bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Education is a key issue for Americans; it affects every home in America. For years, we’ve been seeing documentaries, like Waiting For Superman, discussing how our education system is crumbling or in a severe state of decline. Needless to say, teachers unions were not happy about being listed as one of the reasons why our public schools are–more or less–failing. This powerful union often demonizes charter schools, or institutions that adhere to school choice. It was recently reported that hedge fund managers have played a significant role pushing a pro-charter school agenda in New York City.

The New York Daily News has an article about how millions of dollars in the form of political donations are being spent to support charter schools:

The title of the hedge fund bosses’ all-day symposium on Tuesday said it all: “Bonds & Blackboards: Investing in Charter Schools.” Sponsored by the Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, its aim was to convince investors there’s money to be made in charter schools.

Hedge fund executives have unleashed a tsunami of money the past few years aimed at getting New York’s politicians to close more public schools and expand charter schools.

They’ve done it through direct political contributions, through huge donations to a web of pro-charter lobbying groups, and through massive TV and radio commercials.

Since 2000, 570 hedge fund managers have shelled out nearly $40 million in political contributions in New York State, according to a recent report by Hedge Clippers, a union-backed research group.

The single biggest beneficiary has been Andrew Cuomo, who received $4.8 million from them.

…

In this era after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case, the indirect contributions are even more astounding.

…

Two other pro-charter groups, Families for Excellent Schools and the political arm of Students First New York, spent more than $10 million last year on their lobbying effort.

The piece also said that such contributions are rivaling that of teachers unions. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, reacted to this news by tweeting the NY Daily News piece with this comment:

Granted, Ms. Weingarten also gets paid a nice $500k a year salary. Lastly, these contributions made by pro-school choice advocates are 100 percent legal. It’s protected free speech.

Yet, the t***sition that some private colleges are undertaking in becoming nonprofit organizations has also raised the eyebrows of some in the education field–and legal authorities.

Here, the charge is the same; some folks are profiting from education. In this case, owners of private colleges reap profits by becoming non-profit entities. Patricia Cohen of The New York Times delved into the for-profit, non-profit t***sition of Keiser University in Florida as an example:

Consider Keiser University in Florida. In 2011, the Keiser family, the school’s founder and owner, sold it to a tiny nonprofit called Everglades College, which it had created.

As president of Everglades, Arthur Keiser earned a salary of nearly $856,000, more than his counterpart at Harvard, according to the college’s 2012 tax return, the most recent publicly available. He is receiving payments and interest on more than $321 million he lent the tax-exempt nonprofit so that it could buy his university.

And he has an ownership interest in properties that the college pays $14.6 million in rent for, as well as a stake in the charter airplane that the college’s managers fly in and the Holiday Inn where its employees stay, the returns show. A family member also has an ownership interest in the computer company the college uses.

Keiser University, which has about 20,000 students spread over 15 campuses, is one of a handful of for-profit colleges that have switched to the nonprofit arena or are considering that move.

The shift means more restrictions on moneymaking ventures and loss of ownership. But nonprofit schools — defined as providing a public benefit — do not have to pay taxes, are eligible for certain state grants and can receive more money from the federal student loan program.

Consumer advocates and legal experts warn that some institutions might be shifting primarily to avoid stepped-up government scrutiny and regulation.

The piece then goes into how for-profit institutions have been hobbled by controversy, specifically luring (paraphrasing the NYT here) minority and low-income students through false advertising about the value of their degrees, while burdening them with massive amounts of student debt.

Keiser did agree to offer free retraining for its former students after an investigation by the Florida Attorney Generals Office into their admission process, according to the Times, but was the t***sfer legal? It appears to be that way since the article doesn’t mention any illegality over the t***sition.

Additionally:

The Education Department has final approval over the shift to nonprofit status, reviewing a school’s financial obligations and administrative capabilities. None have yet been rejected.

Keiser’s 990 forms are available here.

Nevertheless, allegations of felonious activity have been made in the for-profit education realm, and lawsuits have been filed at such institutions:

In 2012, Carl B. Barney sold several for-profit colleges, including Stevens-Henager, CollegeAmerica and California College, to a small Denver-based nonprofit, the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, which, according to court documents, consists of a single member: Mr. Barney, its chairman.

Mr. Barney lent the nonprofit $431 million for the sale, and donated millions more, the center’s tax returns and court records show. He also collected nearly $5.1 million in rent from the schools in 2013. The value of its “intangible assets” — such as its reputation and copyrighted trade secrets — was listed at $419 million.

A lawsuit joined by the Justice Department last year charged that the sale was, “at least in part, to evade certain regulatory requirements that apply to for-profit schools,” and that “the schools continue to operate more or less as they did prior to the merger.”

