Unreal. Just unreal. Where are the citizens in these communities?
The Republican Party has systematically step by step been collapsing the public school system in this country since Reagan was gov. of Ca. Remember, the driver of GOP Idealogy is everything in service to a Free Market, drown govt. in the bathtub and let corporations run our Democracy. Charter Schools.....No Child Left Behind....all political schemes to transfer tax dollars to for profit companies, religions, non-profit “charities “ and home schooling schemes. In particular, Texas and Florida were “pilot programs” under the Bush Bros. when they were Govs. Education reform as they called it, was never about education, period. It was about free market principles to gain votes. Our public education system has been destroyed, we are more segregated than ever, we have lowered our standards of accreditation, demonized teachers and been “educated” by politicians to believe that accredited teachers are crooks taking money out of your pocket to live an elite life style. Betsy DeVoss has investments in on-line education systems, charter schools , spreading dark money all over the educational system. We are getting closer by the day to destroying the greatest renewable resource we have for solving our problems and creating opportunity..........Our Children. Why are we destroying our seed corn?
1
These occurrences are the result of our inattention to two things, the valuation of individuals and self-care.
The valuation of individuals is necessary for both the economic viability of the community and the well-being of individuals.
We need better economic measures and safety nets to bolster the ability of communities to value individuals. Individuals who have high levels of self-esteem and are deeply invested in mutually beneficial relationships with their communities vest themselves in the construction, not the destruction of their communities.
When we talk about self-esteem, we need to talk about the entire landscape of individuals’ mental health issues. Self-care is central to individuals’ self-esteem. It is a basic tenet in the creation of social contracts.
When individuals receive guidance from strong communities, they create valid and viable social contracts with which to make their contributions in coordination with others. When they learn something different from weak communities, they and their communities suffer.
In a globalized world, we need valid and viable social contracts relating to the governance of nations and for the individuals who comprise them.
People’s needs are the same at the core. Globalized mental health and economic standards that are valid and viable for individuals must form the foundation of individuals’ rights, and they must strengthen the ability of all communities to live prosperously without fear.
The fruits of the charter school movement.
3
@Ray Cross
This is exactly what the charter school movement is after. Same thing for migrant "shelters". So private entities and individuals can profit from a steady flow of taxpayer dollars without the constraints of operating under direct government control.
There are few credible, successful charters. Most are businesses with no concern for anything but turning a profit. They are leeches on society, that drain resources from public schools while harming students enrolled in them. The time has come to hold charters to extremely high standards, doing so would eliminate the vast majority of them and benefit society as a whole.
2
Are the ultra-rich running, pun intended, a class conspiracy to suppress the educational opportunities, and maybe the competition their children will face, from those in the lower social/economic classes?
Sure seems like it when stories like this, or the recent admissions scandal, surface...or whenever Secret'y DeVos's name gets a mention.
3
Great Job NYT! Thank you and keep the investigation going.
3
This disgusting situation is just one more example of the results of a government that is driven by bribery.
I'm sure some of the biggest expenses Southwest Key Programs has are lobbying, advisors, attorney fees and accounting fees - all of which can serve as conduits for bribery of elected and other public officials.
Next on the expense list are salaries for CEO, CFO, upper management, etc. which are probably in the upper six and seven figure range.
Surprise, there is no profit for the corporation. It's non-profit.
1
Just follow the money, as usual these days.
1
In my opinion the faux legal status of Not For Profit needs to be eliminated completely from our tax and business codes. There are too many of them exactly like these clowns that have contrived ways to grift and steal tax free money and convert it to their personal gain.
If they are to stay around the laws much change so that only 10% of collected monies, including federal and state grants, goes for salaries and overhead and the remaining 90% must go to direct aid for those the NFP serves.
Southwest is obviously fleecing the government. Like many charities and non-profits, they are guaranteed a money train with little transparency. It is long past time to eliminate non-profit status for 'charities' like this; that would truly cut into their ability to commit fraud.
This is but the tip of the iceberg. Too many companies that make millions or billions of the government are completely invisible because of laws regarding not just non-profits, but LLCs and other corporate entities that play a complete shell game. Our government is complicit as it refuses to stop the money train; too many benefit. And it's not a Rep or Dem issue; it's both parities.
