The CEA Blog

Welcome to the Carnival of Education! This is the 167th carnival, and the second time The CEA Blog has hosted this wonderful collection of rantings, musings, quotations, ideas, thoughts, inspirations, realizations and the like. The 168th edition will be hosted by the Education Wonks; email them at owlshome {at} earthlink {dot} net, or use this handy submission form. Yes, for those of you wondering, the picture is a snapshot of our fair city. Without further ado, click on the jump below and…. let’s Carnival!

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The CEA Blog wrote a post about the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) who wrote a letter to the IRS, asking for an investigation of Akron-based White Hat Management’s 503 (c) tax-exempt status. The management firm operates numerous “Life Skills Centers” and “Hope Academies” in three states, pulling in an estimated $85 million annually in tax dollar revenue in Ohio alone.

News outlets and bloggers have begun to write as well discuss recent developments. Highlights are below, after the jump.

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The Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) sent the IRS a letter asking it to investigate whether charter schools managed by White Hat Management, Inc. and its affiliates can properly claim 503(c) tax-exempt status.

White Hat Management and its affiliates operate the “Life Skills” and “Hope Academy” charter schools in Ohio, Florida and Arizona. OFT states that the schools, are merely a tax-exempt “pass through” to funnel money to the management company– $84 million tax dollars per year.

The Ohio Department of Education database recorded information for 18 Life Skills centers throughout the state; when examined, the data paints a disturbing picture of what results Ohioans are receiving for their $84 million dollars in tax money diverted from public school districts.

Click on the jump below to take a closer look at Life Skills Centers in the state of Ohio.

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Read the full story here.

The recent campaign launched by the Center For Union Facts (CUF) has wrongly placed the highly qualified and hard-working teachers of the Columbus Education Association in its crosshairs with the release of its anti-teacher smear campaign.

Click on the jump below to read more.

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In this edition: National Board Certified Teachers abound, a CCS teacher is a finalist for an NEA award, 8 CCS high schools rank nationally, finances and much more! Click on the jump below to continue.

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The 150 members of the Harrison Hills Teachers’ Association have been on strike since Monday, October 1st at 12:01 a.m. EST. The points of contention between the two parties are proposed raises in pay and specific changes in existing contract language. The union and district have been in negotiations since the contract expired in the summer.

Shortly after the members of the HHTA began walking the picket lines, replacement workers and their security guards began to be bused in, hired by the Harrison Hills Board of Education from a private contractor in Michigan.

One of the bargaining team members was struck by a van allegedly owned and driven by the security guards from the private company hired by the Harrison Hills BOE. According to local media reports, the 5th grade teacher was “taken by ambulance to Trinity Hospital in Steubenville where she was treated and released“. In a separate incident, another teacher was reported to have been “clipped” by another van allegedly driven and owned by the same company.

The Harrison Hills Superintendent reported that school attendance was just 36% yesterday, and expected student attendance to increase throughout the week.

The Harrison Hills Teachers’ Association is an affiliate of the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association, as is the Columbus Education Association.

UPDATE (10/12): HTTA reached a tentative agreement with their Board of Education on the evening of Thursday, October 11th. Teachers returned to their classrooms for a work day on Friday, October 12th. Classes will resume for Harrison Hills teachers on Monday, October 15th. The strike by Harrison Hills Teacher Association members lasted a total of 9 school days.