Yesterday, Rep. Brooks presented his voucher bill to the House Government Operations Committee. And boy!!! Did he get worn out with questions!!!

There were so many questions that time ran out before the Committee even got to vote on the bill.

So, the last remaining voucher bill is now stalled in Gov. Op. Committee with insiders predicting it will be killed in Finance. And this bill needs killing in the worst way. Yesterday's hearing brought out some really big problems.  

•  Shelby County Taxpayers will Fund the State's Voucher Pilot

If you think the only financial repercussions of the voucher pilot is the loss state funding for Shelby County Schools, you would be WRONG!! Local Shelby County tax dollars will also be spent on the experimental State voucher plan. Representative Harry Brooks from Knox County made it clear that both state and local BEP money will fund the pilot. In fact, the State will only provide about half of the voucher money, the other half will have to come from the Shelby County Commission's budget. 

• The 5 Year Voucher Pilot Financially Obligates Shelby County for 17 years

Rep. Brooks explained that the bill calls for voucher recipients to receive tuition payments for the duration of their K-12 education. That means vouchers will offered for five years to an escalating number of Shelby County School students. But the funding obligation will remain until those students graduate from high school. So, Shelby County will be obligated to pay private school tuition for 12 years after the voucher pilot ends. This 5 year voucher pilot will result in a 17 year funding obligation for both the State and Shelby County!!! 
 

• No Financial Oversight Provided for the Voucher Program

Rep. Brooks admitted to the Gov. Op Committee that there would be no financial oversight of the schools that are participating in the Shelby County voucher pilot. None. Nada. Zip. 

​That means that private schools accepting public dollars for vouchers:

                               ****WILL NOT be required to follow the Tennessee Internal School Uniform Accounting Policy
                               ****WILL NOT be financially overseen by the State Comptroller's Office
                               ****WILL NOT be mandated to provide an annual school audit to the public ​
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• Catholics Say "NO" to secular education and TNReady Testing

Jennifer Murphy, who represents the Tennessee Catholic Public Policy Commission, flat out told legislators that Memphis Catholic schools would not change their religious mission nor would they subject any of their students, including those with vouchers, to TNReady state standardized testing. 

She seemed perturbed at the thought of segregating the "free & reduced lunch" kids for TNReady testing while other Jubilee students only took the nationally normed test currently administered to Catholic School students. You can read more about vouchers and the Memphis Catholic Jubilee Schools here and here. ​​

And for those Gov. Op. Committee members asking about which private schools in Memphis would and would not take vouchers, she clarified that Christian Brothers High School in Memphis has gone on record saying that they would not accept vouchers. Big Surprise that CBHS won't touch vouchers with a 10 foot pole!!!

We bet other high achieving private schools won't accept them either which brings us back to the question:

What exactly is the point of vouchers? 

IT CERTAINLY ISN'T CHOICE FOR STUDENTS...
In case you haven't noticed, it's the schools who do all the choosing!

IT CERTAINLY ISN'T BETTER EDUCATION...
In case you haven't noticed, SCS iZone is number 1 in student success!

Oh yeah—IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!

Since we posted our blog, we have been made aware of a 2012 lobbying violation against Jennifer Murphy. It's the same Jennifer Murphy we mentioned in our blog who serves as the Executive Director of Tennessee Catholic Public Policy Commission. She got popped in 2012 for taking an illegal payment from one of her lobbying clients. 

At the time, Murphy served as a lobbyist for Tennessee Catholic Public Policy Commission; Tennessee Disability Coalition; and Tennessee Profession Fire Fighters Association. She got into trouble for taking a thank-you payment from the Tennessee Disability Coalition after successfully lobbying for a 2002 law that would provide revenue to the Coalition from marriage license fees.

​Yep—everyone who has gotten married in Tennessee since 2002 has paid $20.50 in fees to the benefit of the Tennessee Disability Coalition. And Ms. Murphy took a 10% commission until she got caught. We are not going to draw any conclusions about how much she will make off the $59+M that could benefit Catholic Schools from the new voucher law. But you can….