Remember when Obama came to office saying he'd not hire any lobbyists to work in his administration? When he worked to get Congress (Dem majority in House and Senate) in 2009 and 2010 to stop the loopholes in banking law that allows the offshoring of money? Both were dead on arrival; he hired lobbyists and Congress did nothing to reign in offshore accounts and accounting. Nothing.
So, is it a surprise that Southwest Key is fleecing the tax payers, hurting the students it has charge over, and hiding it all as a non-profit while offshoring millions? Until people demand more from their government representatives, our government will remain enablers of fraud. Government needs to be held responsible for assessing unintended intentions and stop enriching themselves with special interests - right and left.
Not surprised that this happened in Texas. The Republicans running this state talk about how the "guvmint" intrudes on their lives and their state's sacred autonomy, but they are all too happy to take federal cash and privatize the profits.
3
Any non- profit that pays salaries above normal market rates are really for profit. Pretty obvious what Southwest Key is doing. If they ever had noble intentions they certainly have lost them and have been gaming the system.
5
Shut it down.
6
Charter Schools were formed to provide for the rich and divide people within minority communities. Dive and conquer will never go away unless we make public schools and equal opportunity where each get the same amount of funding. The right doesn't like equality because it is socialist concept.
8
Whenever one reads a glowing article about charter schools that are not bound by the same regulations as public schools, keep this quote from today's article in mind:
“This is public money they could turn into private money,” said Jaime Huerta, the former superintendent, who was laid off recently after repeatedly battling with Southwest Key. “And then they could use it for whatever they wanted.”
14
Charter schools, as a rule, educate.
Public K-12 "schools," not so much.
Any questions?
3
@boroka
you have that backwards. by all reporting across this nation Charters perform lower than their public school peers. It is so bad that some states, like Louisiana, refuse to release standardized test scores for charters and don't hold them to the same standards they do public schools.
when you have to cheat and lie to win, the students and taxpayers lose.
2
@boroka
This is a rather broad statement without data. I know plenty of students who went to charter schools in Minneapolis and then got in the U of MN only to drop out as they were not prepared for college. I know plenty of public school students and some went to Stanford and West Point.
If you have a preference for charter schools I support that. I just cannot support, as a rule, all charter great and all public bad.
1
@boroka
You have no idea what you are talking about. Charter schools are all about making money. They selectively choose students. Public schools are about educating every student no matter their ability, color or faith. Public education is the backbone of our democracy.
2
Something s very wrong. This organization needs to be investigated by a whole host of state and federal agencies.
Starting with the esteemed Texas Rangers.
7
Something not mentioned in the article: after our students protested at a school board meeting - which was moved three times without our knowledge - and at one point had the police called on them for "trespassing" at the board meeting, we came to a compromise with the school board over the building.
Ready for this?
We would find a way to pay minimal fees of the $500k owed to SWK by MOVING OUT OF THE MAIN BUILDING and cramming all the classes, administrative staff, and other programs into the outer portables. In essence, we'd lose more than half the space while keeping the same number of students because SWK was unwilling to find any other way to compromise over the rent for the dilapidated building (which is far worse than the pictures show).
At one point, teachers who might have had plans to leave at the end of the academic year were being asked to quit in December to "save your colleagues."
Southwest Key's solution instead was to fire nearly all support and administrative staff, including senior counselors and our new assistant principal.
18
For those who ask why parents sent their kids there:
I asked a teacher who worked at East Austin College Prep. Her reply (paraphrased):
We are in East Austin. Finding support here for students who want to go to college is very rare. Many students are the first to go to college in their family, know little about financial aid, and how to behave in school to be successful in higher education. The college and career class exposes students to different college and career options, the resources to obtain them, and students explore those options with professionals.
The school pays for college classes for the kids. We partner with Austin Community College and their professors come to our school to teach. A lot of students are graduating with over 30 hours of college credit.
When we were fully staffed, we could focus on each student and provide them one-on-one support. The kids are amazing and really thrive for the love and care that they don't get at home. Kids will go above and beyond for you if they truly know you care, and our teachers are really good at showing that. We stay late, many of us coach after school programs because we know that’s what the kids want and love. We work weekends and give the kids our numbers to be there for them. Teachers will follow students to class to make sure they’re there and come up with ways to make sure these kids find learning fun.
