What is Pay to Play?

Devotees of the TV program Jeopardy know that in order to give the correct answer and win the money you have to answer in a prescribed way, for instance, the answer to the question “How do you get a substandard charter school into Newport Beach Unified School District?” And the answer would be “What is Pay to Play?”

Pay to Play is a simple concept. A group or person with an agenda donates a lot of money to a candidate, which means that their candidate could be obligated to them. Usually, the obligation tends to be more general and certainly less obvious than this time. This time it is put right in our faces (and ultimately our pocket books).

In this case Lisa Sparks, the newly elected trustee to the Orange County Board of Education (OCBE), was given a lot of money by Charter School PAC`s (I have only included a small sampling of the amounts given to her). This big $$$$ was given apparently to influence her to vote for any charter school regardless of how awful it is.

In this case the “no good, very bad” charter is Isaac. The very substandard Isaac was UNANIMOUSLY denied by the Newport Mesa Board of Education (NMUSD).

Isaac then predictably went to the Orange County Board of Education (OCDE) to plead their sad case. The outcome was preordained. There are two newly elected members of OCBE whose campaigns have been generously compensated by Charter School PACs. Lisa Sparks is one of them.

Lisa accepted all that money.

It is widely expected that the OCBE will vote in favor of Isaac barging into to Newport Mesa even though its own staff recommended denying it. The OCBE’s own staff!

Although Pay to Play is not illegal yet, it is clearly morally contemptible.

Lisa Sparks should recuse herself immediately, and Isaac should not only NOT be a part of Newport Mesa, it should not be in any district.

Here’s what you can do:

Go to the meeting March 6th @ 10:00 A.M.

200 Kalmus Dr, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

And/or EMAIL: ocbe@ocde.com

Saying something like this:

Dear ______________(Dr. Sparks)

Thank you for supporting the students and educators of Orange County in your role as county trustee.

I am a __________________(teacher, parent, student, staff, grandparent, etc.) in the Newport-Mesa School District.

I urge you to vote NO on the ISSAC Charter School. I am opposed because this charter school: (FILL-IN YOUR REASONS…SOME TOP REASONS LISTED HERE)

-offers an unsound educational program

-gives our local tax money to an untried, poorly designed program with no guarantees we can get our money back

- will displace many high quality Newport-Mesa teachers and replace them with first timers or less qualified ones

- will have a negative impact on our most at risk students: ESL and special education

-the Newport-Mesa School board voted unanimously to oppose this charter after careful consideration by its own elected Board, educational leaders and legal team

First Name Last Name

City of Residence

*** This is the blistering commentary by the NMUSD

https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/opinion/tn-dpt-me-charter-commentart-20190301-story.html