Magnolia Schools has new leadership Caprice Young a controversial last ditch effort opportunist

Controversial Caprice Young
new CEO of Controversial Magnolia Science Academy
Magnolia Schools has removed Turks from the
front line and added gavurs for an image change.
"Lipstick on a Pig" will not make the court hearings
or Statewide audit of  Magnolia schools go away.

A local charter school group that is battling for survival has turned to a well-known and sometimes controversial education figure to take charge. Magnolia Public Schools, under fire for money management and other issues, has hired former L.A. school board President Caprice Young as its new chief executive.
Magnolia, based in Westminster, operates eight schools within the L.A. Unified School District, but three face closing after district officials decided last year not to renew them. A court injunction is keeping them open.
 Charters are free, publicly funded schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses.
A recent L.A. school district audit concluded that Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation was $1.66 million in the red, owed $2.8 million to the schools it oversees and met the federal definition of insolvency. In addition, the audit found fiscal mismanagement, including lack of disclosure of debts, weak fiscal controls over the principals' use of debit cards and questionable payments for immigration fees and services, among other issues.

Young said Magnolia is not in financial trouble, but suffers from weak management and a lack of transparency — problems she said would be corrected in an effort to win support from L.A. Unified.
“We will go through all the finances,” she said. “These schools are doing a really great job for kids … and I think they can do an even better job. But none of that matters unless they’re managing taxpayer resources transparently and effectively. That is job one.”
       

Young, 49, served a four-year school board term, which ended in 2003 after the teachers union successfully targeted her for defeat. She then built the California Charters Schools Assn. into a powerful organization as its leader.
In 2010, she took over ICEF Public Schools, a charter group that was on the verge of financial collapse. She recruited donors and slashed costs — and received praise from parents after preventing a merger with another charter organization. She lost that position after a falling-out with former Mayor Richard Riordan, a major ICEF funder, who had pushed for the merger.

More recently, Young has worked with Acton-Agua Dulce Unified to develop a plan for overseeing charter schools. The district, which has four schools, authorized charters to open in other school systems as a way to raise revenue, according to court documents.
L.A. Unified and another school district sued over the practice. An L.A. Superior Court judge ruled recently that Acton-Agua Dulce violated state law in how it granted the charters. But the judge did not entirely bar the district from granting charters outside its boundaries.
Magnolia, meanwhile, has struggled with its image as well as the allegations of mismanagement.
Critics have asserted that the Magnolia campuses are among more than 100 charter schools that have ties to a U.S.-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
In an interview, Young said that she is not aware of any direct links with Gulen.
She said the focus of the schools is math and science and that they seek to embrace “all cultures and any culture.” Most of the students, she added, are from low-income Latino families.
The schools have recruited math and science teachers from a university in Istanbul, she said. Eleven teachers, out of 325 total employees, she said, are in the United States on work visas.
Magnolia also operates three schools outside of L.A. Unified — in Costa Mesa, Santa Clara and San Diego. The total enrollment is about 4,000 students.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-magnolia-charters-20150108-story.html

Caprice has spoken for the Gulen Movement Pacifica Institute

http://www.pacificainstitute.org/index.php/activities/item/78-ceo-kc-distance-learning-caprice-young-speaks-at-pi-los-angeles

Long time education reform advocate, Caprice Young, is taking over the troubled Magnolia Public Schools charter network, but it won’t be official until a set of test results come in.

“I’m waiting to get my tuberculouses results,” she said, laughing on a phone call from her office. “Then I can actually set foot on a campus and be around children.”

Young, who is a divisive figure in California education politics for her strong advocacy for charter school expansion, says she’s excited about the opportunity to turn around the controversial charter school organization with 11 public charter schools serving close to 4,000 students in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara and San Diego counties. She is taking the reigns from interim CEO, Murat Biyik, who held the post for less than six months.

“I’ve done this work before,” she explained, referring to her efforts that made Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools, a network of charters she’s credited with saving from imminent closure.

A financial audit by LA Unified last year concluded that Magnolia Public Schools doesn’t have the cash-flow necessary to be solvent, owing more money than it costs to continue operating all eight of its campuses within LAUSD. As a result, two schools had their charter renewal applications denied but are operating under a court injunction, while a third campus will close at the end of the school year.

Young’s response? “It’s not uncommon for charter schools that have grown a little quickly to have financial problems or organizational problems. But those are very fixable. And I’m coming in to fix that.”

Another issue that has dogged the schools’ operator in the past has been its ties to the Gulen Movement, a Turkish Islamist group that has founded schools, think tanks and media outlets around the world.

At an LA Unified board meeting in March, Inspector General Ken Bramlett confirmed claims of the association, “We have done some looking into that allegation and there is some evidence that some members of the Magnolia organization do have ties with the Gulen movement, but we have not found anything currently that would be grounds for denial.”

That’s not an issue for Young, either.

“I haven’t seen a connection but, I’m not in the habit of asking people about their religious beliefs,” she said. She acknowledges that Magnolia has “had Turkish leadership form the start” but says, “my impression of them is that they run great schools.”

