Where parents can report Camino Nuevo's illegal in kind contributions to Ref Rodriguez, anonymity available

The publishing of Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign? has seen a few more parents corroborating the initial reports of these very serious accusations. One asked if it was a crime, and who they could report it to. My response was as follows:

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Unless every instance of CNCA providing their meeting spaces, food, materials, dinners, etc. is documented on a 460 Form for this election, then they are breaking the law. In kind donations of that sort are calculated to their nearest fair market value and are considered campaign contributions just as much as cash contributions.

Conscientious parents on this list should consider documenting the instances that this has happened and reporting it.

Los Angeles City Ethics Commission
200 North Spring Street
City Hall, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, California 90012

(213) 978-1960 Phone
(213) 978-1988 Fax
ethics.commission@lacity.org

Office Hours:
Monday through Friday
8:00 a.m. to noon; 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Anonymous reporting is available

The City Ethics Commission's enforcement division investigates and brings enforcement actions against individuals and entities who violate the City's ethics, campaign finance or lobbying provisions. Many of its cases begin as complaints to the Whistleblower Hotline. The division also refers to and works with other government agencies when appropriate.

Reporting Violations

https://ethics.lacity.org//Whistleblower/complaint.cfm

To report a violation, call our Whistleblower Hotline at 213-978-1999 (toll free at 1-800-824-4825) or submit a complaint online.

Where parents can report Camino Nuevo's illegal in kind contributions to Ref Rodriguez, anonymity available

Schools Matter: Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?

First published on Schools Matter on April 15, 2015

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“Walmart fortune heiress, Carrie Walton Penner, is currently the CCSA Board Vice-Chair (term ending 6/30/2017). By most accounts Walton Penner is close to both profiteer "Ref" Rodriguez of the PUC Charter School Corporation, and the well-heeled Ana Ponce of the Camino Nuevo Charter School Corporation.” — Robert D. Skeels

Charter industry profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez, and his California Charter Schools Association's (CCSA) ruthless campaign to capture the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education seat for District 5 has had every advantage. Rodriguez is backed with millions of dollars from an assortment of billionaires ranging from right-wing extremists like the Walton Family Fortune (Walmart) heirs to anti-public-commons ideologues including Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, and Michael Bloomberg. He has received uncritical press from all the major Los Angeles corporate media outlets. Rodriguez has waged a dishonest campaign that viciously mocked the incumbent school board member's disabilities, and went as far to make deplorable accusations of racism. With essentially unlimited funding at his disposal, one would think that the profit hungry corporate charter school executive wouldn't need any more advantages. However, Rodriguez and his CCSA allies are leaving nothing to chance in defense of their lucrative profits. Profits that have been threatened by an incumbent who has insisted that the charter industry serve all students, not just the ones that are "cheap" to educate.

Evidence of possible further impropriety was provided by Cheryl Ortega. Ortega is the Director of Bilingual Education at United Teachers Los Angeles, has taught in the community for nearly half a century, is a member of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, and was recently honored as the 28th Congressional District Woman of the Year. Given her long-standing ties to the community, parents frequently use her as a clearinghouse for education issues. For example, this revelation that she posted on her Facebook feed:

Interesting and shocking fact regarding the Kayser - Rodriguez LAUSD school board race. A long time friend and former school parent at Logan Elementary School, told me that parents at the Sandra Cisneros/Camino Nuevo Charter Corp School in Echo Park were paid to attend political meetings to help elect Ref Rodriguez. They were told that Bennet Kayser would "close down their school" if elected to the school board. I am not surprised at Camino Nuevo's message given their record of "misleading" parents.

Asking around, I've been informed that these parents are being paid in kind (not cash), with expensive dinners, trips to Starbucks, etc. These reports corroborate each other, and with definitive proof that CCSA and Rodriguez are chasing profits, their purported "payment" of parents to sway this election makes perfect sense. Who is doing it makes sense too.

Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation's profits depend on market share

Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA) has a long record of duplicity. Their fourteen member Board of Directors, comprised mostly of hedge fund/investment managers, venture capitalists, brokers, and bankers, is wholly unaccountable to the community. CNCA's campaign to expropriate the newly constructed CRES #14 school site during Gates Foundation employee Yolie Flores' so-called Public School Choice (PSC) charter school handout project, saw CNCA trying to stack the vote by busing in outsiders. CNCA lost to the community public school plan by more than 2 to 1 margin, but Flores gave them our school anyway. Here is a photo, taken at Rosemont ES during the CRES #14 advisory vote, of one of nearly a dozen buses brought in by the Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation.

Charter schools using parents as political pawns for profits

It should be no surprise if CNCA is bribing parents to campaign and vote for Rodriguez. Even when they aren't using meals, gift cards, t-shirts, and other material enticements to induce parents into engaging in charter political activities, the lucrative charter school industry has another means of getting what they want—forced parent work policies. For years social justice activists have pointed out that CCSA, CCSA Advocates, Families that Can, and individual corporate charter chains have compelled parents to participate in their political activities by evoking their required "volunteer" hours. However, it wasn't until the watershed report from Public Advocates Inc. entitled Charging for Access: How California Charter Schools Exclude Vulnerable Students by Imposing Illegal Family Work Quotas was published that we began to recognize the full extent of this practice.

Wealthy Ana Ponce and Ref Rodriguez aiming for more profits

The essay PROFITS! Why Ref Rodriguez and his CCSA covet the LAUSD Board Seat exposed the connections between the CCSA, transnational corporations, and local charter school profiteers. This quote is extremely important:

Walmart fortune heiress, Carrie Walton Penner, is currently the CCSA Board Vice-Chair (term ending 6/30/2017). By most accounts Walton Penner is close to both profiteer "Ref" Rodriguez of the PUC Charter School Corporation, and the well-heeled Ana Ponce of the Camino Nuevo Charter School Corporation.

