It’s not always writer’s block when you have trouble putting your thoughts into something resembling comprehensible form.
In the case of the Louisiana Department of Education’s (DOE) Course Choice program, the players are so intertwined as to be considered downright incestuous.
It’s not enough that the State Supreme Court has ruled that Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funds cannot be used to pay the tuition for Course Choice. Superintendent of Education John White has given every indication that he fully intends to plunge ahead with Course Choice and vouchers.
The depth of the apparent fraud is already emerging, even before Course Choice is really up and running, at a staggering rate sufficient to alert every investigative agency in Baton Rouge, from the local district attorney to state Attorney General and Legislative Auditor’s office to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
So where are they?
No, it’s not writer’s block. This convoluted mess called Course Choice can best be described as a cluster fart (okay, we cleaned that up a bit).
We just posted a story last week about FastPath, that Austin, Texas, firm headed by Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush. FastPath, it has been learned, signed up 1100 students from Caddo and Webster parishes for Course Choice courses without the knowledge or consent of the students or their parents.
One of those registering for courses in Webster Parish was a parent and “at least one was a Severe Profound child,” said a spokesperson for the Webster School Board. “The recruiters went down the street knocking on doors,” he said.
Some of the courses for students allegedly signed up for in Webster included math courses entitled Single Variable Equations, Two Variable Equations, Number Line Inequalities, Applied Linear Equations 1 and 2, Quadratic Formula, Quadratic X-Intercepts, Trinomial Factoring and Graphs to Linear Inequalities.
Now, LouisianaVoice has learned that another 64 were signed up for course choice courses in Bossier Parish. Fifty-two of those were signed up by FastPath and Smart Start but a few others were signed up by other providers approved by DOE, namely K-12, Inc., Advanced Academics, APEX Learning and Education Solutions.
Smart Start is the company that we reported last week was running ads in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Central Louisiana for sales reps to earn up to $75,000 within six months by signing up students for course choice courses.
The ads have since been taken down but we subsequently learned that FastPath was running a similar ad for sales reps for the Monroe area.
All 64 applications were rejected by Bossier Parish. Of the 34 signed by Smart Start, all attempted to register for Precision Math and Reading Acceleration courses. One student who was not even enrolled in a Bossier Parish school attempted to register for two courses. The student identified his/her school as the Life Skills Center as the school he/she is presently attending. The Life Skills Center is closed.
Two students, a brother and sister from another parish attempted to register for four courses through Haughton High School.
One first grade student had someone attempt to register her in two courses—high school Latin and high school English. Her legal guardian did not enroll her through Course Choice and has no consistent computer access.
Another student attempted to register for two courses considered “academically inappropriate,” according to a Bossier Parish spokesperson.
Following our initial story last week, David Callaway, chief compliance officer for FastPath sent us an email that said everything was on the up and up with his company.
But judging from the track record of its CEO, Rod Paige, no one should be surprised if things aren’t completely on the level. While he was serving as Secretary of Education under the younger Bush, a major scandal erupted when it was learned that while he headed up the Houston Independent School District, the fifth largest district in the nation, the district falsified its dropout statistics.
In his response, Callaway said, “We have a strict protocol that all of our representatives follow, and they are paid a flat hourly rate for their work ($16 per hour, according to FastPath’s ad). As part of this protocol, parents are ALWAYS present during enrollment. All or our representatives wear identifying badges and we take immediate action to address all legitimate concerns. Parents enroll in significant numbers because our program works. Over 95 percent of parents report an increase in their child’s grades in multiple subjects.”
We fired off a second email asking him to quantify his 95 percent claim via a written document. We have not heard back from him.
“Before a student’s enrollment is completed,” he said, “it is approved by a guidance counselor to ensure it is academically appropriate.”
The Bossier Parish spokesperson, however, said the only way the local school board becomes aware of enrollees is by logging onto the DOE dashboard through the Course Choice website. For all intents and purposes, the local guidance counselors are out of the loop on Course Choice registrations until well after the fact.
Callaway said FastPath does not receive full tuition from the state for students “unless our program results in significant gains on the LEAP/iLEAP.”
The actual agreement between FastPath and DOE, however, is not quite that strict. FastPath, as with all course choice providers, charges $700 to $1250 in tuition and like all providers, receives 50 percent of that ($350 to $625) up front. Only 10 percent of the final 50 percent (or 5 percent of the overall tuition) is contingent upon students’ showing only an increase, not a “significant” increase. Thus, if a FastPath student failed to show gains, FastPath would lose only $62.50 of a total tuition of $1250 or $35 of a $700 tuition.
Some penalty.
Now here’s where it begins to get a bit muddled and we’re probably going to have to develop an organizational, or flow chart to illustrate just how tight this little cadre really is.
First, we should point out that FastPath has two sister companies, Tutors with Computers and Read and Succeed, both of which have numerous complaints registered against them for deceptive practices.
