City Paper - Deep Dive into TenSquare, charter 'turnaround' consultant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:tell me who to vote for who will take on this waste and abuse of public funds, and I will vote for once in a dc election. This is so disgusting. I love my charter, and I want the charter system to work, but it needs cleaned up.

I don't know of any politicians who has a shot at winning who would touch the issue with a ten foot pole.

Bowser and Grosso are completely beholden. Just look at the endorsements they get. You need to start being loud now and frequently. Maybe there will be change in 5-10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:tell me who to vote for who will take on this waste and abuse of public funds, and I will vote for once in a dc election. This is so disgusting. I love my charter, and I want the charter system to work, but it needs cleaned up.

I don't know of any politicians who has a shot at winning who would touch the issue with a ten foot pole.

Bowser and Grosso are completely beholden. Just look at the endorsements they get. You need to start being loud now and frequently. Maybe there will be change in 5-10 years.

Elisa Silverman originally ran on an anti corruption platform. Any hope that she would take this on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:tell me who to vote for who will take on this waste and abuse of public funds, and I will vote for once in a dc election. This is so disgusting. I love my charter, and I want the charter system to work, but it needs cleaned up.

I don't know of any politicians who has a shot at winning who would touch the issue with a ten foot pole.

Bowser and Grosso are completely beholden. Just look at the endorsements they get. You need to start being loud now and frequently. Maybe there will be change in 5-10 years.

Elisa Silverman originally ran on an anti corruption platform. Any hope that she would take this on?

Please

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:tell me who to vote for who will take on this waste and abuse of public funds, and I will vote for once in a dc election. This is so disgusting. I love my charter, and I want the charter system to work, but it needs cleaned up.

I'm hoping Ed Lazere is one who will take this on, though the likelihood of him beating Mendelson for council chair is low.

[Anonymous]

OSSE is ultimately the agency responsible for any federal and local education money spent by Dcps and charters. I’m sure they are hamstringed by the mayors office and pcsb. And there’s very little oversight from Council since so many take donations from charter groups, pacs, and board members who are running the individual schools. Board members should also be asked to account if schools are wasting $ on consulting contracts but maybe they’re getting kick-backs. Pearson and Hanseul Kang should have resigned by now. Need a fresh start and much more transparency in the system when it comes to charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OSSE is ultimately the agency responsible for any federal and local education money spent by Dcps and charters. I’m sure they are hamstringed by the mayors office and pcsb. And there’s very little oversight from Council since so many take donations from charter groups, pacs, and board members who are running the individual schools. Board members should also be asked to account if schools are wasting $ on consulting contracts but maybe they’re getting kick-backs. Pearson and Hanseul Kang should have resigned by now. Need a fresh start and much more transparency in the system when it comes to charters.

Are we also looking at the DCPS consulting contracts? And the donations to the DCPS Foundation? It is pretty ugly too.

[Anonymous]

OSSE has no control/authourity over DCPCSB. They are a stand alone entity, a quasi- agency

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSSE is ultimately the agency responsible for any federal and local education money spent by Dcps and charters. I’m sure they are hamstringed by the mayors office and pcsb. And there’s very little oversight from Council since so many take donations from charter groups, pacs, and board members who are running the individual schools. Board members should also be asked to account if schools are wasting $ on consulting contracts but maybe they’re getting kick-backs. Pearson and Hanseul Kang should have resigned by now. Need a fresh start and much more transparency in the system when it comes to charters.

Are we also looking at the DCPS consulting contracts? And the donations to the DCPS Foundation? It is pretty ugly too.

Sure, that smells like corruption too. But I think Charter laws need to be changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know I should know this, but who IS Scott Pearson? What’s his deal?

Well, here's his bio.

Scott Pearson is the Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB). Since joining DCPCSB in 2012, Mr. Pearson has implemented significant reforms in how the Board approves and oversees charter schools, making it a national model for charter school authorizing. Under Mr. Pearson’s leadership, DCPCSB has pioneered new strategies, tough and rigorous oversight and best practices that other authorizers around the nation are adopting. Previously, Mr. Pearson served in the Obama Administration as the Deputy of the Office of Innovation and Improvement for the U.S. Department of Education.

