It's unconscionable that the charter sector still places revenue streams over student needs

"…it's unconscionable that the charter sector still places revenue streams over student needs."—rds #EdReform #schoolchoice #lausd pic.twitter.com/YygjAwvfY8

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) November 29, 2016

It's unconscionable that the charter sector still places revenue streams over student needs

LA Progressive: Ref Rodriguez—What the PUC Is Going on Here?

“The L.A. County district attorney’s office indicated Monday that it expected another, separate probe to be conducted by L.A. Unified’s inspector general.” — LA Times

Ref Rodriguez: What the PUC Is Going on Here?

In the LA Progressive piece What the PUC Is Going on Here? Hans Johnson and Hector Huezo of the East Area Progressive Democrats take a look at Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's myriad financial "mishaps." These include: the fishy max campaign contributions from employees paid minimum wage; the eye-opening audit of PUC's Lakeview finances; and passing mention of the FoodGate money laundering scheme that saw PUC employees self-dealing. The latter issue has become such a scandal that now has both the The L.A. County District Attorney and the L.A. Unified Inspector General are investigating PUC corporate officers including Jacqueline Elliot and Ref Rodriguez. Rodriguez was PUC's Chief Executive Officer at the time the Better 4 You contract was awarded, and has been their Corporate Board Treasurer ever since. Rodriguez has shamelessly promoted profiteering on behalf of the burgeoning corporate charter school sector for years.

LA Progressive: Ref Rodriguez—What the PUC Is Going on Here?

Daily Censored: Why won’t Ref Rodriguez tell the truth?

First published April 22, 2015 on Daily Censored

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Reporters, parents, and community activists have been trying to get the facts about wealthy charter industry executive Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez. They have called, emailed, and even asked Rodriguez campaign workers at their doorsteps simple, but important questions. They are being ignored.

Q1: It’s known that Rodriguez attended Catholic schools, did he ever attend a public school?

Q2: We know Rodriguez has worked for charter schools and Catholic schools. Has he ever worked at a public school? Volunteered at one?

Q3: Lacking public school experience he wants to be elected to our school board. Will Rodriguez ever open up his charter chain’s board to public elections?

Curious? Ask him yourself. Call (310) 968-5729

In addition to dodging the simple questions above, Rodriguez never disclosed that his California Charter School Association (CCSA) boasted “30% profit margins… with 20-30% lead generation and 20-50% close ratios.” He won’t discuss his relationship with the secretive Gülen cult charter network. Rodriguez has avoided discussing how much money his charter chain spends on advertising instead of students. That’s a lot of secrets! Los Angeles Unified School District students deserve honest, forthcoming school board members, not ones with so many things to hide.

Daily Censored: Why won’t Ref Rodriguez tell the truth?

K-12NN Wire: How is CCSA's Ref Rodriguez hiding his billionaire and ideologue contributors?

First published April 20, 2015 on K-12 News Network

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“In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. The voucher advocates, who are very powerful and funded by right-wing foundations and families, recognize that the word voucher has been successfully discredited by enlightened Americans who believe in the public sector. So they’ve resorted to two strategies. First, they no longer use the word “vouchers.” They’ve adopted the seemingly benign phrase “school choice,” but they are still voucher advocates.” — Jonathan Kozol

CCSA SuperPAC April 2015 Form 460 by Robert D. Skeels

How does California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) hide the billionaires, fringe right-wingers, and extreme ideologues contributing to charter profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez and neoliberal school privatizer Tamar Galatzan's Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) campaigns? Hide those contributions by laundering them from one SuperPAC, to another SuperPAC (CCSA Advocates), to another SuperPAC (Parent Teacher Alliance in Support of Rodriguez, Galatzan, and Vladovic for School Board 2015, Sponsored by CCSA Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee).

Although they'll be able to hide the contributors until many months after the election, you can be sure it's the usual suspects supporting their fellow school privatization profiteers. Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, Philip Anschutz, and others are names they are likely hiding from the public.

Maybe the vile Ref Rodriguez can use those tens of millions of corporate dollars to make more ads mocking Bennett Kayser's disability.

K-12NN Wire: How is CCSA's Ref Rodriguez hiding his billionaire and ideologue contributors?

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?