Like vultures circling a wounded prey, charters schools are salivating at the prospect of getting their claws into the tax dollars that fund the public schools in TN.  

And now, we have the IMAGINE charter school chain imagining how delicious Tennessee tax dollars taste.

Imagine charter school chain has applied with the TN Board of Education to open charter schools across the state of TN.  If the un-elected, appointed-by-the-governor, TN Board of Education votes to trump locally elected school boards and allow these charter chain schools in TN, then your local communities have no say over them.  How's that for local control?

WARNING:
You may think it will never happen to you, or that only the city folk have to worry about predatory charter schools.  Think again... These districts we're about to list need to BEWARE because the Imagine charter-vultures are circling above your public schools.  Imagine charter schools have applied to open in your district, which will severely impact your neighborhood schools by sucking up your tax dollars:  Sullivan County, Shelby County, Nashville-Davidson, Clarksville-Montgomery, Johnson County, and Carter County.

Who would be afraid of a little bird with a whimsical name like "imagine"?  Well, Momma Bears did some digging on this charter chain and found information that leaves little to the imagine-ation.

From Diane Ravitch: "Imagine is backed by a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) called Entertainment Properties, which also invests in multiplexes, real estate, and shopping malls."  Interesting, so this business invests in property and real-estate.  Why does that matter?  Keep reading...

​An interview published in the Washington Post gives more insight on the lucrative investment of charter schools.  This interview is with the CEO of Entertainment Properties Trust, David Brain.  He brags about the profitability and stablity of investing in charter schools.

Anchor: You’ve invested in retail centers, ski parks, you’ve got charter schools, you’ve got movie theaters.... If you could buy one thing right now, David, one type of asset in real estate, what would it be?

David Brain (CEO of Entertainment Properties Trust): Well, probably the charter school business. We said it’s our highest growth and most appealing sector right now of the portfolio. It’s the most high in demand, it’s the most recession-resistant. And a great opportunity set with 500 schools starting every year. It’s a two and a half billion dollar opportunity set in rough measure annually.

Businessmen and hedgefund investors are learning that there is much money to be made in this "opportunity."  You see, charter school chains can make huge profits by renting and leasing school buildings to their own charter schools which are funded with public tax dollars.  

Imagine HOT WATER
Imagine has been in hot water in many other states for fraud around their non-profit status and dismal results:

• In MISSOURI, a lease agreement allowed a local charter school to "fleece" over a million dollars in a lease scheme. The article in Salon states, “The facts of the case mirror arrangements in Ohio and other states,” the reporter noted, “where Imagine schools pay exorbitant rent to an Imagine subsidiary, SchoolHouse Finance. The high lease payments leave little money for classroom instruction and help explain the poor academic records of Imagine schools in both states.” 
• Also in MISSOURI, the Missouri Dept of Education closed six Imagine charter schools for "for failing to maintain fiscal control, for being poor stewards of public resources, and for spending and too little on instruction and too much on administrative and facilities costs. The state and business community shouldered the $250,000 required to coordinate student transfers in the wake of the closures."
• In FLORIDA, Imagine charter chain makes more money in profits through rent and leases to its charter schools.  Unbelievably in some cases, half of the operating dollars for some charter schools were spent on renting facilities from itself.  When enrollment in these charter schools dwindled, the charter schools were left in debt to Imagine.  
• From PENNSYLVANIA:  Pittsburgh Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt described just how bad Imagine’s reputation is when Imagine was trying to open a school in the district: "A lot of my friends in education around the country are very supportive of the charter movement. But I have not had a single person once say to me, 'Wow! Imagine Schools.' "It's always been, 'Watch out for Imagine Schools.'"
• PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION:  Imagine found guilty of discriminating against pregnant employees, and paid $570,000 settlement.
• In OHIO:  A public policy report found that, "Imagine has a poor record of performance in Ohio and a business model that includes elaborate school real estate transactions, high management and operations fees, overlapping business relationships, low spending on classroom instruction, and tight control of school finances and board relationships."  
• In OHIO:  High lease payments for Imagine Columbus Primary School meant not enough money for adequate student services.  There was also high staff turnover blamed partly by very low teacher pay. 
• In OHIO:  A federal judge fined Imagine $1 million because Imagine forced a lucrative lease agreement on a charter school.  U.S. District Judge Judge Nanette K. Laughrey wrote in her ruling, "This clearly constituted self-dealing."  Even more revealing, the Columbus Dispatch article states, "Laughrey also had some interesting findings about how Imagine gets board members to go along with these not-so-sweet deals. Imagine recruited inexperienced school board members and one who had received political contributions from the companies and had family members working there."

