This is a profound story based on the investigative journalism of Spectrum News.
Here’s the short of it:
Former Dallas Independent School District (DISD) superintendent, Mike Miles, is now superintendent of Houston Independent School District (HISD). During his time between these two stints, Miles opened three charter schools in Colorado under the auspices of nonprofit, Third Future Schools (TFS).
Mike Miles
The Colorado schools are in trouble financially. One has since closed.
Meanwhile, under Miles, TFS has opened charters in Texas, including Sam Houston Elementary (Midland), Ector College Prep (Odessa), and Mendez Middle School (Austin).
According to the Spectrum investigation, the TFS Texas charters are in the red and are mysteriously paying roughly 40 percent of the whole budget on undisclosed “admin” costs. Further investigation shows that the Texas money is being sent to support the struggling TFS Colorado schools. The explanation from TFS is that monies to the TFS schools support TFS schools “in general,” ignoring the fact that Texas taxpayers are actually paying to support schools in another state.
The 8-minute Spectrum video details Miles’ scheme.
[As] Texas public schools are battling huge budget deficits and having to make massive cuts, Spectrum News has discovered millions of Texas public school dollars being diverted out of state. What’s more, the man believed to be responsible– Houston public schools superintendent Mike Miles– his old charter schools in Colorado are in need of cash.
In schools all across Texas, dedicated teachers and panicked parents speak out in passion and frustration.
One of the largest budget deficits in the state, Houston Independent School District (HISD), where newly-appointed superintendent Mike Miles has called for dramatic cuts to offset a $450M budget shortfall. Miles was appointed by Texas Education Agency (TEA) commissioner, Mike Morath, to take over and turn around the struggling school district last summer (June 2023). Ten years before he took over at Houston ISD, Miles spent three years as superintendent at Dallas ISD.
When he left Dallas in 2015, Miles started three charter schools in Colorado, called Third Future Schools. According to both internal school records and the nationally-recognized school rating agency, SchoolDigger, all three schools have since struggled with performance, enrollment, and finances. The records provided to us by TFS through open records requests also reveals Miles was forced to close one of his schools (Coperni 2) last summer due to declining enrollment, leaving that school with $5M in unpaid bond debt. the school’s debt was discussed at a Third Future Schools board meeting via Zoom last summer after Miles had taken over at Houston ISD. Yet there was Miles, at the meeting, acting as a consultant; according to payment records, Miles received $40,000 consulting for TFS last year (2023).
Watch as Miles urges his old board of directors to find the money and pay the debt:
(Miles’ voice) “It’s now becoming untenable. We have to subsidize it to the tune of maybe $500K a year if it only has 180 kids or so. I think the time is right to do what the administration is asking to do.”
In 2020, around the time his financial troubles were beginning in Colorado, Miles began expanding his charter school network to Texas. … But by the end of the 2023 school year, as he was taking over in Houston, Miles’ three Texas schools were nearly $2.7M in the red.
So, why were Miles’ new Texas schools losing money?
Here’s where they mysterious millions in “administrative costs” comes in.
Within one week, on two separate occasions, two teachers in my school district were dismissed as they were arrested resulting form law enforcement investigations regarding their interactions with students– one on April 30, 2024, and the other, on May 03, 2024. Both incidents involve charges of “prohibited sexual contact between an educator and students,” and both involve use of technology.
Aside from the obvious legal troubles, a Louisiana teacher found guilty of a felony related to interactions with students can wave goodbye to a Louisiana teaching certification, an issue that put me in mind of this post.
1. In the 2018 session, the Louisiana legislature broadened the scope of oversight from that of traditional public school teachers, who need “teaching certificates,” to basically all adults involved (i.e., substitute teachers; non-public school teachers) as encompassed by the language (and need for) “teaching authorizations.”
2. Any felony offense gets the initial denial. However, in some cases, it is possible with the passage of time (that is, ten years) to initially receive a 90-day provisional authorization that is further dependent upon state board review:
3. Such a review is also possible after five years in cases of fraudulent documentation or cheating on state assessments:
4. A “crime of violence outlined in R.S. 14:2(B)” involves “an offense that has, as an element, the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, and that, by its very nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense or an offense that involves the possession or use of a dangerous weapon.”
5. A “sex offense outlined in R.S. 15:541” includes but is not limited to all sorts of sex crimes utilizing personal technological devices and the internet.
6. “Any crime outlined in R.S. 15:587.1” involves a listing of statutes by number and includes convictions for “attempt or conspiracy to commit”:
Let’s examine the crimes behind those numerous Louisiana statute designations in 6. Since the list is extensive, I will succintly present it in total first (click on corresponding links for details) and afterward offer some commentary.
The above are from Louisiana statutes. However, the crimes outlined in the statutes are certainly not unique to Louisiana.
Why in the world would a teacher want to connect on social media with students (I could stop here, period, but let’s keep going) on a platform like Snapchat, which is designed to make messages disappear once viewed?
And still, here we are.
I googled “teacher arrested snapchat,” and had the following among my results:
Anyone familiar with “digital footprint” knows that online communications do not magically and automatically vaporize, if for no other reason than viewer screenshot capabilities, as Common Sense Media observes in reference to Snapchat:
“It’s out of their control after it’s shared.” Prolific publicization is the crux of social media.
Too, once law enforcement becomes involved, investigators can use court orders/subpoenas to access personal phone and other social media content, including Snapchat content and accounts as detailed in this Snapchat Law Enforcement Guide updated March 29, 2024.
To teachers and other school personnel who are dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight engaging in inappropriate, illegal, predatory interactions with students and utilizing social media platforms and personal communication devices as associated exploitation vehicles:
That social media and those devices are going to tell on you.
When they do, you will step into wreckage, which might include the end of your professional teaching authorization.