We see students… Ref Rodriguez and CCSA see 5 x 30% profit margins

We see students. @drRefRodriguez and @CALcharters see 5 x 30% profit margins. http://t.co/DGcA6oM8NY #LAUSD #edreform pic.twitter.com/dmopTKp9Gd

— RDSkeels4Schoolboard (@RDSkeels4LAUSD) April 3, 2015

We see students… Ref Rodriguez and CCSA see 5 x 30% profit margins

PROFITS! Why Ref Rodriguez and his CCSA covet the LAUSD Board Seat

“The education industry represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control... represents the largest market opportunity... the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada.” — Montgomery Securities prospectus quoted in Jonathan Kozol’s The Big Enchilada

Most of the time the charter school industry's corporate leadership is able to craft their messaging so as to distract the populace from the real purposes undergirding their project. Occasionally, someone in their sector goes off script and tells the truth about what chartering is all about. Usually it's those in the sphere of finance capital—gleefully celebrating how lucrative the charter school industry has been for them. The Forbes piece, Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express To Fat City , is an excellent example of this. Sometimes individuals in the neoliberal corporate education reform camp spill the proverbial beans. Industry proselytizers like Andy Smarick and Paul Vallas have been candidly honest about charters discriminating against Students with Disabilities (SWD), and charters eschewing veteran teachers, respectively. Revelations of the dark secrets behind the charter industry's insatiable drive for profits also shine cleansing light on a current local issue—namely the attempts of charter industry profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez, and his California Charter Schools Association's (CCSA) campaign to capture the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education seat for District 5. One of Rodriguez's fellow CCSA profiteers inadvertently provided incontrovertible evidence of why the school privatization camp spent over three quarters of a million dollars in the primary election alone.

A Twitter follow from a name I recognized as a marginal player in the corporate education reform camp sparked curiosity. A moment spent checking their LinkedIn profile yielded a veritable gold mine of information unequivocally proving the charter industry's, and particularly CCSA's, drive for profits comes at the expense of children and community. The prose from their profile says it all:

Co-Founder/VP - School Services & Products
California Charter Schools Association
July 2003 – July 2007 (4 years 1 month)
Launched and operated association services and products division providing financial, insurance, special education, and other member services that broke-even the first year and generated 30% profit margins in subsequent years--with 20-30% lead generation and 20-50% close ratios.

Profit margins, lead generation, and close ratios… refreshing honesty from an industry that claims it "puts kids first."

Like the hedge fund managers discussed in the Forbes piece above, platitudes about helping kids are quickly subsumed by talk of plentiful profits, revenues, and business opportunities when charter school executives talk among themselves. This focus on profits drives Ref Rodriguez's CCSA charter school industry trade association to eliminate any political opposition, and also explains their unhinged viciousness and ruthlessness towards the Honorable Bennett Kayser, our sitting LAUSD Board member, who has had the temerity to oppose charter schools placing greed over student need. Let's look more closely at CCSA's business dealings, how they harm students enrolled in charters, how they harm students enrolled in public schools, and then return to the implications of the May 19, 2015 General Municipal Election in Los Angeles.

Charters convert public funds into private profits

California Charter Schools Association's (CCSA) business ventures were so outrageously profitable, they drew in an array of corporations, privately held companies, and large foundations wanting a share. Firms like EdTec, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Charter Impact, Inc., and Discover Re (The Travelers Indemnity Company) jumped in CCSA's profits pool. Longtime school privatization advocates The Walton Family Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation loomed large. Seeing an opportunity to exploit public education dollars nationally, the CCSA, Walton Family Foundation, Travelers, and Gallagher & Co. launched School Risk Management, LLC, which later became known as CharterSafe/PrivateSafe. Here is an excerpt of a 2007 press release from one of the corporate entities involved in this deal.

"In 2007 as a response to the growing need for appropriate insurance for charter schools nationally, Gallagher partnered with the California Charter School Association JPA and the Walton Family Foundation to form a risk management and insurance program for charter schools. This program has been known as the CharterSafe program. Recently the California Charter School Association JPA began promoting their self insured pool program as CharterSafe. In an effort it differentiate the national program from the California based JPA program, we have decided to change our program name. Going forward, we will be known as the Charter First Insurance Program."

