Campaign News

DailyKos - May 6, 2014, by Laura Clawson - Charter schools benefit from a massive double standard, taking public money without being subject to the regulations or oversight applied to traditional public schools. That lack of regulation and oversight has a cost, in students' educational experiences and in dollars. More than $100 million, as a new report from the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education shows.The report identifies six key types of abuse:

Charter operators using public funds illegally for personal gain:

Joel Pourier, former CEO of Oh Day Aki Heart Charter School in Minnesota, who embezzled $1.38 million from 2003 to 2008. He used the money on houses, cars, and trips to strip clubs. Meanwhile, according to an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the school “lacked funds for field trips, supplies, computers and textbooks.” A judge sentenced Mr. Pourier to 10 years in prison. Given the number of years, and the severity of the fraud, over a million dollars might have been saved had there been adequate charter oversight.

School revenue used to illegally support other charter operator businesses:

For example, in 2012, the former CEO and founder of the New Media Technology Charter School in Philadelphia was sentenced to prison for stealing $522,000 in taxpayer money to prop up a restaurant, a health food store, and a private school.

Mismanagement that puts children in actual or potential danger:

Ohio's State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Richard A. Ross, was forced to shut down two charter schools, The Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Boys Charter School and The Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Girls Charter School, because, according to Ross, “They did not ensure the safety of the students, they did not adequately feed the students, they did not accurately track the students and they were not educating the students well. It is unacceptable and intolerable that a sponsor and school would do such a poor job. It is an educational travesty.”

Charters illegally requesting public dollars for services not provided:

[New Jersey] officials shut down the Regional Experiential Academic Charter High School after the state found, according to report in the New York Times, “a wide range of problems, including failure to provide special education students with the services required by state and federal law.

Some charter schools have also been caught illegally inflating their enrollment to collect money for students who weren't actually in the schools, while others have been tagged for general mismanagement of funds.

While some of the most egregious cases are found out, leading in some cases to prison sentences as cited above, we have no way of knowing how many similar situations haven't yet come to light. And in most cases, a prison sentence for the wrongdoer is all very well, but it won't get back the money that was supposed to go to educating kids. That's why the report calls for oversight agencies with teeth, able to catch fraud and mismanagement and actuallydo something about it; for charters to face the same transparency requirements public schools do, including following state open meetings and open records laws; and for charters to be governed by elected boards including parents, teachers, and, for high schools, students. Right now, in too many states charters are like the Wild West. Charter advocates like that when it lets them cut costs, increase profits and keep teachers non-union and as powerless as possible, of course. That's why we see so many state legislatures rapidly expanding charters without expanding oversight. They may not like straight-up theft, but it's a risk they're willing to run for all the other benefits of weak oversight.

Source

About 30 immigration activists made 5 pm dinner reservations on Wednesday for the restaurant on the first floor of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.

They entered dressed in suits, wearing ties and khakis. They snuck two bullhorns and 30 noisemakers in briefcases, as well as dozens of pamphlets and a banner reading, “Immigrants are #HereToStay.”

Read the full article here.

Dive Brief:

The New York City Council on Tuesday introduced a package of bills that would ban on-call scheduling and other inflexible, unpredictable scheduling practices deemed unfair by retail workers and many policymakers, according to the council's website.

The bills in some cases go further than what has been proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said in September he would push for legislation to give fast food and retail workers advance notice of schedules and penalty pay for last-minute changes.

The state of New York has also pushed against on-call scheduling practices, with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office warning several retailers that aspects of such practices are already against state law, which prompted Urban Outfitters, Gap Inc., L. Brands, J. Crew, Pier 1 and Abercrombie & Fitch to end on-call scheduling.

With the heightened expectations of shoppers for convenience and service, retailers have to be able to provide a seamless omni-channel experience. Learn ways to truly optimize your fulfillment network in this new playbook.

Dive Insight:

Algorithms in scheduling software have helped retailers cut costs through efficient staffing, but have also made life difficult for workers who are trying to manage households, attend school or work additional jobs. New York isn’t the only place to find growing antipathy toward the practice of on-call scheduling. Seattle, San Francisco and Bay Area city Emeryville have also passed laws limiting and penalizing the practice.

In New York, the proposed bills would ensure that when hours become available, they’re offered first to existing employees, before new workers are hired. Many part-time workers remain willing to work full-time but can’t find the positions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This will offer a pathway to full-time work. The bills also provide remedies and protections to retail workers when on-call scheduling does occur and establish a process for employees to seek flexible work arrangements, among other provisions.

"People working in fast food and retail have made clear that higher wages are not enough without hours they can count on," Elianne Farhat, Deputy Campaign Director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy, said in a statement emailed to Retail Dive. "Now more than ever, parents and students need more input into their work hours so they can balance working hard with caring for their families, attending college classes and participating in our community.”

Indeed, retailers should be prepared to see more such concerns, warnings and even legislation from more states and jurisdictions across the country as on call scheduling gets more scrutiny, Gail Gottehrer, a labor and employment litigator at Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider in New York, told Retail Dive last year. “This can be especially difficult for multi-state employers,” Gottehrer said. “If you’re in a lot of jurisdictions it can be complicated to get things right.”