Many students who leave and return say “the teachers don’t care about you the way they do here.”
8
I think this is a rather common trick: create a non-profit company with an admirable mission, then create several for-profit companies that provide the non-profit with goods and services at inflated prices. If the non-profit can get government money or charitable contributions for its admirable mission, it's golden.
9
Southwest Key is supposed to be a "non-profit", but it operates like a for-profit in every way except in paying taxes. Reminds you of the Mark Twain adage "When someone tells you it's not about the money, it's really about the money."
21
school vouchers and charter schools started as a route to private access to public funds for the flat earth no science jesus makes the weather bible thumping right wing religious zealots so they could run their own church led academies with public money instead of sending their children to public school
some business opportunists followed on with a crocodile tears strategy to offer charter schools to minority kids in failing public schools, which captured support for the program to disinvest in public education from people who can actually read and write and support math and science
and here we are today -- corrupt for-profit scammers denying children anything like an education while lining their pockets as they cart away the tax dollars to their own bank accounts
nothing surprising about it at all. red state right wing religious grift and graft has metastasized across the education system
14
"In a statement, the new superintendent, Salvador Cavazos, said that 'our teachers and administrators come to work every day dedicated to supporting students and families.'”
YES! The TEACHERS and building administration do come to work each day to support students. That's not the problem- the greed in the management end of the school and the crooked make-up of the appointed BOE are the problems!
"Mr. Nowlin said that Southwest Key was “working to resolve” the leaks, and that not all teachers needed to be replaced because fewer students were enrolled."
There's the proof that non-educators are running the show: fewer students does not mean you need fewer teachers- each of whom should be highly qualified in a subject area. Fewer sections overall of some courses, maybe. But fewer teachers- no.
15
Ah, capitalism! Betsy DeVos must be so proud of her accomplishment promoting these private charter profit-centers, I mean, schools.
17
@Observor
Not capitalism, crony capitalism: an unholy mixture of public and private funds.
Mankind must find a way to continue to have not only religious and private schools, but public schools, to guard our crucial right to freedom of thought.
4
@Mary Naylor
religious schools do not allow freedom of thought and in my opinion should not be eligible for taxpayer funds.
Another privatization grift. Yawn.
5
This needs to be investigated to the end. These corporations are stealing money from tax payers posing as charities, all the while our public schools are being decimated.
The corruption and greed in this country has reached a crisis point.
23
You do yourself great harm, Issy, if you persist in the belief that "These corporations are stealing money from tax payers posing as charities...".
Our government, or many who participate in it, are lining up to gain the power to give your money away to their chosen allies.
Yes, our public schools have been decimated (past tense seems more appropriate). For some, such as the beast DeVos and Southwest Key Programs, education is an excellent and very lightly regulated tap to the public trough they can turn on and off at will, with little resistance.
For others decimation is exactly the point.
While they mouth rotten pap about children as future, the importance of an informed electorate, global business competitiveness, they see their greatest advantage in controlling or limiting education, to preventing a jailbreak of trained, excited, directed people running around doing stuff.
Or demanding stuff.
We did not arrive at this evil pass by accident or neglect. Its been the plan all along.
17
Curious why any student would attend these schools.
5
@MPE valid question. Despite everything, EAPrep (the teachers, principals, and counselors) have done all that we can to support students, above and beyond what is asked of us. Students know that they can count on us for more than just teaching them history, or english, or music, or geometry. We have a good rapport for the parents and we do what we can to provide the extra attention that may be needed, no matter what that may be. And because of the conditions, we feel an even greater obligation to serve our students in spite of SWK.
When students are able to go to a "better" school in AISD, we don't try to convince them to stay - in fact we try to make sure that they're as prepared as they can be for a very different environment.
You also have to realize that as teachers at EAPrep, we care very much for the students despite all the circumstances surrounding everything. We could easily just leave our overworked and underpaid position for any number of jobs at more stable and more privileged parts of the city. But for whatever sort of self-righteous catharsis we may get from removing ourselves from the problem, we're in the end abandoning our students who might not otherwise have the means nor privilege to do the same.
I'm not looking for us to be lauded in any way for what we do - we love these kids because they're wonderful - but I am suggesting that the answer is a myriad of gray shades.