CNCA Corporation's 2012 Form 990, Part VII§A shows Ponce stuffing her pockets with a mind-boggling $230,811.00. Her ties to Rodriguez extend beyond their mutual profiteering, and California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) board memberships. Ponce did postgraduate work at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and Rodriguez is an adjunct instructor there. Sadly LMU's education department faculty and administration is dominated by neoliberal privatizers, like Shane P. Martin, who actively work to destroy public education at the behest of their corporate sponsors. The one exception to LMU's complicity with the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate is that of renowned Freirian scholar Professor Antonia Darder, who writes brilliant essays like Racism and the Charter School Movement: Unveiling the Myths. Darder's is the sole voice of reason in LMU's cacophony of corporate concerns.

Paying parents to advocate for the charter industry's political and financial aims, whether those payments are in kind, through required "volunteer" hours, or any other form of consideration is highly unethical, immoral, and likely illegal. In other words, it's just the sort of thing that Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez and his CCSA cabal would do.

If you live in LAUSD District 5, I implore you to demonstrate to charter profiteer Ref Rodriguez, his CNCA allies, and his deep-pocketed CCSA trade association that our communities value pupils over profits. Reelect the Honorable Bennett Kayser in the May 19, 2015 General Municipal Election!

Schools Matter: Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?

Philip J. Lance of PND and CNCA, slumlord as well as poverty pimp?

A former tenant of one of Philip J. Lance's many "properties" documents abysmally unsafe conditions, including unchecked mold growth. Because of Lance's connections, an apparent coverup followed. Like their awful, but lucrative CNCA charter school empire, PND's alleged slum-apartments are part and parcel their putting a helping-the-poor veneer on something dark, sinister, and revenue generating.

Philip J. Lance of PND and CNCA, Slumlord? by Robert D. Skeels

Philip J. Lance of PND and CNCA, slumlord as well as poverty pimp?

M Night Shyamalan's privatization agenda exposed as soon as he cites his model schools

.@tessvigeland might want to ask reactionary @MNightShyamalan how CNCA's 6% CSU proficiency is 'successful' #LAUSD http://t.co/uwJw7v65Lg

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) January 4, 2014

M Night Shyamalan is crusading the right-wing, corporate edreform project. He lauds the abject Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA) as one of 50 schools that are "successfully" using his method. Those of us who have had to resist CNCA's corporate take-over of our public schools have exposed those charlatans, but don't let facts get in the way of Shyamalan and all the other self-appointed education experts' privatization narrative.

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UPDATE

Here are the comments I made on SPCR's site. People might want to do the same and also reach out to Tess Vigeland letting her know the regurgitating Press Releases is NOT journalism.

Tess Vigeland might want to ask reactionary M. Night Shyamalan how he finds Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA)'s abject 6% CSU proficiency "successful."

http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/01/crafty-camino-nuevo-charter-charlatans/

Reporters used to ask difficult questions of power and privilege, but it's a given that SCPR will just toss Shyamalan softballs. Ask him how many of the "papers, journals and studies" he and his foundation "researched" were actually peer-reviewed, juried works.

At the end of the day Shyamalan is crusading the right-wing, corporate edreform project. Lauding CNCA, which are, as pointed out above, abysmal, as one of 50 schools that are "successfully" using his methods exposes his privatization agenda. Those of us who have had to resist CNCA's corporate take-over of our local public schools have exposed those charlatans, but don't let facts get in the way of Shyamalan and all the other self-appointed education experts' privatization narrative.

Worst thing is these reformers never engage in honest debate because they are not only out of their element, but are easily discredited with facts. Rather than having Ana Ponce—who herself has made a fortune off the corporate edreform project—why not have an academic who could challenge Shyamalan's schtick?

M Night Shyamalan's privatization agenda exposed as soon as he cites his model schools

Robert D. Skeels on The Mind Of A Bronx Teacher BlogTalkRadio

"We demand equity in our schools!" — Robert D. Skeels

Listen to internet radio with Bronx Teacher on Blog Talk Radio

[click here if you can't hear this audio]

I want to thank Bronx Teacher for the opportunity to voice the social justice viewpoint on authentic education reform and to critique the corporate plutocrat's view of reform.

References for some of the topics we discussed during the show.

My first education article was published in 1991.

For Steve Barr's vicious potty mouthed attack on the former UTLA President, see the quote and link at the beginning of this essay.

On the big business of standardized testing and test preparation: Professor Michael Moore: Cornering the education market

On the corporate charter-voucher school real estate bonanza.

For cogent discussion of KIPP's abysmal attrition rates, militarism, and, narrowing of curriculum see this from one of my recent Schools Matter pieces:

That so-called sophisticated study was conducted by none other than the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored Mathematica Policy Research, a pay to play think tank whose studies start from a conclusion and then scramble for possible evidence to support those conclusions. Preliminary reports, like the one Mathematica published on Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools aren't subject to peer review, but that doesn't stop Yglesias from citing it as authoritative. "Preliminary studies" are a favorite of the corporate education reform junta, and Yglesias is no exception.

Fortunately, Professors Gary Miron and Kevin Welner's recent paper on KIPP's attrition fiasco should put to bed any arguments that KIPP's methods get anything right. Scholars like Western Michigan University's Jessica L. Urschel and Nicholas Saxton, and Georgia State University's Brian Lack have also contributed to our understanding of KIPP's many wrongheaded methods and their drastically overstated results. Dr. Jim Horn's frequent writings on KIPP are also a joy, his phrase "cultural sterilization" for how KIPP treats inner city students has become part of my canon of phrases apropos to privatization.

Update on KIPP Attrition: (Added 2011-08-25) On the radio show I mentioned that KIPP's attrition rates are sometimes as high as 40-45 percent. If those figures aren't outrageous enough, there is a KIPP middle school that bleeds between 60-70 percent of it's low achieving students! Teabaggers can attribute KIPP's "success" to "caring teachers, better management, longer hours, etc.," but those of us dealing in reality can point to this shameful example of a "high performing charter." Discredited is the word that comes to mind when I think of anyone holding these factory school models up as something we should emulate.

Charter-voucher schools avoid educating every child, but are somehow credited with success. In other words, success equals skimming, or more to the point, discrimination.

