Traditional public school consolidation - Senate Bill 598

   While most education experts believe Senator Stanislawski's 2019 trademark bill is Senate Bill 153, which will provide a windfall to charter school private management companies (10% of the charter schools' state aid) on the backs of our traditional public school students... others believe that his real focus is the consolidation of traditional public schools. Senate Bill 598 is this year's school consolidation bill. In a nutshell, SB 598 is an act relating to school consolidation which would require the SDE to publish certain list (those schools with 250 or less students) and require the State Board of Education to consolidate the administrative services of such schools.
   Never mind that most research points to the fact that little or no money is saved when schools are administratively consolidated, Senator Stanislawski seems determined to consolidate small schools. Senator Stan points to the flawed white paper published by a UCO professor, which ascertains that $27 million could be saved by public schools if small schools are consolidated. Several states (including Arkansas) have already administratively consolidated small schools, and their administrative costs actually increased due to consolidation.
   College professors usually don't publish "flawed" research, so the question must be asked "Why did Dr. Machell jump on Stanislawski's consolidation bandwagon?".

Stitt's executive order bans state agencies from hiring lobbyists

   Governor Stitt says that 35 to 70 state agencies have hired lobbyists to advocate for more state funding, and has issued an executive order banning this practice. Specifically, which state agencies are among the 35 to 70? Specifically, who are the third party lobbyists hired by state agencies?
   I don't think any of the major agencies have hired a third party lobbyist. The Oklahoma State Department of Education has never hired a lobbyist to advocate for our public schools, and I don't believe any public schools have ever hired a lobbyist... right?
Update:  After more research, it has been discovered that one public school, EPIC Virtual Charter School, hired a lobbyist for government relations. It is doubtful that Governor Stitt's executive order applies to public schools, since the order only applies to state agencies - and EPIC is not a state agency. Also, since EPIC is managed by a private firm, the "state agency" order probably doesn't apply anyway. EPIC CEOs and lobbyists can relax...

Legislature committee members paid to play?

   Several weeks ago we published a list of elected officials who have been paid to play with EPIC Virtual Charter Schools and its private education management company. In order to keep the players straight in EPIC's virtual pyramid scheme, it's important that those sitting at the top are identified. The superintendent of EPIC has been identified as David Chaney, while EPIC Youth Services (the private management company) CEO has been identified as Ben Harris, and the government services director (lobbyist) for EPIC is Bobby Stem, who also is/was? the school board chairman for EPIC. Also at the top of the pyramid is Elizabeth Van Acker or Elizabeth Vanacker?, VP of Five Points Technology Group, Inc., a Florida or Texas? for-profit corporation.
   The constructed pyramid scheme is as follows: EPIC Virtual Charter Schools pays EPIC Youth Services (EYS), an Oklahoma LLC, an "administrative fee" of 10% of gross revenues for operating the school, which could amount to $11 million this year. EYS, in turn, contracts with Educational Administrative Services (EAS) or Five Points Technology Group, a for-profit corporation to provide bookkeeping and consulting services, including the services of treasurer.
   One may easily conclude that Epic's public school model is indeed an illegal pyramid scheme, because it involves no products for sale and involves recruiting sales people (students and teachers) to make a profit. The profit for EPIC, et al, comes from Oklahoma taxpayers - at the expense of traditional public schools.
   We may now identify the "paid to play" senator and representative education and appropriation committee members to determine which may support the illegal pyramid scheme of Epic Virtual Charter Schools:
                                              Senate Education Committee
Senator Gary Stanislawski - Chair          $2,000
Senator Joe Newhouse - Vice Chair        $30,000 (anti-public school dark money support)
Senator David Bullard
Senator JJ Dossett
Senator Tom Dugger
Senator John Haste
Senator Carri Hicks
Senator Allison Ikley-Freeman
Senator Chris Kidd
Senator Roland Pederson
Senator DeWayne Pemberton
Senator Marty Quinn                              $500
Senator Paul Scott
Senator Wayne Shaw                              $1,000
Senator Jason Smalley                           $3,000