That, however, has not deterred one Eric Nadelstern, Ed.D., from offering ringing endorsements of both companies. Nadelstern has been called “The great apologist for everything Joel Klein did for a decade.”
Nadelstern was Klein’s Deputy Chancellor for Academics in New York and was John White’s boss there.
Oddly enough, he appears on the web pages of both Tutors with Computers and Read and Succeed with identical blurbs with only the company’s name changed: “(Name of company) delivers outstanding products and services that effectively raise reading and math proficiency,” his endorsements say.
The DOE official responsible for coordinating all the course choice programs is one David “Lefty” Lefkowith, the frequent flyer who commutes to and from his home in Los Angeles for a $146,000 per year salary.
Travel records released to LouisianaVoice as part of the settlement terms of our recent public records lawsuit against DOE reveal that Lefty was reimbursed $860 for traveling to Austin, Texas, on Feb. 17-18 to meet with officers of Agilix Labs regarding Course Choice registration.
So just who is Agilix Labs? It’s a company that thus far has managed to fly under our radar but which we now know has a contract with DOE to help develop its Course Choice platform. We’ve not been able to determine the amount of that contract but we have made a public records request for the document.
Agilix announced in a Feb. 27 news release that it had created “one of the first educational applications to tap into the emerging InBloom data standard (IBDS).”
The news released continued by saying, IBDS was designed by its creators at Shared Learning Cooperative (SLC) to standardize access to myriad disparate forms of student, school, course and other educational data across platforms. Supported with $100 million from the Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and others, InBloom supports data needs of states, districts, nonprofits and corporations promoting personalized learning.”
What?
“We had to look at the issue of how to interface with all these systems to provide the broadest possible access to our customers,” said Agilix CEO Curt Allen. “After much analysis, we settled on adopting the rapidly emerging InBloom standard. That choice means that any school district or state that supports IBDS can leverage Agilix Honeycomb technology.
“John White, Superintendent of Louisiana schools, says, ‘By connecting to IBDS, Agilix opens a lot of doors for our Course Choice product not only for registration but also for detailed analysis of student performance. We expect this will assist greatly in tracking and reporting results of Course Choice adoption to state authorities,’” the news release said.
So there you have it. The circle is complete. After all the guarantees that data provided to InBloom would not be shared, we have Agilix, contracted by the state, saying otherwise.
We have White’s former boss endorsing two shady companies affiliated with a course choice provider (FastPath) from the same city as Agilix (Austin) that is signing up students in three northwest Louisiana parishes without the knowledge or consent of the students or parents.
And Agilix is joined at the hip with InBloom to whom White was going to provide sensitive personal data on some 700,000 Louisiana school students to “park” the information in its “data garage.” White has since said he cancelled the agreement with InBloom but in response to our public records request has denied the existence of any document verifying any such cancellation. Nor has he ever produced a contract or memorandum of understanding with InBloom to provide the data in the first place.
And coordinating the entire Course Choice racket is a nomad who jets in from Los Angeles for a four-day work week before heading back to the West Coast every Thursday—a nomad with his own questionable past of working with the now defunct Enron and the Jeb Bush administration in Florida in an unsuccessful effort to corner the market on drinking water there.
What could possibly go wrong here?
But of course Jindal knows nothing about any of this.
I’m beginning to get physically ill with all of this cr@p.
Excellent research Tom!
I guess the reason our state’s mainstream media hasn’t picked up on any of this is because they are either too ignorant or lazy to properly investigate.
All those truants recently picked up in Baton Rouge? They weren’t truants. Turns out they were being home schooled and getting their education from “quality alternative sources” and simply avoiding the failing public education system of EBRP.
I think a flow chart might be great fun, and instructional for the mainstream media who seem to be incapable of playing dot-to-dot.
Follow the money! Always follow the money!
Reblogged this on Crazy Crawfish's Blog and commented:
More great investigative work by Tom Aswell, one of the few true investigative reporters left in Louisiana.
My head hurts!!!
You may have seen this before, but it’s worth mentioning – an investigative journalist in Maine foraged out some pretty damning information on some of these edu-tech scams. You mention K-12,inc. above, and this story is full of intrigue about that company and also Connections Education which has ties to LA’s Connections Academy virtual school. It’s long but definitely worth the read as it ties it all together nicely – including the Gov’s involvement. I see a parallel to what’s going on in our state.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/virtual-schools-in-maine_2012-09-02.html?pagenum=full
And this morning (Tues., May 21) the House Education Committee will consider HB 648, which would REQUIRE every high school student to take AT LEAST ONE on-line or Course Choice offering in order to earn a high school diploma.
They are below the sludge on the bottom of the barrel!