Pilot Study of Charter Schools' Compliance with the Modified Consent Decree and the LAUSD Special Education Policies and Procedures Executive Summary

Pilot Study of Charter Schools' Compliance with the Modified Consent Decree and the LAUSD Special Education Policies and Procedures Data Tables

Key Findings:

• Students with low incidence disabilities attended charters representing 1.11% of the total charter enrollment, while students with low incidence disabilities made up 3.09% of the DO school population of SWD. Based on this, the relative risk ratio for students with low incidence disabilities to be enrolled in charter schools is 0.36, which means that students with low incidence disabilities enrolled at LAUSD charters are significantly under-represented.
• SWD attending charter schools made up 7.6% of the overall charter student population, while SWD consisted of 11.3% of the overall student population attending DO schools which indicates that SWD are disproportionately under-enrolled at charter schools.
• During the 2008-2009 school year, 12 of 148 (8.1%) charter schools offered a special day program as an option for serving SWD. In contrast, 87% of DO schools provided this same program option. Collectively, the lack of such programs indicates a disproportionate availability of special education services offered at charters.

Recent post by Dr. Krashen on attitudes towards schools: Opinions about American schools: Experience outweighs rhetoric

Robert D. Skeels on The Mind Of A Bronx Teacher BlogTalkRadio

Schools Matter: Is CNCA Charter Corporation Poaching Parents and Pillaging Privacy?

"Parents having decision making power over a budget is not a sustainable model." — Ana F. Ponce (CEO, CNCA Corporation)


I wrote my newest Schools Matter essay: Is CNCA Charter Corporation Poaching Parents and Pillaging Privacy? after revelations from local parents. As we began looking into their concerns it became clear that grave violations of privacy have occurred in that Camino Nuevo Charter Academy (CNCA) Corporation has somehow obtained the contact data of families who are not in their attendance boundary. Many parents have expressed that they are being harassed and harangued by CNCA Corporation to enroll, or even that they've already been enrolled without their consent. We've come to expect nothing but scandalous behavior from the fast growing charter corporation, but their latest malfeasance lowers the bar, even for them. Hopefully a the California Department of Education or some law enforcement agency will look into how the corporate charter charlatans obtained peoples' private contact information.

The piece also looks at how CNCA Corporation has employed weasel words and onerous conditions to insure that they won't need to follow their agreement to offer language programs outside of their inflexible one size fits all transitional bilingual education program. I provide the information necessary for families to file formal complaints with the district regarding CNCA Corporation's intransigence on this issue.

Published 2011-08-06 on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.

Schools Matter: Is CNCA Charter Corporation Poaching Parents and Pillaging Privacy?

Tomorrow: Echo Park Moms 4 Education on KPFK 90.7 FM

"You are playing with the lives of children — not cars, not bicycles." — The Honorable Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte (LAUSD District 1)

Politics Or Pedagogy with John Cromshow
Next show is Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 8 PM*

Echo Park Moms 4 Education once again provide an another exciting example of genuine parent activism, not the kind that is funded by the nefarious Broad, Gates, or Walton Foundations like the wholly astroturf Parent Revolution or Families That Can charter proxy groups.

Here's the announcement of their upcoming radio appearance by our very own long time educator and activist Cheryl Ortega:

Tomorrow on "Politics or Pedagogy" John Cromshow will be speaking with Echo Park activist parents Windy O'Malley, Kim Pesenti and Eva Rivas and me about the board giveaway of CRES 14 to Camino Nuevo. Windy was the mom that Nury publicly denounced as a racist. When I listened to the "Beautiful Struggle" interview last night, it hit me again how similar are all the giveaway stories. CRES 14 is a new school and Clay is an already-existing school, but they were both thrown over to charters in spite of parent/community wishes. Please do listen and call in. — Cheryl Ortega

For full coverage of LAUSD Board Member Nury Martinez's unconscionable accosting of an activist mother from our community who had the courage to speak truth to power see: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez.

Our struggles to have had our publicly financed CRES #14 become a public school are well documented. While the privatization junta of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) thought that their underhanded decision would end all community activism in the Echo Parque/Historic Filipinotown area, it only served to strengthen our resolve. Possible topics for tomorrow's discussion could include the giveaway of CRES #14, the killing of democratic Parent Advisory Vote in the PSC privatization process, the Board's unwillingness to listen to community and parents, and future local education activism opportunities.

Ms. Ortega's comparison of our community's and the Clay community's struggles against privatization and takeover by private charter corporations is very profound. She mentions the recent "Beautiful Struggle" program featuring Clay activists and The Honorable Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, which further showed how our communities are ignored by LAUSD in favor of corporations. My favorite quote is when Ms. LaMotte calls the give away of Clay MS to the deep pocketed Green Dot Corporation "racist and discriminatory." To download a podcast of the show: Beautiful Struggle Tuesday, July 19, 2011 7:00 pm.

Please listen to our local mothers tomorrow and call in to support them! Please consider joining Echo Park Moms 4 Education and/or the local Coalition for Educational Justice to help strengthen our community's voice.

* The program is on air Third Thursdays of the month at 8 PM.

Tomorrow: Echo Park Moms 4 Education on KPFK 90.7 FM

A reader speaks out on CNCA Corporation's Shannon Leonard's questionable credentials

I pressed the issue and asked, "so was [Mr. Leonard] a professor of education?" LMU's Director of Communications and Media retorted, "No, he was part time faculty."


The essay Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again? on EchoParkPatch demonstrated again that the well paid business executives running the corporate charter have little respect for the truth, and even less respect for our community. Catching Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation in yet another lie precipitated much feedback, mostly positive, although several right wing privatization fanatics were angry that ordinary people were paying attention to corporate malfeasance.

However, one reader went further and actually did more research than anyone on Mr. Leonard's highly suspect resume. I feel it's worth reproducing here.

