TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby cactuspete » Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:41 am

Inside the Charter School Empire Prosecutors Say Scammed California for $80M
Trona is shown on a map in this article as one of the authorizing school districts that helped make this scam possible. The article also describes a number loopholes exploited by this charter school, including this one:
Incidentally, the alleged scheme exposed a loophole in how the state awards money for a student’s average daily attendance. The school year is 180 days long, and a student with perfect attendance is supposed to be worth one full unit of funding. Schools lose a share of that funding based on the percentage of days the student misses. But Schrock and McManus found that a student could deliver more than his or her full share of state funding. A student might receive one full unit of funding for having perfect attendance at their traditional school. But by being enrolled for the summer, a student could receive an extra 20 percent funding that went to A3.

https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/inside-the-charter-school-empire-prosecutors-say-scammed-california-for-80m/
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby cactuspete » Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:23 am

Official Indictment Document
Here's the 239 page document. The indictment is mostly just a long list of events, but Trona gets mentioned a few times on pages 46, 50, 51, 57, 75, 76, 108, 154, 158, 159, 165, 183, 184, and 216. The document was not searchable and so I had to scroll and scan to the best of my ability. In other words, I may have missed a few mentions of Trona along the way.
LINK: https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/A3-Education-Charter-Indictment.pdf
Also there's this press release:
https://www.sdcda.org/files/A3%20Education%20Charter%20School%20Fraud%20News%20Release%205-29-19.pdf
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby surfsteve » Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:56 am

I'm not going to read a 239 page document. Can somebody please explain in a nut shell how Trona, a public school is involved in a charter school scam? Does this have anything to do with why their school's principal is so interested in kids going to school that he personally goes to their homes, such as earlier this week and snoops around the neighborhood? The whole thing doesn't make sense to me!
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby shadylady » Sat Jun 15, 2019 6:26 am

surfsteve wrote:I'm not going to read a 239 page document. Can somebody please explain in a nut shell how Trona, a public school is involved in a charter school scam? Does this have anything to do with why their school's principal is so interested in kids going to school that he personally goes to their homes, such as earlier this week and snoops around the neighborhood? The whole thing doesn't make sense to me!

Having skimmed through the material in this thread fairly well, here's my summary of events. Late in 2015, shortly after Keith Tomes became superintendent, TJUSD was asked to sponsor CA STEAM. Charters must be sponsored by actual districts in order to operate. In 2016 TJUSD agreed to sponsor the online charter, despite opposition by the local teachers union. In return TJUSD received "oversight" fees and access to online curriculum. To date something around one million dollars has been received by TJUSD from the charter. The problem is that CA STEAM is part of an organization called A3 Education which operates a network of online charter schools in California. Eleven people at the top of the A3 organization have been accused of various forms of fraud involving fake students, shady bookkeeping practices, etc. Basically they were collecting money from the state for students that did not exist or who actually attended other schools. As of yet there are no convictions, but the legal wheels are grinding and a couple of the defendants face thirty-year prison terms.

Why TJUSD? Small schools are targeted for scams such as this because a half million dollars per year is a lot to a small district. Whereas large districts can't be bothered by such small change. Also large districts are run by people who understand the risks of sponsoring charters. Small districts typically are run by inexperienced and therefore gullible individuals who are easy prey to scam artists.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby CrustyOldFart » Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:18 am

I wonder how many previous superintendents JUST SAID NO! It's a simple enough thing to do.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby MojaveMike » Fri Jun 28, 2019 6:08 am

CrustyOldFart wrote:I wonder how many previous superintendents JUST SAID NO! It's a simple enough thing to do.

Apparently, all of them!
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby recluse » Mon Jul 08, 2019 7:29 am

Hopefully this issue isn't forgotten as a result of the earthquakes. While the quakes damaged buildings, this issue calls into question the integrity of the leaders of the local schools. There are many issues which need to be looked into and I hope that the ball is not dropped when it comes to thoroughly investigating the role played by local leaders.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby wildrose » Sun Jul 14, 2019 7:28 am

Why Won’t the Charter School Industry Acknowledge Its Documented Failures
Trona schools were caught right up in the middle of this scandal:
News broke recently about what may be the single biggest charter school scam ever in which an online charter school organization is alleged to have bilked the state of California for $80 million by enrolling tens of thousands of students into their programs, often without the students’ knowledge, and charging the state for nonexistent education services and bogus expenses related to operating the schools.

This should be seen as a wake up call locally, at the state level, and nationally, but...
The charter industry is feeling a growing anxiety about public opinion turning against their schools. But recent developments both in California and at the national level show that rather than taking up an honest conversation about real reform, the industry is responding to criticism with behind-the-scenes maneuvering and a public relations campaign based on deception.

Our representatives have got to develop strong laws which ensure that charter schools are not scam operations bilking the public out of millions of dollars.
LINK: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/10/why-wont-charter-school-industry-acknowledge-its-documented-failures
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby shadylady » Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:33 am

Epic embezzled millions with 'ghost students,' OSBI says
It's not just a problem here in California. Charter schools must be held accountable. State leaders here in California are moving to reform the charter system and so at least steps are being taken to fix the problem.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby ergot » Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:49 pm

Charter School Case Exposes Big Loopholes in How the State Funds Schools
Lots of tricky bookkeeping and behind-the-scenes manipulation going on here. This was taxpayer funds being stolen by this company.
During a given school year, any one student is supposed to represent one unit of state funding. If he or she attends school for 90 percent of the school days, he or she should receive 90 percent of a full unit of funding. In theory at least, one student should never represent more than one unit of funding. But A3 officials figured out how to get as much as 120 percent funding for a single student, prosecutors say. In the case of A3’s summer school program, students would be un-enrolled from their traditional public school and enrolled into an A3 school during the summer. A student might get 100 percent funding for their traditional school, but then juice an extra 20 percent of funding for an A3 school.

LINK: https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/charter-school-case-exposes-big-loopholes-in-how-the-state-funds-schools/
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