4
@MPE
Curious why students want to go to charter schools, the good ones anyway? Perhaps because they want to be educated and not brainwashed.
As one who's been getting freshmen in my college classes for decades, a large number of the best prepared ones come from charter schools. and many of the other good ones from home schooling.
As for public K-12, not so much.
1
@ConcernedEducator
Exactly what is your position at this school or schools? Are you a teacher, administrator, investor? The picture you describe in your several comments here is the antithesis of the NY Times article. It's difficult to understand how you've provided the supportive excellent education you describe in a building with rats in it. Are the public schools in East Austin like that too? Doesn't the state oversee education and provide help when needed?
So many mentions of Betsy DeVos and Republicans in this comment section. Charter Schools are one of the few bi-partisan issues where many high profile Dems and Repubs agree. The type of corruption illustrated in this column was also rampant under Obama and charter-school-cheerleader Arne Duncan. Presidential contenders from both parties should be questioned relentlessly on whether they support the privatization of our public schools.
4
Based on the experiences and perspectives of families I know who have sent kids to charter schools, it is not accurate to say that all or most charters are this way. As a school principal, I have worked with administrators and teachers from the charter sphere at times and I can tell you, without reservation, that some of these people are absolutely at the top of the game in terms of quality and morals. Some are a mess and the rest are in between.
Charter schools, public schools, and private schools all follow a basic rule of reflecting their constituent communities. This is primarily economic in nature but it is also a social dynamic. Schools serving affluent communities full of people with choices and opportunities will have function in a manner that reflects and embodies that reality. Inversely, schools serving poor communities of people dealing with social challenges will experience that reality. Exceptions pop up as ideas trend in the field but it all comes out in the wash every time.
East Austin is a historically challenged area (look it up -- it's not the ACL/UT scene at all) and the schools are going to reflect that on the aggregate and over time, whether charter, public or private. Schools may be the only institution offering transformational experiences to disadvantaged kids in our society, but that will never happen systematically across the board. The notion that schools are transformational at a societal level is a romantic one.
2
@Telecaster
I'm sure some charter schools provide positive "transformational" experiences to their students, but the ones described in this article certainly didn't. Too often charter schools aren't held to the same oversight that public schools are, but the taxpayers still have to foot the bills.
6
Yet another reference to someone with an Ivy League degree doing dirty deeds and grifting off our government, this time, in the name of children and education and alien shelters. The Trump Family Crime Syndicate is green with envy.
5
This is america. There are bad people gaming the system. Many, many bad, bad people. Where are the regulations and honest regulators. Oh, I forgot, the republicans say regulations get in the way of making money, so they have shed most regulations put in place by more honest governments. But this is america, what do you expect? Did you believe in american exceptionalism? Any government that can allow this to happen can allow the health of the people to be held up by robber baron drug companies, insurance companies and hospitals. Oh yeah, they are already. My country tis of the - bilking of citizenry - of the I sing.....
12
Charter schools have caused serious damage to public education, by siphoning money from public schools. As far as I am concerned they should all be closed down. They are self-serving. The men and women who defrauded the government with gargantuan salaries should be tried and locked up, all their assets seized. No privately run learning institution should be funded by tax payers money. I can only imagine how great our public education would be if could hire the best teachers with decent pays.
32
How did this report overlook tuition income paid by local school districts- most of which have probably been overcharged and are paying for ghost students? It’s the Betsy DeVos/Donald Trump model for American public education: Take public monies, create fraudulent nonprofits and foundations, make students the lowest priority, skim and pocket, provide vague unintelligible responses when cornered, lawyer up, and get away with it.
13
What's the news you're selling here?
What's new or shocking or unique information?
That the same industrial style charity that loses children in nooks and crannies all around the country, or makes millions housing them in chicken coops with concrete floors also runs vile and failing charter schools?
Or that America, the brainless, blameless base are just fine with that?
Because they're not alone.
This is the New American Way.
You can ethics yourself until your blue in the face, but that ain't gonna pay the chauffeur, let alone the butler.
Boeing agrees. Wall Street agrees. Wells Fargo certainly agrees, and goes to great lengths to advertise the fact.
Into today's USA money is it, the only, the ultimate.