I read your blurb about Shannon Leonard, and did a little cyber-digging and found this:
 
"Shannon Leonard '01 selected for Echo Park's new school" Experienced educator Shannon Leonard has been selected to lead Echo Park's new school, Central Region Elementary School (CRES) #14."
 
it's at William & Mary's alumni page: https://www.wmalumni.com/?alumninews
 
My point is... this means that, as an 2001 B.A. Graduate of William & Mary, he should be, at most, 31-32 years of age (i.e. he turn 32 in calendar year 2011);
 
Now, it's a stretch to believe that he has done all of  the following since graduating from William & Mary in May 2001:
 

• Received 1 Master's Degree from UCLA;
• Received a 2nd Master's degree from Loyola Marymount;
• Earned "his California administrative credential from UCLA’s Principal Leadership Institute" (from the Camino Nuevo website... also someone else posted skepticism about the "UCLA's Principal Leadership Institute")
• Then worked "a distinguished educator with over ten years (!!!) of experience as both a teacher and a leader in urban and international school settings." (from the Camino Nuevo website.)
• Worked as a "Professor in Loyola Marymount's Department of Education"

Wow!!! That's a busy ten years!!!

Busy is an understatement, clearly when CNCA Corporation's public relations people were making his resume up, no one had the presence of mind to do the math and see if it added up. Perhaps the reactionary right wing M.V. person that claims that they will "support [Leonard] in any way possible" can explain how someone can have over ten years experience teaching when they have only been a graduate themselves for ten years. It's astonishing that CNCA can get away with such perfidy.

There's lying, and then there's mendaciousness that's nothing short of duplicitous. CNCA Corporation seems to have created a pervasive culture of the latter. No wonder, since their COO Hoa Truong is a graduate of the vile Broad Residency in Urban Education.

My recent Schools Matter piece Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie addresses the smug and sullen MBA Truong's Broadyte influence on CNCA Corporation:

Sure enough, in practice CNCA's principles and actions reflect that of their funders. Remember this tidbit from the Broad Residency FAQ:

[P]rivate sector experience is important because there are business best practices which can improve the way the education organizations are operated.

I'm always wondering which of the three core business practices (lying, cheating, and stealing) Broadytes are referring to. Well in this case it's lying.

Given the magnitude and the scope of all the things CNCA Corporation has been dishonest about to this point, we should all have grave concerns about all of their dealings. Every community deserves better than to have corporate charlatans running their schools, but fighting the groundswell of lucrative charter-voucher organizations out to profit off the public commons will take organizing and struggle on a much greater scale than we've seen so far.

A reader speaks out on CNCA Corporation's Shannon Leonard's questionable credentials

EchoParkPatch: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez

"If there's one thing I hope comes out of this is that Ms. Martinez thinks about the incident and reflects upon how she and the other board members ignored our community's voices throughout the entire process." — Windy Anne Bunts O'Malley


A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez contains my interview with Windy O'Malley, the local mother who was wrongly and viciously accosted by LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez at the March 25, 2011 School Board Meeting. Following the interview is analysis of how Martinez was sidestepping issues of removing democracy and ignoring community voices.

The incident further exposes the so-called Public School Choice (PSC) resolution as the farce it is. PSC has always been about privatization, never about "choice" or to respond to communities. We also see in the essay how right wing privatization 501C3 groups, like the vile Families That Can, have unfettered access to LAUSD's halls of power, while actual parents and community members are entirely shut out. Here's a quote from the essay addressing why Martinez was so quick to hurl the hurtful accusations.

What this was about was silencing any dissent against the lucrative privatization of our public schools, and the filtering out any parents or community members that actually represent their constituent communities instead of well funded astroturf 501C3 groups.

Ultimately, Ms. Martinez should consider stepping down from the LAUSD board after she showed that she has nothing but contempt for parents and community members. Sadly, since LAUSD's Board currently serves the interests of plutocrats instead of constituents, she'll be around at least until the end of her term.

Published on EchoParkPatch, please read it there and share widely.

EchoParkPatch: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez

Schools Matter: Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie

"[T]here should be no education marketplace." — Dr. Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)


In Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie I take the Valerie Strauss piece discussing where and how funds from the arch-reactionaries of the Walton Family Foundation were divvied out to various entities engaged in the privatization of public education, and put the spotlight on egregious local offenders.

The list includes: Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Parent Revolution (née Los Angeles Parents Union), Green Dot Public Schools, California Charter Schools Association, and Inner City Education Foundtion.

My favorite quote:

[C]orporate charter chain Camino Nuevo Charter Academy (CNCA), which claims that it wants its students to become "agents of social justice with sensitivity toward the world around them" is on this list. Camino Nuevo Elementary School #3 got $250,000 from the right wing extremists at the Walton Family Foundation who also fund anti-gay, anti-female, anti-union, and a host of other reactionary causes and organizations. Seems to me that you can't teach the principles of social justice if you're taking money from organizations whose entire purpose is to perpetuate and exacerbate injustice.

Published on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.

Schools Matter: Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie

EchoParkPatch: Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again?

"[Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation]'s board is UNELECTED by the public and composed exclusively of investment management executives, high powered lawyers, and other wealthy business types. Not one of them is an actual educator, and none of them have been teachers or principals in a K-12 setting. Furthermore, not one of them lives in Echo Park or Historic Filipinotown." — Robert D. Skeels


Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again? is my report back from the final meeting held by Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation at Union Avenue School reveals very serious resume padding for Shannon Leonard, CNCA's new Principal of CRES #14. Most importantly we photographed a slide featuring Shannon Leonard's "credentials." The last line mentioning he was a "Professor at LMU's School of Education" is wholly untrue as per officials at Loyola Marymount University's School of Education. Turns out that claim was an out and out lie. If CNCA Corporation can't be honest about things like that, what can they be honest about?

Published on EchoParkPatch, please read it there and share widely.

EchoParkPatch: Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again?