Note the prominence of the right-wing-reactionary Walton Family Foundation in the press release. 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. Rodriguez was a CCSA Board member from 2005 to 2009, while Ponce currently serves as the CCSA Board secretary. Like all 501c3 "non-profits", the CCSA Board is unelected, and, to all intents and purposes, is unaccountable to anyone other than its charter executive membership and private funders. CCSA's public funders (the taxpayers) have no voice in the 501c3 corporation's affairs. Its private investors get seats on the board. Known for their aversion to public education, and their exploitation of working class families, the Walton Family Foundation is CCSA's biggest funder. In 2010 they showered the CCSA charter school industry association with a staggering $3,940,652.00. Annual investments like that are nothing when one considers the return of investment in the forms of profitable finance capital spinoffs like CharterSafe, LLC.

The avaricious insurance executive… ahem, "education entrepreneur" who oversaw growth of the hugely profitable CCSA CharterSafe enterprise, then launched his own consulting firm to skim more money from the trough of public funds. Funds which became entirely unregulated when the charter school industry was created by corporate interests in the nineteen-nineties. Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's revenue hungry PUC charter school chain is a client of that selfsame consulting firm.

The money making aspect of chartering is so predominant, that peripheral concerns like pupils, pedagogy, or populace are not part of the discussion. Here is a LinkedIn endorsement for our CharterSafe protagonist by the Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools:

"Ted is one of the most creative people I know. He is an excellent partner because he always makes sure the business relationship benefits both parties. I have introduced him to our customers, and they always come away impressed."

I doubt many think of children, schoolteachers, or education when they see phrases like "business relationship", or "introduced him to our customers", but that's what the charter school project is all about—business. Big business at that.

The charter industry's profits-first agenda hurts it's own students

The CCSA counts 14 of the schools comprising Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's charter empire among its membership. As mentioned above, CCSA and its business partners profit from selling financial products and services to its corporate charter members. Additionally, just like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CCSA charges dues. Their formula is based on enrollment. Of issue is whether these corporate charters can demonstrate that the dues they pay to their trade association come from somewhere other than taxpayer funds intended for students. Rodriguez's PUC has paid well over a hundred thousand dollars into the CCSA slush fund, which in turn is used for political lobbying to increase charter industry profits. Those funds, regardless if they came straight out of taxpayer pockets, or are front end investments from billionaire ideologues like Walton Penner, would be better spent on students. Yet as we saw above, when it comes between profits and pupils, the charter industry always prioritizes the former. The "non-profit" designation of the charter industry is simply a tax status, indicating they don't have shareholders. The 501c3 "non-profit shells" of these organization merely serve as a fronts to the myriad businesses they feed education funds to. Real estate, leasing, insurance, administration, and many more lucrative industries benefit from this arrangement.

Charter executives make sure they partake of the profits too. I remember interviewing a young person who had worked for a wholly owned subsidiary of the Green Dot Charter Corporation. They told me they had lost any illusions that they were a "non-profit" when they saw Green Dot's Alma Vivian Marquez roll up in a brand new Porsche Cayenne. A sampling of Los Angeles corporate charter school CEO salaries is eye opening, especially when one realizes that they all work for schools with a tiny fraction of the student population that the public school district serves:

Charter Chain	Executive	Total Compensation	Form 990, Part VII§A
Celerity	Vielka McFarlane	$438,730.00	2012
Alliance	Judy Burton	$330,400.00	2012
Aspire	James R. Willcox	$293,687.00	2012
Green Dot	Marco Petruzzi	$279,478.00	2013
Camino Nuevo	Ana Ponce	$230,811.00	2012

While representatives of the lucrative charter industry claim they run public schools, entities tasked with using precise legal definitions all say otherwise. This includes the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the California Court of Appeals, and the National Labor Relations Board, all of which are on record stating that charter schools are not public entities. The most authoritative framing of this issue comes from the U.S. Census Department:

"A few "public charter schools" are run by public universities and municipalities. However, most charter schools are run by private nonprofit organizations and are therefore classified as private."

