John Oliver’s piece on charter schools is an eye-opening expose’ of the publicly funded, privately run schools which are often so irregularly regulated that they become cash cows for crooks. Oliver provides humor, but he doesn’t fail to indict those who are the worst offenders. Of course, the students are ultimately robbed, but each student does provide $7,000 – at minimum, in tax-payer funds to ‘administrators’ and ‘founders’ of the alleged schools.
It’s often said that Ohio is the ‘Wild West of charter schools. You’ll see why Governor John Kasich compares the schools to ‘pizza shops’ and believes the only way to get more pepperoni on your pizza is to build another shop. I don’t know whether he’s too cheap to pay for extra pepperoni or just short-sighted. Tough break America, we had him in our grasp but let him slip through the presidential sieve.
Superintendent Lisa Hamm isn’t typical of charter school grifters, but her story does illustrate the lack of oversight, and Hamm certainly wins the blue ribbon for chutzpah. Hamm purchased jewelry, luggage, veterinary care, spa visits, trips to Europe and went to see ‘Oprah Live!’ She also must have put together a legal dream team. Here is the explanation that bought Hamm a plea deal instead of fraud charges.
“it’s very important for people to have a vision for their own life, and in order to do that they have to see what’s possible for their live – and in order to transfer it to the children they have to experience it themselves.” John observed – with irony; “she has learned a lot from Oprah.”