Oh, and did I mention that the Maine edu-scam is also tied to Deidre Finn who was the commuting PR flack hired by White at $12k a month to make his PR problems regarding the questionable voucher schools go away?? Oh, and she works for that consulting firm tied to Jeb Bush…
Oh what a tangled web we weave…
Ever heard of Michael Milken? He was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 in an insider trading investigation, sentenced to ten years, served 2-3. He was one of the Initial investors in K-12 Inc., along Lowell Milken and the Milken Family Foundation.
[…] Aswell, investigator journalist and blogger, is covering and uncovering evidence of fraud in the Louisiana Course Choice […]
The Bushies, an educational advocacy unlimited group. Jeb for Prez? These groups operate only through state funding, at taxpayers expense. These same agencies condemn public education while fleecing the state coffers for their profit and political gain. They are all the same players, different playing boards. Why haven’t these gangsters been locked up long ago? Has no one asked for reimbursement, funds stolen from these states in court? Fraud, stealing private students info, storing in data garage, paid up front? How can the state, after Supreme ruling receive reimbursement? Arrest and convictions, where, who? Big bucks. Operating like gypsies, long ago by trucking into states, now planes, state jobs, and monetary gains. Agree flow chart for those “follow the money challenged”, lame stream media!
Just wow!!!!
Everyone talk but protest and unification will get someone’s attention. Those taxpayers footing this “monstrosity” is “US” ( You out there and Me)
This very impressive piece of journalism should put The Times-Picayune and the Morning Advocate to shame. With all of their resources, why are THEY not doing such important, hard-hitting stories? Louisiana Voice has made me realize how much those papers are snoozing. Thanks!
Could those counselors be the five hired by DOE for the Course Choice program? I suppose their orders are similar to the four part expert evaluation of all groups applying to provide courses: if they don’t pass the smell test, lefty “works” with them to make the program acceptable. It would be interesting to know who had the final say about which companies were accepted.
Look at the number of courses offered. How do they expect to monitor each of them?
The superintendent in Claiborne Parish (immediately east of Webster) ran an ad on the first page of the local weekly paper announcing that educational solicitations were not approved by the local school board, and that any contacts made by such persons should be reported to the school system.
This entire plan is a way to defraud the citizens of Louisiana. All the professionals in the LDE are being replaced by TFA clones who are either complicit in this fraud or duped by the glitz of their unearned positions.
Flow chart? Maybe. Concept Map Needed. My head hurts. Tom A. you are my hero, keep it flowing…
Genuinely no matter if someone doesn’t know afterward its up to other users that they will help, so here it takes place.
QUESTION: Why does the DOE and John White have to subcontract computerized education?
The state has all the necessary resources at its fingertips to provide such online educational support. We have the schools, the teachers, the necessary computers and the audio visual equipment available to produce the same programs for which the DOE will pay outside suppliers from $700 to $1,300 dollars per course.
Furthermore, there are FREE online educational support programs offered through such sites as KAHN ACADEMY. Samuel Khan, the founder, is from New Orleans and recently received an honor from Orleans parish for his contribution to education. The program has received accolades from Bill Gates and receives partial funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The site is available to anyone with a computer and completely free.
So I ask again, why does the DOE have to pay third party contractors to supply a service when:
1. the DOE has the assets(teachers, computer systems, recording equipment, universities) available to produce courses specific to DOE requirements and/or;
2. the DOE could interface with free systems such as KAHN to develop and offer FOR FREE specific programs that would permit home learning and tutoring for Louisiana students?
OK John White and Bobby Jindal, I just saved the state of Louisiana hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, it’s time to see something productive on your part. Now, get to work!
This comment by Greg Foreman is a real eye-opener. His suggestions are so logical and straightforward that it seems almost criminal at best and malfeasance at best for DOE, BESE and John White to ignore this solution.
LouisianaVoice will be exploring this concept in greater detail.
Tom Aswell
[…] These folks have no experience in education or the courses they are recruiting students for. Course Choice providers claim these folks are simply paid an hourly rate, while claiming they can earn up to 75,000 dollars in 6 months. I’m not sure how many hours or […]
Excellent work, Tom! I had the misfortune of working in Houston ISD during Rod Paige’s tenure as superintendent. The man is functionally illiterate and was such an embarrassment to the Bush administration that he wasn’t asked back for a second term. He’s a liar (he created a “leaver code” system that made it easier to hide drop-outs. remember the “Houston Miracle” story that the NY Times ran?). He’s also the same fool who got on 60 Minutes and referred to teachers as “terrorists.” The same people whose hard work helped make him famous were suddenly scapegoats for the ills facing public education.
Since leaving Washington, Dr. Paige has made quite a nice living serving on various boards and allowing himself to be used as a figurehead for various educational initiatives. He, Jeb Bush, and others are the face of white collar crime masquerading as education reform in this country. Be very afraid.
[…] Aswell, investigator journalist and blogger, is covering and uncovering evidence of fraud in the Louisiana Course Choice […]
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my
commment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say excellesnt blog!