Like the rest of the private sector, the charter industry must continually increase market share in order to maintain profitability. One of the ways they do this is through advertising. Rodriguez's corporate charter schools squander untold amounts of taxpayer funds on advertising in pursuit of growing market share, and hence increased profits for the business interests associated with his schools and his CCSA trade association. The photo of a ubiquitous PUC advertisement below was taken by the author. Our tax dollars are being leveraged in order to secure more of our tax dollars to fuel the revenue hungry machine that is the charter school industry. Obviously this is of no concern to profit minded charter executives like Rodriguez, but those funds could, and should, be spent in the classroom for student learning, instead of growing market share for the burgeoning charter school sector. Ironically these corporate charter school chains frequently claim they have long "waiting lists," so why the need to advertise? In a word the whole waiting list myth is another part of their marketing scheme.

Despite having additional resources invested in them by billionaire foundations, not to mention their being able to control their student populations through selective enrollment, attrition, and outright discrimination against Students with Disabilities (SWD), PUC charter schools, while profitable, haven't done much for students. For example, in 2013 students from Rodriguez’s Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars (ECALS) took the California State University (CSU) entrance exams. Half of those taking the test failed to test proficient in either mathematics or English. The fifty percent of Rodriguez's students that failed had to take remedial high school classes.

Other corporate charter school chains, like Alliance, Camino Nuevo, and Green Dot, have had years where up to ninety-eight percent of their "graduates" failed to test proficient in either mathematics or English. If the tradeoff for public control and oversight of our education dollars was supposedly to accommodate these so-called "high performing," privately managed entities, then we have been duped. The only area where charter schools have performed well is that of funneling precious education funding into the coffers of the corporate interests they serve.

The charter industry's profits-first agenda hurts public school students

I recently wrote in response to a charter chain getting away with defrauding the public for millions of dollars.

"One cringes thinking of all the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) public school libraries that could have been reopened with those millions "missing" from the privately managed Magnolia Gülen Charters."

This sentiment holds true across the board. For every education dollar that winds up in the hands of hedge fund managers, business bankers, and corporate executives, there is a public school child suffering from the inequity of a system being systematically starved of resources. In March of 2015 The Center for Popular Democracy released a groundbreaking report entitled Risking Public Money: California Charter School Fraud. The report meticulously details tens of millions of dollars in fraud stemming from this essentially unregulated industry, and suggests that "[b]ased on conservative estimates, California stands to lose more than $100 million to charter school fraud in 2015." As a community organizer I constantly hear parents talk about overcrowded classrooms and lack of resources. It is incomprehensible that at the same time our neighborhood public schools are in desperate need, our community's funds are wantonly, recklessly, and even fraudulently squandered by the opaque structures of the privately managed charter school industry.

In response to our public schools being short changed because of the myriad shortcomings of the lucrative charter school industry, the Honorable Jackie Goldberg founded the Transparency, Equity, and Accountability in Charter Schools (TEAch) organization a few years ago. Everyone should support TEACh, even families with children enrolled in privately managed charter schools. Their mission statement: "An organization working to ensure that charter schools are Transparent, Equitable, and held Accountable for their practices."

Aside from budget woes created by the charter sector syphoning our education dollars off into corporate coffers, another area where public school students are most hurt by charter industry's profits-first agenda is that of special education. The 2008 Andy Smarick piece alluded to earlier outlines how the charter industry deliberately avoids enrolling Students with Disabilities (SWD) to save money and uses that additional financial burden to bankrupt the public school district. His words echo the neoliberal ideology of eliminating the public commons in favor of a profitable, private sector:

"As chartering increases its market share in a city, the district will come under growing financial pressure. The district, despite educating fewer and fewer students, will still require a large administrative staff to process payroll and benefits, administer federal programs, and oversee special education. With a lopsided adult-to-student ratio, the district's per-pupil costs will skyrocket." [emphasis mine]

As a society we must stand against the exploitation of our most vulnerable. Frankly, any school getting public funding should be obligated legally, ethically, and morally to educate every child. If it is too difficult for the charter school industry to stop prioritizing corporate greed over special education need, then there needs to be discussions of shutting down their industry. Los Angeles School Board members who have attempted to enforce these obligations on charters have been savaged by the CCSA. Bennett Kayser's principled stand against the lucrative Aspire Charter Corporation is notable. Depending on which source one cites, Aspire either served a negligible number of SWD, or none at all at the time of Kayser's opposition to their charter renewal:

"But a look at area special education programs provides insight into the types of students served by Aspire. ¶ El Dorado's special ed program does not serve a single visual or hearing impaired student nor students with multiple disabilities, orthopedic or brain injuries, according to state reports. L.A. Unified's program serves many of these disabilities, requiring highly-specialized, costly care." (KPCC, April 16, 2014)

This is unacceptable. We already saw James R. Willcox's compensation package above. Children in both the public school system, and the privately managed charter school sector, deserve better than to have the funds we alloted them diverted into private hands.