Fielding a local reporter's questions about Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation's designs on CRES #14

By every account: legal, moral, and ethical, CNCA should be required to serve every child in my community. By allowing them to dodge the requirement as a school in our attendance boundary to provide a Mainstream English program, we allow CNCA to continue their discriminatory practices that smack of exclusivity and elitism. — Robert D. Skeels (LAUSD District 2 Board Candidate)


A local reporter had some question about our struggle to get CNCA Corporation to follow through with LAUSD Vice President Yolie Flores' promise to have CNCA offer multiple language tracks in addition to their already existing program. The questions with my answers are reproduced here to provide public transparency into how corporate charters brashly ignore community needs and input. In the interest of providing both the reporter and some Echo Parque parents with a degree of anonymity, I've excluded their names from this reproduction of the interview.

Q: How do you respond to people including [Some Echo Parque Parents] and Anna Ponce who say that the English only track issue has been resolved?

I've responded to this several times, but will reproduce some of it here. My first and somewhat cynical thought is, given Ponce and CNCA Corporation's track record, who would take them at their word? More to the point though, I wrote this recently on the list:

The charter document needs to contain the language, and we didn't see it in the charter document. If someone can email me a pdf of or fax me the page in their charter that says what we want, then I'll back off this issue.

Without the phrases Mainstream English program, Structured English Immersion program, and Dual Language Immersion program appearing in their charter for this school, CNCA Corporation and Yolie Flores have essentially pulled off a deception. Ms. Flores promised the other LAUSD Trustees that she'd address CNCA Corporation's one-dimensional language program offering. To this point, no one has shown evidence that this is the case. Frankly [An Echo Parque Parent] shouldn't be the one scrambling to get this information. In a democracy, where communities had some power over the public commons, then the onus would fall on CNCA Corporation to document what we are asking for. Unfortunately, since they're a private corporation with an unelected board, they can and have chose to ignore us and our community's very real needs.

Since the charter is a legal document, it gives our community a modicum (however slightly) of recourse when CNCA Corporation's business executives don't deliver what they promise.

Q: Also, this follow up: should there be an English-only track? Given the recent reporting and academic literature about the benefits of bilingualism, couldn't this conceivably be an excellent way to set CRES #14 from its competitors?

First question. Yes, absolutely — a publicly financed school must be obligated to educate every child. Given the demographics of CRES #14's attendance boundary, CNCA Corporation's existing program would only serve a portion of students potentially wanting to attend.

For your second question, you're conflating different bilingual programs with each other. ALthough this is addressed above, please familiarize yourself with the difference between Developmental/Transitional Bilingual Model Versus Dual Immersion Models. More to the point, CNCA Corporation's model assumes that all entering students are ELL with Spanish as their mother language. How does this benefit Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, English, or other speakers?

Addressing your last question. I hope your intention was be facetious when you discuss "competitors." Public schools are tasked with the moral, ethical, and legal responsibility to educate every child, not to be bastions of divisiveness and duplicity brought on by competition. There are no credible peer reviewed studies indicating that contrived "competition" between schools fosters anything except for widespread cheating (Michelle Rhee's DC Schools for example), and demoralization of both students and educators. 

Instead of having a narrowly defined language program that reeks of exclusivity and elitism, let the publicly financed CNCA Corporation choose to serve potentially any student that wants to attend. I know that will cut into their bottom line somewhat, but that should be their obligation given that we're the ones that foot their bills.

It's a real shame that an organization like CNCA Corporation, that claims its goal is to create "agents of social justice with sensitivity toward the world around them" is in practice agents of injustice in our community. I'm a little shocked at their intransigence, especially at Philip Lance, who used to have a good reputation before he got into the charter school business.

Q: [B]ilingualism, of course, does not have to assume that [S]panish is the dominant language.

Ordinarily, but not in this narrowly defined case. CNCA Corporation's program assumes precisely just that. It's a transitional program for Spanish speaking ELL to transition to English. While we discuss this as not necessarily a good thing, and inappropriate for serving every child's needs, CNCA Corporation sells it to many mono-lingual Spanish speaking parents as a good thing, since their children will be predominately English speakers by the eighth grade. Meaning of course, that their Spanish skills would not be sufficient for even undergraduate level essay writing. In fact, Cervantes would probably be too difficult for those "bi-lingual" speakers CNCA Corporation produces. If that's fine with some parents, great. What about all the other families? They don't deserve consideration? Optimally we'd like to see CNCA Corporation offer a range of language programs, but at this point it's a struggle enough to get these mendacious businesspeople to just comply with offering a Mainstream English program.

For a review of the different bi-lingual programs, see: Developmental/Transitional Bilingual Model Versus Dual Immersion

Q: [W]hat would be device for rewriting CNCA's definition of bilingualism?

I don't think it's a matter of their definition versus ours at all. In academic and pedagogical circles, these distinctions are clearly defined. CNCA Corporation has many employees that know all of this, any one of them would be able to tell you the same thing. Ana Ponce could tell you the difference, given her educational background. The definition(s) of bilingualism isn't in question here,  and this isn't a matter of semantics. For more on bilingual education see Prof. Jeff Bale of MSU and Prof. Stephen Krashen of USC.

What's in question is why won't CNCA Corporation commit in writing what LAUSD Vice President Flores promised they would when she gave them our school?

Q: ...is that something you've considered?

I'm not sure it would take much for them to write what we want into their charter for CRES #14. I can't speak for them, but I think their resistance stems for economics rather than any other explanation. It will cost them slightly more to do the right thing. Perhaps Ms. Ponce or another CNCA Corporation representative can correct me here, but they seem to be afraid to commit resources when they aren't sure what the composition of their student body will look like yet.

Given that they've just been handed a multi-million dollar facility for free, and that all their student related costs are borne by the public, they should only be focused on educating every child. Because we're asking CNCA Corporation to accommodate our community instead of our community accommodating them, there has been resistance. They still have to hire staff for CRES #14, all they'd really have to do is make sure that they hire enough teachers qualified to teach what we're asking. After they write what we want into their charter.

Let's be clear. We're not asking CNCA Corporation to replace their transitional bilingual education model. We're asking them to commit, in writing, to offering several different language models — including Mainstream English. I don't think we're asking too much.

Q: [W]hat's the status of your letter and your quest to get a meeting with the Board of Education?

