Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/830448
P arents stand outside Celerity Dyad Charter School in South Los Angeles at 2 p.m. to pick up their children. e few who are willing to be interviewed say they are pleased with the school. ey say teachers do a wonderful job of going the extra mile to help students succeed. When asked if they are worried about the future of Celerity, most are unaware that the school's operator, Celerity Educational Group, is being investigated for fraud and corruption by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Education — or that their school could close, since its charter wasn't renewed. (e State Board of Education, in fact, voted to close Celerity Dyad and sister school Celerity Troika on May 11.) A father who wishes to remain anonymous says he has read Los Angeles Times articles about lavish spending by Celerity man- agement and is aware the FBI raided Celerity's LA headquarters and removed computers for its investigation. "My wife and I worry," he admits. "We are very poor. We want our kids to have a good education so they can succeed and have a better economic situation than where they come from. It bothers me if kids are not getting what they need because someone is stealing. at's a crime. It's sad if people are taking advantage of a population where most of the people can't speak English." Julio Rodriguez, who has two children at the school, knows that the school's charter was not renewed and that an appeal was filed. "I received a letter that said if the school closes down, it will close in name only and reopen under another name," he says. "Parents were told not to worry." The fraud and corruption charges Celerity faces are not unusual. State regulators have uncovered more than $81 million in fraudulent and wasteful spending at charters throughout the state, reports Kids Not Profit, a coalition of education, par- ent, civil rights and community organizations (including CTA) dedicated to changing the type of behavior that prompted the Washington Post headline "Why California's charter school sector is called 'the Wild West.' " Nonetheless, profiteers have a "master plan" to put half of all Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) students into unregulated, privatized charter schools by 2023. (LAUSD already has more charter students — estimated at 130,000 — than any other U.S. school district.) Billionaire Eli Broad contributed half a billion dollars to the cause, with more donated from other bil- lionaires, including the Walton family of Wal-Mart. United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is committed to fighting the takeover. Last year 82 percent of UTLA members voted to approve a dues increase to fund the fight. "It's an absolutely ongoing battle and multiyear struggle," says UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. "Broad has an eight- year plan. We have a similarly long view." Caputo-Pearl adds that UTLA represents more than 1,000 charter school teachers and is not fighting against them or parents whose children attend charters. " We are fighting against deregulation and privatization of public education. We are fighting for our schools to be the best they can be — and become community schools that parents and students feel own- ership of," says Caputo-Pearl. Numbers In the US: 7,000 charter schools 3,000,000 students In California: 1,255 charter schools 600,000 students 1 in 5 charter schools in the country is in California. 20 cta.org FEATURE