Sure, if you're starting your personal round up of dollars you may have to be careful. But once you have it, once you're richer than God himself, rules vanish before you.
Government exists to ease your path and make your excuses, to vanquish your enemies or at least put them loudly in their place.
This is, New York Times, as if you're trying to stop measles by researching the life history of each patient, charting their social network, examining them, listening to and analyzing their reasons for not vaccinating, rendering a supportive decision.
One. Patient. At. A. Time.
Enough case studies. We get it. The country is broken. These are not ethical lapses; these are the new ethics, as taught in the most prestigious schools of business.
Report on that.
23
Every day I read the news and hope I read something redeeming about humanity. I'm still waiting for that day !
3
For profit schools exactly as expected
See also for profit healthcare
13
Several people should go to prison for fraud.
11
Is there no end to the exploitation of children of color?
9
@PRL
What is extremely disturbing is that those "of color" can do so to their own and sleep at night as they dream of their personal coffers overflowing with ill-gained money -- in the name of helping disenfranchised children and families.
2
This is actually pretty interesting.If schools are in debt then how is it affecting to students? Where is all being directed too?
“Mr. Sanchez resigned on Monday. Neither he nor Ms. Chung, who left Southwest Key last month, would comment for this article.”
Grifters and thieves. This is what you get with privatization of education. Grifters and thieves. Republicans. Will there be anything left of this country before it finally wakes up and votes every last one of them out of office?
12
Well surprise surprise. A vile beneficiary of corporate welfare operates subsidiary vile beneficiaries of corporate welfare.
Let's make public school great again: end corporate-welfare "charter" and anti-poor "private" schools and bring OUR TAX MONEY they've stolen back to the publics, so we can pay the teachers and fund the buildings—and definitely let (or better, make) the sky-fairy Catholic school network fall before it gives the priests more victims to indoctrinate and abuse!
And let's NEVER again kidnap a child from their parents and keep them in a no-trial prison—NOT a mere "detention" center, a relatively cheery name best left for, well, school—for the "crime" of escaping the tyranny or violence within another state's border walls.
(Immigrant family separation doesn't stop any crime, but it does help open-air-prison East Germanies prevent their own from leaving. That alone is a blatant crime against humanity.)
6
Betsy DeVos, President Trump's cabinet Secretary of Education, strongly supports transfer of your tax dollars to private vendors for what she's calling "public education".
Take a look: whole communities of kids -- mostly people of color-- are getting NO EDUCATION through what we see now is a systematic destruction of public schools.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/betsy-devos-christian-schools-vouchers-charter-education-secretary/
Get out the vote for Democrats up and down the ticket on November 3, 2020 --
or expect this disenfranchisement of low income families to continue.
16
@M
It cannot only be Democrats...moderate Republicans, Independents and the many disillusioned Americans (who choose to forego their right and responsibility to vote) need to hit the polls at ALL levels of government office.
Education should NOT be a political issue. A country's educational system defines its commitment and responsibility to its citizens, as well as our global neighbors. Furthermore, our education system shapes our vision and path of our country's future...
Every election is our call to be engaged citizens, and in so doing, participating in shaping our futures...
4
@Concerned Citizen
"A country's educational system defines its commitment and responsibility to its citizens, as well as our global neighbors."
"Global Neighbors?" -- Just come out and say it! You mean illegal aliens, undocumented immigrant workers and asylum seekers...
Public education has been the basis of America's foremost position of leadership in the world.
It is being gutted by those who, like our Secretary of Education, seek to monetize any and every function in our society for the benefit of those who share her monied status.
Make America Great or Make America Grovel?
27
Melania and Ivanka could be doing some things to help these kids, but they aren't.
4
Just another way the far right 1% have learned to scam the system to keep THEIR money, so they think.
Let's have a proper investigation of this boondoggle. Using migrant children for profit is disgusting. I don't expect any better from the Trump administration but this needs to stop.
12
Charity? The headline says it all.
2
The New York Times continues its relentless one sided coverage of the illegal immigration issue
Article after article criticising the American response to this crisis. Yes, it is a crisis. Criticising the medical care we provide at the border, how slow the lines are for asylum seekers, the inadequate shelter provided, the mistreatment of journalists at border crossings, how the wall won't help anything and is immoral.
Maybe just one little article placing the blame on the migrants?