I've been patently ignored by the Board of Education. I suppose this isn't unexpected, but you'd think they'd leave personal issues aside and do what's best for my community. After all, Ms. Flores promised.

The letter to the LAUSD Board that the reporter was asking about is:

Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding Grave Issues with CNCA's Charter for CRES #14

There's also a follow up letter:

On LAUSD's urgent need to pressure CNCA to revise the CRES #14 charter

Because we're constituents, community members, and parents, LAUSD ignores us. Rest assured, if our names were Burton, Barr, Ponce, Piscal, or Petruzzi, we would have been granted an immediate hearing. This quote from the Los Angeles Times demonstrates why:

"Luis Sanchez...worked the room at a posh Beverly Hills condo...The nearly 50 guests drank Au Bon Climat chardonnay and Piper Sonoma sparkling wine as Sanchez's backers, including school board President Monica Garcia and charter school leaders, lauded him..." — Los Angeles Times

These privatization minded LAUSD Board Members, like Mayor Villaraigosa, are bought and paid for by the lucrative charter-voucher school industry and its ideologically charged plutocrat backers long before they take office. That's why the have no scruples about serving every whim of the the charter school sector at the expense of the communities they're stealing from.

Fielding a local reporter's questions about Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation's designs on CRES #14

Urgently requesting a meeting with the LAUSD Board President

[A] harbinger of how public education may look should the resolution pass. In fact, the closed meetings stand as metaphors for how the majority of charter management organizations work: undemocratic, top down, run by noneducators, and unaccountable to the communities where they operate. — Robert D. Skeels (Social Justice Education Essayist)


President Garcia:

I've sent a paper letter in the mail. I've left multiple voicemail messages with several extensions in your office. I've sent multiple email messages. I have not have any success scheduling a meeting with you.

In fact, one of your staff sent me this sardonic response:

I wanted to make sure you are aware that CRES#14 is part of Board District 5. I would invite you to contact Ms. Ana Ponce, Executive Director of Camino Nuevo, to address any questions you might have of the school.

To which I replied

Please understand that at least half of the attendance boundary for CRES #14 is comprised of District 2. Parents and community members have repeatedly tried address this with Ms. Ponce, CEO of the CNCA Corporation, and the matter remains unresolved.

Since LAUSD is the entity approving and authorizing the charter, our final recourse is to appeal directly to the LAUSD Board.

President Garcia you are the President of the Board of Education for the City of Los Angeles. Surely you can see that in addition to this school being partly in your District's attendance boundary, that ultimately, you as President are directly responsible for the content of this charter.

I know that my dogged advocacy of public education and my wide publication in social justice publications has seen me critical of both you and several of your staff members on many occasions.

However, please don't let any disdain you have for me personally cause you to ignore this burning issue at the expense of my entire community. Our community paid for this brand new multi-million dollar facility. From our community will come hundreds of children to attend this school. None of these people deserve to be ignored. If you don't want to meet with me alone, then let's schedule a meeting with the community. If need be, I won't attend. Just agree to meet with parents asking for the CRES #14 charter revisions that Vice President Flores promised when she gave the campus away to CNCA Corporation. We want this charter revised to reflect State law, Ms. Flores' promises, and the needs of the community. My community deserves better than the current injustice it is undergoing.

I'm pleading with you to do the right thing and give us a hearing. I understand how much wealth and power CNCA Corporation brings to bear on this issue, but ordinary working people deserve a voice too. Our voice is being patently ignored, our community disrespected, and an entire set of prospective students are being robbed.

Advocating Public Education and Social Justice

Robert D. Skeels

Urgently requesting a meeting with the LAUSD Board President

On LAUSD's urgent need to pressure CNCA to revise the CRES #14 charter

"Parents having decision making power over a budget is not a sustainable model." — Ana F. Ponce (CEO, CNCA Corporation)


The EastsiderLA's Becky Koppenhaver reports in New Echo Park school to bend on bilingual instruction that the corporate executives of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy (CNCA) are insisting that they "revised their instructional model  in response to the needs of the community."

The lavishly paid CNCA COO Truong and CNCA CEO Ponce are being evasive and perhaps even mendacious. CNCA's official charter submitted to LAUSD still does not contain language specifically outlining a Mainstream English option. This is covered in length here:

Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding Grave Issues with CNCA's Charter for CRES #14

Given that CNCA's single minded executives have been, to put it kindly, less than honest on many occasions, community members should demand that the LAUSD force CNCA to put this so-called "revised instructional model" in writing into their charter. Otherwise, there is no way of holding them accountable. In short, CNCA's charter must specify a Mainstream English option. While social justice activists would have liked to see them offer more, akin to that of the public school plan submitted, we'd be satisfied with seeing these market share minded charter charlatans follow the law and listen to the community at the very least.

In fact, all of our groups and associated Echo Parque/Historic Filipinotown community members need to press this issue with the District and CNCA now, before it's too late. Without this being in writing, CNCA Corporation is under no obligation to offer a Mainstream English program. Furthermore, they could offer something that appears to be Mainstream English, or offer some like it at first to appease the community and then drop it latter.

At this point, there are no provisions in their charter for CRES #14 addressing what the community is demanding. CNCA is not used to having to listen to the community, so they're scrambling to figure out how to make their one-size-fits-all corporate model appear to accommodate our neighborhood's diverse population and needs. We need to demand that they serve every child, and that verbal assurances are not sufficient.

While charters are technically legal documents between the school district and the private operators of the charter schools, they offer little in way of accountability. Most courts [1] have found that charter schools are not "public entities." This always works in their favor. What this means is that even if we get CNCA to commit to what the community wants in writing, we have little recourse to hold CNCA accountable. So much more so if we don't get them to commit to it to writing. After all, CNCA's CEO Ana Ponce and her executive staff are tasked with increasing market share and keeping their costs down, so they are naturally far less concerned with what the community wants.

Community members in District 2 and District 5 should be calling their Board Members every day demanding CNCA revise their charter to fit the needs of our community!

