orleans less than three years ago, will close at the end of the 2021-2022 school year in May amid declining student enrollment.
The Charter School Experiment: A case for action
After spending six billion dollars of the taxpayer’s money to become the only all-Charter system in the state, a staggering 73 percent of our children are not functioning at grade level compared to 67 percent in 2005, “This 15-year flawed experiment has yielded no best practices to improve student and school performance, no state protocol for Charter Law compliance, and no student performance improvement. It has, however, yielded other devastating consequences for our children and community,” the legislator says.
Former Three Rivers principal describes chaos at charter school, which state plans to close
Don McQueen, operator of Three Rivers Academy, allegedly padded enrollment numbers, paid families so students would attend class, and took other extreme measures to ensure state per-pupil funds kept flowing to the troubled charter school in Bertie County.
The charter school and voucher wars continue: A tale of two cities, or maybe three
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” Charles Dickens famously wrote. But if a latter-day Dickens were writing today, the tale might be about foolishness and not wisdom in the misuse of public funds. And the setting would not be two, but three cities, state capitals whose names, interestingly enough, all begin with the letter C.