House budget begrudges construction dollars for public schools, doubles charter money

Florida’s preliminary House and Senate budgets are out. As expected, there are discrepancies in both. These are “bargaining chips” politicians use down the line when both documents must match. Once again, charter proponents such as Rep. Erik Fresen, are trying to swipe funds meant to maintain and build publicly owned schools and hand them over to private for-profit charter operators.

Here’s the breakdown. The House budgeted $90 million for 650 charter schools, that’s $139,461 per school. Compare that to $50 million for 4,279 public schools, that’s $11,684 per school. The Senate budget allocates zero to charters and $50 million to public schools, setting up an ideal horse trading scenario.

There’s so much wrong with this picture. Rep. Erik Fresen and his colleagues have been pushing to allocate charters unfair portions of capital funds for years. Since 2011, charters have received $326 million in building and maintenance funds while public schools received $109 million.

Much has been made about Fresen’s family ties to the corporate charter school colossus Academica. Not much has been made about the fact that Fresen works for the architectural firm Civica, whose portfolio confirms a large niche market designing charter schools.

Let’s be real. Charters are public schools in name only; everything else about them is private and profit-driven. Taxpayers will never recover funds spent to buy, build and improve charter facilities. Florida politicians support unlimited charter growth to the detriment of district schools. The House budget numbers tell the tale.

In order to justify giving charter schools disproportionately more money than district schools politicians like Fresen must use demeaning terms to insinuate doubt. As a recent Tampa Bay Times article illustrates:

Setting the tone for an adversarial debate this session, Florida House Republican leaders want to rein in what they call a “disturbing pattern” of school districts “glaringly and grossly” exceeding a state-imposed limit for spending on school construction projects.

Citing annual data that districts report to the state, House education budget Chairman Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, said public schools have spent more than $1.2 billion over the last nine years in excess of a legal cap that dictates how much in state money schools can spend “per student station,” or the space required for each individual student.

In the same article Fresen continued to overstate his case:

Referencing funding requests from public school representatives, Fresen urged House members last week to analyze how capital dollars are being spent and to not take school officials’ pleas for more money “hook, line and sinker.” He indicated — citing his findings — that schools should make better spending choices, rather than asking for more money.

There’s a reason politicians have spent nearly two decades shaming public education. It seems that they think if they create enough chaos they can justify anything – even enriching the family business.

Kansas City teacher – where’s the “merit pay” for love?

The ruthless politics of “education reform” takes no prisoners. Lawmakers and lobbyists have joined hands with vendors and ROI philanthropists to dismantle public schools and discredit teaching.  Their millions of victims range from hopeful kindergartners to wise veterans who still feel the spiritual calling to teach.

Teachers think nothing of spending their own money to help feed students or devote extra hours to inspire struggling kids to try reading one more time. Education “reform” stupidly squanders the importance of this rich human interaction, in favor of tying teacher pay to standardized test scores. In doing so, they’ve missed the whole mission of teaching.

In this poignant post, Kansas City teacher Sarah Starforth reminds us that the most precious commodity teachers bring to the classroom is love.

Merit pay?

Today in my 2nd grade class I had 1 student crying because her father is in jail and she is confused and scared, 2 students ask for food for their families for the weekend, 1 student sent to the office for a belt because their multi-generational hand-me down pants are too big, 1 student say they are moving because their landlord is raising the rent without warning, and this doesn’t count the students that are put into my class because I am a former special education teacher that doesn’t care if they are multiple grade levels behind.

Where’s my merit pay for the food I buy to keep in my class for hungry students? Where’s my merit pay for the clothes and chap stick I buy? Where’s my merit pay for getting a student to read that hasn’t read until the age of 8? Where’s my merit pay for the blood, snot and tears I wipe on a daily basis?

I am a teacher. I chose to be a teacher. I LOVE being a teacher. But don’t base my salary on how a 7 or 8 year old does one day on one biased test. No salary will ever be able to take the place of the love and care teachers provide for their students.

 

HJR 759: The Diaz scheme to strip school boards of their power to authorize charters

Florida Rep. Manny Diaz intends to strip charter school authorizing power from elected school boards. His bill, House Joint Resolution 759, passed its first committee stop advancing toward a spot on the 2016 ballot. As a constitutional amendment, the measure requires 60% of the vote to pass.

