A recent lawsuit against the California Commission on
Teacher Credentialing (CTC), filed in November by former government lawyer and
CTC whistleblower Kathleen Carroll, alleges that CTC lawyers and administrators
engaged in numerous illegal acts that prevented qualified teachers from
obtaining or maintaining their credentials. The charges against the attorneys
include tampering with case outcomes, acting outside their legal jurisdictions,
nepotism, cronyism, and conflict of interest.
According to
Steve Zeltzer, writing for Daily Censored, the suit’s allegations imply that
the CTC may have been used as a tool for preventing qualified teachers from
receiving their credentials so they would be unable to get hired at traditional
district schools and be forced to seek jobs at alternative schools with less
stringent credentialing requirements, like charter schools, which are often nonunionized.
Consequently, Zeltzer argues, thousands
of teachers may have been illegally or inappropriately denied their
credentials, thus creating a small army of well-trained teachers willing to
accept low-paying jobs with poor working conditions at private charter schools.
The CTC is
responsible for licensing California teachers, administrators and other
education personnel; investigating charges of misconduct against credentialed
teachers and applicants; and approving teacher training programs. The agency
has been involved in the development of curriculum, tests for teachers, and teacher
evaluation policies, often by outsourcing to private testing and publishing
companies like NCS Pearson (which is currently being sued by the state of New
York (among others) for illegal kickbacks to officials involved in deciding
whether or not to use their tests. Pearson is also a big player in the design
of Common Core Standards (CCS) which will require a whole new series of high
stakes exams from which Pearson hopes to profit.
Zeltzer
reports that several CTC Commissioners have had personal or financial ties with
private charter schools and would thus benefit from having a large pool of
teachers desperate for jobs, but unable to acquire them at traditional public
schools. Ting Sun, for example, was chair of the CTC at the same time she
worked at the Natomas charter school—which she founded with her husband—and was
being paid by the California Charter Association. She is also on the board of
the corrupt Gulen charter school chain Magnolia Public Schools (for more on
Gulen, see here,
here
and here).
According to Zeltzer, Sun failed to report these conflicts of interests, as
required by CTC commissioners, since they vote on contracts paid for with
public funds.
Carroll had
been an attorney at the CTC for four years until she was fired for
whistleblowing in the middle of the audit of the commission that she helped
initiate. One of her allegations was that the CTC had a long backlog of
misconduct reports, many of which were specious. The CTC admitted there was a
backlog of more than 12,000 reports. The actual number was never verified. Regardless,
this is a serious safety concern for parents and students (as some potential
abusers may have remained in the classroom) and a serious due process violation
for accused teachers (many of whom may be innocent, especially since many of
the reports were trumped up).
Carroll told
Ting Sun that the Director of Professional Practices at the CTC, Mary
Armstrong, had lied about the backlog. She told CTC Director Dale Janssen that
the misconduct reports were not being processed quickly enough, including those
involving sexual misconduct, thus placing students at risk. According to the
suit, Janssen responded by hiring a private investigator to discredit Carroll,
including the release of her private medical records.
There may
also be evidence of tampering by the office of California Senate Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg, which initiated the audit at Carroll’s request. Steinberg’s
office made changes in the audit request and failed to investigate some of
Carroll’s allegations. Steinberg’s office, like many in the CTC, had its own
conflicts of interest. His education advisor, Susanna Cooper, is married to
Eric Douglas, who owns Leading Resources Inc., which represents the Bureau of
State Audits, which was doing the CTC audit. Cooper is also on the board of
West Ed, which receives funding from Pearson and numerous other public and
private education profiteers, and has a vested interest in many of the CTC’s
projects, including testing and credentialing, thus further drawing into
question the objectivity of the audit.
State
Auditor Elaine Howle said the commission was “one
of the worst run” organizations she had ever investigated. Janssen
and Armstrong resigned not long after the auditor’s report came back (June
2011), but the backlog of unprocessed complaints continues and questions remain
about the agency’s integrity. Sun remained as chair until her term ended in
November. Janssen
and Armstrong were replaced by Gov. Brown appointees, Nancy Ramirez, from the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Michael Cooney.