And if there is a questionable relationship to Gulen, Young contends she was hired by the board, in part, “because they knew I wouldn’t allow anything to go forward that wasn’t appropriate.”

Young will leave her job as President of the National Charter Resource Center in the spring. “I’ve made several commitments that I have to see through,” she said.

But she did not specify if that included continuing to work with the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District, a tiny rural school district under fire for approving charter schools outside its borders. LA Unified is suing the l district for opening three charter schools within the LAUSD boundaries.

http://laschoolreport.com/new-chief-of-troubled-magnolia-ive-done-this-work-before/

Caprice Young and her many "bios"



Young, Caprice

President, Education Growth Group, LLC

For over two decades, Caprice has been at the forefront of education reform, inside and outside the system. She served as the reform president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board during a time of intense struggle over the future of the city’s schools, and, along with Superintendent Roy Romer, was instrumental in making gains across the district in student achievement and launching an ambitious program of school facilities renewal that continues today.
Following her service to Los Angeles, Caprice founded the California Charter Schools Association, uniting three state and regional charter groups, and grew it to become the nation’s most powerful state association, accelerating the growth of charter schools, encouraging and supporting diverse leadership in the movement, and advocating strongly on behalf of charters and choice. Sensing the transformative power of technology in education, Caprice then took on the post of CEO of KC Distance Learning and Vice President of Business Development and Alliances for Knowledge Universe Education (KUE) U.S. More recently, Caprice took on the job of rescuing the financially troubled Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF) and its portfolio of fifteen high-performing LA Charter schools.
Through all of these experiences, Caprice has kept her eye firmly on the goal of transforming public education so that it serves all children well. Caprice was former Vice President for Education at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

https://www.edreform.com/edreform-university/resource/caprice-young/

Caprice Young, Ed.D., Senior Advisor to the CEO

Caprice is the former Vice President for Education of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. A nationally respected education innovator, she has also served as the Assistant Deputy Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, manager in IBM’s eBusiness consulting practice, founding CEO/President of the California Charter Schools Association, CEO of the Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools and CEO/President of EnCorps, a non-profit organization recruiting and training new STEM teachers. Caprice has served on numerous boards, including the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence (California), the Fordham Foundation, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, She is a recipient of the Coro Foundation Crystal Eagle Award for Achievement in Public Service. High school was a big adventure for this ADHD kid, and included Birmingham High School (Van Nuys, CA), the United States Senate Page School (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.), Valley Alternative School (Van Nuys, CA), and C Leon King High School (Tampa, FL)… where she “finished early” to spend half of her senior year in India and Mexico. Caprice earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Masters of Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and Doctorate of Education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Schools are for profit Caprice Young

When Capricious Young says no experience required, she requires no experience

"We are told that this 'reform' alliance of everyone from Rupert Murdoch to the Walton family to leading hedge funders spends huge amounts of money pushing for radical changes to public schools because they suddenly decided that they care about destitute children, and now want to see all kids get a great education." — David Sirota

In Los Angeles, nobody has been more adept at stuffing public money into their pockets via charter-voucher sector windfalls than Caprice Young. Her early career showed a trajectory of opportunism and greed that would place her in ever more lucrative positions as time progressed.

As a young Coro Fellow she worked under Republican Mayor Richard Riordan like fellow education privatizer Ben Austin. Deep pocketed interests aligned against public education saw her as the perfect privatization minded candidate and backed her successful campaign for the Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Her mean spirited anti-community and even stronger anti-labor stripes couldn't have been more apparent during her corporate reform oriented tenure. Voters soon saw her true intentions and clear motives, hence she promptly and ignominiously lost her position on the LAUSD Board after a single term.

Young was then approached by the racist, bigoted, anti-immigrant nativist Steve Poizner and the two of them founded the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) in order to grow charter-voucher market share and create more profitable opportunities for their fellow privatizers. She did so at a dizzying pace, boasting of nearly doubling the number of lucrative privately run charter schools in California during her tenure. Poizner and company compensated Young quite handsomely:

"Jed's predecessor, Caprice Young, made over $250,000 for her work at the CCSA. Check out the cast of characters on CCSA's board of directors. Until recently, a Broad COO, Kevin Hall, and Kevin Johnson served on the groups board as well." — Kenneth Libby (Schools Matter)

Shortly after she did a stint working for predatory capitalist and junk bond felon Michael Milken at his highly profitable Knowledge Universe. Young is also closely associated with the Broad Residency Program.

Young's husband, Mark Dierking, is no stranger to making boatloads of cash from the dwindling trough of the public commons either. He's the Director of Real Estate Planning/Strategy at Knowledge Learning Corporation, a firm with revenues of $8.4 Billion. How big is the charter-voucher school real estate bubble? Big enough to attract big names like Goldman Sachs, Andre Agassi, Citibank, and Richard Riordan to the lucrative land grab ventures. Big enough that Gloria Romero was rewarded with a cushy six-figure job as CEO at Democrats for Education Reform in California for her servile gift the privately managed charter industry called SB 592, which hands public school property over to charter corporations. That's a Kids first agenda.

