I wrote about for-profit elementary and high schools in Ohio here. This is a follow-up.
First, Gail Collins:
This exciting new plan, which seemed to have been inserted into the state budget bill by a magical invisible hand, would also reduce oversight. It got a rave review in The Columbus Dispatch from an op-ed contributor named Thomas Needles, who cheered legislators for trying to end the “drip-drop of wrongheaded regulation” of charter schools. Needles is a consultant for White Hat Management, the largest company currently managing charter schools in Ohio. The owner of White Hat is a gynormous donor to the state Republican Party. Not that that would make any difference. Just saying.
Remember: this is about the children. Currently, many children are spending up to 8 hours a day in a non-profit environment.
This is a lost opportunity. It’s vitally important that children generate profits for someone, from birth, because that’s the way that the world goes ‘round.
Second, former Fox News personality Ohio Governor John Kasich is running away from the whole corruption/ for-profit school issue, so we can assume it’s politically damaging for conservatives.
Third, I don’t even know what to think about this latest development.
An exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation revealed a federal probe into Ohio charter schools involving a money trail of illegal immigration fees, as well as other payments to individuals living overseas.
Concept Schools operate 16 Horizon Science Science Academies across Ohio. The program was founded in Cleveland by Turkish educators in 1999 and now includes schools in Ohio and four other states.”Our schools are public charter schools. They’re not Turkish schools, they’re not Islamic schools. They provide a high quality education,” said Salim Ucan, Vice President of Concept School
Auditors found immigration fees and legal fees for school officials’ families and others living in Turkey. In some cases, auditors found payments were made to individuals who were never employed by any of the schools.Auditors found 19 Turkish immigrants were paid nearly $13,000 for what they called “illegal immigration fees.” A Horizon Science Academy school in Dayton signed a lease agreement that sends $600,000 over five years to the property’s owner living in Turkey.
Huge conundrum for conservatives. Their xenophobic immigration stance, coupled with their bigotry toward a certain religion, up against the mad rush to union-bust and turn public schools into religious entities and/or profit centers. I don’t know how that inner battle shakes out. No telling.
Finally, this is an excerpt from the original Ohio Constitution:
That no law shall be passed to prevent the poor in the several counties and townships, within this State, from an equal participation in the schools, academies, colleges and universities within this State, which are endowed, in whole or in part, from the revenue arising from donations made by the United States, for the support of schools, academies and universities, shall be open for the reception of scholars and students and teachers, of every grade, without any distinction or preference whatever, contrary to the intent for which said donations were made.
The general Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation, or otherwise, as with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State, but no religious or other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this State.
Public schools. What a radical idea.
The Moar You Know
I highly suggest that everyone go back and read her original posting. The money quote:
“Provides that once taxpayer money is given to a charter school operator, it is no longer considered public money and anything the operator buys with it becomes the operator’s property.”
The legislation is truly amazing; a direct transfer of assets from taxpayers to private individuals with no government oversight whatsoever. If you did this in the DoD, it would be called “fraud” and would net anyone involved some serious jail time.
Apparently in Ohio, it’s called “good educational practices” and serves as a springboard to higher office.
I would suggest that everyone involved in the drafting of this legislation may as well be sent to jail now. They’re obviously guilty of theft on a grand scale and are just trying to make it legal.
RobertB
The Dispatch is a fucking horrible paper, so shills on the op-ed page are no real surprise.
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
It’s DOA in the upper chamber. Too much press attention. I’m not going to forget they tried to slide it past, though, and no one else should either.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
To paraphrase Ben Franklin: “A
Republicpublic school system, if you can keep it”.Kay
@The Moar You Know:
I think it was the ProPublica piece that did it in. Kasich couldn’t run fast enough once that came out.
RobertB
I thought I read something to the effect that those provisions regarding private school oversight and assets were being stripped out. Even Kasich was speaking out against it, and, shockingly enough, nobody could find out who had inserted those particular provisions.
Edit: Kay beat me to it. But she’s absolutely right.
artem1s
@RobertB:
The
DispatchDogpatch is a fucking horrible paper,fixt that for ya
Freddie deBoer
Well said. It has to be constantly repeated: most types of education “reform” include within them provisions that eliminate accountability, so that after you enact them, there’s no way for the public to know that they don’t work. It’s pretty shameless and quite a neat trick.
bkny
i am still staggered by santorum’s recent comment re public education:
And campaigning in New Hampshire, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who’s homeschooled his seven kids, wasn’t subtle about his disdain for the American institution.
…Santorum took a swipe at public schools. “Just call them what they are. Public schools? That’s a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools,” he said.
Santorum added that the Head Start program is a Democratic conspiracy to bring “more children out of the household” in order to brainwash and “socialize” them.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_03/028466.php
kay
@RobertB:
Kasich didn’t “speak out” about it until it was in every newspaper in the state, and two national newspapers.
Napoleon
@Kay:
Do you have a link?
Bulworth
Are there no workhouses?