I would hope that your first thought would be to avoid turning your students into your victims. However, if it is not, perhaps a thought about avoiding your own professional downfall might prompt the preservation of apppropriate, healthy boundaries in the teacher-student relationship.
EdChoice, Ohio’s school voucher program, is the subject of a lawsuit dating back to January 2022. Among other issues, the suit notes, “Due in large part to the hundreds of millions of dollars diverted to funding private school tuition through the EdChoice Program, the General Assembly has failed in its constitutional obligation to fully fund Ohio’s public school districts at the level which the General Assembly has, itself, determined to be required.”
Vouchers for All! Money for Public Schools? Well, um…
Since the time the suit was filed, the Ohio legislature has expanded the program such that families with annual incomes of 450% above the poverty line, or $135,000 for a family of four, are eligible for school voucher funds, but it doesn’t stop there: Even families exceeding the $135k/yr cap can receive a small percentage of school voucher funding– a move that arguably contributes to the shifting of school voucher money away from lower-income families and children of color to more affluent families and more white students. From the January 30, 2024, Ohio Capital Journal:
The lawsuit has been active for two years, after Vouchers Hurt Ohio, the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, and five school districts around Ohio joined together to argue that the private school voucher program has become an disproportionately overgrown and flies in the face of the public school education established in Ohio’s constitution.
Over the last two years, the number of public school districts in support of the lawsuit has grown to more than 100, according to the coalition.
Meanwhile, the legislature passed its newest budget with near-universal eligibility for private school vouchers, at 450% of the poverty line, or an annual income of $135,000 for a family of four.
Even above that income level, students can receive at least 10% of the max scholarship level, which Huffman’s office spelled out in a press release after passage of the budget in 2023.
Since then, Ohio Department of Education data showed an increase of more than 2,500 students opting for vouchers from 2022 to 2023. Adding in the previous year, the voucher expansion program grew by more than 6,000 students from 2021 to 2023.
Last year, 32% of students with vouchers were considered “not low-income qualified,” and 66.4% of participants were white.
The group of school districts accused the General Assembly of passing school funding that not only creates a separate system for private education, but also perpetuates segregation as part of it.
“EdChoice is being used disproportionately by non-minority students, although originally it was touted as providing more options for low-income and minority students,” said Nneka Jackson, board member for the Richmond Heights Local School District. “We know this isn’t true.”
Jackson said Richmond Heights has seen a drastic change in population demographics since the EdChoice voucher system was instituted. The population of Richmond Heights includes 40% white overall residents. Before the EdChoice vouchers, Jackson said the makeup of students in the school district was 26% white and 74% students of color.
After EdChoice allowed more students to go to private schools on state subsidies, Jackson said Richmond Heights’ school district tilted overwhelmingly to a student population of 3% white and 97% students of color.
“The private school voucher program is re-segregating our schools and that is unfair, unlawful and unconstitutional,” Jackson said.
In the January 03, 2024, Ohio Capital Journal, former state representative and former chair of the Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education subcommittee for the House Finance Committee, Stephen Dyer, adds the following regarding the EdChoice program:
Since the most recent voucher participation numbers were released, Dyer did his own analysis of the voucher program, finding “a very different goal” compared to when it began.
“It’s now going to wealthier, white families to subsidize the decisions they’d already made to send their kids to private schools,” Dyer told the OCJ.
In an analysis he posted to his blog [in November 2023], Dyer said ODE data showed nearly nine in 10 new applications to the voucher expansion went to white students, and more new vouchers for high schoolers went to families making more than $150,000 annually than went to families making less.
…
The most recent data on Ohio’s EdChoice voucher expansion showed 66.4% of participants are white, with the Black population of voucher recipients coming in at 15%, the second highest number reported.
In 2022, 65.9% of expansion vouchers went to white students, up from 64.1% in 2021.
A vast majority – 9 in 10 – vouchers come from just 31 school districts, according to Dyer.
“Those districts’ racial makeup is, on average, 21% white,” he writes in his analysis. “Yet 46% of EdChoice voucher recipients are white – more than double the percentage of white students than attend the 31 public school districts where nine in 10 voucher students would otherwise attend.”
Senator Huffman: “Voucher Deposition? I Don’t Wanna Talk About It.”
Ohio senator Matt Huffman supports EdChoice; in his June 2023 press release, Huffman notes that “parents should have an option” and that EdChoice has indeed been expanded to be “universally available to every Ohio student based on a sliding scale of income eligibility,” including the costly plum: “Every student in Ohio will be eligible for a scholarship worth at least 10% of the maximum scholarship regardless of income.”
Huffman is trying really hard not to sit for a deposition related to the EdChoice lawsuit. In January 2024, Huffman “appeal[ed] a Franklin County court decision requiring him to submit written answers to questions “on his knowledge of school funding in Ohio and his involvement in the enactment and expansion of the EdChoice program through Amendment Substituted House Bill 110.” His appeal was dismissed in March 2024, so, in April 2024, Huffman filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court, citing “testimonial privilege.”
Matt Huffman
Feeding the Expanded Beast
In November 2023, WOSU reported that the Ohio school voucher program had exceeded its budget by $15M:
The State of Ohio spent $15 million more for the expanded school voucher program this year than it had estimated, and the program, which allows every child regardless of income to apply, is only expected to grow in the coming years.
The Ohio Legislative Services Commission initially estimated the EdChoice Voucher program would cost $397 million this fiscal year for the new vouchers. The numbers are now out and show over 66,000 families applied to the new program costing $412 million this year alone.
In total, over 90,000 families applied to the school voucher program, when including renewals from previous years and the Cleveland Scholarship Program, costing more than $580 million.
The state estimated the program will cost $439 million next year. That would bring the total cost of publicly-funded private education in Ohio to more than $1 billion once the cost of vouchers allowed in prior years and other costs the state pays for — like busing and paperwork — are factored in.
