Mike Simpson writes:
Governor 's Workload
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once again showed his long-term commitment to charter schools in California by signing Senate Bill (SB) 658, which contains around $100 million of public funds for privately operated charter schools.
It has been a very busy summer for the governor with the budget crisis and all. Getting caught up with his tremendous backlog of legislative bills that require his signature, he may have missed the financial meltdown on Wall Street. This meltdown has been attributed to deregulation and lack of transparency and oversight.
I say that the Governor may have missed the meltdown because at the same time that he pitched his charter school cohorts a cool 100 million of tax payer funds, he vetoed AB 2115 (Mullin) that would have required members of charter school governing boards to comply with the same conflict of interest laws as other public officials, including school board members.
The bill would have also established minimum eligibility criteria for charter school board members. The bill would prohibit charter school employees from serving on their governing boards.
In vetoing AB 2115, Governor Schwarzenegger stated “Not only would this bill create state mandated costs for charter schools to comply with its provisions, the measure runs counter to the intent of charter schools, which were created to be free from many of the laws governing school districts. For these reasons, I am unable to sign this bill”.
So let’s see if I got this right, transparency and oversight is good for our public schools but “runs counter to the intent” of the laws that govern privately operated charter schools because it cost too much. This is exactly the philosophy that may cost the country $700-billion taxpayer dollars in the current deregulation SNAFU.
Locally the “dark shadow of doubt” that befalls the leading proponent of charter schools in Sacramento is a prime example of the need for regulation, transparency and oversight in the private charter school industry.
When financial institutions fail, it cost us money, when schools fail, the cost is far beyond financial.
Governor Schwarzenegger, if AB 2115 is not the right way to provide transparency and oversight to charter schools, would you please assure us that in 5-6 years we will not be reading in The BEE about the “meltdown in the private charter school industry”.
Mike Simpson, Parent
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1 comment:
Mr. Simpson you will be glad to know that SIATech a division of Guajome Park Academy heavily lobbied against TRANSPARENCY and OVERSIGHT. Why you may ask? Well, if you look at their salaries it will be clear to you that something is seriously wrong. Imagine having a school distinct with less than 5,000 students and rolling in salaries between $ 200, 461 through 160, 210. That is just for some of their administrators, they have others who are overpaid as well.
Has anyone actually examined the so-called award winning International Baccalaureate (IB)? By the way does anyone know how the state oversees the IB program? Do they allow for parents input? If so why did the state ignore dozens of complaints by parents and teachers? Has anyone looked to see if the curreculem is real or phony? Has it really produced high scores and high percent of student success? Has anyone investigated the lawsuits accusing SIATech/Guajome Park of fixing grades? How about test scores?
Why would SIATech lobby so hard against transparancy and accountability? Because they want to continue to send cease and disist letters to parents who ask questions?
What has happened to parents who complained? Does anyone know that this charter school has many satellites and many complaints in San Diego California? These violations are made possible through the incestuous relationships with the boards which teachers; husbands are employees and member of the board of directors. Their kids are also employees of the charter school. Their kids are involved in many criminal activities and the parents/board look the other way. The charter has been accused of fixing grades, fraudulent attendance records......a quick glance at their salaries reveals some very serious problems. I just wonder if these people write their own contracts and hand each other double and triple digit pay raises?
Way too many questions here……
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