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Is Corruption Built Into the Charter School System?

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Carl Petersen
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David Fehte
David Fehte
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_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" href="https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/corruption-quotes">When you don't take a stand against corruption you tacitly support it." - Kamal Haasan

As the Executive Director of El Camino Charter High School, David Fehte used his school-issued credit card to pay for a life of luxury. The purchases charged to this card included high-priced meals at Monty's Prime Steaks & Seafood. Included on the tab was "a $95 bottle of fine Syrah wine", even though the California education code prohibits using education funds to pay for the purchase of alcoholic beverages. The school-funded credit card was also used to pay "for first-class airfare and luxury hotel rooms".

An investigation by the Daily News in 2016 also found that Fehte used the card to pay for personal expenses. Among these charges were airline tickets for an itinerary listed under "Mr. David Patrick Fehte/San Antonio Spurs." This was for a trip where Fehte performed duties as a scout for the NBA team.

The release of this information was devastating for the El Camino Community as parents who demanded accountability were bullied by Fehte and his supporters. One parent at the school stated that they did not "feel comfortable speaking against him. I have spoken with other parents and teachers who do not support him, but are afraid to speak out of fear of retaliation." A witch hunt commenced for the "trouble makers" and "disgruntled people within the walls of the school" who had tipped the reporter off to the story. A letter was sent to an employer of a parent who criticized Fehte alleging that she was "involved in an attempt to destroy the reputation of a charter school here in Los Angeles" and cautioning the employer that "this kind of behavior [by his employee affects] the image of your business".

Teachers divided into factions among those who continued to support their Executive Director and those who refused to ignore the violations that had occurred. A male teacher was threatened by a mother, after a Governing Board meeting, that if he did not end his opposition she would have her teenage daughter file a claim against him.

While the LAUSD Charter School Division under Jose Cole-Guitierrez's leadership initially discovered the financial improprieties at El Camino and issued a Notice to Cure, it had done nothing to ensure compliance with generally accepted accounting principles prior to publication of the articles by the Daily News. Like so many other Notices to Cure, the one to El Camino was just an empty threat. The stakeholders at the school were not informed of the action.

Once burdened with the media's spotlight, Cole-Guitierrez was forced to act. The Notice to Cure was finally upgraded to a Notice of Violation and a hearing was scheduled before the LAUSD Board to revoke El Camino's charter. Before that vote was taken, a last-minute deal was reached behind closed doors that allowed the school to keep its charter in exchange for an agreement to have Fehte leave his post. What was not reported at the time was that Fehte received a $215,000 severance package because the governing board terminated him "without cause."


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As the charter school industry deals with a series of financial scandals, one would think that it would want to keep itself as far away as possible from the stink of the El Camino scandal and Fehte should have become a pariah. Apparently not, because Fehte was still able to freelance as an "Education Consultant" in the Los Angeles area for the next five years. He then moved to Northern California where he became the Interim Executive Director of Clayton Valley Charter High School.

According to Fehte's LinkedIn page, he is doing amazing work at Clayton Valley. Among his accomplishments is raising the "graduation rate from 70% to 98% in less than three months." If programs to improve this outcome usually take years to show meaningful results, how was Fehte able to turn this school around so quickly? Could it be that the "Wednesday and Saturday School programs to allow students access to campus for credit recovery assistance" are giving away credits for time spent in the classroom rather than for mastering the subject matter? Also, if graduations are held once a year, how are results measured in a three-month period? Shouldn't this be a year-over-year result? Is Fehte's experience with fuzzy accounting now being applied to academic results?

While charter schools may have been created with good intentions, the results have been disastrous. If an industry lacks the motivation to police itself of bad actors like Fehte, how can anyone dispute that his actions were not a glitch? Corruption was built into the system.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He is an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and serves as the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

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Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a " (more...)
 

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