Also, he co-founded Leadership Public Schools, a network of college-prep public charter high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Pearson has a long career in business. At America Online, he was responsible for acquisitions and strategic planning as the company’s Vice President for Corporate Development. At Bain and Company, Mr. Pearson provided strategic management consulting services to clients in education, healthcare, media, and aviation. He currently is the Board Chair of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). Mr. Pearson holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Wesleyan University, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Ugh. Sounds smug. These people who come out of Bain, McKinsey etc but who never actually worked in those fields just rub me the wrong way.

Yup. This bio explains a lot. Give money to more of his own kind, shark oil salesmen with MBAs promising to “crack the code”. DC is full of these types. And they’re all full of crap. Let’s get him out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yup. This bio explains a lot. Give money to more of his own kind, shark oil salesmen with MBAs promising to “crack the code”. DC is full of these types. And they’re all full of crap. Let’s get him out.

+1000. The problem with Pearson, and others like him, is that he really believes the stuff that he's peddling. He believes in TenSquare without a deeper look because they are like him and he makes it much harder for those who are not like him. I hate to pull out the racism card but maybe it's not racism -- maybe it's elitism and that's just as bad. Pearson and his team at the PCSB have worked hard to sanction and close some schools while giving other schools a pass. Especially those schools that engage Tensquare or otherwise fit Pearson's view of who's capable of doing this work. But look closely and you'll see that the PCSB's track record during his leadership is fraught with problems, failures and shady backroom deals. Whether he is at the heart of these shady deals or just created the conditions for them to exist, who knows? To me, it doesn't matter. This needs to be fixed. The fixing doesn't start or stop with Pearson. It's the PCSB board that refuses to do anything that's the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yup. This bio explains a lot. Give money to more of his own kind, shark oil salesmen with MBAs promising to “crack the code”. DC is full of these types. And they’re all full of crap. Let’s get him out.

+1000. The problem with Pearson, and others like him, is that he really believes the stuff that he's peddling. He believes in TenSquare without a deeper look because they are like him and he makes it much harder for those who are not like him. I hate to pull out the racism card but maybe it's not racism -- maybe it's elitism and that's just as bad. Pearson and his team at the PCSB have worked hard to sanction and close some schools while giving other schools a pass. Especially those schools that engage Tensquare or otherwise fit Pearson's view of who's capable of doing this work. But look closely and you'll see that the PCSB's track record during his leadership is fraught with problems, failures and shady backroom deals. Whether he is at the heart of these shady deals or just created the conditions for them to exist, who knows? To me, it doesn't matter. This needs to be fixed. The fixing doesn't start or stop with Pearson. It's the PCSB board that refuses to do anything that's the problem.

So how's he chosen, how long has he been there, what is this board and how is it accountable? I keep being surprised at how entrenched this stuff is.

[Anonymous]

TenSquare - A FOR PROFIT CONSULTING FIRM - is being handed a charter school to run.

https://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MTg0MjQyMTA=

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TenSquare - A FOR PROFIT CONSULTING FIRM - is being handed a charter school to run.

https://www.livebinders.com/media/get/MTg0MjQyMTA=

This town is a joke...

[Anonymous]

This school had a CMO before. We’re they firprofit or nonprofit.

To me the bigger issue is that it failed. Shut it down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSSE is ultimately the agency responsible for any federal and local education money spent by Dcps and charters. I’m sure they are hamstringed by the mayors office and pcsb. And there’s very little oversight from Council since so many take donations from charter groups, pacs, and board members who are running the individual schools. Board members should also be asked to account if schools are wasting $ on consulting contracts but maybe they’re getting kick-backs. Pearson and Hanseul Kang should have resigned by now. Need a fresh start and much more transparency in the system when it comes to charters.

Are we also looking at the DCPS consulting contracts? And the donations to the DCPS Foundation? It is pretty ugly too.

Yes, please! Did you not hear us crying out over Sodexo-Magic getting the food services contract? I hate that donations to the “DCPS Foundation” go to a glossy event and not to teachers and principals. It’s more of an event to show off for the mayor than anything we should be spending on.

So, yes! Let’s pusg back on corruption on waste with all our public money.