Howard Blume's latest piece in the Los Angeles Times discusses Superintendant Cortines' list of "focus schools" (read privatization targets). In the comments section, the second comment posted poses an excellent observation by @sethook: "Are any of the mayor's schools being auctioned off for poor performance?" Given the miserable performance of many of the Mayors' Partnership Schools run by former Green Dot executives Marshal Tuck and Ryan Smith, this question is entirely valid.
Taking that astute observation further, will any Green Dot schools be available to outside bidders? After all, Green Dot sports three schools in the lowest 100 APIs in the County. They also feature five schools in the lowest 35 average SAT scores in the County.
In fact Green Dot's Animo Watts II boasts API scores so much worse than Garfield's it's astonishing! This despite the fact that it has only 139 students versus Garfield's 4,603. By any account this vaunted Green Dot institution should be a failing school, but corporate charters don't play on an even field. Why isn't Animo Watts II on your list Mr. Cortines? [1] Why can't all Green Dot's six figure salary types like Barr, Petruzzi, and Austin figure out how to fix their own failing schools? Too busy lounging at the county club with Howard Blume, Yolie Flores Aguilar, Maria Brenes, and Monica Garcia discussing how they feel teachers are overpaid? Is Animo Watts II an example of Steve Barr's exceedingly brash, but obviously erroneous statement "our model should work in any educational context, because the principles are embodied in all high-performing schools?" [2] Is Green Dot Corporation's Animo Watts II an example of LAUSD VP Yolie Flores Aguilar's infamously smug statement about "high performing charters?"
CORPORATE CHARTER
Green Dot Animo Watts II
2008 Academic Performance Index (API) 494
No Child Left Behind (AYP) Missed seven of 12 federal targets for 2008
Green Dot Animo Watts II
2009 Academic Performance Index (API) 534
No Child Left Behind (AYP) Missed 12 of 18 federal targets for 2009
PUBLIC SCHOOL
James A. Garfield Senior High
2008 Academic Performance Index (API) 597
No Child Left Behind (AYP) Missed five of 20 federal targets for 2008
James A. Garfield Senior High
2009 Academic Performance Index (API) 594
No Child Left Behind (AYP) Missed 10 of 18 federal targets for 2009
Data courtesy http://projects.latimes.com/schools/
[1] Feel free to email this post to LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines
[2] See http://www.greendot.org/school_model, and http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749586 The second reference is nothing short of a printed infomercial, given the fact Green Dot buys their educational products from Scholastic. Graft and kick backs are the specialty for Poverty Pimps and Privatization Pushers like Marshall Tuck, Antony Ressler, Steve Barr, and Marco Petruzzi. With millions of dollars of public money to hand out to the outsourced services of their choice, corporate charters like Bright Star, Alliance, and Green Dot have a very lucrative thing going on. Remember 501C3 is just a tax designation, non-profit status doesn't address astronomical executive salaries, honoraria for speaking, kick backs, trips, meals, etc. This pool of public money corporations are salivating over is what Jonathan Kozol spoke to in "The Big Enchilada."
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