The billionaire backed CCSA campaign for the May 19, 2015 School Board election

With prodigious profits for themselves and their investors at stake, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) launched a scorched earth campaign to get one of their longtime industry operatives, Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez, elected. Dr. Andrew Thomas, the third place finisher in the primary election for the LAUSD District 5 seat, wrote the following commentary regarding the ideologically charged billionaires supporting CCSA's SuperPAC for Rodriguez:

Why are out-of-district billionaires such as Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Jim Walton of the Wal-Mart founding family, and local philanthropist [sic] Eli Broad spending over a $1 million in this school board race?

In defense of their profits, Rodriguez and his CCSA trade group launched the most deplorable and dishonest political campaign in recent memory. One lie and innuendo packed CCSA mailer attacking the Honorable Bennett Kayser was so repugnant that it saw Kayser's fellow board member, the Honorable Dr. George McKenna, calling the CCSA out for being "racially inflammatory". Rodriguez's CCSA trying to paint their opposition as racist is no small irony, given that the CCSA was founded by bigoted nativist Steve Poizner. Another series of Rodriguez's CCSA attacks mocked Kayser's disability. Kayser, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, has been one of the strongest advocates for Student with Disabilities (SWD) the district has had in years. As discussed above, the charter school industry sees SWD as an impediment to their profits, so Kayser's standing up for those students has made him CCSA's biggest target.

With almost unlimited funding at their disposal, Rodriguez and his fellow CCSA profiteers look to seize the LAUSD District 5 Board of Education seat and use it as a means to increase charter market share, proliferate profits, and eliminate any oversight interfering with those first two goals. An important question we should be asking ourselves is why can charter industry executives run for our public school board, but no member of the public can ever run for the boards of their charter school empires?

If you live in LAUSD District 5, I implore you to demonstrate to profiteer Rodriguez and his CCSA trade association that our community values pupils over profits by voting for Bennett Kayser in the May 19, 2015 General Municipal Election.

PROFITS! Why Ref Rodriguez and his CCSA covet the LAUSD Board Seat

Ravitch reader offers best response to CCSA and Ref Rodriguez's attacks on Bennett Kayser's disability

“SWD [Students with Disabilities] are disproportionately under-enrolled at charter schools” — Office of the Independent Monitor

"LG" is a frequent commenter on the distinguished Dr. Diane Ravitch's site. Here LG offers the best response I've read to date on California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) and Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's vile campaign against Students with Disabilities (SWD) and their champion on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board, the Honorable Bennett Kayser:

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“When criticizing a person who happens to have a debilitating medical issue, I would think opponents would have more class than to blur the lines by presenting ANYTHING that could be construed as discriminatory and hateful. Defending this is akin to saying, “Well, I didn’t mean to insult your condition–I was merely trying to insult you in order to preserve your dignity. YOU were the one who misconstrued my meaning.” Sorry, you watch your Ps and Qs when you are refuting actions–you don’t imply physical impairment in the process. That’s personal…but by all means, defend this heinous act as “creative and clever.”

B. S.

On a stick.”

Ravitch reader offers best response to CCSA and Ref Rodriguez's attacks on Bennett Kayser's disability

Deplorable California Charter Schools Association still using Dr. George McKenna's name and likeness some 27 days after he demanded they stop!

“I reject the statements, accusations and positions promoted by this group as it relates to Board Member Kayser, whom I strongly support for re-election.”—Honorable Dr. George McKenna

The above screen shot was captured on February 28, 2015.

Following California Charter Schools Association's (CCSA) initial round of vile attacks on the Honorable Bennett Kayser, the principled Dr. George McKenna demanded that CCSA's endorsement of him be withdrawn and that his name and likeness not be used in any subsequent campaign material. McKenna had never requested the revenue hungry trade industry's endorsement in the first place. McKenna demanded the CCSA stop trying to associate him with their sordid and scurrilous campaigning at least as early as February 1, 2015, meaning an entire month has elapsed. Yet the CCSA is still capitalizing on using McKenna's name, not just without his authorization, but in reckless and wanton defiance of his express wishes.

