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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Sherry Hage stands up for her man and her Charter Schools too

The Sun Sentinel has done an amazing piece exposing charter schools for the liability that they are.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorials/fl-editorial-charter-schools-dv-

Sherry Hage the chief academic officer wrote in to defend charter schools. From the Sun Sentinel: As a professional educator, I spent 10 years in the classroom for Broward County Public School District. And for the past 13 years, I have worked at Charter Schools USA and currently serve as their Chief Academic Officer. I have seen the good, bad and ugly side of education. I can say with confidence that CSUSA driving change in the communities where we operate schools.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-06-27/news/fl-shcol-oped0627-20140627_1_charter-schools-traditional-public-schools-17-schools

However one thing she leaves out is that she is married to the CEQ of Charter schools USA, nope doesn't mention it anywhere. Don't you think this would be a nice bit of info to have?

As for them helping communities not so fast, let me tell you about the most recent CUSA school to come to Jacksonville.

The charter for the Charter School at Mandarin was given to the Renaissance Charter School group the non-profit arm of Charter Schools USA (CUSA), who then contracted with CUSA to run the school and their construction arm Red Apple to build it. Some people might say one stop shopping; others might say their set up would make Columbian drug dealers envious. Red Apple by the way started construction before it was approved. They may have know it was a certainty what with Jacksonville's school boards friendliness to charters, though that did not stop CUSA from hedging its bets and donating thousands to Mandarin’s school board representative, Jason Fischer.  
 
Nobody on the Charter School at Mandarin’s board is from Jacksonville and its sister school the Charter School at Regency would have been an F school this past year if it wasn’t protected by states rule that schools can drop only one letter grade. A rule co-created by Gary Chartrand the local businessman who brought the KIPP charter school to town who likewise has benefited from the rule. I mention these two things because similar things happened in Orange and Hillsborough counties and they are fighting in the courts against the expansion of CUSA in their school districts. They have to fight in the courts because despite their objections Gary Chartrand and the state board of education, none of who are true educators, but consists of a citrus grower, grocer and cable TV executive instead, rubber-stamped the approval of the charter schools. 
 
So much for local control right?
 
Jonathan Hage the CEO of CUSA and husband of the executive that wrote the Sun Sentinel, even though he lives in Florida and does the vast bulk of his business here has registered the company in Delaware where CUSA operates zero schools. Then even though he only operates 58 schools with a little over 50,000 students, he lives in a 1.8 million dollar house, owns a 350 thousand dollar yacht named Fishing for Schools and sends his children to an exclusive private school. His salary was unavailable but I have heard estimates of up to 3.6 million dollars.
 
By comparison Duval’s superintendent Vitti who runs 176 schools with 119 thousand students, makes 275 thousand dollars, lives in a 180 thousand dollar condo (I checked his financial disclosure forms) sends his children to public school and doesn’t own a yacht. 
 
Furthermore the three closest schools to where it will open up were all A schools last year so there was hardly a need to rescue kids from failing public schools.
 
Finally CUSA is a big player in the lobby game sending thousands of dollars to mostly republican legislators. My main problem with this is they undoubtedly use public money because remember they get their money from the public, to lobby for more public money.
 
Is this what you envision when you hear the words charter schools? A lucrative profit center for a couple who won’t even send their own kids to one of thier schools. It is obvious what Sherry Hage envisions.

19 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Your article does not give the full picture... Charter Schools receive on average 30% less funding than traditional public schools, but Charter Schools USA has consistently turned low performing schools into high performing schools.

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    1. site it and I will put it on the blog, from what I understand they have done well in the affluent neighborhoods but have struggled mightily in the poorer ones...

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  3. Dear Chris,

    I have read a lot of your articles and often get a laugh but I have to say I am furious by your title and this post all together. It reeks of sexism and infuriates me that you degrade Ms. Hage simply because she is married to the CEO. Her article made it clear that she was a teacher for over 10 years and even if the company was started by her husband that doesn't mean she hasn't paved her own way. Commentaries like this are beyond degrading, they cheapen women.

    If you want to bash the way people do business...fine by me. But leave the sexist rants out of your headlines and out of your commentaries. You should take this down or change the headline.

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    1. That's what upsets you? Not her leaving out who she was in her piece, information most people would find relevant or all the other things.

      I don't know the woman so I can't comment as to how hard she works or not.

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    2. It doesn't matter if she mentions her husband or not. She is her own woman and has had her own career, it isn't imperative. What I find important is that you are ok with insulting women. Does Hillary Clinton need to acknowledge that she is Bill's wife everytime she does something. What difference does it make!

      Regardless, it should matter to you that you are insulting other women.

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    3. Are you kidding me? She should have mentioned it and was deceptive not too and to equate Mrs. Hage to Hilary Clinton is a little ridiculous. Furthermore yeah I'm not insulting women but if you think so a blog is like the radio, turn the channel.

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    4. One more thing and that's what bothers you? None of the other stuff? Are you related to Mrs. Hage or do you work for her?

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    5. Ha...interesting response coming from someone who seems to have an obsession with CSUSA.

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    6. Over the years there have been about 6000 posts on this blog maybe 30 have had to deal with CUSA specifically, maybe, so yeah somebody is obsessed but I know it not me. Now don't you have a puppy kicking rally or chocolate chip cookies suck meeting to attend, you know, supporting other things that indefensible too.

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  4. Ummm...Chris, you do realize that dozens of companies that operate across state lines incorporate in Delaware. Not quite sure what that has to do with anything.

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    1. Yes and I am told they do that to take advantage of the lax tax laws there. I'm not saying these people aren't smart or savy. In a better world though don't you think it would be nice if a company was incorporated in the state they do the bulk of their business in?

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    2. If by "lax" you mean low or next to non-exsistant, you should be pleased that at least, from your point of view they aren't wasting more of the public money you don't want them to have in the first place. You seem to be fine with the fact that 275K is acceptable for a local board director. If you were to pay that to him, then divvy up the rest, that would only be 125 bucks annualy per teacher-assuming there are only 10,000 people on the payrole. You may end up with low drive to perform CEO at that salary as well. Don't see the problem with CEO salary.

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  5. You seem to only be upset that this guy makes a lot of money. I guess my question would be--out of all there schools across the country, are they successful. It seems like when you read other articles that all of them with the exception of their new schools are pretty successful.

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  6. again from what I understand they have done well in the affluent neighborhoods but have struggled mightily in the poorer ones and maybe it is just me but I feel rather than few people getting super rich that money should be spent on the kids..

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  7. So why don't you write about the district schools that have failed for decades?

    Ms. Hage's article states that every school they operate ends up being a high-performing article. I am acually a parent who's child went to Downtown Miami Charter SChool which is by definition a "low-performing" area. They took that school from an F to an A.

    I guess we will find out about the rest of their schools next week...just wondering if you are willing to discuss any of the positive stories or if you only want to rant about the negatives.

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    1. Are there charter schools that do a great job? Sure and I even believe they have a role to play, unfortunately in Florida way to many are substandard and serve as profit centers for families like the Hages.

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  8. Ha...interesting response coming from someone who seems to have an obsession with CSUSA.

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  9. I see you all are jumping on Chris but have any of you worked for these people or met them? I have and he has a point and I am a female. I'm just saying

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