HJR 759 is model legislation produced by the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, whose board members include Jeb Bush, Jr. and Fernando Zulueta, president of charter giant Academica and employer of Rep Diaz.   The bill creates an appointed state authorizing entity for the express purpose of allowing charter applicants to bypass the constitutional authority of duly elected school boards. The “choice” seems clear. What charter is going to apply to a school board who must act for the greater good of the community when they can go the appointed state charter authorizer for an easy approval?

As Rep. Joseph Geller said in the Tampa Bay Times about the proposed state authorizing entity, “It’s really kind of forum shopping. You get to pick who it is that’s your judge,” Rep. Joseph Geller, D-Aventura, said. “I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

Diaz is pushing HJR 759 in part because the Palm Beach County School board sued the state for reversing the district’s decision to deny a charter. Now, Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Associated Industries and others, have filed a legal objection to the Palm Beach suit.

It should be noted that Florida’s First District Court of Appeals found this very concept unconstitutional in 2008. Under current laws, school boards, who are locally elected stewards of public money, have been denied the authority by the state to closely monitor the financial and academic performance of charters. Because charters are often run by private for-profit corporations, transparency is not required and profit is not disclosed. Numerous examples point to failing charters who often close abruptly, abandoning children and robbing the public of millions in critical education funds.

It seems politics and personal gain is driving Diaz and charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza to push for a centralized state charter school authorizer. As a recent Tampa Bay Times article explains:

Diaz said his proposal is one recommended by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. It also has strong support from the charter school industry, which gave lawmakers at least $182,500 ahead of the 2016 session to advance its interests, based on a Herald/Times analysis.

Diaz and former Miami Republican Rep. Ralph Arza — now a lobbyist for the Florida Charter School Alliance — both said state authority over charter school approvals is necessary to remedy rebellious school boards that are either delaying or rejecting charter school applications that should otherwise be approved.

Arza pointed to Palm Beach County as an example, while citing Miami-Dade, Broward and Hillsborough counties as examples of counties that “work in a spirit of collaboration” with charter schools.

“We need this because there has to be some other way to give parents more choice,” Arza said.

“The school board, in statute, does not have the power to decide that they just don’t want more charter schools in their district,” Diaz said. “Their role is simply to say this application meets the standard or it does not.”

He continued: “The problem is we’ve had one school district after another in this state take it upon themselves to interpret statute and whether they want more choice — not based on the application, but based on politics and personal feelings of what’s happening in that district at the time.”

It’s ironic that legislators, who use their authority to push education policies benefiting vendors and wealthy charter school operators, object when school boards exercise their own constitutional authority to act in the best financial and academic interests of constituents in their district.

With HJR 759/State Charter Authorizer, Diaz is trumpeting the “reform” goal of unmitigated charter school growth with a hostile message to school boards who get in the way. The agenda is clear. HJR 759 is another “education reform” tool to justify the transfer of public assets into private hands.

Welcome to the big government, sore loser politics of a charter school industry determined to get its way.

Julie Delegal exposes the charter war on school board authority

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHARTER LOBBY VS. SCHOOL BOARDS

As failing charters drain millions of dollars from districts, a well-funded lobby led by disgraced former representative Ralph Arza of the Florida Charter School Alliance has declared war on school-board authority, calling the denial of charters “unethical.” Arza is focusing his displeasure on Duval and Palm Beach County where the school board is mounting a legal challenge against a charter school operator who is appealing a denied application. Lobbyists like Arza, represent wealthy for profit charter chains such as Charter Schools USA . They are determined to strip the power to approve or deny charters from duly elected school boards and shift it to the state in order to silence our locally elected voices.

Education advocate and journalist Julie Delegal, exposed the pressure placed on school boards by the powerful charter lobby in Play Ball? :

 

Folio Weekly has learned that three of Duval County’s seven sitting board members have been targeted for public records requests by Robert H. Fernandez, a litigation attorney who once served as Deputy General Counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Fernandez, a partner in the Coral Gables-based Zumpano Castro Law Firm, has issued two separate public records requests to Duval County School Board members Becki Couch, Dr. Connie Hall, and Paula Wright.

