#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Bridges Academy closing, investigated by SBI
Bridges Academy in State Road is closing amid “financial irregularities that threaten the financial well-being of the school,” stated a press release issued by the charter school Friday.
Meanwhile, State Bureau of Investigation spokesman Angie Grube said Friday that the agency is investigating allegations that Bridges fraudulently obtained excess funding from the state.
Grube said the investigation began in March and that no additional information from the SBI is available at this time.
Audit confirms findings of FOX 13 investigation into public school with ties to polygamous sect
Vanguard Academy in West Valley City continues to receive millions of dollars in public funds, despite the fact that its students and teachers almost exclusively belong to the same polygamous religious organization known as the Kingston group, or Davis County Cooperative Society.
Public schools are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of race or religion, thanks to the separation of church and state established in the United States Constitution.
Commentary: Scandals show need to boost oversight of charter schools
Charter schools in Texas are granted autonomy from many state regulations so they can create innovative programs that promote student achievement — but a lack of public oversight has too often led to fraud, waste and abuse.
Texas needs to create a strong and proactive system of oversight: Instances of mismanagement of public funds within the state’s charter sector are well-documented.
Inside a bruising battle over a new charter school on Nashville’s west side
A proposed new charter school in affluent West Nashville has stirred up the echoes of the city’s most brutal public education battle in recent history and provided yet another test of a new state law that watered down local control.
Nashville is just under nine years removed from Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy’s failed bid to build a charter school that would have appealed to the families who enroll their children in private schools. The Great Hearts fight created a dividing line between left-leaning politicians protective of traditional public schools and education reformers, who are politically backed mostly by Republicans.
Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools cost taxpayers and businesses
As the superintendent of the Wattsburg Area School District, I often get asked why school property taxes go up every year. One of the primary reasons is growing cyber charter school costs. The state’s charter school law funds privately-operated cyber charter schools by involuntarily taking taxpayer money from school district budgets.
Monticello board chair resigns amid investigation
The board chair of an Ammon public charter school has resigned in the face of a state investigation into the school’s finances.
Ken Glodo on Saturday submitted his resignation as both board chair and a board member of Monticello Montessori Charter School’s governing board, effective immediately, according to an email obtained by Idaho EdNews through a public records request to the school.
CTU educators consider striking Epic charter in wake of retaliatory firings of union leaders
Educators had landed a tentative agreement on a first contract in late May. During the union’s ratification process, Epic’s Executive Director LeeAndra Khan terminated four workers — including three on the negotiating committee. Epic’s executive director most recently worked as CEO of Chicago’s Civitas schools, a charter operator with a history of anti-union, anti-educator policies that provoked the longest charter strike in US history in February 2019.
Former charter school executive director indicted for theft, records show
A former Memphis charter school executive has been indicted for theft.
Dr. Tamika Carwell-Richmond is charged with two counts of Theft over $2,500, two counts of Forgery over $2,500, and one count of forgery under $2,500.
Carwell-Richmond is the former Executive Director of the Legacy Leadership Academy charter school in Memphis, Tennessee.
Ulmer: Cyber charter schools are cause of $880K deficit
Rising costs for budget items that the school board has no control over were the main drivers of an $880,000 budget deficit that the Jersey Shore Area School District is facing in the next fiscal year.
“You are spending as a district $15 million in six years to something you have no control over,” said District Superintendent Brian Ulmer as he shared the cost of cyber charter schools over the past six years.
Texas charter network fires leaders after an investigation reveals misuse of school funds as state, authorities step in
Texas’ largest charter school network ousted two of its top leaders and is working with authorities after a forensic review revealed some administrators used school funds for personal use.
The development comes roughly one year after the IDEA Public Schools charter network awarded a $900,000 buyout to its departing chief executive officer and co-founder Tom Torkelson.
Statements show thousands of dollars worth of unexplained purchases at Ammon charter school
From January to December 2020, Monticello Montessori Charter School put nearly $65,000 on two school-owned credit cards, according to statements Idaho EdNews obtained through a public records request. Yet only a handful of those purchases include descriptions of what the school bought.
House leadership moving forward with multicounty grand jury recommendations from Epic Charter Schools investigation
Leadership in the Oklahoma House of Representatives is moving forward with legislation based on the extraordinary and urgent call to action by the multicounty grand jury probing the Epic Charter Schools saga.
House Bill 2966 is scheduled to be introduced on the floor and voted on by the House of Representatives on Monday.
The Failure of Corporate Charter Schools
The charter school movement was a grassroots, up-from-the-bottom school reform beginning in 1992. Milwaukee followed that model of chartering schools. But a decade later, a corporate model began to emerge with providers trying to become the Walmart or Target of the charter school industry. Today those plans look more like a bankrupt Sears, both in Milwaukee and across the nation.
Inside a charter school’s collapse: Records reveal decade of problems
Once lauded for providing an education to children in a historically underserved Somali immigrant community in Minneapolis, one of the oldest charter schools in Minnesota and the nation is now expected to shut down next month.
After plans to abruptly close Cedar Riverside Community School were announced last month, 5 INVESTIGATES reviewed hundreds of pages of reports and complaints revealing its collapse was nearly a decade in the making.
Seven Kansas City charter schools losing sponsorship after UCM ends program
The University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg has partnered with the charter schools for years and is now ending the program, leaving schools scrambling.
Missouri law actually requires that charter schools have a sponsorship. Now that UCM is dropping its program, the impacted schools will have to link up with another entity.