{"id":177641,"date":"2019-07-25T19:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T00:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/25\/this-is-the-rule-not-the-exception-for-charter-schools\/"},"modified":"2019-07-25T19:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T00:24:00","slug":"this-is-the-rule-not-the-exception-for-charter-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/25\/this-is-the-rule-not-the-exception-for-charter-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is the Rule, Not the Exception for Charter Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Who could have imagined that shoveling taxpayer money to opaque institutions would <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2019\/07\/16\/search-warrant-alleges-embezzlement-use-of-ghost-students-by-epic-schools\/\">result in an explosion of fraud and self-dealing<\/a>:<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">A state investigator\u2019s search warrant filed in court Tuesday seeks evidence of alleged embezzlement of state funds and obtaining money under false pretenses at Epic Charter Schools, including through the use of \u201cghost students\u201d who receive no actual instruction at the school.<\/p>\n<p>Epic and and its two co-founders, David Chaney and Ben Harris, are the subject of a state law enforcement investigation, according to the seven-page affidavit and warrant filed in Oklahoma County District Court.<\/p>\n<p>The agent reviewed bank statements and found Chaney and Harris split school profits of at least $10 million between 2013 and 2018, the affidavit states. Epic is a publicly funded charter school that is managed by a for-profit company, Epic Youth Services, which is owned by Chaney and Harris. The filing of the warrant was first reported by The Oklahoman.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Epic is accused of receiving state funding for \u201cghost students\u201d as early as 2014. Those students were homeschooled and attended private and sectarian schools and enrolled in Epic to receive an $800 \u201clearning fund\u201d without receiving instruction from Epic, the affidavit states. Epic teachers dubbed those students \u201cmembers of the $800.00 club.\u201d The learning fund is provided to all Epic students and can be spent on curriculum, technology and extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether the allegations would affect the handling of Epic\u2019s 2019-20 funding, Education Department spokeswoman Steffie Corcoran said they will consult with law enforcement to determine the next appropriate steps. Epic\u2019s state funding for next year is estimated at $120 million.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So basically, they were paying parents to engage in phony registrations.<\/p>\n<p>Charter schools&#8217; records are private, their finances are not available for public review, and financial entanglements are secret.<\/p>\n<p>It is a recipe for fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who could have imagined that shoveling taxpayer money to opaque institutions would result in an explosion of fraud and self-dealing: A state investigator\u2019s search warrant filed in court Tuesday seeks evidence of alleged embezzlement of state funds and obtaining money under false pretenses at Epic Charter Schools, including through the use of \u201cghost students\u201d who &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[673,368,397,407],"class_list":["post-177641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-charter-schools","tag-corruption","tag-education","tag-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}