Charter school proponents claim that charters offer options for parents who are disappointed in what their public schools provide, and this "choice" is about giving children better options. A recent story in the Detroit Free Press (http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/02/07/charter-schools-steven-ingersoll-grand-traverse-academy/23054725/) spins a "soap opera" style tale of nepotism, cronyism, crazy ideas about how children learn, bank fraud, and embezzlement. Michigan's charter school "industry"--and that's what it is, an industry; not an educational system, but rather a business model designed to steal public money and slip it into private bank accounts--is wildly out of control, an unregulated Wild West playground for unscrupulous hucksters, quacks and charlatans who see our school system and our children as an untapped well-spring of profits. And the stream is flowing.
Let's be clear: the charter school "industry" is not about kids, learning or "choice." This unregulated explosion of charters is about money, and lots of it. This eye doctor funneled
millions of taxpayer dollars into his private bank account. This was essentially a money laundering operation, not substantially different from how drug dealers set up a legitimate business, run
it at a loss in order to turn "dirty" money into "clean" money, and then walk away when the heat gets too hot. [See: Breaking Bad.]
What's lost here is any discussion of Dr. Ingersoll's "innovative" approach to learning, "Integrated Visual Learning," which has to do with rapid eye movements. Here's a teacher's account of
IVL, and how it was used in Dr. Ingersoll's school:
"His claims were/are at best a novelty in my opinion. If I recall correctly, students were initially given a screener to see how their eyes tracked on a page of text. This was done with a special
machine and a pair of glasses hooked up to the machine. If their eyes didn’t track from left to right (as in how a person reads a page of text) and from one line to the next in the correct “zig
zag” pattern during reading, then they were considered to need “therapy.” Therapy was expensive and rarely covered by insurance."
What's missing here is any description of how children learn. How does this "test" help teachers adapt instruction? What happens when a child's eyes don't zig zag? Are they taught differently, or
just not admitted to the school?
Um, not so much...according to another teacher:
"There was NO room in the school specifically for IVL testing. There may have been equipment, but kids were never observed for vision. The IVL methods were taught to all kids, because Ingersoll
made the staff do it; middle school and high school as well. Even the Special Education teachers had to teach it. which meant critical standards were not met."
(http://www.upnorthprogressive.com/2015/01/13/teachers-speak-out-about-integrated-visual-learning-the-continuing-story-of-dr-steve-ingersoll/)
So while we don't know if Dr. Ingersoll knows anything about children, or learning, or schools, here's what we do know:
1. He stole our money.
2. He subjected our children to radical, untested teaching methods.
3. People like this should not be permitted to set foot in our schools, much less run them.
