Viewpoints: Education board can save these great schools
Published: Saturday, Jul. 27, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 11A
Last Modified: Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 - 9:50 pm
One of the best elementary schools in California isn't in San Francisco or Beverly Hills. It happens to be located at 171 12th Street in Oakland, of all places, next to a trash-strewn lot and across the street from one of the most hideous parking garages I've ever seen.
About 650 elementary school kids attend American Indian Public Charter School II in what used to be a Wells Fargo Bank office. In the 2011-12 school year, the students scored a remarkable 981 out of 1,000 on the state's academic performance index, ranking fourth in the state. No wonder parents from across the downtrodden city clamor to get their children enrolled there.
Yet by the end of this coming school year, odds are AIPCS II and its equally high-performing sisters, American Indian Public Charter School and American Indian Public Charter High School, will lose their charters and be forced to close. More than 1,200 students will be scattered to inferior public schools across Oakland Unified School District, which itself may be on the cusp of returning to state receivership for the second time in a decade.
All that's left between American Indian's kids and bureaucratic oblivion is a reprieve from theCalifornia State Board of Education, which isn't as charter-friendly as it used to be.
It might seem strange – downright immoral, even – that the trustees of a school board which can't manage to keep its own house in order would vote to strip three highly successful schools of their charters. It may appear stranger that the Alameda County Board of Education last month would affirm the district's decision, giving lip service to the students' tremendous achievements before voting to cast them out.
The revocation rests on an "extraordinary audit" of the schools last year by the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, which alleged the school's former executive director, Ben Chavis, and his wife made more than $3.8 million from the schools on construction, leases and consulting deals in violation of California's Political Reform Act.
Chavis is outspoken, profane and politically incorrect. When he took over American Indian in 2000, it was the worst school in Oakland and the district was one vote away from closing it for good. Within a few years, Chavis added two campuses – he owned the buildings and rented them out at below-market rates – and his no-nonsense model disproved once and for all the notion that poor, minority kids can't excel. Graduates from the schools attend MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley.
He also made enemies. When the extraordinary audit came out, Chavis stepped down. Although he has nothing to do with the daily operations of the schools, he is still their landlord. I met him last week at the 12th Street campus, which had been visited by the FBI and IRS a week earlier. The feds executed a sealed warrant on the schools, as well as Chavis' home. They want to know whether Chavis misused a federal afterschool program grant.
"If I did what they say," Chavis told me, "then I should go to jail." But he insists he did nothing wrong. Everything was disclosed on the schools' IRS 990 forms, which is required by law, and independently audited, which is not.
Most people would find it noteworthy that the Alameda County district attorney chose not to pursue any criminal charges against Chavis. Alameda County school officials, however, are not "most people." According to the county, "It is irrelevant that the contracts were reviewed by the (American Indian) Board, or that Dr. Chavis gave (the schools) a favorable rental rate, or that (the school) has separated itself from Dr. Chavis, or that Dr. Chavis has not been criminally prosecuted for his actions."
Actually, it's highly relevant to the families whose children will need to find new schools if the local and county board rulings hold up. It's relevant, too, because a number of other charter operators have faced serious prison time for similar allegations of corruption involving far lesser sums of money.
But all of the handwringing about Chavis' alleged conflicts of interest obscures the real issue: the American Indian schools are an embarrassment to the education establishment. Even district officials concede the schools are successful.
Trouble is, they're too successful. American Indian doubled its enrollment in the 18 months leading to the audit. "We're costing them $18 (million) to $20 million a year" in average daily attendance money, Chavis says, adding that American Indian's per-pupil costs are substantially less than the district schools.
American Indian's current leadership hopes the State Board of Education will look kindly on their appeal. The question for board members is whether they'll let raw politics and disdain for charter schools trump extraordinary student achievement. We'll know soon enough.
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