In March 2024, the Ohio Capital Journal noted that as of March 18, 2024, the number of EdChoice expansion applications has already exploded, with applications being accepted until June 30, 2024, the end of the fiscal year:
There have been more than 91,100 applications for Ohio’s private school voucher expansion program so far this school year — a dramatic increase compared to previous years.
Out of 91,157 voucher expansion applications, 87,312 scholarships have been awarded as of March 18 — amounting to $394,015,641 in allocated funding, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Applications are continuing to be accepted through the end of the fiscal year.
There were 26,390 voucher expansion applications submitted in 2023 with 24,323 scholarships awarded, and 25,011 applications submitted and 21,873 scholarships awarded in 2022.
So, exploding beyond budgeted funding is certainly an issue– especially since, as the February 23, 2024, Ohio Education Association (OEA) notes, Ohio’s public schools are funded using the same budget line item– which means less money for public schools as more money feeds Ohio’s beefy school vouchers:
As noted in recent news coverage, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce doesn’t yet know how much the state’s new universal voucher program will cost this year. But, with the explosion in the number of wealthier families taking public taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition for students who were already attending private schools in the first place, it is clear the state’s spending on the universal voucher program will far exceed the original budget estimates.
So, the fact is, when it comes time to pass the next state budget in 2025, that leaves less money in that line item for Ohio’s public schools. Exactly how much less and how will that impact public schools? It’s unclear. But, the uncertainty around those questions is causing school districts across the state to hold onto larger reserves to weather future state funding shortfalls, and in some cases, has prevented districts from feeling comfortable spending down the soon-to-expire federal pandemic-relief money that is currently inflating some of the figures. In the end, that uncertainty is hurting our students, as money that should be used to recruit and retain public school educators, address students’ mental health needs, and make up for lost ground remains unspent.
Audit, Schmaudit: Has ECOT Taught Us Nothing?
With so many millions being doled out year after year, auditing the program should also be an issue, but it seems not so much– even with Ohio’s history of the multi-million-dollar fraud-trap, Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), on the fringes of memory, as Dyer notes:
At the very least as the voucher program continues in Ohio, Dyer hopes a plan to audit the program is forthcoming for the billions of dollars spent to subsidize it. He pointed to an audit of the defunct Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), which exposed false enrollment numbers and led to court battles to claw back more than $60 million in state funding from the online charter school.
ECOT closed in 2018. In 2016, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce determined that it overpaid ECOT $60M. ECOT appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court in March 2021 and lost its appeal over this $60M in December 2021. In June 2022, the Columbus Dispatch reported that a state audit found that ECOT owed $117M:
Ohio Auditor Keith Faber on Tuesday said the school owes $106.6 million to the state Department of Education and another $10.6 million to the Attorney General’s office. Faber’s auditors found that ECOT wasn’t entitled to some of the state money it received in 2016 and 2017 and none of the cash it received in 2018.
The March 21, 2024, Ohio Capital Journal refers to the ECOT scandal and includes the question of EdChoice monies being audited as well as the assurance that such auditing is happening. However, there is no publicly-available EdChoice audit report referenced– just the “feeling” that some undisclosed “safeguards” are in place to prevent EdChoice from becoming another ECOT:
[Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon] Husted said the vouchers have “accountability and oversight” safeguards in place so something like the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow online charter school scandal from 2018 will never happen again.
ECOT was forced to shut down after the Ohio Department of Education said Ohio’s first online charter school needed to repay much of its state aid for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years after the school inflated enrollment numbers. ECOT still owed the state $117 million in 2022.
“I actually just spoke with (Ohio Department of Education and Workforce) Director (Steve) Dackin about this the other day, and I asked him whether he felt the safeguards are in place to make sure something like that didn’t happen again and he reassured me he thought there were,” Husted said.
Husted’s assurances aside, the January 2022 lawsuit notes that Ohio’s private schools are not subject to Sunshine Laws and are therefore able to escape the accountability to the public that audits of taxpayer money would bring:
Because private schools receiving EdChoice funding are not subject to Ohio’s Sunshine Laws or most other regulations applicable to public schools, these private facilities operate with impunity, exempt from public scrutiny despite the public funding that sustains them.
…
Private schools receiving EdChoice Vouchers are subjected to few statutory and regulatory obligations towards students, communities, and taxpayers at large. Private schools receiving EdChoice Program vouchers are not subject to any public fiscal accountability, such as audits, of the public funding they receive.
And That Is Where We leave It for Now.
The January 2022 lawsuit is supposed to go to trial in November 2024, as NBC4i reports. Moreover, depending upon how the Ohio Supreme Court proceeds, Ohioans may well find out what Senator Huffman is trying so hard not to talk about regarding his “individual beliefs and opinions on the EdChoice program.” Too, once the fiscal year ends, the public will have the opportunity to know just how expensive the “universally available” EdChoice costs. What they won’t know is the degree to which the fiscal balloon is inflated by shady dealings. However, both the lawsuit and continued media tagging of EdChoice with ECOT might just pressure lawmakers to answer sunshinedly for EdChoice’s price tag bloat at public-school expense.
It’s a hard fight: Trying to educate generations that are becoming increasingly dependent upon having technology constantly in ears and at fingertips.
Constantly.
Constantly.
According to federal law, use of cell signal jamming devices is against the law in the United States, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports:
The use of a phone jammer, GPS blocker, or other signal jamming device designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications is a violation of federal law. There are no exemptions for use within a business, classroom, residence, or vehicle. Local law enforcement agencies do not have independent authority to use jamming equipment; in certain limited exceptions use by Federal law enforcement agencies is authorized in accordance with applicable statutes.
It is also unlawful to advertise, sell, distribute, import, or otherwise market jamming devices to consumers in the United States.
So, how might K12 school officials help combat the invasion of cellular technologies into the classroom learning environment?