                                          House Common Education Committee
Rep. Rhonda Baker - Chair                    $4,200
Rep. Mark Vancuren - Vice Chair
Rep. Kelly Albright
Rep. Carol Bush                                     $1,000
Rep. Chad Caldwell                               $500
Rep. Sherrie Conley                               $1,000
Rep. Sheila Dills
Rep. Ronny Johns                                  $1,000
Rep. Melissa Provenzano
Rep. Randy Randleman
Rep. Dustin Roberts
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants
Rep. Todd Russ                                      $1,000
Rep. Danny Sterling
Rep. John Talley
Rep. John Waldron
Rep. Tammy West                                   $1,000

                                         House Appropriations and Budget Committee
Rep. Scott Fetgatter - Chair
Rep. Brian Hill - Vice Chair                 $1,000
Rep. Merleyn Bell
Rep. Jeff Boatman
Rep. Chelsey Branham
Rep. Rusty Cornwell                             $1,000
Rep. Mark Lepak                                  $1,000
Rep. Garry Mize                                   $1,000

   * In addition, Senator Greg Treat, President Pro Tempore, who assigns senate committee membership was provided $4,200 to keep the EPIC pyramid profitable. Representative Charles McCall, Speaker of the House, in charge of House committee memberships, was provided $5,000 for the Speaker's Ball by EPIC officials.

Show me the money! SB 153

    In the Tulsa World article "496 Tulsa Public Schools students left for EPIC virtual school since August...", Senator Gary Stanislawski (the virtual champion for corporate education management firms) was quoted as saying "A big block of (public) money is going to a management company... we're going to pull the curtain back on the management company." From his statement, which appears to disparage EPIC Virtual Charter School's management company, Stan may be "biting the hand of those who feed him"... but a closer look at his statement may reveal the truth. He may not actually be biting anyone, but working with EPIC officials - so that he only appears to be its enemy. In reality, EPIC's private management company donated $2,000 to Stan's re-election campaign, so Stan is very unlikely to do anything such as sponsor effective laws to curb EPIC spending.
   The fact of the matter is - so what? if it becomes apparent (or transparent) that EPIC's private management CEO earns in excess of $5 million annually from Oklahoma taxpayers. It's not illegal to become a millionaire at taxpayers expense. It may be unethical, but certainly not illegal. Again, so what? Stan's transparency bill aimed at EPIC can only be judged as "firing blanks", because it will do nothing except advertise the fact that millionaires can be made in Oklahoma public schools. It's all perfectly legal..
   Senator Stanislawski wants everyone to believe that he doesn't know Ben Harris (EPIC CEO) or David Chaney (EPIC Virtual superintendent) or Bobby Stem (EPIC assistant superintendent in charge of lobbying). It's hard not to know someone, however, that has donated so heavily to one's campaign. So why did Stan say "we're going to pull the curtain back on the management company" (Harris)? Many legislation experts believe there is a deal in the works. Stan may be saying "I'll allow a transparency bill for EPIC to pass, if you will help pass my Senate Bill 153 - which will funnel more than $60 million more taxpayer dollars to EPIC. That's a win-win deal for EPIC as well as Senator Stan. Just show that Ben Harris has become a legal millionaire at state taxpayer expense, and we'll give you an additional $20 million - and it's all perfectly legal!

Trying again.. Senate Bill 153

   On November 6, 2018, Senator Stephanie Bice, recipient of $3,500 from Epic Virtual Charter Schools, authored State Question 801 - which if approved by voters, would have allowed all public schools to use "building funds" for operational purposes. Building Fund monies, derived from local property taxation, are typically reserved for traditional public schools to use for school building maintenance or new buildings. They are not allowed, by law, to utilize building funds for operational expenses such as teacher salaries, etc...
   While it sounds very beneficial to allow schools to use all funding resources, including local property taxes, to spend any way they see fit - including teacher and administrator salaries, there was a hidden agenda behind Bice's SQ 801. Virtual charter schools as well as brick and mortar charters currently receive no building fund revenue, because virtual charters have no buildings.. and brick/mortar charters utilize existing buildings, owned by colleges, traditional public schools or businesses. Brick and mortar charter schools are typically sponsored by traditional schools or higher ed. institutions. Oklahoma City Public Schools, Tulsa Public Schools, Seminole State Jr. College, and Rose State College are examples of schools with existing buildings which all sponsor charter schools. So... all charter schools have no use for building funds because they have no buildings!
   Unless... building funds become operational, all charter schools have no use for building funds. If voters would have approved SQ 801, and schools could suddenly utilize building funds for teacher salaries, etc.., charter schools would have a very good argument that they too deserve building funds - since they have the same operational expenses as traditional public schools. Charters and virtual charters would be able to sponsor bond elections for building funds and capture local property tax (ad valorem) if SQ 801 had been approved. Property taxes in many school districts could skyrocket for homeowners, even if no charter schools exist in the county.
   Oklahoma voters saw through the SQ 801 charade, and narrowly defeated it in November, 2018.

