California: Beware of “Start Up” Charter Schools

2009-03-18

Richard Moore

What makes the charter school movement so tricky is that, using the “start-up” charter school model, it may leave the playing field wide open for a swindler with ambition. According to Sue St. Denis, a Los Angeles lawyer who helped lead a grass roots opposition to a start-up charter school, “The charter rules are so loose that it doesn’t take much to establish a school and qualify for state funds.”

Mike Hazelton, TIP Academy’s director and sole controller, has been universally deceitful to his public, to TIP’s hosting school district and its students. TIP Academy chartered schools in three Southern California communities, all left in financial ruins in the end after two years. An audit concluded that Hazelton gave himself astronomical raises and bonuses which were unapproved and just recently uncovered. 
Charter schools amount to a deregulation of education. In every case, from savings & loans to Enron to the financial collapse itself, deregulation has been a means to enable looting. 
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http://www.examiner.com/x-5067-LA-School-District-Examiner~y2009m3d16-California-Beware-of-education-recovery-claims-by-start-up-charter-schools

California: Beware of Education Recovery Claims by “Start Up” Charter Schools

Monday 16 March 2009

by: Ericha Parks  |  Visit article original @ The San Francisco Examiner

    Prior to the extreme financial crisis facing our education system in California, charter schools were a somewhat unknown commodity. It seems that the public’s interest in charter schools has increased dramatically, particularly in California where the education budget crisis forces us to look at other options.

    It seems now that even President Obama is calling for states to lift limits on charter schools. Last week, Obama spoke about his support of charter school reform. “I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place,” the president said.

    In time, we’re bound to hear more of the president’s precise plan to reform education by implementing merit pay and charter school reform. For now, we look to what we know about charter schools to examine if they could be an ideal solution for California.

    Some entire school districts have seen the advantages of converting their schools to charter schools. This is not just limited to low-performing school districts as in the case of Chester-Upland in Pennsylvania, the model for district-wide charter schools. Charter schools are not solely created for low-performing schools, however the theory is that charters will instill choice and competition in the public school system whereby enhancing the performance of all schools.

    Schools chartered within the Los Angeles Unified School District seek to distance itself from the school district’s failing record. Likewise, some school districts are looking a bit deeper for benefits resulting from chartering the schools in its districts. The allure is the flexibility from traditional public school regulations. In addition, it would free school districts from the choices imposed by teachers’ unions, giving the charter schools autonomy in making decisions about hiring, salaries and tenure.

    School districts can be the chartering agency, which seems to be one of the two more likely supported renderings of a charter. There are two types of distinctly dissimilar genesis of charter schools. Some charters begin as public schools that convert to a charter, called “conversion schools.” The other sort of charter school is called a “start-up” charter school.

    What makes the charter school movement so tricky is that, using the “start-up” charter school model, it may leave the playing field wide open for a swindler with ambition. According to Sue St. Denis, a Los Angeles lawyer who helped lead a grass roots opposition to a start-up charter school, “The charter rules are so loose that it doesn’t take much to establish a school and qualify for state funds.”

    Indeed initiating a charter petition is simple, a circulation of a petition to the targeted community, which is then submitted to a chartering agency. Its petition must contain 16 specific elements that describe the school’s structure. School boards are expected to grant the charter unless it does not meet certain criteria as required by the charter’s petition as provided in California Education Code 47600 et seq.

    Start-up charter schools should be more closely watched by California citizens, as learned in the case of a school district in Palos Verdes Estates, California, located in a suburb of Los Angeles. Theory Into Practice Academy, Inc. (“Tip Academy”), made its petition to charter a school in Palos Verdes in late 2007. From the start, it had markedly low support from the residents of Palos Verdes mostly due to its savvy and sophisticated citizens.

    However, some citizens in the community had succumb to TIP Academy’s promise of “differentiated teaching,” the practice of using lesson plans for mixed-ability children or gifted children. Many of the parents who did support TIP Academy believed TIP’s claim that higher achieving students were not getting the proper attention attending their traditional public schools in Palos Verdes. TIP Academy exploited many parent’s idealism of their child’s aptitude, which did garner a small level of support within this affluent, high achieving community. However, in the end, facing staunch opposition by the community at a looming April 19 public hearing, on April 14, 2008, TIP Academy withdrew its petition in Palos Verdes in lieu of correcting the deficiencies in its petition.

    Petition deficiencies are not the end of the story, it turned out to be (pardon the pun) the tip of the iceberg. Certainly a charter school would extract resources away from the other local public schools, which were already performing at the highest standards, but the real outrage behind TIP Academy is even deeper.

    St. Denis, who helped lead the opposition of the TIP Academy in Palos Verdes, does recognize that there is a place for a charter school. “What I took away from my involvement in this was that charter schools definitely have a place and serve an important community purpose.” However, in the case of TIP, St. Denis ardently opposed the charter school in part because a charter school was not necessary and could not offer anything different. But more specifically, TIP Academy’s petition was cluttered with flagrant defects and more alarming was the discovery about the man behind the TIP Academy, Mike Hazelton.

    Mike Hazelton, TIP Academy’s director and sole controller, has been universally deceitful to his public, to TIP’s hosting school district and its students. TIP Academy chartered schools in three Southern California communities, all left in financial ruins in the end after two years. An audit concluded that Hazelton gave himself astronomical raises and bonuses which were unapproved and just recently uncovered. TIP Academy’s schools hemorrhaged money under his watch. Encinitas Union School District shut down TIP Academy in August after an investigation found that Hazelton, and his wife Deborah, violated conflict of interest laws and mismanaged its finances, including school lunch programs, school supplies and other vendors linked back to Hazelton.

    Hazelton and the TIP Academy is now rumored to be attempting to open a charter school in San Marcos, California. This will be on top of news that on March 11, 2009, San Marcos’ Texas Preparatory School charter will be shut down after received ratings of its academic performance status of “unacceptable,” the state’s lowest rating in 2006, 2007 and 2008.