Well, this is interesting: One Las Vegas school district is instituting signal-blocking pouches into its school day routine beginning in 2024-25. From the March 21, 2024, WBTV.com:
The Clark County School District said starting in the 2024–2025 school year, it will require students in grades 6-12 to use non-locking, signal-blocking pouches for their phones.
According to a statement from CCSD, the process began in February with a pilot program comprised of approximately 10% of district schools. The remainder will begin using them in August.
“These new devices prevent and reduce distractions in the classroom, allowing for a productive learning environment and increasing student focus on instruction. These non-locking pouches will be placed in classroom areas for student accessibility in emergencies,” CCSD said.
In a letter to parents this week, Green Valley High School Principal Kent Roberts called the rollout “an innovative solution that will significantly contribute to the safety and wellbeing of students in our school.”
Roberts said each student will place their phone in a pouch during class time. They will have access to their phones between classes and at lunch.
The phones will be placed in “a safe location in close proximity to the student within the classroom” and can be used in emergencies.
Roberts also cited specific benefits of the pouches, including “minimizing academic dishonesty, reducing distractions, and encouraging responsible device use and limiting concerns with social media accounts.”
As the years pass, generations are becoming less and less accustomed to being comfortable without constant access to electronic devices. About fifteen years ago– when the big draw was still flip-phones and texting during class sans internet– I took a student’s flip phone from her for her habit of texting during class, and she told me that she experienced the anxiety of withdrawal for the mere hours that she was without her phone.
That was in 2008– pre-internet, pre-Snapchat, pre-Tiktok– and already teens were being primed for phone addiction.
The year 2008 was also pre-earbud– the easily-hidden device that exacerbates the challenge of harnessing student attention and focusing said attention on the critical work of teaching and learning.
I wonder what price today’s teens will be paying when they are my age (mid-fifties) for having experienced decades of daily use of those little stereo speakers incessantly plugging their ears, including damaged hearing and even possibly rewiring the brain in ways that make willfully focusing one’s attention more challenging that it would otherwise be.
I haven’t even touched on the use of iPhones for cheating and cyberbullying.
Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate technology, including the computer and wireless enabling me to compose this post with ease and making it instantly available via a single click to readers around the globe. However, as is true for living life in general, balance is key, and that balance necessitates creative solutions for combating the ever-present classroom interruption presented by modern personal, mobile, communication technology.
To this end, the likes of signal-blocking cell phone pouches might just become the norm in school districts nationwide.
According to his “about” page, the author of the meal requirement repeal, Rep. Roger Wilder, owns 19 Smoothie King stores.
Easy enough to see the writing on the Smoothie King wall.
Roger Wilder
Regarding employers providing required meal breaks for Louisiana minors, the current law reads as follows:
No minor under the age of 18 years may be employed, permitted, or suffered to work for any five hour period without one interval of at least thirty minutes within such period for meals. Such interval shall not be included as part of the working hours of the day.
Wilder’s proposed law, HB 156, is a one-page document that simply “Repeals the provision of law relative to recreation or meal periods for minors.” There is nothing in the wording of the replacement law tor ensure that minors who do want a meal break will get one.
And yet, ironically, the author of the bill, La. Rep. Roger Wilder, flippantly expects “a break” from public reaction to his proposed bill, as WWLTV.com reports:
“This bill is about maximizing employment and providing employers with the workforce they need,” Rep. Wilder said Friday while presenting his bill to the committee.
Wilder says the break shouldn’t be a requirement, instead, he says children should be able to choose to take a break, both because they should be treated as adults and because they are losing wages.
“The wording here is we’re here to harm children that’s the wording. Give me a break they’re young adults,” Wilder said. “The emancipation age is 16, you’re allowed to marry at 16, you’re allowed to drive at 16. Those are all adult actions.”
I haven’t been 16 for 40 years, and still, my employer is required to provide me with a lunch break. Whether I choose to eat, or even whether I decide not to take the break and catch up on work instead, is my choice. My usage of the break notwithstanding, the break is scheduled.
Nothing in Wilder’s repeal guaratees that a Louisiana minor who wishes to have a meal break after working 5 hours will get one. If the current law is repealed, the requirement disappears, and Louisiana employers– especially those whose businesses depend upon teen labor, like, say, those who own and operate Smoothie King stores– and who want to force minors to work for more than 5 hours without a scheduled meal break would therefore be fine to do so since there would literally be no law to stop them.
Bigger Than Just Louisiana
A number of Republican-led states have taken to rolling back child labor laws. It seems that one nonprofit in particular has been actively promoting such repeals: Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). FGA has been a nonprofit since 2011. Its CEO, Tarren Bragdon, is a former Maine legislator who was also once CEO of the ultra-right-wing Maine Heritage Policy Center (now the Maine Policy Institute).
In March 2023, Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed into law a bill eliminating work certificates for 16-year-olds. From CBS:
The Arkansas law, called the Youth Hiring Act, eliminates a requirement that children under 16 obtain an employment certificate before getting hired — a document that proves the child’s age, describes the work they will undertake, and gives written consent from the child’s parent or guardian, according to CBS affiliate KNOE.
Cut to April 2024, when Bragdon congratulates Sanders on Twitter/X for being chosen as FGA’s 2023 Governor of the Year:
The futures of both Arkansas and America burn brighter because of Gov. @SarahHuckabee's leadership!
We are honored to present her with @TheFGA's Governor of the Year award for exemplifying vision, grit, and tenacity to deliver results for Arkansans. https://t.co/RoBaTbE6ab
In 2023, the Working Economics Blog of the Economic Policy Institute published this piece regarding FGA as catalyst for systematically undoing child labor restrictions in numerous states. Some excerpts:
Updated November 14, 2023
This post has been updated to reflect confirmation of the Foundation for Government Accountability’s role in drafting the proposal to roll back child labor protections in Florida. Previously, the post indicated the group’s support for similar bills in other states and the likelihood of their involvement in Florida.
