Alliance College-Ready Public Schools Cleared By Audit

18Apr
by Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the largest charter school provider in Los Angeles County was cleared of any impropriety after an audit was conducted. According to The Los Angeles Times, the charter school network that operates 28 middle and high school charters in Los Angeles was targeted after opposing the unionization of its teachers.  

The battle begin about 2 years ago and things got pretty messy, pretty quickly. UTLA  has filed several complaints (some are still being investigated) according to The Los Angeles Times.  In an article published last night, it was reported that UTLA officials had accused Alliance of “intimidating teachers and filed several complaints with California’s Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that the network had violated state laws that allow teachers to organize without fear of reprisal.”  The union also claimed that the network was using taxpayer dollars to pay for lawyers and public relations consultants to defend itself against unionizing efforts.

The California State Auditor was commissioned to do an audit that has now been released and the findings are that Alliance College Ready Public Schools did not misappropriate funds.  California’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee found no evidence of misspending or fraud.  The report confirms that the accusations of using taxpayer dollars to fight unionization efforts made by UTLA were without merit. The report indicates that the records reflect all money used in the opposition of unionization by Alliance was raised privately.  

Naturally, Alliance feels vindicated while UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said Thursday that the audit showed Alliance and the California Charter School Association had “cynically abused the parental information they have.” This statement is astonishing considering the years and years or cynical abuse of parental information and other egregious acts committed by UTLA, including the ongoing defense of sexual predators in the classroom.

Alliance has already been directed by the courts not to interfere in unionization efforts, and it appears that they are and have been complying with that court order. Regardless, Alex Caputo may just be bitter since UTLA has not been able to convince the nearly 600 teachers to unionize despite having a large presence on campuses after school at many of the sites.

I guess the big question I have is how many times does UTLA have to cry wolf over charter schools before they are sanctioned or made to pay for the time and resources used to prove them wrong yet again?

Just as quick side note,  I am preparing a story about CSU/UC admissions at LAUSD and interestingly, of the top 20 schools with highest admission rate, 6 of them are Alliance College-Ready Public High Schools and most of the others on the list are also either charter schools or magnets. Maybe UTLA should spend more time, money and energy focusing on how they can replicate the success of the charter schools that they keep attacking and demonizing.  

What do you think?

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Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia is a Mother, Grandmother, former Middle School Teacher, former Member of a School Board of Education and an Education Advocate for hundreds of parents and students in the Inland Empire. Having become a mother at 15, Leticia knows what it’s like to be a single mother trying to navigate the education system. Leticia received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters’ Degree in Education Technology from Cal State Fullerton in her 30’s. Leticia has used her knowledge and experience to help hundreds of families as an Education Advocate in the Inland Empire and currently works as an Education Specialist.

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