Florida's Mavericks Charter School has problems. Over 1000 pages of them.

[madfloridian]

Crossposted this in General Discussion as well. Give a rec if you can.

School was started five years ago, troubles still happening. Investigations still going on. They have received 70 million dollars in money from taxpayers, have repeated failed to meet standards.

This means money and resources taken from public school systems throughout the state.

Mavericks in Education: Failing to make the grade

Here are some of the problems listed:

• Overcharging taxpayers $2 million by overstating attendance and hours taught. The involved schools have appealed the findings.

• Submitting questionable low-income school meal applications to improperly collect $350,000 in state dollars at two now-closed Pinellas County schools.

• Frequent academic errors that include skipping state tests for special-needs students, failing to provide textbooks and using outdated materials.

Those are serious problems, some bordering on fraud.

When in doubt blame the management companies, over which Florida seems to have no control.

Pegg, who oversees charter schools for the Palm Beach County school district, said problems with Mavericks in Education have frustrated district officials. State charter-school laws do not address the performance of management companies.

"The statute doesn't give any kind of authority to hold those management companies accountable; we can only hold the schools accountable," Pegg said. "We need to be able to have some authority with (management companies). They are the ones taking the tax dollars."

If the management companies are to blame, then I heartily suggest the state get some kind of control over them.

The lack of regulation and control over public money and resources is appalling and dangerous.

And guess what? There's a rule in Florida that if a charter school applies to open.....the district are not allowed to consider their past history. They have to rely on the present application only.

Florida: Charter Operators with “Troubled” Histories Request Another Chance

The story in the Sun-Sentinel by Karen Yi and Amy Shipley says:

“At least seven groups of applicants with ties to failed or floundering charter schools are seeking second chances and public money to open 18 more.

“Odds are, most will prevail.”

“School districts say that they can’t deny applicants solely because of past problems running charter schools. State laws tell them to evaluate what they see on paper — academic plans, budget proposals, student services — not previous school collapses or controversial professional histories.”

Incidentally this school included Frank Biden when it was founded. The article mentions him only as a lobbyist for the school now.

[Sancho]

1. Watching the debate tonight, I really wish this had come up...

when you WASTE money (that could have been used for jobs) and replace public employees with private employees then you can't clam to be a job creator!

Scott is following the Koch brothers plan to privatize everything. The DOE (4 secretaries in 4 years) doesn't care about performance or the kids.