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Sep
5
I’ve yet to read anything that makes me believe market competition, powered 100% by taxpayer money intended to educate public school students, has enhanced the provision of K-12 education.
And today, the reports about Charles Cook, founder of the California Charter Academy, confirm my concerns about money being the motive, rather than education in and of itself:
A San Bernardino County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted the founder of a charter school network that once was the largest in California, charging him with grand theft and misappropriation of public school funds. A Hesperia city councilman also was indicted.
Charles Steven Cox, 59, who built California Charter Academy into a statewide string of 60 campuses serving more than 10,000 students from Yuba City to Chula Vista, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with more than 100 counts of misappropriation of charter school funds and theft of nearly $5.5 million.
Will Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann ever have evidence supportive of such charges against White Hat Management’s David Brennan? I can’t tell you, but read on:
A 2005 state audit alleged that Cox, as head of the charter academy and also owner of a for-profit company that provided management services to the schools, misused millions of dollars in charter school funds to lavishly pay himself, friends and family and to buy luxuries such as spa services and concert tickets.
Dist. Atty. Michael A. Ramos said he launched the investigation after reading the state audit, which he said “turned my stomach a little bit.” He said the “true victims” were the 4,500 students who scrambled to find new schools when the charter schools abruptly closed their doors in August 2004.
Mary Taylor’s been publishing audits that indicate a problems with the charters. But she’s also been the benefactor of their profits. How will she interpret what’s going in California, for herself and her responsibilities?
Let’s not forget another readon why I dislike the profit aspect: because so many of the profits go to politicians.
Hesperia Councilman Tad Honeycutt, the city’s former mayor, was charged with more than 30 counts of misconduct, including grand theft of more than $300,000, stemming from his work at Cox’s for-profit management company.
A little history about the case:
When state officials announced they were investigating the California Charter Academy in 2004, it was the largest charter school operator in California. It was founded by Cox in 1999 and he won charters for four schools — two in the Snowline Joint Unified School District in San Bernardino County, one in Orange Unified in Orange County and a fourth in the Oro Grande Elementary School District in San Bernardino County.
The academy’s campuses mushroomed to more than 50 under the auspices of those three districts. Many of the satellite campuses served adult students.
…
State officials began their inquiry into Victorville-based California Charter Academy in 2004 after a state advisory panel expressed concern about the amount the charter school operator was spending on administrative costs, while paying teachers less than the average in California schools.
The state audit cited concerns about potential legal and ethical conflicts of interest of a number of public officials who served on oversight boards of the California Charter Academy.
One of the officials named in the audit was San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus, a former San Bernardino County supervisor, who accepted $25,450 in contributions for his supervisoral campaign from Cox and his for-profit company while serving on two of the charter academy’s boards, the audit said. Postmus was not named in the indictment.
After being docked $6 million for violations and struggling to meet new state restrictions, the charter operator closed its campuses just before the start of 2004 school year. The following year, state auditors reported that Cox had opened at least 15 schools outside the boundaries of the districts granting the charters, and converted eight private schools to charter schools after the rule changes that made it illegal.
What’s the reaction been?
State schools chief Jack O’Connell said in a statement that the arrests were “a welcome chapter in a very sad story in California’s public education system.” He said state officials were still pursuing recovery of $23 million misspent by the California Charter Academy.
Even California’s charter proponents are pleased with the indictments:
Caprice Young, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Assn., said Cox’s organization was “abusing the system” and the families who enrolled students in their schools.
She said those arrested “were abusing the right to create charter schools, and the changes in the law were not going to stop this.”
Since the collapse of the California Charter Academy, state education officials said they have worked on conflict-of-interest rules for charter schools and implemented annual auditing requirements, as well as regulations to make sure students’ records are maintained in the event of a school closure.
I could go on like this, but I recommend people read the L.A. Times article themselves and comment.
Here’s how the state must spend its resources now to clean-up Cox’s mess.
UPDATE:
Looks like the Cleveland Scene had the same thought as I did about the implications of the case in California for what Ohio AG Marc Dann might pursue against David Brennan and White Hat.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:00 pm September 5th, 2007 in Politics
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One Response to “[update] For-profit charter CEO faces 100+ count indictment, $1 million bail”
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JILL: “Mary Taylor’s been publishing audits that indicate a problems with the charters. But she’s also been the benefactor of their profits. How will she interpret what’s going in California, for herself and her responsibilities?”
ME: Uhh…she won’t. Mary Taylor is an actual CPA, so she won’t be “interpreting” anything when she releases an audit…numbers don’t lie. California doesn’t mean squat in Ohio…