In the Spring of 2005 Eugene Wade, former EVP for Development of Edison Schools and co-founder of Platform Learning, complained to John Merrow in a News Hours piece that his company was being shut out of the tutoring biz in NYC. Obviously, his remonstrations had some major effect. In 2005, an estimated contract of $1. 89 million earned Platform Learning $44.5 million in Title I dollars. The following year, the estimated contract of $1.89 earned Platform another $17.1 million.
Never mind that ED does not have any accountability plan for performance. They obviously have no accountability plan how the money gets shoveled out of the treasury. With income like this, it's curious how Platform could be in bankruptcy. Maybe someone should ask Wade--he is a former bankruptcy lawyer.
Here is a clip from the New York Times:
Education officials have paid a troubled tutoring company almost nine times the amount it was to receive under agreements worth roughly $7.6 million over five years, City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. said yesterday.
Under two overlapping three-year contracts to provide supplemental tutoring services in failing schools, the company, Platform Learning, was to receive $5.67 million from Sept. 1, 2003, to Aug. 31, 2006, and $1.9 million from Sept. 1, 2005, to Aug. 31, 2008.
But according to a letter the comptroller’s office sent to the Department of Education this week, records show that the city has already paid the company $63 million. In addition, the letter says, neither the company nor city officials made the proper notifications or changes that would have clarified the discrepancy between what was in the contract and what was actually spent.
“There are supposed to be checks and balances in place that would have set off some of the bells and whistles, and that didn’t appear to happen,” Mr. Thompson said. . . .
i thought something was fishy the first day i started working there. everyone kept talking about the condo in the dominican republic. was it bought with nycity dollars? they kept bragging about how they were the fastest growing co in the usa. i kept thinking they will be the fastest crashing co in the usa. heh..i was right. what was it about the condo in the dominican republic. it seemed like a code name or something. yes, fishy..everything seemed fishy about platform learning.
ReplyDeleteI worked for platform learning in 2004. The company and its officials mislead administrators and their sales force about the tutoring program. I happend to be searching the web regarding CRM-the database they used at the time for sales and marketing. I came across this article and could not help but post a comment. My believing is that an investigation stems from this. The NYC comptroller will find out the truth about platform learning if they continue to probe.
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