   Another state senator is evidently not deterred from the voted defeat of SQ 801, as Senator Gary Stanislawski, the recipient of $2,000 from Epic, is sponsoring Senate Bill 153 - which will allow charter schools to receive "building funds". Like Senator Stephanie Bice's 3,500 reasons to funnel more taxpayer dollars to charter schools... Senator Stan has 2,000 good reasons to send taxpayer dollars to his favorite charity - virtual charter schools. The increased funding for virtual charters, however, would not go towards student education - but to the corporate chiefs of Epic, Connections, and Insight. Even some brick and mortar charter chiefs, like the Fethullah Gulen of Dove Academy, would increase their millionaire status. (The Gulen charter school chain is a Turkish based public school which has sites in Oklahoma and many other states.)
   Paraphrased, SB 153 requires a charter school that has been in operation for two or more years... receive a building fund weight of 1.5. This means, essentially, that a charter school's weighted student ADM would be multiplied by 1.5 to arrive at the appropriate input factor. The building fund monies would be acquired by charters through the state funding formula, unlike traditional public schools which receive building funds from local ad valorem revenue. Rose State College or Seminole State would be two entities that could benefit from the state aid intended for traditional K-12 schools. This change for charter schools would ensure that charters continue to take state aid away from traditional school students.
   While it's unclear which specific charter schools would stand to gain $millions. Some of the potential windfall recipients and their profits are listed below:
Academy of Seminole          -       $222,328
Carlton Landing Academy -         $688,015
Hupfeld/W Village               -      $2,774,153
KIPP REACH COLL.         -          $3,298,793
Gulen DOVE                        -        $9,144,825
EPIC BLENDED                 -       $61,234,414
   To ascertain where the "building funds" would go is as difficult as following state aid through the maze of Epic OCAS reports. An examination of the ownership of charter school buildings, though, may provide some answers. For example. the Academy of Seminole is housed in Seminole State College, so it must be assumed that it will be the recipient of $222,238 in state aid building funds - even though the charter has only 43 students. The end result is that almost a quarter of a million dollars will be taken from traditional public school operational funding, so that Senator Stan can give it to a college building fund.
   The community of Carlton Landing, a resort town on Lake Eufala, started its own charter school two years ago - Carlton Landing Academy. The exclusive community has no homes worth less than about half-a-million dollars, and was developed for leisure living. The homes all look alike, and even the school building matches the wealth involved. With only 133 students, Carlton Landing Academy (owned by the community developer) expects to receive $688,015 from all state taxpayers if SB 153 becomes law. The school will fit right in with the half-million dollar homes. The "developer" may use the tax dollars to build another exclusive school in the same community, or just pocket the funding. We are not sure that Carlton Landing will even qualify for the building funds, but since the developer contributed heavily to lawmakers - we're betting it does qualify.
   We're not sure who owns Hupfeld Village Charter, but whoever does - stands to gain $2,774,153 in taxpayer building funds.
   KIPP Reach College, a corporate owned charter chain school, will see a $3,298,793 taxpayer windfall if it qualifies for Senator Stan's lottery giveaway.
   The Gulen Dove Science Academy is part of a corporate charter chain based in Turkey, the former home of the Fethullah Gulen, who fled the country when suspected of terrorism. He landed in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania, where he lives in a $10 million guarded compound. There are over 200 Gulen schools across the United States, named after birds, butterflies, and rainbows. The Oklahoma City Gulen Dove Academy stands to see an increase of $9,144,825 if it qualifies for Stan's tax giveaway, and could pay for added security for the Fethullah.
   The giant jackpot winner may be Epic Blended Learning Charter, as it stands to realize  (11,881.78 ADM x 1,756.76 x 1.5 = $31,310,152) + (11,881.78 x 1.5 x 83.95 x 20 = $29,924,262) = $61,234,414 for the Epic profiteers if SB 153 becomes law. The $2,000 investment to Stanislawski's senate campaign has served the profiteers well.
   The real losers (if Stanislawski's bill passes) will be Oklahoma traditional public school students, as almost $160,000,000 could be taken from our students operational funds, in order to pay for some corporate charter buildings. A traditional public school with 1,000 weighted students could lose more than $5 million in state aid... and the tax dollar hemorrhage continues.
Update! February 22, 2019: Senator Stanislawski, our old school consolidation friend and advocate for more money to his corporate bosses, has lowered the factor used to calculate charter school building money from 1.5 to .25... thinking it would have a better chance of passing the Senate Education Committee. For example, instead of funneling $61,234,414 in state funding to Epic Blended Learning Charter School using the 1.5 factor, the privately managed school will likely only receive $10,205,735. A total of only $25,000,000 in state aid could be diverted to charter schools' building purposes, and reduce the state aid going to traditional public schools by $25,000,000! Not much, right? A school with 2,000 students could lose $72,463.77 in state aid, the equivalent of two teachers. Quite a deal for Epic Blended...