“I reject the statements, accusations and positions promoted by this group as it relates to Board Member Kayser, whom I strongly support for re-election.”—Honorable Dr. George McKenna

I spoke to a high-level McKenna official earlier this week who said they've made numerous attempts to get CCSA to stop its unauthorized use of McKenna's name and likeness, but all their requests have been ignored. I was told that they have even tried to reach out to the baleful Political Director for the CCSA Advocates SuperPAC, Carlos Marquez, but CCSA knows they're only accountable to the ideologically charged billionaires funding them.

It's not too hard to imagine an organization that was founded by bigoted nativist Steve Poizner would tokenize board members of color for their execrable political aims, but this goes beyond the bounds of even the dirtiest of campaigning. CCSA's insatiable greed, coupled with their entire lack of ethics, is revolting. Anyone who remembers the vile and vicious lies they told about McKenna last year understands. Los Angeles school board member Steve Zimmer wrote the following:

Then, last summer CCSA came after Dr. George McKenna with a vengeance. With lies, filth and distortion they tried to mar the career of one of the most beloved educators ever to teach and lead schools in South Los Angeles. The effort failed and McKenna won handily. We thought we had seen the worst.

Maybe if the CCSA would spend less time mocking the Honorable Bennett Kayser's disabilities and more time helping Students with Disabilities, they'd have a shred of credibility. Of course that would mean putting pupils before profits, the antithesis of CCSA's raison d'être.

Charter industry profiteer Ref Rodriguez is a card carrying member of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA).

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Dr. George McKenna—principled. Unlike @CCSAAdvocates @drRefRodriguez & @JohnShallman http://t.co/chZOFHNBRA #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/CuwmbcCVYT

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) March 1, 2015

Deplorable California Charter Schools Association still using Dr. George McKenna's name and likeness some 27 days after he demanded they stop!

Los Angeles activist Muffy Sunde on CCSA's vile ableist attacks on SWD and Bennett Kayser

“low incidence disabilities enrolled at LAUSD charters are significantly under-represented” — Office of the Independent Monitor

Long-time Los Angeles activist Muffy Sunde is a prominent member of Radical Women. She offered the following on California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) and Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez's vile campaign against Students with Disabilities (SWD) and their champion on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board, the Honorable Bennett Kayser:

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One main point here is that charter schools are mostly specifically exempted from the federal requirements to provide access to education to all regardless of disability--and they are campaigning that all schools should be able to roll back that, because they envision a school system like New Orleans, which are all publicly funded private schools and/or military academies where profits are great but still non profit. My belief is that, with the support of the Obama administration, their target now is special education.  

Their campaign is disgusting and pandering--and I suggest that folks who are close to Kayser urge him to issue a really direct response, defending access for the physically and otherwise disabled, advocating MORE, not less resources for the most needy, and then condemning this attack.  Just urging the bad guys to "say it to my face" is really nada.

Something like "I stand for  ......., what do you stand for"....besides belittling the disabled that is"  My, admittedly limited, knowledge of Kayser, is that he won't do that, but it is worth a try.  Does he demand that the rich (like, you know, Steve Soboroff and Eli Broad) pay more in taxes to fund quality public schools? That would be a campaign that could develop some momentum.

In solidarity,

Muffy

Los Angeles activist Muffy Sunde on CCSA's vile ableist attacks on SWD and Bennett Kayser

Tell @CALCharters that ableism is discrimination, a violation of civil rights!

Ref Rodriguez’s California Charter School Association (CCSA) backers have created a vicious attack campaign centered around the Honorable Bennett Kayser’s Parkinson’s disease, questioning his ability to continue serving the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Why? Because Kayser champions the rights of Students with Disabilities (SWD). What is CCSA’s record on SWD? The Office of the Independent Monitor finds that “SWD are disproportionately under-enrolled at charter schools”, and that “low incidence disabilities enrolled at LAUSD charters are significantly under-represented”. In other words, there’s a clear connection between the way Rodriguez and the CCSA attack candidates with disabilities, and the way the they treat children with disabilities. That’s unacceptable.

Shame on Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez and California Charter Schools Association

Tell @CALCharters that ableism is discrimination, a violation of civil rights!