Who is Robert H. Fernandez?
As Deputy General Counsel in the then-Governor’s office, Fernandez served as a top lieutenant in Bush-brand education reform, particularly on school privatization efforts. Fernandez and one other attorney represented Jeb Bush in Florida’s landmark school voucher case,Bush v. Holmes. The Holmes case ended Bush’s plan for tax dollars to be used for private school vouchers. (Now, pre-treasury, “tax-credit” dollars are used for private school vouchers through the 501c3 organization, Step Up For Students.)

According to his firm’s website, Fernandez “… is considered one of the leading lawyers in South Florida on representation of elected officials and candidates on election and ethics law issues.”

Fernandez also once served as a reference for the cousin of charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza.

Hugo Arza listed Fernandez and one other Bush-affiliated attorney when he applied to serve on the Florida Schools of Excellence Commission in 2007. The commission, which was designed to take charter school decisions out of the hands of local school districts, became defunct in 2008, when the First District Court of Appeals found it unconstitutional. Folio Weekly left a message for Fernandez on his office voicemail, but the call was not returned in time for our publication deadline.

Who is Ralph Arza?

Ralph Arza, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, turned himself into the police for witness tampering charges in 2006. He admitted to leaving an obscenity-laced voicemail message for fellow lawmaker Gus Barreiro, and to using a racial slur in that recording. Barreiro had previously filed a complaint against Arza for calling a sitting schools superintendent a racial slur. Arza pled guilty in the criminal matter, served probation and community service, enrolled in anger management classes, and apologized publicly for his actions. He also withdrew his name from consideration for re-election to the House. 

Prior to the scandal, Arza was regarded as an important point-person in the Florida House for implementing Bush’s education reform initiatives. Arza, quoted often in the media as a longtime friend and adviser to presidential candidate Marco Rubio, now lobbies for the Florida Charter School Alliance. FSCA is one of several school-privatization advocacy organizations that are organized under the umbrella “Florida Alliance for Choice in Education,” or FACE.

A vocal champion of school privatization, Arza told CBS affiliate WPEC-TV Channel 12 in South Florida, “The parents decide where the money goes, not the school district.”

Charter schools have become more controversial in Palm Beach County recently, where, on Nov. 9, the school board voted 6-0 against opening a new CharterSchoolsUSA operation, citing a lack of innovative programming, which state statutes require. Charter schools are privately run, publicly funded organizations. Charter schools operate in privately held real estate assets, which receive public dollars for capital improvements.

Palm Beach County is also challenging an appeal of its previous denial of a charter school application. The Florida Board of Education reversed the PBC board’s December 2014 decision to deny a charter application — Palm Beach County fired back in September 2015 by appealing to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The Palm Beach County board says that it, not the state Board of Education, has the final say when it comes to regulating local PBC schools.

Republican lawmaker Manny Diaz (District 103) has all but acknowledged that the Palm Beach County School Board is right, by filing a proposed amendment to change the constitution. Diaz’s amendment would hand over local control of charter school approval to the state.

In an interview with The Palm Beach Post, Arza dubbed Palm Beach County as “ground zero” for what he calls an “open war” on charter schools. In a story run on WPEC-TV Channel 12, Arza said that his group will file an ethics complaint with the state regarding how the board handled the charter school applications. Arza did not specify in that interview how a vote against a charter school application could be construed as unethical.

Folio Weekly tried contacting Arza through his consulting firm, but Arza was unavailable for comment.

Three School Board Members in Palm Beach County also Targeted for Public Records Requests
One day after Arza told WPEC-TV12 he’d be filing an ethics complaint, the Palm Beach County School Board received a public records request from Fernandez, singling out Board Vice Chairman Frank Barbieri for his communications with 16 individuals and The Palm Beach Post. Those listed in the emailed Nov. 10 request included five of his six fellow board members, their local superintendent of schools, three members of the district’s legal staff, choice and charter school officials, and several other district officials.

On Nov. 16, Fernandez sent a second public records request targeted at the three PBC school board members who have indicated that they will be running for re-election: Barbieri, Board Chairman Chuck Shaw, and Mike Murgio. In that request, Fernandez asked for travel and travel-related reimbursement information, salary and benefit information, and non-travel-related reimbursement documents.

Ethics complaints against public officials are often based on public records regarding travel expenses. Jacksonville’s former mayor Alvin Brown was the target of an ethics complaint in June 2013, regarding donor-paid airline travel that was improperly recorded. The Florida Commission on Ethics later dismissed the complaint against Brown. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Alaska’s former governor Sarah Palin have also been called on to defend ethics complaints based on travel expenditures discovered through public records requests.

Has Arza’s “Open War” moved north to Duval County?
In his capacity as charter school lobbyist, Arza was in the audience of a Duval County School Board meeting during which the board voted to approve the area’s eighth Charter Schools USA operation. District officials had recommended denial of the CSUSA application twice before, noting that the company’s governance structure conflicted with state statutes.

The vote to approve the CSUSA school was held on Oct. 20, and Couch, Hall and Wright were on the losing end of that 4-3 decision.

Folio Weekly has learned that Arza requested a private meeting with Becki Couch, who once served as chairman of Duval’s school board. When Couch offered, via email, to meet with him in a noticed, public setting and to include Hall and Wright in the meeting, Arza politely declined.

The email exchange requesting a private meeting between Couch and Arza began on Sept. 9. On Sept. 15, Arza expressed that while he’d be willing schedule an open meeting with charter school stakeholders and the district, he wanted a meeting “between you and me.” Arza wrote further: “I have heard a lot about you and wanted to speak with you directly about some issues that have recently come up.” Couch responded, declining Arza’s invitation.

Folio Weekly is submitting a public records request to all seven board members regarding communications with Arza and other school-privatization proponents.

Fernandez’s Public Records Requests
On Nov. 10, Fernandez emailed the first of two public records requests, both of which regarded only Couch, Hall and Wright. Addressed to Duval County Schools Chief of Legal Services Karen Chastain, Fernandez’s first request asks for three items regarding those members:

1) Travel: All travel in-district and out-of-district reimbursements with copies of original receipts for the past 12 months

2) Salary and benefits information for each

3) Any non-travel reimbursements provided to each.

Fernandez’s second request was emailed on Nov. 16. It similarly takes aim at the same three board members, seeking communications between and among the three members, as well as with nine others. Here is Fernandez’s second request, in pertinent part:

Please provide these documents for School Board members Becki Couch, Paula Wright and Connie Hall in electronic form if so available, and if not so available, in hard copy:

Any and all communications, including but not limited to text messages from any private cell number(s) and private email(s) being used for public business or public communications, between these School Board members and the following individuals for the last 60 days related to any and all School District issues/business:

Paula Wright
Connie Hall
Michelle Begley
Cathy Maycott
Lisa Loehnert
Bonnie Cole
Karen Chastain
Carol Chapman
Bradford Hall
Carrie Brown
W.C. Gentry
Betty Burney 

The last two on the list are former school board members. Cole is the board’s former secretary, and Chastain is an attorney with the district.

Bradford Hall was thought to be slated to run against Paula Wright and Darryl Willie in Duval County’s District 4 School Board race in 2014, but withdrew from the race before filing.

Asking for communications with a laundry list of individuals who may have communicated with Couch, Hall, or Wright may be an attempt to trap officials in Sunshine law violation claims, based on the idea that third parties could act as proxy communicators with school board members on particular votes. Sunshine law prohibits two or more public officials from communicating on public business without a noticed, public meeting.

When asked about the public records requests, Couch told Folio Weekly, “There’s nothing to see because we all follow the law. It just takes up staff time.”

A History of Hardball
School privatization proponents have been known to play political hardball against local school board members who disagree with “choice” initiatives. In the year leading up to 2014 school board elections, Florida Federation for Children, a pro-charter school and voucher school electioneering and communications organization, or ECO, collected $1.3 million to use in campaigns of its choice, which may have also included legislative campaigns. John Kirtley is founder of Florida’s private school voucher program, Step Up For Students, and chairman of the Federation. He took credit that year for unseating local school board incumbents — across the state — who voted against the Bush-brand privatization agenda.

Kirtley, a venture capitalist who lives in Tampa, is a partner in the equity firm KLH Capital, and is a named director for one of KLH’s investments, Uretek Holdings. Duval County School Board member Jason Fischer works for Uretek and denies any conflict of interest in voting on charter school matters. Fischer’s direct supervisor at Uretek is Kathleen Shanahan, who served as Board of Education Chairman under former governor Jeb Bush.

Fischer voted to approve the Charter Schools USA application on Oct. 20. He is currently running for a seat in the Florida House, in the elections to be held next year.

Read full article here.