District 2 Mónica García
monica.garcia@lausd.net
(213) 241-6180

District 5 Yolie Flores
yolie.flores@lausd.net
(213) 241-6383
_____
NOTES
[1] Two examples are the California Court of Appeals (2007-01-10) and the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals (2010-01-04).

On LAUSD's urgent need to pressure CNCA to revise the CRES #14 charter

Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding Grave Issues with CNCA's Charter for CRES #14

It is a model that is antithesis and anathema to Camino Nuevo. When democratically elected community members, parents, and teachers comprise the board of directors for a school, then we can begin to speak of social justice. — Robert D. Skeels (LAUSD District 2 Board Candidate)


April 18, 2011


Board of Education
333 S. Beaudry Ave., 24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017


LAUSD Board President Garcia and Members of the Board:

I'm writing to express my grave concerns with Camino Nuevo Charter Academy's (CNCA) charter for CRES #14. I am a seventeen year resident of District 2, and CRES #14 serves my neighborhood attendance boundary.

When Vice President Flores awarded CRES #14 to CNCA against the wishes and explicit votes of my community, and against the express recommendation of the Superintendent, she promised she would address the grievously problematic issues with CNCA's proposal regarding their exclusive and inflexible language program.

Indeed, several Board members expressed concerns over CNCA's "one size fits all" so-called bilingual program — which is nothing more than an English Language Learner (ELL) transition program. If I recall, Mr. Zimmer and other members had questions that Ms. Flores unilaterally dismissed by saying that she'd insure CNCA would comply with state law and my community's needs.

I, like many others, waited patiently to see if CNCA's revised charter would reflect Ms. Flores' promise and provide a Mainstream English program option for CRES #14. We even waited for meetings between local parents and the well heeled executives of CNCA to resolve this. Other than a lot of empty promises and marketing phrases, the issue has not been resolved! CNCA's charter for CRES #14 does not contain a Mainstream English program option. This is an outrage!

Let's be clear, I've been a lifelong advocate of bilingual education. I champion dual language immersion and other models. This is not what CNCA offers. Theirs is a transitional program intended to transition Spanish speaking ELLs to all English. Certainly a transitional program like CNCA's may be desirable for a portion of the students that will attend CRES #14. However, when non-educators like CNCA's Hoa Truong insist that their program needs no modification and that it is considered "best practice," I shudder to think that business executives are allowed to discuss pedagogy. Best practice? Perhaps for for monolingual parents of ELL that don't want their children to be biliterate. Is CNCA's program best practice if the child's first language is Mandarin or Tagalog? Is CNCA's program best practice for parents that want their English only child to study in English only? Is CNCA's program best practice for parents who want their Spanish or English speaking child to be biliterate? The obvious answer to all these questions is no.

This begs the question why hasn't CNCA or Ms. Flores addressed our community's needs. I understand that offering another language program might cause CNCA to incur some work, and even might cost them money that they would prefer to channel into their executive salaries, but they should be obligated to serve our community and educate every child! Their take-it or-leave-it language program is unacceptable. As one prominent Echo Parque parent recently said: "You can't tear down our houses, use our money, and build a school that doesn't serve the community!" Those are my sentiments precisely.

I'm appalled at Ms. Flores' mendaciousness in this matter. Ms. Flores hasn't addressed this with her close friends at CNCA. Instead of spending time writing apologetics for awarding CRES #14 to a private operator using outdated and therefore inaccurate census data to justify her rationale, she should be working to insure that CNCA serves the needs of every family in the attendance boundary. Until CNCA offers a Mainstream English program option for English only speakers — which must be in writing in their charter — Ms. Flores remains in contempt of our community.

Ms. Garcia you and the other Board members have the power to correct this transgression. By every account: legal, moral, and ethical, CNCA should be required to serve every child in my community. By allowing them to dodge the requirement as a school in our attendance boundary to provide a Mainstream English program, we allow CNCA to continue their discriminatory practices that smack of exclusivity and elitism. Please take action immediately.


Advocating Public Education and Social Justice




Robert D. Skeels


P.S. After sharing a draft of this letter with parents and activists, they had several suggestions which I feel deserve mention. First was a concern that asking CNCA to simply offer Mainstream English wasn't enough: "might I suggest that you stress a little more of the need for an authentic dual language program - two populations, two languages, all subjects K-8, no transitioning, plus a Tagalog language class should be offered." Many of the more militant parents are shocked that CNCA is intransigent on the language issue altogether. They suggested that the tone of my letter was too passive. One of them wrote me "They are using unfair tactics and should know these parents won't quit until it's been corrected."

LAUSD and CNCA can rest assured that these parents will continue struggling for justice, and I will keep publishing about CNCA's contemptuous treatment of my community.

Dist: Paper copy mailed to LAUSD Board, emailed to individual board members, Superintendent, CNCA executives, print media representatives, CRES14ParaCommunidad list, and select online media outlets.

Open Letter to LAUSD Board Regarding Grave Issues with CNCA's Charter for CRES #14

Class War In Wisconsin: First Hand Accounts

Thursday March 24, 2011, 4:30PM
UTLA Building Room 816*
3303 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Corner of Wilshire and Berendo

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, Lisa Karahalios and Sarah Knopp, were able to go to Madison to witness the struggle firsthand will come together to share their experiences and the lessons learned from the battle for Wisconsin.

A sickout initiated by teachers in Madison, Wisconsin protesting Governor Scott Walker's union- busting "budget repair" bill has sparked a movement of hundreds of thousands of workers, students, and activists converging on the State Capitol over the last few weeks to stand up for workers' rights. These rallies have inspired workers from around the nation and captured the world's attention. Yet in an amazing display of arrogance, Walker and his Republican cronies have pushed through their vicious measures in defiance of the will of the people of Wisconsin.  We cannot let public-sector  workers and unions be scapegoats for an economic crisis caused by banks and billionaires! 

Presenting

Lisa Karahalios
Verdugo Hills High School
Part of the 160 member LA union delegation to Madison

Sarah Knopp
Youth Opportunities Unlimited Alternative High School
University of Wisconsin-Madison alumna

For further reading, check out Sarah Knopp's article about her experiences in Madison and the reports from the ground: http://socialistworker.org/2011/03/16/national-teachers-movement

Please invite all teachers, activists, and friends to join us for a report back and discussion.