The Dust Bowl - History Repeating...

   I've read several books about the "Dust Bowl" in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, but none has been so poignant for me as The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. The Dust Bowl has been called "the greatest man-made ecological disaster" the world has ever known. While I didn't know about the Dust Bowl first-hand, I heard about it from my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts - and the hardships caused. They were confirmed in Egan's book.
   In November, 1933, my grandfather - Virgil Beckham, had purchased a mule at a farm sale near Foss, Oklahoma. The date was at the height of the Dust Bowl, and many farmers and ranchers were being forced to sell out to the corporate farmers from the east, known as "suitcase farmers". They were dubbed suitcase farmers, because they arrived and unpacked their suitcases in hotel rooms, from where they leased or bought every square inch of Oklahoma topsoil, had it plowed up, and ordered wheat to be planted. My grandfather tied the mule's lead rope to the back of his friend's horse-drawn wagon - and they began the journey home. As they reached the point to part ways (about 2 miles from home), Virgil untied the mule from the wagon and proceeded to lead the mule on foot for the rest of the trek. No one really knows what happened next, but an eleven year old boy on his way home from school on horseback, related the following: "As I rode home from school that day, I saw a mule in the distance, which appeared to have its lead rope tied to an oak stump. It was standing still, and as I rode closer - I recognized what appeared to be a dead man, with his arm entangled in the lead rope. It scared me, so I rode as fast as I could to the nearest neighbor for help."
   I published another article about this incident several years ago, and shortly thereafter an older gentleman contacted me concerning the accident. He told me that he was the boy who discovered the lifeless body of my grandfather so long ago. It was now 2012, but he related the details of Virgil's death like it only happened yesterday (even though it happened 79 years ago). He was 90 when I spoke to him.
   Virgil had a wife (my grandmother) and seven children, one of which was my father - Johnny. For my family in 1933, it truly was the worst hard time.
   Suitcase farmers arrived in Oklahoma sometime during the late 1920s, armed with generous federal incentives - according to Timothy Egan. They swooped in by the dozens because $millions could be made from planting and harvesting wheat, or so they thought. They ran the small, local farmers and ranchers, such as Virgil Beckham, out of business - in the name of competition. Combined with the suitcase farmers' abuse of our Oklahoma topsoil (the prairie was never meant to be plowed up for corporate profits), the hot and dry weather conditions devastated parts of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Soon after arriving on the scene during the late '20s, they harvested millions of bushels of wheat at a price of more than one dollar per bushel. Many suitcase farmers became millionaires quickly, but soon the price of wheat plummeted to less than 10 cents per bushel - so the corporate suitcasers immediately abandoned western Oklahoma, and went on to the next "get rich quick" scheme. Oklahoma was left with millions of bushels of wheat rotting in the northwest, dust, disease, and even death... all because of corporate millionaires and corporate welfare.
   While it may be overstating to analogize the Dust Bowl of the 1920s and 1930s to any present conditions, the rise of corporate public education certainly is similar to the rise of corporate farming.
Starting in 2011, suitcase educators began arriving in Oklahoma. These corporate education firms believed $millions in Oklahoma tax dollars could make millionaires (and it already has). After all, won't competition with Oklahoma Public Schools make all public schools better? Just like the competition between suitcase farmers and small, local farmers didn't make farming more profitable almost a century ago, the suitcase educators will become millionaires at tax payer expense - and then abandon Oklahoma. We are already beginning to see the devastation in their atrocious graduation rates of between twenty and forty percent (traditional public schools average about 85%), their failing school report cards, and high drop-out rates. Just as the suitcase farmers gave away Oklahoma topsoil (one U.S. Congressman, when discussing the Dust Bowl in Washington D.C. at the time, noted "there goes Oklahoma" as a huge red dust cloud billowed out over the Pacific Ocean), the suitcase educators of Epic and other virtual charter schools will devastate Oklahoma traditional public schools.
   Oklahomans must learn from history, and not repeat the failures of the past, for if we cannot or will not learn from past mistakes - public education may be doomed...

