solidaridad: Koch Brothers

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

May 12, 2015

Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ
Cell: 323-535-9930

DEFLATE GATE AT LAUSD AS RODRIGUEZ SUPPORTER GARCIA TRIES TO SQUASH RODRIGUEZ AUDIT SHOWING BAD BUSINESS. BAD BOOKS AND VIOLATIONS – AUDIT DISAPPEARS, AGAIN!!

Los Angeles – Bennett Kayser, Board member of the second largest school district in the nation, has balanced three, $7 billion dollar budgets affecting 660,000 students, their families and those who serve them.

The report shows that Kayser’s Board District 5 challenger Ref Rodriguez couldn’t keep one school, with only 100 students, balanced for nine years (9) straight! This “insolvent” bad apple is Lakeview Charter, part of the Rodriguez/PUC charter chain. Ham-handed attempts by Rodriguez’s supporter to hide the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) audit of the Rodriguez-run PUC Lakeview Charter School, and affiliated enterprises, have been exposed.

The audit became a hot political football to be deflated by Rodriguez’s ideological ally. Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times first reported last week on the surreptitious attempts to hide the facts: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-puc-charter-audit-20150428-story.html

Under extraordinary circumstances, the independent audit of Rodriguez’s charter was withheld from the public, diverted into a “closed session” of the Tuesday, May 12th Board meeting and shoved under “attorney-client privilege” in an attempt to bury the damning report. The audit was also withheld from the usual public posting on the OIG’s website. Though still not posted, the audit can be viewed here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2070211/puc-lakeview-charter-academy-audit-4-23-2015-1.pdf

The Inspector General's report lays out how Rodriguez's school violated child abuse requirements, the State’s Education Code, State labor rules, best practices, and even its own charter, multiple times. On page three the report highlights “...the fact that for nine straight years of school operations, the Lakeview Charter Academy had poor financial results, and was fiscally insolvent.” (aka bankrupt!)

Perhaps out of fear that the scathing audit would trigger calls for additional investigations and oversite of Rodriguez’s schools, the topic was dropped from the Board’s Closed Session agenda for May 12, 2015.

The fact the PUC audit was pulled from the Board’s closed session agenda is proof-positive that games are being played by political allies to hide poor management, if not serious violations by Rodriguez and his executive team. What the PUC?

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Paid for by Re-Elect Bennett Kayser for School Board 2015 - General – 419 North Larchmont Blvd., #37, Los Angeles, CA 90004 – ID #1375891 – More information available at Ethics.lacity.org – Bennett2015.com – (323) 535-9930

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

CCSA's Ref Rodriguez campaign now linked to ALEC, Kochs, SFER and DFER

April 21, 2015

Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ
Cell: 323-535-9930

HEY NEW YORKERS, WELCOME TO OUR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD RACE, NOW FOLLOW OUR LOCAL ETHICS AND TRANSPARENCY RULES!!

Los Angeles – New York money continues to attempt to buy influence in the Los Angeles Unified School Board race in District 5. Out-of-state “Reform, Inc.” money still pours in against local teacher and current Board member Bennett Kayser. One NYC billionaire was good for $450,000 as of December. Now, a front group from NYC linked to the hard-core Republican super PAC known as ALEC and the Koch brothers has inserted money in our school board race.

“Students for Education Reform” (SFER) has landed with boots on the ground, paid boots. (Whether they were flown in is another question.) SFER has spent $20,120.80 so far. Just two weeks in town and SFER has already violated our local ethics and transparency requirements.

SFER has failed to follow both California and the City of Los Angeles’ election ethics rules for mail communications. They are required to include a disclaimer specifying the name, address, a registered ID number and to inform the public who paid for the material and that additional information is available at ethics.lacity.org. Once again Rodriguez supporters are circumventing the law, violating local ethics rules and hiding out-of-state billionaire backers.

The following is SFER’s non-disclosure, “dis-closure” found on their mail: “Paid for by Students for Education Reform Action Network and not authorized by candidate(s) or any committee controlled by the candidate(s).”

Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform? (by George Joseph in the Nation)

SFER has received $1.6 million from Education Reform Now, whose PAC, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), shelled out $1 million to attack the Chicago Teachers Union. DFER worked with the Koch brothers and ALEC to push Proposition 32, which if passed, would have blocked labor unions from using automatic payroll deductions for political purposes. Though SFER claims neutral territory, its motives are laid bare by its rallying around the funding of charter schools, the issue of limiting tenure, and its strict focus on testing. The testing corporations and charter school CEOs might agree with hedge funder and DFER founder Whitney Tilson’s explanation for his interest in education: “Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172174/astroturf-activism-who-behind-students-education-reform

Nothing says democracy, education Reform, Inc.-style more than a trip to Walmart and valet service!