@Luciano
The charter schools are separate from the shelters. The point being made is that both are founded, operated & managed under the direction of the founder and his select cohorts.
What is troublesome is that both the IRS and Texas Office of tax & Revenue did NOT pick up on the fed flags AND really assess the indicated numbers. Furthermore, federal and state educational and human services offices did NOT catch these improprieties in the required reports.
What happened to inspections and audits? Heads should roll, accounts frozen & stripped, assets seized and auctioned at the very least...
10
Empathy much?
1
@Luciano
Charitably I will assume that you are, by accident, replying to the wrong article. The Brexit frenzy does have a way of fogging the mind.
2
The NYT was a strong supporter of charter schools from the start. Are things changing as the obvious becomes clear?
6
Hmmm, DeVos big champion of charter schools, wonder why?
2
Look into Betsy DeVos and the Charter School scams she profits from.
3
Where's Betsy Devos ???
... Crickets chirping..
2
These people belong in prison!
5
I truly think one way to get rich, right now, is open a religious-based charter school in some poor red state. You'll have the Federal and State government entities shoveling money at you as you do "God's work". You'll just need to budget some of that money to go back to the pockets of feckless Republicans.
At least in California there are several bills working its way through the legislature to clamp down on the misuse of public money that runs rampant in the charter school system to prevent hard earned tax dollars from going into the hands of greedy executives. Hopefully we can pave the way. Our future generations depend on it.
6
With interest low interest rates on many financial investment products, your average billionaire is now looking with new interest at siphoning off public tax dollars. Tax dollars are a steady income, and if done right, one need invest little money for big returns. America, wake up, charter schools are a rip off.
4
As far as I can tell, this article doesn't provide insight into why students and/or their parents chose these horrible charter schools. Were the public schools they could have attended really worse? I know that parents are frequently misled about the superiority of charter schools by the people who run them, but this situation is extreme.
2
Horrifying, but I have an honest question. Do parents have the option of sending their children to public schools instead? Can’t they vote with their feet?
@Louisa Glasson
Some evidently are.
@Louisa Glasson
Yes, students/parents choose the charter schools over the public schools the students could attend. The public school district the student lives in then has to pay for his/her to attend the charter. That's what people mean by "siphoning off" money from public education.
2
@Louisa Glasson lots of factors at play - most of our students come to EAPrep due to one or more of the following reasons: a) better than the next closest public b) location c) issues with their previous public d) interested in the unique programs we provide.
The year started off SO WELL for us and we finally felt like we were headed toward something truly better for us and our students. But SoutwestKey continued to cut us at the knees and left us with no administrative support despite keeping promises to not fire teachers. We're doing what we can for our students and finally see some hope thanks in part to all of this coming to light.
The point of privatizing government functions is not really to save money. The point is to steal tax dollars through government contracts.
How many examples of this do we need?
Every part of this school was designed to siphon money out of education and into the bank accounts of the executives.
If you want to improve education, put the teachers in charge. Teachers can meet once a week to democratically make decisions and set priorities. Teachers know what their students need better than financiers and their accountants.
Fire the highly paid administrators and hire office managers to do the paper work.
83
@McGloin- When Albert Shanker, the head of a large teachers union, first proposed charter schools that was exactly what he proposed. Start experimental schools with teachers in charge, and see what they can do.
Unfortunately due to people like Betsy DeVos ,many have become scam operations in line with current Republican doctrine. Even the ones that are well run, suck money and students from our publics schools.
We should phase out our current charter schools and start new ones as McGloin proposes and Shenker intended.
6
Although this simplistic trope has a nice ring to it, in practice it is simplistic and unworkable on the ground. Teachers are not trained to run schools and sadly, given the teacher shortage they are minimally trained in the basics of teaching and learning.
1
@PRL
Many excellent educational administrators started out as teachers.
4
Sounds as if Southwest Key is as much of a "charity" as the Trump Foundation. Maybe it's time for the Justice Department to investigate this outfit and assign some jail time to its executives.
62
@Christy Agree. But if we're fair, the Clinton Foundation and the Southern Law Poverty Center should also be looked at as fake charities.
Just say no to channeling public funds into charter schools. This is what you end up with. And to think that someone is profiting from this turns my stomach.
70