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
Duh, never mind.
kay
@bkny:
He’s wrong about this country. He’s lying. 35 states have explicit provisions for public education in their founding documents, including his own state.
arguingwithsignposts
@kay: He’s wrong about this country. He’s lying.
35 states have explicit provisions for public education in their founding documents, including his own state.You could have just stopped there.
kay
@arguingwithsignposts:
They’re such inane ninnies. “Government schools”. The second oldest public university in Ohio came about as a result of an explicit, specific federal grant. There’s a deed and everything.
Bulworth
So, in other words, Santorum perfectly represents the type of conservative who’s so anxious to go back to some era of “Constitutional” pureness he’s completely ignorant of what the country’s or states’ founding documents actually say.
Josie
About ten years ago, when my brother was fighting the good fight for public schools in Washington state, he told me that the whole agenda of the conservatives was to cripple and finally eliminate public schools. At the time, I accused him of being a conspiracy believer. Sadly, I now have to conclude that he was correct.
alwhite
Damn straight! Look, what don’t you get about this? If your parents happen to be poor or live in a poor district it simply must be all their fault or Gawd’s judgement. You just don’t deserve a good education. Thus it is written, thus is it done.
Maude
@kay:
Christie, NJ, was at yet another town hall meeting yapping about the teachers and the unions. I think someone taps a button on the back of his head and he just repeats everything he has said forever. His negative numbers are up by 9%.
CatHairEverywhere
I gasped when I read the middle paragraphs, because my friend briefly worked for a charter school in northern California, after being laid off from her public school job. The principal is Turkish, and the majority of the teachers are Turkish. She quit at the semester because the labor violations were unbearable. No oversight, of course.I thought it was so odd that the teachers were all Turkish immigrants, (why Turkey?) and I am surprised to see that it seems to be a much larger operation. I am not anti-Muslim in any way, I just wonder why there is such a push for Turkish-run charter schools? My friend said there are tons of charter school jobs available there, including one for John Adams something school that appears to be run by Mormons, with an emphasis on Glenn Beck’s teachings. I am appalled that my tax money is going to support this.
alwhite
@bkny:
And you just know that frothy little man thinks “socializing” children is something evil that only soshalists do. He needs remedial vocabulary work.
kay
@Maude:
It’s funny, because Kasich has backed off teachers. Most of the teachers here vote GOP. It’s a conservative district.
He announced teacher appreciation day, immediately after stripping them of collective bargaining rights.
I think this whole “governing” thing bores the hell out of him, and he’d like to go back to FOX.
kay
@CatHairEverywhere:
My, my. The Glenn Beck Elementary School. You can’t believe it, right? But it’s true!
Stillwater
As per usual with the Greedy Obfuscators Party.
Cacti
@The Moar You Know:
At least they’re dropping the pretense about it being “for the children”.
El Cid
Of course you could always do everything you could to make public schools worse and worse for the majority, outside high property value areas (except any place which doesn’t fund them that way).
And then hope that if you can manage to make them hated enough, the privatized / vouchered / chartered way seems just fine as a better alternative.
Oh wait…
David Brooks (not that one) is a dickhead.
Just remember, people, this is the party of Original Intent. So, once they remember what is in their own constitution they will back right off.
thalarctos
1851? 1803? Johhnies-come-lately!
Constitution of the Vermont Republic, 1777.
Massachusetts School Law of 1647.
ET
I wonder if future historians writing about the decline of American will point to the idea (and practice) of monetizing pretty much everything.
kay
@thalarctos:
Thanks so much. “Forthwith”. We should bring that word back.
Chrisd
@artem1s:
Back in my OSU days, it was always the Disbelch.
ET
@RobertB: op-eds in every paper suck. I have long thought that getting rid of op-ed pages is an idea whose time has come. They have to be a pure cost to to paper with no profit involved (I won’t say benefit because benefit is free and we all know papers are all about profit nowadays).
Mnemosyne
@bkny:
Just thought I would remind everyone of that. Santorum didn’t just homeschool his kids, he demanded money from the state of Pennsylvania to do it.
Cacti
@thalarctos:
North Carolina Constitution of 1776
Georgia Constitution of 1777
NonyNony
@kay:
Works with my theory that he intends to be a one-term governor, do as much damage as he possibly can in that term (he’d call it “advance the conservative agenda” rather than “damage”, but that just comes down to word choice these days) and then hoof it back to New York or DC.
The man clearly hates the state of Ohio – his voice just drips with contempt whenever he gets off his prepared remarks or gets taken by surprise. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hates governing too.
At least Bob Taft honestly seemed to like the state. Kasich just hates us all. But I’d bet that makes it easier for him to “advance the conservative agenda” here – if you don’t have to care much about the consequences of your policies you can do whatever the fuck you want.
NonyNony
@Chrisd:
Huh. It’s always been “The Columbus Disgrace” since I’ve lived in Columbus.