By Daphne Howland

Source

04.19.2016

A petition organized by a national coalition of homeowner advocates and progressive organizations at DontSellourHomesToWallStreet.org reached 110,000 signatures today, urging Secretary Julián Castro to immediately reform HUD’s distressed mortgage sales program.

Housing advocates are urging improvements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s delinquent mortgage sales they call a “Wall Street giveaway,” such as principal reduction for homeowners and selling significantly higher percentages of mortgages to nonprofit and other mission-driven entities.

The coalition’s petition launched last Monday to considerable press attention from outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Politico.

Over the past one and a half years the campaign’s call for fundamental reforms have been picked up from quarters as varied as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the New York Times editorial board, and 45 members of Congress who signed a congressional letter to HUD and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in March of this year.

“It makes no sense to sell these loans back to the same predators responsible for the housing crisis in the first place,” said Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director for CPD Action. “Wall Street speculators have a goal of making as much money as possible from our communities, destroying the wealth and stability of neighborhoods of color in the process. This stands in direct conflict with HUD’s mission to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.”

On Thursday, FHFA announced reforms to its similar sales of non-performing loans, adding greater principal forgiveness and increasing the chances that homeowners will have their loans modified by their new owners. HUD has yet to make these changes to its distressed mortgage sales program.

The petition to HUD Secretary Julián Castro housed at DontSellOurHomesToWallStreet.org reads in part:

We are disappointed to see that under your leadership, 98% of the delinquent mortgages sold in 2015 through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Distressed Asset Stabilization Program went straight to reckless Wall Street banks… 

We call on you to immediately cease sales through the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program until the program is fundamentally reformed so that loans are sold to nonprofit and mission-driven organizations and qualified buyers meeting high standards, not just reckless Wall Street banks.

Homeowner advocates who have campaigned for changes to HUD’s sales of distressed mortgages say the response to-date from HUD has been inadequate.

This disconnect was highlighted by Sec. Julián Castro’s comments to NBC News on Thursday that the campaign was “baffling” because “on the policy, what we have done is actually have made the program much better for homeowners. So we’ve done basically a lot of what they are asking for.”

In fact, over half of the mortgages HUD trumpets as avoiding foreclosure end up in short sales or as deeds in lieu, meaning the homeowners end up losing their homes.

“Many of us were sold toxic loans and have been struggling to hold on to our homes and recover,” said Jose Vega, a community leader and struggling homeowner with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action. “Latinos and African Americans were targeted for predatory loans and have had particularly high rates of foreclosures. It is shameful that, instead of helping us, HUD is helping Wall Street speculators make more money off of the pain and suffering of homeowners and communities.”

In April 2015, HUD pledged to prioritize sales to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). However, since that date, 98 percent of the loans sold – 15,309 out of 15,624 – went to Wall Street speculators such as private equity giant Blackstone. Only one percent was sold to CDFIs.

“Latino communities are still recovering from the predatory subprime mortgage crisis that stole more than two-thirds of our collective wealth,” said Matt Nelson, Managing Director at Presente.org.“Homeowner advocates have urged serious reforms to this HUD program for the past 18 months. Now it's up to Sec. Castro to end HUD's Wall Street giveaway and reorient the program toward its goal of helping homeowners instead of increasing Wall Street profits.”

“Enough is enough – this selling of our neighborhoods wholesale has got to stop,” said Christina Winslow, a New York Communities for Change member and homeowner from Southeast Queens who lost her home to a short sale after Lone Star bought her mortgage. “This is about the people in my community: We had dreams, and when we needed assistance we were pushed to the side and sold off. My family and my business, like so many others in communities of color, suffered greatly when we were uprooted by the same people who first sold us predatory loans. The federal government needs to realize that you don’t put out a fire by calling the arsonist!”

Among the organizations participating in the national coalition are Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action, CPD Action, Daily Kos, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org Civic Action, New York Communities for Change, Other 98% Action, Presente.org, RootsAction.org, Rootstrikers, and the Working Families Party.

Some key steps in this effort include:

September 9, 2014: Community groups launch campaign and release report: Vulture Capital Hits Home: How HUD is Helping Wall Street and Hurting Our Communities. June 22, 2015: U.S. Conference of Mayors passes resolution that was co-sponsored by 17 Mayors from across the country. September 30, 2015: Community groups and local elected officials converge in D.C.  Rally with Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Capuano, and meetings with senior officials at HUD and FHFA. Covered in Bloomberg and the New York Times. October 6, 2015: The New York Times editorial board says these mortgage sales should be suspended until government agencies put real reforms in place and actually increase the proportion of nonprofit buyers. March 1, 2016: Letter sent to HUD and FHFA signed by 45 Members of Congress. April 7, 2016: Rep. Grijalva's letter to Sec. Castro. April 12, 2016: Coalition of national groups launch petition atDontSellourHomesToWallStreet.org urging immediate changes to HUD’s mortgage sales, focused on Secretary Julián Castro, head of HUD.

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