What’s Going On Inside All These Charters?

The DPCA  Board President takes money ($11,000) from the school and puts it in her own personal account… The executive secretary does the same. When audited.. she says… “Oh…ummmm…  I made a loan way back when and I’m just paying myself back”… “Well, can you show us proof of that loan?”  “No, you’ll just have to take my word on that… and btw, why are you investigating me… We’re charters.. You’re not allowed to look at our money”…

See documentation in Auditors Report.

Kuumba, the Charter School once praised up and down by now Governor Markell for its high marks on test scores, doubled paid a few select employees… or worse, cut the checks and put them into their own bank account. Bottom line, there are double checks of people padding the payroll. And again… OF COURSE it was the head of the school who was doing it…  What do you expect… IT’S A CHARTER,. FOR HEAVENS SAKES… and the  former secretary of education wasn’t going to do anything about it because he came from Rodel for heaven’s sakes.. he supports charters!

See documentation in Auditor’s Report.

So someone tell me (since we all now know this is going on)… why do we still have charters?  Why do we still have Rodel involved with formulation Department of Education policy.  Again, why do we still have charters?  Why do we still have this ridiculous idea that business can educate little kids better than a very good school system?  Again, why do we have charters?  Why is Kendall Massett still running the Delaware Charter Association?  Again, why do we have charters?  Why is the News Journal even printing Rodel script?  Again, why do we still have Charters…..

Lets rephrase that….

When was the last public school you heard of that double paid their top two guys and a custodian?  The only negative I ever here from public schools is that their poverty children are not yet proficient… When was the last public school officer you heard of who took money out of the school safe and just put in their account, telling no one until an audit brings it up?   The only negative I ever hear from public schools is that their poverty children are not yet proficient…..

Academia Antonia Alonso

Academy of Dover

Campus Community School

Charter School of Wilmington

Delaware Academy of Public Safety & Security: Charlie Copeland’s School

Delaware College Prep:

Delaware Design Lab High School:

Delaware Met:

Delaware Military Academy:

Delaware STEM Academy:

Early College High School:

East Side Charter School:

Family Foundations Academy:

First State Military Academy:

Freire Charter School of Wilmington:

Gateway Lab School:

Great Oaks Charter School:

Kuumba Academy:

Las Americas ASPIRAS:

Mapleton Charter School at Whitehall (may change to Discovery Charter School):

MOT Charter School:

Moyer (now closed):

Newark Charter School:

Odyssey Charter School:

Positive Outcomes

Prestige Academy:

Providence Creek Academy:

Reach Academy For Girls (now closed):

Sussex Academy:

Thomas Edison Charter School:

Red for financial mismanagement

Green for personal scandals

Purple for Certification Controversy 

Orange for legal non-compliance

Blue for Coming under Formal Review

Black for Bless Their Hearts.

Compared to this catastrophic portrayal, our public schools are only guilty of one thing: a made up scandal  by educational corporate scions of not bringing up poverty students further up to proficiency….

On the other hand, when seen altogether unhidden, Delaware’s Charters DO NOT present a very pretty picture… And there is a very good reason it is so ugly. That reason is called the Delaware Charter Schools Network.

Back when the 2015 Legislature was desperately trying to pass HB 186, which opens all schools including Charter Schools to accountability and oversight… it was killed primarily by lobbying done by the Delaware Charter Schools Networks Association… They are the ones who insisted that WE DID NOT WANT PUBLIC AUDITORS TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON INSIDE ALL THESE CHARTERS….

Now we know wny…. And because we do, one must ask… Why when one tries so hard to cover up all thievery and financial mismanagement, what is the only one reason why that person would want to be complicit in all these crimes…….

But the real reason for this post is to brag on a fellow blogger’s compilation of all the dirt each charter has been muddied, in just this past single year alone!   Without which, this demonstration could not have been accomplished…

So back to the big question:  why are we still allowing Charter Schools?  This abysmal record is 20 years after they were created. The elimination steps required are obvious.  A) This upcoming legislature should pass legislation to have existing Charters absorbed by the public school system in which they are located by the beginning of the 2019 school year… and…. B) starting with the next budget, the 2016-2017 school year will fund Charters only by line items in the state budget so that local property tax collected, goes only to that areas’ public school district….

Let’s Keep HB 50 Bottled Up In The Senate Education Committee, Senator Sokola

Ha, ha, ha, Deal. It won’t see the light of day.

Kowalko’s Symphony in A major

Before any of you buy into this Administration’s, Secretary Murphy’s and DOE’s false assertion that they are trying to improve the educational experience for the “high poverty”, “inner-city” schools by offering roughly $200,000 per year to six schools (not a penny of which will actually reach the children) ask yourselves and then ask this Administration why massive funding cuts that eliminated so many programs that were geared to allow for student achievements, improvements and survival were not restored.

It is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy to pretend to create a program helping students avoid the need for collegiate remedial courses when the money necessary to fund “Reading Resource Teachers” (Gov. Minner’s excellent initiative) and “Math Specialists” has been eliminated in public schools to the tune of $12.5 million.

To also promote advisory boards to examine needs of poverty ridden schools and inner-city schools while continuing to deliberately ignore the poverty epidemic in this State and refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of smaller class sizes, (not bigger and more bloated & higher paid leadership) is unconscionable propaganda that is insensitive to the reality of the plight of the children.

If the DOE wishes to establish a priority, please join me to establish the funding for more class sizes and the funding for it, should be the “high” priority.

The MOU should go into a shredder to save the Department of Education staff further embarrassment.

(abridged version)