Last week, Florida became at least the 16th state to introduce legislation rolling back child labor protections in the past two years, and the 13th state to introduce such legislation in 2023. Florida’s bill proposes eliminating all guidelines on hours employers can schedule youth ages 16 or 17 to work, allowing employers to schedule teens to work unlimited hours per day or per week—including overnight shifts on school days. The bill was drafted by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA)—a Florida-based right-wing dark money group that has lobbied for similar proposals in multiple states.
At a time when violations of child labor laws are on the rise nationally—and amid reports of serious violations in Florida—lawmakers must act to strengthen standards, not erode existing minimal standards designed to keep youth safe at work and guarantee all children equal access to education.
…
Florida-based “Foundation for Government Accountability” has led national push for state legislation to weaken child labor laws and increase economic desperation of poor children and families
As documented in our earlier report, multiple business and industry lobby groups continue to support rolling back state child labor laws in the interest of maintaining or expanding their access to low-wage labor. Recent reporting has further emphasized the role of the right-wing think tank and dark money group the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) and its lobbying arm Opportunity Solutions Project in using funding from billionaire donors to accelerate state legislative action on child labor laws in 2023. FGA’s efforts have focused especially on extending youth hours of work and eliminating youth work permits, which inform parents of a child’s rights at work, facilitate compliance with child labor laws, and can be used to aid in investigations of potential violations of the laws. Now, FGA is working to roll back child labor laws in its home state. According to documents obtained via an open records request filed by nonprofit news organization More Perfect Union, the language in House Bill 49 is nearly identical to language drafted by FGA’s lobbying arm just weeks earlier.
FGA has over 100 lobbyists in 22 states. When FGA has lobbied for the erosion of child labor protections in states like Arkansas, Iowa, and Missouri, they have simultaneously prioritized state law changes to limit access to anti-poverty programs like SNAP and Medicaid, cut unemployment insurance benefits, and support defunding public education through expansion of school vouchers in the samestates.
In this context, dismantling child labor laws is just one prong of a broad agenda FGA promotes to weaken and eventually demolish the role of government and public institutions (including public schools), reduce and privatize the provision of public services (especially those most needed by poor children and families), and suppress the democratic process. Taken together, FGA’s priorities represent a radical, multilayered assault on low-income families and on a consensus embedded in U.S. federal and state laws for over a century that all children deserve equal access to economic opportunity and education.
Global advocates against exploitative child labor have long documented that family poverty is the root cause of oppressive child labor. Increasing the economic desperation of poor families in the U.S. will inevitably increase the number of children driven into oppressive child labor—defined in the FLSA since 1938 as employment of youth that interferes with a child’s schooling, is “particularly hazardous,” or is “detrimental to their health or well-being.”
For an organization pushing for “accountability” from government, to seems that FGA is not quick to disclose its donors. For example, FGA’s 2022 annual report includes zero mention of its funders. In its 2022 tax filing, regarding its decison to conceal its donors, on Schedule O, FGA states, “The organization declines to provide specific identifying information on its donors on the grounds that such disclosure may chill the donors’ First Amendment right to associate in private with the organization.”
Privacy and the First Amendment sounds lofty; however, no explanation was needed since the IRS notes that “A tax-exempt organization is generally not required to disclose publicly the names or addresses of its contributors set forth on its annual return” except for “private foundations ” or “political organizations described in section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code.” FGA is neither of these.
Even though FGA does not need to disclose its funders, the flip side is that nonprofits must disclose grant recipients if those grants are $5k or more. Therefore, one way of knowing FGA’s donors is to find out which nonprofits reported disbursing grant money to FGA.
In this case, ProPublica’s full-text search engine (keyword “foundation for governmental accountability” including quotation marks) offers pages of FGA donors from 2012 to 2022, including 28 hits for 2022, such as Morgan Stanley Global Impact Fund Trust, Schwab Charitable Fund, and Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, Chase Foundation, State Policy Network, Amazonsmile Foundation, and Donors Trust.
If these donor names become more publicly connected to legislative efforts to treat children as workhorses, perhaps they will rethink supporting the likes of FGA and the self-serving willingness for anyone to promote policies that exploit minors in the work force.
In February 2023, former Louisiana state superintendent John White’s wife, Katherine Westerhold, was in the news because their home security system captured audio of a New Orleans shooting at the Krewe of Bacchus parade. Fifteen-year-old Roderick Tobias died as a result. He was one of five individuals shot during the incident.
Roderick Tobias
I remembered reading the above news story in 2023 as I read Westerhold’s March 25, 2024, letter to the editor in Nola.com:
Letters: The statistics show Louisiana doesn’t need constitutional carry
Louisiana has the second-highest gun death rate in the country. In 2021, Louisiana had just over 28 gun deaths per 100,000 residents. The national average was just under 15. Massachusetts had 3.5. Mississippi is the only state with a worse gun death rate than us. If Louisiana were a country, it would rank third in the world for gun death rates, following closely behind El Salvador and Venezuela and leading Colombia and Honduras.
New Orleans is worse with 38 gun deaths per 100,000 residents. Still, in our rural parishes, the rates are not much better with many parishes, including Madison, Concordia and Evangeline, ranging from 25 to 28.
Worse than that, Louisiana leads the nation in juvenile firearm deaths with 17 gun deaths per 100,000 people. None of our children are immune to these statistics. These problems cross geographic lines, racial lines and socio-economic lines. Young Black children in our community have been disproportionately harmed by these trends, but children across our state are affected and deaths by firearms.
