"News delayed is news denied" - and, to piggyback on Bracey's story above, there's been another delay in the reporting of serious matters related to a high-ranking education official. In today's LA Times, Howard Blume reports on the $50,866 misspent/insufficiently documented by Green Dot's Steve Barr - a full month after this story was first reported right here at SchoolsMatter and on my other blog, OurGlobalEducation. The Times cites education blogger Alexander Russo as the first place this story surfaced, but Mr. Russo picked up on the story after reading it on this very website (he gives full credit, at least privately, to SM for bringing this to his attention).
Of course, every explanation of how this money was spent comes from the trustworthy folks running Green Dot. Unlike LAUSD - which had to fork over information related to a similar misconduct case after legal and public pressure - Green Dot will not have to provide actual evidence , although charter school lawyers claim "the legal landscape remains unsettled" - and you can be damn sure the attorneys for corporate charter chains will make every effort to keep information privatized. Despite taking in millions of tax dollars and providing a public service (albeit privatized), Green Dot is still a corporation and does not have to provide records under open government legislation - and you're telling me these charter schools are truly "public" schools?!
I agree, what place does privatization have in public education? If public monies are being spent for public education then the public is entitled to know where that money is going and how it is benefitting the students, no one else. Business and privatization do not belong in public anything much less public education where businesses want to come in and treat students as a product being mass produced for the world to purchase.
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