​
What did IMAGINE do when caught?
The company's image must have been getting tarnished with all the negative press.  Being a company who's motive is so blatantly profit over students must be hard to overcome.  So, in 2015, Imagine converted to a non-profit organization.  Did this change things?  Not really.  However, it did allow this charter chain to expand to states (maybe like to Tennessee) who only allow non-profit charters (as opposed to for-profit charters).

Non-profit sounds innocent enough, right?  It is implied to be the opposite of for-profit.  And one may even assume that non-profits are operating on shoestring budgets, their employees are earning meager paychecks, and all money is funneled back into the charity-type non-profit organization that benefits some wholesome cause, right?  Oh, my, you have a lot to learn...

"Conflicts of interest, nepotism, and self-dealing can be present on a nonprofit board or a for-profit board," says Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.  It is up to local school boards and authorizing boards to investigate, scritinize, and decide if these charter applications and organizations are legitimate.  

The Tampa Bay Times quotes Henry Levin, a professor of economics and education at Columbia University Teachers College:  "The problem is it [non-profit status] doesn't prevent self-dealing," he said. "As long as you allow them to set any salaries they want, to put anyone on the payroll that they want, to pay for services where there is some association with them or a relative, there's just no protection in this."

It doesn't take much digging to find that Imagine is rolling back and forth in dough.

Digging into the (new) Imagine non-profit charter chain's tax record shows millions of dollars being juggled back and forth through ISNP Schoolhouse Holding Company, Inc..  Here's what's really interesting:  The address for both Imagine Schools and the ISNP Schoolhouse Holding Company, Inc are the same exact address!  (1005 North Glebe Road Suite 610, VA  22201)  Millions of dollars (see p. 29 of their tax return) flowing to a sister company located at the exact same mailing address.  Does that sound like a non-profit to you?   Something definitely smells fishy here.

​Are we IMAGINE-ing things?  or are we on the menu?
Could this charter chain (from out-of-state and supposedly non-profit) be trying to test the marketplace in TN?  Could it be spreading across the state of TN, including in rural counties with strong public schools?  Is this a new, bold step in their business plan?  You know... try all three grand divisions of TN and a few rural locations and see what works?  Who cares if students and communities are damaged in the process as long as they are making a profit?  As you can see in the bulleted list above, it certainly wouldn't be the first state they've done this to.  

Aw, Tennessee, honey, you need to read the writing on the wall...  He only loves you for your money.  Can't you see how other states have been treated and abused?  See how other states fell for the ploy and now they can't seem to get rid of this money-sucking parasite?  You're not imagine-ing things!  Get out of this relationship fast!

We told you in our previous Momma Bear blog, all about how the Catholic Jubilee Schools seem to be the intended beneficiary of the Memphis pilot voucher bill. And how they stand to "gain more than $2 million from vouchers" at the expense of Shelby County Schools.  

Well, we must have struck a nerve that sent the  lobbyists for the Catholic Jubilee Schools into action. Yes, that's right, the Memphis Jubilee Schools have not one, but THREE lobbyists: Mark Cate, Daniel Culbreath, and Stephan Susano.

You may be asking since when do struggling Catholic schools hire lobbyists? And how can they afford lobbyists with so many needy kids?

Well….uh, maybe, when they have a lot to gain from influencing elected officials, it's worth finding the cash for lobbyist?

Enter the Stones River Group, a lobbying firm hired by the Catholic Memphis Urban Schools, Inc. Yeah, you're gonna want to hit those links to see what one political blogger has to say about Stones River and how they get paid with taxpayer dollars. And you are gonna want to see the MILLIONS of dollars reported by Catholic Memphis Urban Schools on their 990 tax returns. 