Jim Beckham - Candidate for OASA President-Elect

   I am the current vice-president of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators (OASA) and running for the post of president-elect. I am also the superintendent of Blanchard Public Schools with 2,000 students and 125 teachers. If elected, I will continue to be an advocate for all public school students, traditional public schools, teachers, and administrators from small schools to large schools, from the panhandle to Broken Bow. As an advocate for our traditional public schools, I've published almost three hundred posts for the blog mybackpagewithjimbeckhamblog.blogspot.com - in order to defend our schools. I want to continue to serve the OASA as your president-elect by doing hundreds of hours of research for our members and applying analysis to those documented facts. I'm quite sure several quality candidates are running for this position, so it's a "win-win" if you'll just vote.

Always do right

   Clarence G. Oliver, Jr., Ed.D. authored LEADING WITH INTEGRITY, Reflections on Legal, Moral and Ethical Issues in School Administration in 2015. This book is the school administrator's guidebook regarding ethical decision making and issues regarding our public schools. Most Oklahoma school superintendents refer to the insights of Dr. Oliver whenever deciding whether or not any particular decision is truly ethical... and usually daily. The first page of Leading... is comprised of a single quote - "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorne Clemens) 1835-1910, so it surprises none that my single New Year's resolution is to always do right. To "always do right" concerning our traditional public schools, all public school students and teachers is always on the mind of most school superintendents... and on my mind as I speak and compose my writings. Of course, that which is ethical to each is a personal decision, for an action or decision which is deemed unethical by one - may be completely acceptable and ethical to another. It is with these thoughts that the following must be considered as I compose the day after Christmas 2018...
   This article/post is the sixth in a series of following taxpayer dollars... and most certainly won't be the last. I wondered in the last article/blog as to how virtual charter schools inventoried state and federal equipment and school non-perishable materials, if they did so at all. A virtual school official answered that all state owned and federal equipment is inventoried as required by law, and I was off-base for even asking the question. I also lamented that if schools provide state (taxpayer) owned equipment and non-perishable items to private individuals free of charge, it amounts to "gifting" which is illegal according to state statute and the Oklahoma Constitution.
   Since the last "follow the money" article More Epic Questions, I have been provided a list of  inventoried state and federally owned computers that virtual charter schools are responsible for. The inventoried items are listed on over 500 pages with 68 items per page. The inventoried computers (laptops) comprise approximately 90% of the inventoried items and costs the state approximately $900 each. The more than 35,000 state-owned Epic laptops are inventoried, and their total value might surpass $17 million. The inventoried laptops are primarily coded active, dead, in progress, repairing, retrieval, returned to epic, or "unrecoverable". