Texas Senator Dan Patrick has said he will hold a fact finding hearing about the connections between Harmony Public Schools, The Pelican Educational Foundation and Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bravo to Senator Patrick for holding Harmony Public Schools accountable and seeking to understand whether they are entangled with organizations that have gotten in trouble for mishandling public money in the past. Although he hasn’t scheduled it yet, I hope he follows through.
Back to Louisiana. Kenilworth Charter, operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation since 2009, was paid a “visit” from the F.B.I on Dec. 11th The FBI is not divulging the nature of the visit to Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Wednesday, Dec. 11th, but it’s not the first time a school run by the Pelican Educational Foundation has been under investigation.
In 2011, Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in New Orleans (run by the Pelican Educational Foundation) was shut down due to allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior among students, the inappropriate handling of those issues by school staff, and ultimately a bribe of $25,000 dollars from Atlas Texas Construction and Trading (working on Abramson’s campus during the scandal), to a state regulator to make the problem “go away.”
In 2012 , the Legislative Auditor accused the Pelican Educational Foundation of improperly handling the reportedly 5,000,000 dollars they receive in public funds. It was discovered that $8,600 was spent on gifts for students who had high scores on LEAP tests. What does this malfeasance have to do with Harmony Public Schools and charters here in Texas, DC, elsewhere?
The Pelican Educational Foundation partners with Harmony Charter schools —one of the biggest charter operators in Texas, and one that is seeking to expand not only in Texas, but in Washington D.C. as well. Both of these organizations as well as Atlas Texas Construction and Trading have alleged relations with Fethullah Gulen who is affiliated with more than 120 charter schools in the nation. Read an interview with him here (See Karen Fontenot vice president of Pelican Educational Foundation speak at the Mapping the Gulen Movement here, Harmony’s to the “movements” connections here).
In 2012, an audit of the Cosmos Foundation found that Harmony misspent $186,187 in federal funds that was supposed to be for special education and low-income students. Good thing we have public accountability systems that hold these charter schools accountable for their educational practices that could cheat kids out of money for qualified certified teachers, special education services, curriculum and support staff. Fortunately, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and other State Education Agencies (SEAs) can do a great job of monitoring charter schools financial and academic practices. Or do we…
In 2012 Representatives Anchia, Cook, Dutton, Price, Birdwell, Patrick and Whitmire formed the Sunset Advisory Commission and released a report in October 2012 detailing specific inadequacies of the TEA. It featured an entire chapter labeled “TEA Lacks Full Range of Tools to Effectively Address Poor Academic Performance and Financial Mismanagement at Low Performing Charter Schools.” Well, let’s hope SB2, the charter school expansion bill passed by Sen. Dan Patrick – the one that;
- Allows charter school expansion up to 305 of them by 2019 (section 9),
- Consolidates authorization and revocation power within the Commissioner of Education’s office (sections 9 and 12.1141) AND
- Allows for charters to open up their own juvenile detention centers (section 44), special education schools (section 12.1014) and residential treatment facilities (section 45)
SB2, the charter expansion bill… Let’s hope it also improves TEA’s ability to properly monitor charter schools in instead of piling on more tasks it doesn’t have the full range of tools and resources to address.
Charter schools are not terrible. There are great charter schools that are doing great things for kids. However it’s important to make sure we have the ability to monitor their spending and academic practices so we can sort out the ones that are a part of a network of businesses whose spending practices are questionable at best and detrimental to children at worst. Public scandal is always interesting, and Harmony’s potential mishandling of funds and connection to the Pelican Educational Foundation needs to be investigated. But would Senator Patrick be calling a fact finding hearing about Harmony Public Schools had one of the organizations it partners with not been under investigation by the F.B.I?
But here’s the thing, financial “misallocation” has a real impact on children.
The $8,600 spent on electronic prizes such as iPads and computers for kids who achieved high-test scores could have been used for a professional development for Kenilworth Charter’s young and inexperienced staff. The $186,000 in federal funds for Harmony Schools- (meant for special education services and programs for low income students) what could that have meant in terms of resources for students at those schools?
As we go forward in expanding charter schools across the nation- do we really have the tools or even the desire to investigate who is setting up these schools and why? Are we sure that SEAs have the capacity and resources to ascertain whether these schools are using their resources in the best interest of children or whether their primary function is to line their pockets via the public funds generated by our kids?
A downside to charters is the increasing amount of malfeasance noted in the sector. In fact an entire blog is dedicated to the abuses nationwide. Check out Charter School Scandals. So don’t be surprised when the FBI (who usually investigates public corruption, major theft, white collar crime) shows up at your child’s charter school with a warrant because somebody decided that figuring out ways to profit off of your child was more important than finding ways to teach them. Good thing Sen. Patrick is holding that fact finding hearing…
Gotta love Bob Marley harmony.
For a compilation of articles about Gulen charters from Charter School Scandals click here.
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***Added by @ProfessorJVH 1/15/14 12:35 p.m.: Cloaking Inequity seeks to be balanced. Thus, I have included a recent tweet on education reform from Sen. Van De Putte who is also a candidate for Lt. Gov in Texas.
Cloaking Inequity 
Do you really think Harmony Schools are that much different? Only now, kids are really being shorted in teaching experience. Also know that most people are extrinsically motivated otherwise most of us would not work at all for other people. I do believe that the whole education system we currently have needs to be revamped so it can tailor every students educational need. It needs to be staffed like were going in to kick educational butt. I am sick of the biggest bang for the smallest buck mentality.
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It is disappointing to see Gov Perry, Lt Gov Dewhurst, & TEA Commissioner not recognizing the punitive culture of Texas elementary schools. The reward/punishment system, and failure of teachers and principals to learn positive behavior modeling has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on “trinkets” for test performance. In the Title I Schools of Austin, this resembles the British giving “trinkets” to the Native Americans to con them out of their land. In these schools, principals are conning children to sit through 3-4 hours of weekly practice STAAR tests called “Friday Assessments”, and spend untold hours doing daily low level mind numbing boring test drill, just to earn a “trinket” at the weekly “awards” assembly. Those who “win”, only learn external motivation, while those who don’t “win” see themselves as “losers”, and feel inferior and disappointed. It is a system that does not model positive behavior, only competition, jealousy, inferiority, and materialism. It does it give children opportunities for creative and cooperative learning, intrinsic motivation, or “real” learning. It teaches children to accept boring mediocre and conformity, and rewards them for their compliance.
If the school districts are going to pay millions for outsiders to teach social and emotional learning, rather than the teachers who are supposed to teach & model it for their students, then it needs to be observable in practice. It is not. The teachers and principals are still continuing to punish children, and our greedy politicians are to self absorbed to notice.
Perhaps we need the FBI to take a look at Texas schools?
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Should we also blame Siri for linking a song that was written and performed by Inner Circle about 6 years after Marley died?
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