According to the Tennessee Ethics Commission website (TEC). Heading up that effort is Mark Cate who formerly served as Gov. Bill Haslam’s chief of staff where he was his top advisor, strategist and negotiator. Also employed as a lobbyist for Stones River Group is the former Executive Director of Tennesseans for Student Success, Jeremy Harrell who served as Haslam's campaign manager in 2014. But Harrell is not listed as one of the CMUS lobbyists. But hey!! They are struggling Catholic schools and can't afford to hire all the lobbyists. 

According to the Tennessean "Cate and [Steven] Smith [who served as deputy commissioner for policy and external affairs at the Tennessee Department of Education] exchanged hundreds of texts before and after Cate’s departure from Haslam’s office on July 31, 2015. In the weeks after Cate left the office, he started his own consulting firm that has contracts with several companies, including Tennesseans for Student Success."

Oh you remember Tennesseans for Student Success, don't you? We understand there are so many of these out-of-state groups coming into Tennessee and they keep changing their durn names so it's hard to keep up. So, click this link for a refresher on Tennesseans for Student Success. 

The Catholic Jubilee Schools have bought themselves quite a powerhouse of influence to get public school dollars for their schools. No doubt, they are going to need those fancy lobbyists. One Shelby County Commissioner has already declared he heard the Memphis voucher bill is on its deathbed. And if by some miracle, it passes, then he promises that the Shelby County Commission will challenge its legality. 

Yes, sir. The powerhouse lobbyists can expect a fight on their hands to save the Memphis voucher bill. A group of parents from all over Shelby County including suburban municipalities are headed to Nashville in the morning for the 9:00am hearing on the bill. 

Wheelin' & dealin' in the state legislature has lead to a front-runner voucher bill. Last week, the Brooks/Kelsey Opportunity Scholarship Pilot Program (HB126/SB161) emerged from the pack. But was met with resistance when a group of Shelby County School parents, teachers, and board members on Spring Break showed up in Nashville for the Committee hearing. The bill was rolled to March 21.

This bill would pilot a voucher program for Shelby County School students. But, not a single State Representative from Shelby County would sign off on it. So, a BIG Memphis Thank-You goes out to Knoxville's Harry Brooks for sponsoring a bill that experiments with the education of Shelby County School students.

Always good to try things out first on other people's children.

But Knoxvillians shouldn't despair, sources indicate that the state legislature has plans to spread the voucher love across the state of Tennessee. Former Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey confirmed that he supported intentions to expand the program statewide when he recently spoke to a group of Shelby County Republicans in Bartlett.
​

Ramsey, who lives in Blountville, made the nearly 500 mile trip to Bartlett, a Memphis suburb, to promote the Shelby County voucher bill. Bragging that Tennessee public education produced the fastest improving schools in the nation under the Haslam administration going from 48th in the nation to 23rd, Ramsey said the reform process was almost complete. The missing component is a school choice program. 

After his remarks, local Republicans peppered him with questions. But Ramsey had few answers. He told the audience that in his neck of the woods, there is only one private school, a small Christian school called Tri-State Christian Academy. He went on to say he had been criticized in the past for charter school expansion. His response to his constituent was to point out the lack of charter schools in upper east Tennessee.

But that response didn't fly in Bartlett.

It was quickly pointed out to Ramsey that Shelby County is home to a large number of private schools. Audience members repeatedly asked him about the impact vouchers would have on public education in the Memphis area. But Ramsey sidestepped most of the questions saying he was just the salesman and did not know the details of the bill. One audience member asked if voucher money paid to private schools would be lost if a student returned to public schools. After repeating, he did not know how the bill would work, Ramsey got a little testy and responded by saying his focus was on children, not institutions.

But that might not necessarily be true. Ramsey was quite interested in one instituition—the Catholic/Parochial school system in Memphis. He mentioned Catholic schools several times as a superior alternative to public schools in Memphis. This prompted Shelby County Commissioner, David Reaves, to ask if the true purpose of the Memphis voucher pilot is to subsidize the financially distraught Memphis Jubilee Schools?

Founded in 2000, the Memphis Jubilee Schools have been in existence for over 15 years operating in schools previously closed by the Catholic Diocese. According to their website, Memphis Jubilee Schools serve 1,500 students in nine schools located mostly in inner city Memphis. "Families pay only what they can based on their income and no family is turned away due to finances. Furthermore, scholarships follow students to all Catholic middle and high schools in Memphis."

The Memphis Flyer reports that the Jubilee Schools were not readily accepted at first with some complaining that reopening the old inner city Catholic Schools was not pragmatic. "Sister Mary Della Quinn, dean of mission and religious studies at St. Agnes Academy, is one of many posing those questions to the Diocese. 'It doesn't matter if someone gave $30 million; it just costs so much to run a school even for a year.' Quinn, like others within the Catholic school system, suggests that the re-openings are acts of nostalgia and that the money should pay for upgrading existing schools, increasing teacher salaries, and providing technology for more classrooms."

The Jubilee Schools got their start with an anonymous $15M donation in 1999 and have continued operations funded primarily by donations. One of the big Miracle Partner donors is none other than the Hyde Family Foundation—a big name in education reform who has been pumping money into Common Core, Teacher Evaluation Models, Charter Schools and all those other icky reform measures. 

Along with charitable foundations, the other big donors to the Jubilee Schools are religious organizations. So, does that mean the religious community supporting Jubilee Schools expect something in return?

There is little to no doubt that Jubilee Schools are Catholic schools. According to a Guidestar Report on the Jubilee Catholic Schools Network, the key strategies of the Jubilee Schools are to "strengthen their Catholic identity. We will increase volunteer participation from Parish members. Students will attend mass and religion class regularly. Students and teachers will pray throughout the day. We will provide professional development in the Catholic faith for non-Catholic teachers. Principals and support office team members will increase communication with the Parish priests."

Mary McDonald, former superintendent for Memphis Catholic Schools made it clear that "the [Jubilee] schools are truly Catholic...We’re not a public school. We’re not a charter. We have the same values we’ve had for centuries—do the same things. We say prayer every day. We say the rosary at the same time every week. We have Mass for everyone.” McDonald goes on to say that over 80% of her students were non-Catholics.

The Memphis voucher pilot has received quite a bit of push-back in Shelby County. Republican Senator Mark Norris from Collierville called the bill problematic. School boards from surrounding suburban districts have taken a stance against the voucher program. And the Shelby County Commission recently passed a resolution opposing Kelsey's voucher bill in a 10-0 vote with Commissioner Heidi Shafer abstaining. Two years ago, she argued for vouchers, saying that parents should have an "escape hatch" for students "trapped" in failing schools. She also touted the benefits of competition among schools. 

But under the proposed pilot, not everybody in Shelby County would be subject to competition. As written, the bill provides that only students attending Shelby County Schools are eligible for vouchers. School choice would not be available to inner city Memphis students who attend failing charter schools in the State-run Achievement School District. Those students would remain "trapped" in their failing schools without an "escape hatch" while the ASD would be protected from voucher competition.
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According to Peter Meyer's article on saving Catholic schools in America, competition from charter schools has contributed to the demise of inner city Catholic schools. The article quotes Father Ronald Nuzzi, director of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) leadership program at Notre Dame, as saying, "charter schools are one of the biggest threats to Catholic schools in the inner city, hands down. How do you compete with an alternative that doesn’t cost anything?” 

The article found that "vouchers are proving to be something of an antidote to the threat posed by charter schools." "In Milwaukee, for example, according to Paul Peterson, while charters have 'accelerated' the decline of private schools, vouchers seem to have 'stabilized' them." "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concluded in 2005 that 'the principal [sic] effect of choice' in the city has been 'to preserve the city’s private schools, many of them Lutheran and Catholic.'  David Prothero, associate superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, says the 6,000 Catholic-school voucher students represent nearly half of Milwaukee’s Catholic school students. 'That’s significant.'”

Vouchers may be a boost to declining inner city Catholic schools but are they what's best for students? Without subjecting Catholic school students to the same assessments as their public student counterparts, we may never know the answer to that question.