As a concerned Louisiana mom, education policy expert and engaged citizen, I am here to say this: We can fix this problem, and it starts with the decisions we make in Baton Rouge. Elected officials like state Sen. Blake Miguez believe that dropping the minimum age of concealed carry from 21 to 18 years old amid a gun violence epidemic will make us all safer. His bill dropped longstanding training requirements that cover topics like how to ensure your firearm does not end up in the hands of a child. We need leaders who will stand up, push back and reject radical policies that make you, me and our children less safe.
KATHERINE WESTERHOLD
New Orleans
After being signed into law by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry on March 05, 2024, Miguez’s SB 1, now Act 1, “Provides relative to the right of law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns lawfully without a permit,” goes into effect on July 4th, 2024.
According to Act 1, the age to carry a concealed handgun is indeed lowered to 18 years of age, no permit needed. However, on the honor system, the concealed weapon toter is supposed to not bring the gun to places where carrying a gun is “banned by state or federal law” (like, say, to a public school), and the gun toter is supposed to let homeowners know, “Hey, I am carrying a handgun” and procure their permission to bring the gun into the residence before entering.
There is not much that finds me on the same side of issues even loosely connected with John White. However, on this issue, I’m with Katherine Westerhold.
When many teachers retire, they become eligible for retirement benefits that are paid in installements for the remainder of the retiree’s life. However, as I noted in my previous post on the subject, sometimes retirement systems assume a retiree has died when the retiree is still very much alive, and sometimes, for years after the retiree dies, family members who are ineligible to receive the now-deceased retirees benefits decide to partake of those dollars anyway. Both extremes fix the focus on the retirement system’s apparent inability to efficently and correctly disburse benefits to those to whom the benefits belong and who, incidentally, remain among the living.
All of the above had me questioning how my system, the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL), ensures that once a recipient dies, the payout efficiently ends or, as the case may be, transitions to correctly-identified beneficiaries of the deceased.
Enter the TRSL “death audit,” an idea I was made aware of from Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees (LFT) legislative and political director, Cynthia Posey, following my April 02, 2024, post.
Posey alerted me that the very topic of TRSL tracking of beneficiary deaths ad been discussed during the Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee of the Budget (JLCB) meeting on Monday, March 22, 2024.
“Death Audit” Explained
As promised in my previous post, I have transcribed the pertinent discussion.
Around 33:15 minutes in, the agenda item is FY24-25 review and approval of operating budgets for state retirement systems.
Rep. Beryl Amedee begins speaking around 37:50, and begins with her “death audit” query:
***
Amedee: First of all, this is a term I hadn’t seen before. What’s a “death audit”?
Chas Nichols, La. Senate Fiscal Services Division: I’m sure they’ll be able to explain that better than I, but, it’s really intriguing. It’s fascinating.
Amedee: Well, um, my questions, whenever we get to it, would be: What is a “death audit”? Um, is it done on a regular basis, or is this something we do periodically, and why does it cost so much?
Nichols: So, I’ll, I’ll let you guys explain it [turning to two other officials seated at the table] because you were the ones that explained it to me, but, in, in an overall, it, it may, the cost may be there, but the alternative is having folks that are deceased still drawing retirement in some form or fashion, which probably [would] cost us a lot more. But others will go into the different mechanisms.
Amedee: So, are they, are their names only removed from the system after an audit? Is there not a simpler process?
Katherine Whitney: We can address that now if you like. I’m Katherine Whitney. I’m the director of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). [Turns to left] This is, I’ll let Jeff introduce himself because he may be answering some of these questions, as well.
Jeff LaCour: Jeff LaCour, assistant director of TRSL.
Amedee: Good morning.
Whitney: So, the death audit increase: So, as Chas said, it’s important that when members die, we are aware of that immediately. So that, there are multiple, it’s called “audit,” but there are multiple service providers, um, that provide services to us such that we can reconcile and check on a very regular basis [turns to LaCour] is it, is it, we run those weekly [LaCour nods] and it’s two different services?
LaCour: Some are weekly, and some are monthly.
Whitney: Right. Different services so that when we receive that information, we will immediately stop the benefit and take actions thereafter, which include, um, reclaims from the bank, and then moving into collection if we have to. Sometimes we have beneficiaries that are going to be receiving a benefit, so we will work it out with them in the event aht we can’t stop that benefit. But it saves us a tremendous amount of money, as Chas said, in catching that right away and using the best of the best in terms of those services. And those are the, those are the market prices. The providers we use are what most retirement systems throughout the country use.
Amedee: Okay. So it seems by what you’re describing, what’s labeled here as a “death audit” is not what I’m thinking of as a periodic check of the bookkeeping.
Whitney: No, ma’am.
Amedee: It’s actually the whole process you’re using to be sure that your records and your accounts are up to date, correct?
Whitney: Yes, ma’am.
Amedee: Okay. Well, that’s good. (Amedee then moves on to another topic, investment management fees.)
***
So, TRSL does have a plan in place for regularly and systematically tracking the deaths of its recipients, and that plan consists of layers of investigation and contingency plans to recoup money by working with both financial institutions and survivors of the deceased, and that in a timely manner.
TRSL has also published a document (revised March 2023), “Death and Survivor Benefits Through TRSL,” which includes a straightforward statement about disbursement recovery following death of the beneficiary (page 4):
The TRSL document above also includes succint yet detailed information on beneficiary eligibility and benefits useful to TRSL members who may not as of yet be aware.
Keeping track of teacher pension disbursement to the living can be (here comes the pun) taxing for some retirement systems.
On one hand, there’s the UK teacher pension office, which in its undersophisticated hypervigilance to halt pension payments to deceased recipients actually halted disbursement four times to one retired teacher “because her pension provider repeatedly refuses to accept that she is not dead,” as the January 2024 Guardian reports:
Eileen McGrath, 85, was left without income over Christmas when Teachers’ Pensions, which administers payments on behalf of the UK government, wrongly matched her with a deceased stranger.