That or “Lying Sacks of Shit”. But only a few of my friends call it that.
dj spellchecka
but governor foxman k still luvs those charter schools…he’s hosting a public event with cheater michell rhee than includes a showing/discussion of “waiting for superman” soon [possibly this evening]
kay
@NonyNony:
I have a friend here who is a liberal but is married to a conservative. Her husband is on the board of a local company. He was invited to a “roundtable” with Kasich, and Kasich wouldn’t shut up. My friend’s husband walked out, because no one else got a chance to talk. That was not his understanding of “a roundtable” :)
I think that so perfectly aligns with how I see him. Blah, blah, me, mine, I.
Jewish Steel
Is our children earning?
Zam
Well fuck my state
El Cid
Since the above open thread is about animal rescue, and the prior one not too different, this is very important. [NYT via DKos.]
They better not do anything about it, because it may be seen as unfriendly to the coal mining industry, and this would mean they hate jobs.
Cacti
@kay:
Hell, the first public school in his home state was founded in 1700 by none other than William Penn himself.
Betsy Ross was an alumn.
kay
@El Cid:
I’d put it up El Cid, but I have to go to work now, where I risk, ya know, a paper cut.
I’m so glad there was an investigation.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Shocked, I am – Wait, no I’m not.
Nemesis
If gaining employment as a legislator were anything like job interviews in the private sector, how could gop’ers get a job?
Employer: “What do you bring to our company?”
gop’er: “A deep seeded hate for your company.”
Employer: “I see. Can you tell me where you see yourself in say five years?”
gop’er: “I see myself working hard every single day to demolish this company, its effectiveness and its reputation. This company represents everything I hate about America.”
Chrisd
@NonyNony: Yes, come to think of it, I have heard it as the Disgrace, too. That, and the Wolfe Family Newsletter.
Mnemosyne
@El Cid:
That’s probably why Blankenship got the hell out — he’s hoping to avoid criminal charges.
NonyNony
@Chrisd:
Oh yeah – that one too. That’s a Golden Oldie there.
I actually haven’t heard that one recently. The folks who generally called it that are the ones who have in the last decade or so taken to calling it “Lying Sacks of Shit” when they talk about it…
El Cid
@kay: Maybe you could mention or forward it to the other FP’s: I mean, JC lives in WV.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
The next round.
James E. Powell
@Josie:
I’ve been making this argument to anyone who will listen for five years. Everyone thinks I’m crazy. I don’t understand how they can fail to see what is going on.
Chrisd
@NonyNony:
That new epithet–I like it. Very urban.
I really need to check out this new Columbus.
Ken
@bkny: Well, since Santorum (the politician, not the other stuff)appears to know more about torture and its effects more than McCain, I’m not surprised that he is an education expert. Also.
Ken
@alwhite: Well, Ron Paul thinks that people who get hammered by floods, tornadoes, etc are stupid; so they are consistent.
RobertB
@Kay – I’m just shocked that the Republicans at the Statehouse found a line they wouldn’t cross.
SFAW
Yeah, me too. (Well, they don’t think I’m crazy, just an asshole. Whoda thunk?)
The Rethugs know that “low-information” (a/k/a stupid) voters are their best friends at the ballot box, so destroying public ed keeps the supply chain of morons uninterrupted.
h/t Cyril M. Something-or-other
kay
@El Cid:
I am back, because I’m an idiot. My hearing is at 2 and not one. Luckily, it’s across the street.
So I’ll put it up.
JCT
@Mnemosyne: This is one of my favorite Santorum moves. He is truly a dishonest asshole.
The slapdown from the McCain aides over his truly inane and insulting torture comments was epic.
He is as dumb as a box of hair.
Suffern ACE
@kay: Well, that’s better than showing up at 2 for a hearing that is at 1.
artem1s
@NonyNony:
The Dogpatch was always a vile POS. But it got noticeably worse when the Citizens Journal went under in the 70s. After that they didn’t even have to pretend to do journalism. It’s pretty much been the OSU sports page with a couple of op eds ever since.
TenguPhule
-Glances to the side
Halleuah!
Sully is finally where he belongs, in Mockery Hall of Shame!
artem1s
@James E. Powell:
It seems to me that the anti-education thing grew out of the Vietnam war student protests. keeping kids dumb kept them out of college and narrowed their life options to McDonald’s or the Military. As an added bonus they wouldn’t be getting shot during protests on campus which were caused by egghead professors with tenure, dontchaknow.
St. Ronnie was big on restructuring the student loan programs so that kids wouldn’t waste the loan money on anything other than tuition. My last year of graduate school was also the last year the bank would send your loan check directly to the student. I srsly don’t know how I would have gotten through school if I hadn’t had any seed money to buy books, supplies, put down payments on rent, utilities, etc.
The whole systems has been forever fucked over because by the GOP. vouchers and White Hat are their wet dream version of indoctrination programs geared to keep brown and poor people in poorly funded rural and urban centers. If they really cared about choice they would have made it easier for the poor to move into rich, white suburbs. But then white flight would have been pointless. Ultimately they want separate and unequal.
CatHairEverywhere
@kay: and it’s paid for with my taxpayer money. I sent this post to my friend who taught at the Turkish charter school, and she said it was under the Magnolia Foundation, which was then under this Gullen group. Researching that brings up some pretty interesting stuff. I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to these unregulated schools.