(Visit www.socialistworker.org/featured/wisconsin for reports and analysis of this struggle!) 

Sponsored by the Los Angeles Teachers Branch of the International Socialist Organization 
Please call (310) 869-6321 for more information

*Use of UTLA facility does not imply endorsement of views presented.
** Photo: Educators march against Walker's attacks on their unions and rights (Carole Ramsden)

Class War In Wisconsin: First Hand Accounts

Speaking truth to Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Revisionists

I appreciate that PND has done some beneficial things in the Westlake area. However, charter-voucher schools are anathema to both democratic processes and social justice. I don’t care how dedicated individual teachers or even individual board members are, school privatization is still school privatization. Unelected boards are still unelected boards. Lack of community control is still lack of community control. — Robert D. Skeels


The Eastsider LA recently published a piece which discusses the apologetics by the vile school privatization princess, Yolie Flores, for handing CRES #14 over to a corporate charter operator instead of to those that would have run it as a public school. Not surprisingly, CNCA supporters and charter-voucher industry employees basked in their chance to gloat over another public school being privatized. Understood. However, those self-same neoliberal cheerleaders began to engage in some revisionist history regarding CNCA and how the school was handed over. That type of mendaciousness doesn't go without response. So here's the truth to speak to their power.

I'm amused watching CCSA and CNCA employees debate community members here. While I have article deadlines preventing me from dismantling the corporate Yolie Flores' mendacious explanations for handing our public school over to a private operator, I will get around to that some day in the future. We do have a great deal of documented information about CNCS and CNCHS though, all of which casts the pro-CNCA hype and misinformation above in a different light. First, let's look at their exaggerated claims of academics:

Crafty Camino Nuevo Charter Charlatans

Camino Nuevo Staff Admonishing Echo Park Community to "Fact Check?"

One person here stated "Some charter schools don't address the needs of the communities where they teach. But Camino Nuevo isn't one of these." In addition, others have suggested that CNCA and CNCHS have a mechanism for effective community input, although no such mechanism exists. They have Site Based Councils that include parents, but these councils have no actual decision making power — CNCA's charter says they "provide suggestions and recommendations". Indeed, all real decision making for CNCA, like all corporate charters, lies in the hands of their Board of Directors. CNCA's board is UNELECTED by the public and composed exclusively of investment management executives, high powered lawyers, and other wealthy business types. Not one of them is an actual educator, and none of them have been teachers or principals in a K-12 setting. Furthermore, not one of them lives in Echo Park or Historic Filipinotown.

One of the great ironies of CNCA's rhetoric lies in its claims that they teach their students to be "agents of social justice." Meanwhile, the Chairman of CNCA's Board, is a Senior VP of Capital Research Company and a portfolio manager for The Capital Group Companies. This brazen contradiction is discussed at length:

'Social justice hedge fund managers' and 'social justice investment bankers' at Camino Nuevo?

Last time I checked, the lords of finance capital were not big advocates of social justice. If anything they are anathema to it.

CCSA and CNCA supporters have also maintained that community members advocating for public school plan over the corporate charter CNCA somehow don't represent a a majority of the community and have deported themselves in a less than desirable manner.

First, this ignores the fact that our community chose the public school plan by a more than two to one margin.

CNCA supporters can't claim that they didn't have ample opportunities to vote. Not only did they wage a well financed and lengthy campaign to sway the vote, including bringing in the plutocrat funded CCSA proxy, Families That Can, but they also bussed in busloads of people who were likely not from the attendance boundary. For a photograph of one of those busses, and an account of the events at the advisory votes, please see:

Banana Republic PSC Elections Camino Nuevo Corporate Charter Style

More lies, misinformation, and propaganda from wealthy Camino Nuevo Executives

Speaking truth to Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Revisionists

Are School Privatizers Employing Fabian Núñez and Mercury Public Affairs to Champion Charters?

"Private money is paying for key senior staff positions... raising questions about transparency and the direction of reforms in the nation's second-largest school system." — Howard Blume (Los Angeles Times Education Staff Writer)



Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, is in its own words, "a high-stakes public strategy firm," given to "win at all costs" strategies, regardless of how unprincipled the means or the end. Fabian Núñez, a huge school privatization advocate, is a right-wing "Schwarzenegger Democrat" much like DFER's privatization pusher Gloria Romero.

From Gains for Fabian Núñez, Personal and in Business, Spark Talk and Questions

Mr. Núñez left the Assembly in 2008 because of term limits and went directly to Mercury Public Affairs, a Sacramento lobbying and advisory firm with ties to Mr. Schwarzenegger. A former Los Angeles labor official, Mr. Núñez sought a first-year salary of $1 million as he re-entered the private sector, according to a political operative who has known him for more than a decade.

In addition to being connected to district privatizers like the vile Yolie Flores, he and his firm are rumored to have been hired by Los Angeles charter-voucher school corporations. There is also talk that he and his firm may have have had some recent dealings with Camino Nuevo Charter Academy's wealthy Ana Ponce.

Insidiously damaging to public school advocates, Núñez has insider ties and connections to LAUSD because of his former employment.

From 2000-2002, Fabian was government affairs director for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Not content with their own lucrative business, Mercury's managing director Glenn Gritzner is trying to jump on the windfall bandwagon that is school privatization by trying to found a charter-voucher school in Los Angeles called Prosper Academy.

As if all these affiliations with school privatization weren't enough; Michael DuHaime, a managing parter with Mercury, was on Teabagger Chris Christie's education transition team in New Jersey.

Given the "high stakes" nature of the PSC process of handing public schools over to private corporations, it wouldn't be surprising if Mercury Public Affairs, LLC had been brought in to sway LAUSD Board Member votes towards their paying charter clients. The Charter Management Organizations have market share at stake, and highly paid executives demanding annual raises after all.

Are School Privatizers Employing Fabian Núñez and Mercury Public Affairs to Champion Charters?