“In November I had received two letters from Teachers’ Pensions asking me euphemistically if I was dead,” she said. “I immediately called to make it clear that I was very much alive. Nevertheless, a week later two more letters arrived asking the same thing, so I wrote back to reiterate that I had still not died.”
Eileen McGrath
Four days before Christmas, McGrath discovered that her pension had not been paid. Despite a further call to Teachers’ Pensions the widow’s pension payment she also receives from the scheme was also stopped. (Schneider’s note to her American readers: a “scheme” is simply a plan or program.) Both payments were eventually made on 2 January after she complained.
McGrath said that she has been repeatedly asked to prove her existence since 2020 and faces losing her income each time. …
She had fallen victim to a vetting procedure that regularly checks pension beneficiaries against the death register to prevent ineligible payments. According to the Department for Education (DfE), which oversees Teachers’ Pensions, death register entries may be matched to scheme members even if personal details differ.
On the other hand, we have the New York Teachers Retirement System (TRS) in December 2023 suing to recover $120K, or two-years’ worth of payments, to the spouse of a deceased teacher, only to make bigger news two months later, in February 2024, as the same pension system was discovered trying to recover the hefty payout total of $781K that another spouse of a deceased teacher had bilked outof the pension system for 18 years.
It seems that New York TRS has no solid procedure in place to ensure that pension disbursement is actually happening for only living recipients, instead apparently choosing to assume that spouses of deceased teachers will unfailingly contact TRS about the death– an “honor system” assumption that cost TRS almost $1M in just these two cases.
Furthermore, TRS only found out about the 18-year scam because of “unidentified whistleblowers.” From the February 2024 New York Post:
A Queens widower pocketed more than $781,000 in pension payments meant for his dead schoolteacher wife for 18 years before city officials got wise to the theft, a probe found.
The eye-popping sum – which the heavily taxpayer-funded Teachers’ Retirement System, TRS, has been unable to recover – is perhaps the most egregious case of an individual collecting undeserved payments that the $100 billion pension fund has ever seen, experts said. …
When former teacher Lenora Burgess died in Queens in February 2002 at age 57, her husband Owen was responsible for notifying TRS of his wife’s death, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools said in a newly released report. …
Lenora had elected the “maximum retirement allowance” option. That meant an annual pension of $42,419 a year – and no further payments to her heirs after her death.
But Owen Burgess, then 54 and living in Flushing, never told the agency of his wife’s demise.
So her pension checks kept coming in electronic payments of $3,535 a month for the next 221 months.
It was not until August 2020 that unidentified whistleblowers finally told TRS that the teacher had died 18 years before. …
When questioned by investigators, TRS officials described what amounts to an honor system for removing dead pensioners from its rolls.
“The responsibility to report a death to TRS lies with the pensioner’s family,” they told the SCI.
They also claimed to “periodically” run retiree names through outside databases, “but these databases did not always produce the names of all deceased members,” the report says.
Ex-pension chief Murphy called the excuses flimsy.
I seems that in both NY cases, the pension did not transfer to the spouses. However, even if the pension did transfer, the issue of potential erroneous payout beyond the life of a spouse still exists in the absence of reliable auditing of payment disbursement.
Apparently, a better auditing mechanism that the honor system or hapahzard combing of obits is needed. I asked St. Tammany (LA) Federation of Teachers president, Brant Osborn, about the mechanisms in place for accurately tracking of Louisiana teacher pension payments to living recipients, and he responded, “Hm. Good question.” He agreed to share my query with Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) board member, Mark Curry-Theriot. When I learn more, I will address the info in a subsequent post.
COMMENTER UPDATE:
I received the following from Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) legislative director, Cynthia Posey:
Hi Mercedes-
Saw your post. TRSL gave a great explanation of the “death audit” during Joint Budget. Starts about 36 minutes in (actual time, 37:56) with Rep Amedee’s question (“This is a term I hadn’t seen before. What’s a ‘death audit’?”).
Nothing speaks to genuine Christianity like Donald Trump (“grab ’em by the p*ssy” Donald Trump, found-liable-for-rape Donald Trump, “If you do something bad, never, ever blame yourself” Donald Trump…) peddling his own bible, which includes a Constitution that he is willing to divorce (and perhaps even bury on the grounds of one of his golf courses for a tax break).
Though the March 26, 2024, New York Times billed this bible as Trump’s “newest venture,” the “God Bless the USA” bible pre-Trump-hawk has been around (and swirling in controversy) since HarperCollins pulled out from publishing it in May 2021:
The “God Bless the USA Bible” is still happening even though HarperCollins Christian Publishing passed on serving as the manufacturer for the project inspired by country music singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic hit.
The “God Bless the USA Bible,” announced earlier this month, has received some pushback for sandwiching the sacred text and America’s founding documents between two covers.
Hugh Kirkpatrick, who leads the Tennessee company behind the new custom Bible backed by Greenwood, said he could not disclose just yet who they are working with now, but Elite Source Pro is lining up another business to print and bind the tome. …
The specialty Bible, which can be pre-ordered for $49.99, will still include copies of the Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance and the chorus “God Bless the USA.” …
HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which includes Zondervan and Thomas Nelson publishing groups, is the North American licensor for the NIV (New International Version) translation. Zondervan decided not to move forward with the project and Thomas Nelson is not involved either. …
Kirkpatrick said he’s fielded about 70 emails since the Bible’s announcement and roughly 60% have been critical of the project. He did not expect the “God Bless the USA Bible” to draw such frustrated and aggravated responses.
Then, it seems the effort went quiet for a couple of years, until Trump attached himself to yet another merchandise item in his desperation for cash, cash and more cash.
In 2024, one can purchase the “God Bless the USA” bible for $10 more than its 2021 pre-order, pre-Trump price (even though the version has been changed from the licensed NIV to the unlicensed King James version, which is in the public domain).