In December, the Colorado attorney general sued Mr. Barney and the schools over misleading and illegal practices. “These allegations are entirely false and they defame us,” Mr. Barney said. “We are fighting back to the very end.”

Concerning Keiser University, Robert Shireman, a former Education Department official with the Obama administration, filed a complaint with the IRS claiming “Mr. Keiser and three board members of violating tax regulations and using the nonprofit ‘for personal gain,’” according to Cohen. Again, the 990 forms are linked above.

Ironically, Mr. Shireman has been made the subject of a federal investigation over ethics violations during his tenure at the Department of Education. He allegedly discussed sensitive information with the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), according to the Wall Street Journal. TICAS is a non-profit organization that "works to make higher education more available and affordable for people of all backgrounds."

Last March, a federal judge ordered TICAS to turn over all emails relating to their correspondence with Mr. Shireman to the Department of Education’s Inspector General. Even Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a FOIA request for documents relating to Shireman last summer.

We shall see how this all turns out. But given how school choice has been improving the quality of education in the DC-area alone, at least we're seeing results, along with a more accountable system, than from their public education counterparts.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2015/03/12/education-is-not-for-profit-says-teachers-union-president-making-500k-a-year-n1969789?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Babsan

The Unions are the downfall of America and any other country they are.It took down my country of birth and decimated the merchant marine .The owner's took the fleet some where else.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Unions at one time had their place but today they have outlived there need.

robert66

It's bad that a supposed non profit group poses as such for tax exempt status which parallels the supposed charity groups that complained of having their tax exempt status held up by the IRS. The manipulators of these schools structure to pocket money is similar to the groups that were trying to funnel money into e******ns. Both are apparently dishonest. Neither situation is ethical and they should be made to conform to stricter standards to prevent misuse of the tax code. Even though it appears there could be a valid complaint against the managing of these schools it is not a good excuse to put more federal money toward vouchers which is a blatant attempt to cripple public schooling and ramrod more religion into our education system which seeks to rewrite the history of the United States in order to push an extreme conservative agenda.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Bla, bla, bla, your full of s**t!

robert66

One of the most mindless statements that has been repeated thousands of times by those with a limited capacity for original ideas.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Happy to see your admitting your mindless.

lusitanean

Unfortunately our public schools are becoming dens of inequity. They are run by the "liberals"' and you know what that entails, and one their pr**tities, and I'm sure I'm not mistaken, is to teach our daughters and grand daughters t o become s**ts. Perhaps for their own perverted ends.

lusitanean

By thr way some of our best universaties are private. Such as NYU my alma mater. Year 1949. Quite a while ago, I must say.

saltwind 78 Loc: Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

I substituted long term in the D.C. school system.It was the worst teaching experience I had. The entire system was corrupt from the administrators to the Union officials.I remember that the President of the teachers union was sent to jail for using union funds for personal use. There was plenty more corruption. I think it is ingrained in the system's culture. I became a teacher in the Montgomery County system. We were represented by the NEA not the AFT. There were no high salaries that I knew about.I served as a rep for my school for over fifteen years, and never saw the slightest hint of funny business.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

True, but public employee unions have a built-in conflict of interest.

saltwind 78 Loc: Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

You are right. We don't need unions. Look at all the unAmerican activities that they were involved in. They made sure that workers were paid a living wage, they insisted on a pension plan to care for workers so they could have a descent retirement, they actually made sure that workers had a grievance system to protect workers from unfair treatment, and worst of all, they had the gall to demand health insurance and a safe working place!! Now that we don't have strong unions anymore all those poor CEOs that used to make a lousy million a year can make ten times that. Who needs unions?

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Union bosses didn't make sure of any living wage other than the union bosses wage. Every point you bring up there is a government agency that gets paid to do that plus unions drive up what everyone pays for things. Where I worked unions tried three times to get in and three times the workers v**ed against them.

robert66

These dummies that think we don't need unions anymore are so short sighted they should be banned from the Grand Canyon due to the obvious hazards. We are seeing what has happened as the unions have been beaten back. Low wages are now the norm. If a husband and wife want to buy a home and raise a family they must both work to make the payment and the kids are neglected. There is your republicans tearing apart the family unit. No wonder so many families with kids are on welfare, it's the only way to be a part of your kid's life. What kind of i***t does it take to believe that health and safety in the workplace will remain a priority when unions are finished off. We have OSHA and MSHA now but hey let's deregulate so the companies can make more. Even if you keep the Department of Labor they already have very little bite especially when you have a dog eat dog workplace. With no worker unity safety suffers. Due to the gutting of worker comp laws by conservatives there is little protection if someone is injured. Some states now have a chart that has set monetary awards for losing a limb. It's not like you may think either, your arm is worth like 10 grand.