Young went on to found a K-12 equivalent of predatory for-profit colleges like Kaplan, University of Phoenix, and American Career College. Her successful swindle was called KC Distance Learning, which she sold off in the Summer of 2010 to fellow flimflam artists K12 Inc. for an astonishing $63.1 Million. That decision, like every move in her entire calculated career, was for the kids and the kids alone. Young's old buddy Dick Riordan then tapped her to try to save the sinking ICEF ship, but she was replaced by fellow privatizer Parker Hudnut in short order.

Given how busy Young has been, and how wealthy she has gotten over the years, one would think she would take a break. Yet it turns out her insatiable lust for money and power never ceases, nor does her hatred of educators and organized labor. A reader sent me an email about her latest venture, and their analysis says so much about Young and the corporate school privatization putsch's designs on deprofessionalizing teaching altogether.

Robert,

I looked up Caprice's new job.... "CEO" of a newly-formed company... "EnCorps".

I'm trying to piece this together, but it appears that the charters in L.A. and San Francisco are hard up for Math and Science teachers, but the bosses don't want to have to deal with fullly-credentialed teachers, and their accompanying demands for a decent wage, decent benefits, decent job conditions, etc.

They want desperate, compliant, cheap labor that can teach those hard-to-place subjects of Math and Science.

Enter... EnCorps... a sort of Teach for America for career-changers with Math and Science backgrounds in the private sector, and who are desperate for any kind of work.

The FAQ's page seems strikingly familiar to TFA... i.e. the questions being asked of candidates, are almost identical to the TFA application.  Here it is:

http://www.EnCorpsteachers.org/FAQ

What's bothersome is that having a teaching credential... not just in California, but anywhere in the country... ELIMINATES YOU FROM EVEN BEING CONSIDERED TO BE AN EnCorps FELLOW ???!!

WTF???!!!

It's like an organization is out to recruit people to staff hospitals that are desperate for qualified doctors and nurses, but they then say that anyone with an M.D., or a B.S/M.S in nursing is then disqualified from being recruited into that same organization.

Check this out:  (bold highlighting is mine, NAME REDACTED)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Eligibility
How do I know if I am eligible for EnCorps?
EnCorps Educators come to us from a diverse range of backgrounds.  In order to meet basic eligibility requirements, a candidate must meet the following criteria:
·       Must be a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) professional
·       Fully eligible to work in the United States
·       Able to pass a background check
·       Have a Bachelor’s degree with a GPA of 2.50 or higher
·       Not be in possession of a teaching credential (in California or any other state with a reciprocal agreement)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A little farther down, it has the following FAQ's:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If I already have a teaching credential can I apply?
No.  Our program is designed to assist math and science professionals in their transition to teaching careers.  If you are already a credentialed teacher, you are Not eligible to apply.

If I am credentialed in another state can I apply?
No.  California has reciprocal credential agreements with nearly all other states.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And that's a bad thing?  I mean there are thousands of fully-credentialed MATH/SCIENCE teachers without a job right now in California.

I'm at a total loss to come up with a good, defensible reason why an organization whose "mission" —to use their own words—is "focused on closing the achievement gap by recruiting math and science professionals" to teach "in high-need schools in low-income communities as our mission dictates" would then turn away those "professionals" most qualified and able to do so.

When you read on, however, you start to get an idea as to why.  The goal of EnCorps'"Boot Camp" training program is to produce teachers who are "CEO's of their classrooms".

Ay carumba! as Bart Simpson would say.

There's the market-based model at work.

However, if you're a parent in a low-income community—or any community, for that matter—do you want your kids to be taught by:

1) fully-credentialed Math/Science teachers with possibly years/decades of actual teaching experience;

OR

2) totally inexperienced, uncredentialed people just out of a dubious, short "Boot Camp" that trained them into being "CEO's of their classrooms"?

I don't know about you, Robert, but that's not a close call.  Any fully-informed parent would be irate that their principal procured their Math/Science teachers from EnCorps instead of hiring the countless experienced, fully-credentialed teachers who are out there available to work at that parent's school.

Sincerely,

NAME REDACTED

"CEO's of their classrooms" indeed.

No experience required? No, it's required that you have no experience. We wouldn't want the bevy of fully qualified experienced professionals applying for their old jobs back now would we? After all, these days all it takes is five weeks to become a master at anything. Right?

The board of the vile EnCorps, Inc. features the usual suspects, including charlatan Ted Mitchell of NewSchools Venture Fund. None of EnCorps board members or staff are strangers to the profitable school privatization faction. They are all about educating poor kids on the cheap.

Celebrated education professor and author Dr. Diane Ravitch once said:

"The Obama administration is using its unprecedented billions to advance a strategy of deregulation and deprofessionalization."



http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/10/when-capricious-young-says-no.html