MSNBC host Joy Reid has a lot to say about Trump’s bible hawking, including a brief but accurate description of the Easter story, which is far more than the hawker could say about his selling his “favorite book, ” one that he “has many” of just laying around the house:
More about the sale from 12 News Now– a Youtube ad which when I first watched it, began with an appeal from Trump for help paying his legal bills:
So, where’s the money going?
On Lee Greenwoood’s site, where one can purchase the “God Bless the USA” bible, among the Frequently Asked Questions is the following:
CIC Ventures, LLC, uses Trump’s name, license, and image, which means that a way for Trump to make money from bible sales is to receive a portion of proceeds from each sale. According to Trump’s 2023 financial disclosures as a candidate for President of the United States, Donald Trump is the “manager, president, secretary, and treasurer” from “02/21 to present.”
On the Dispatch newsletter, Boiling Frogs, staff writer Nick Catoggio offers this sentiment in his March 27, 2024, piece, “The True Faith”:
The “Trump Bible” plays like a parody of the dichotomy. It’s obviously being marketed to political radicals, the sort of Christians who’ll relish the word of God just a little bit more knowing that this version of it has been blessed by Donald Trump. And it’s just as obviously mercenary to a ludicrous degree, a remorseless cash grab even by the usual Trump standards. If he’s going to hawk nationalist Bibles to his evangelical fans at 60 bucks a pop, he might as well go for the big money and start selling MAGA-branded golden calves.
Louisiana HB 745, “LA GATOR Scholarship Program; Creation and Administration,” is on the La. senate education committee‘s legislative agenda for Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at 9 a.m.
Contact: Dr. Janet Pope – jpope@lsba.com Louisiana School Boards Association
THE LA GATOR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM USES TAXPAYER DOLLARS WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, STANDARDS, OR SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES
Baton Rouge, LA – The proposed LA GATOR Scholarship Program, as created in HB 745, provides for universal education savings accounts (ESAs) and will spend taxpayer dollars without the accountability demanded of public schools, without any requirement to teach the state content standards demanded of public schools, and without providing special education services to students who need and are entitled to those services under federal law.
ACCOUNTABILITY Public school students must take state-mandated standardized tests in Math, English, Science and Social Studies every year in grades 3-8; must pass six end-of-course exams in English I, English II, Algebra, Geometry, Civics, and Biology; and must take the ACT. All of these test results are factored into public school accountability scores and letter grades. LA GATOR students will not be required to take any of these mandated standardized tests and will be judged on a yet to be determined standard, which will prevent any valid comparison between the quality of public education and LA GATOR funded education.
STATE CONTENT STANDARDS Public schools are required to teach state content standards adopted by BESE for every core academic subject in every grade. LA GATOR schools and providers are not obligated to teach the state content standards and are to be provided “maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of participating student without government control”. State content standards are BESE approved public policy, setting the bar for what students should learn and know. However, that public policy shall not be applied to LA GATOR funded students.
SPECIAL EDUCATION Public schools are required under federal and state law to provide necessary special education services and accommodations to special education students and are subject to federal court orders and state sanctions if those services and accommodations are not provided. LA GATOR schools and providers will not be required to provide special education services and parents will be mandated to formally waive the services to which their children are entitled as a condition of their child’s eligibility to receive a LA GATOR ESA. Students who need special education services will effectively be excluded from the LA GATOR program.
It is wrong to spend public taxpayer dollars for nonpublic education without valid accountability. It is wrong to spend public taxpayer dollars without requiring the teaching of state-mandated educational content standards. It is wrong to exclude special education students by forcing them to waive the services they need and to which they are entitled in order to participate in a publicly-funded educational program.
# # #
ABOUT LSBA Formed in 1938, the LSBA is a non-profit organization that serves as a resource for public school boards across Louisiana. Our mission is leadership, service, and support for school boards and advocating for all students with a collective voice.
Principals from LAP recently attended the National Advocacy Conference where we had time to visit with Principals from other states. We spoke with Arizona principals specifically about how ESA’s are affecting their schools. ESA’s (Educational Savings Accounts) are being brought to the legislature in the form of a bill by Senator Rick Edmonds (R). The bill creates the LA GATOR Program. It would allow MFP money to follow the student from their zone school to any non-public, private, charter, or home school with no accountability to follow the money. LAP is asking you to copy and paste the email below to send to your local representatives and senators.
The Louisiana Association of Principals takes the following stand on the LA GATOR Program. We believe that any ESA’s (Educational Savings Accounts) should include the following:
· There needs to be a cap on the amount of income a family makes before they can accept an ESA. Arizona and many other states have found that over 80% of ESA’s are going to parents who already have their children at non-public schools.
· Schools and parents that accept ESA’s should provide assessment tools to students to show growth. These assessments need to be BESE approved, be consistent across all schools, and provide an accurate amount of growth as the child attends the school.
· Money should be allocated properly to fund these ESA’s. Arizona has found in the last two years they have not done this. Originally the Arizona legislation provided for $200,000,000 to fund ESA’s. It has cost them over $1 Billion dollars in two years. We should plan for this cost in the budget.
-There is concern if students will be allowed to leave their zone public school to attend another public school. How will this affect athletics and LHSAA rules on participation in athletic events?
· Finally there should be a plan for part of the money to return to the zone school if the child should return. Prorated amounts could be determined monthly for the students’ return to public school.
On March 04, 2024, I wrote about Ohio’s school voucher program, expanded grossly beyond its funding– $15M over budget by November 2023– and providing an opportunity for private school officials to pressure private school parents to apply for (and rake in) as much taxpayer money as possible.
School vouchers steer public money away from public schools even as the private schools receiving public money are not required to meet the same standards or offer services to serve all students.
Louisiana school vouchers have been around– and have been a flop— for years. Even still, the most conservative politicians just can’t seem to shake the desire to move public funds away from public education.
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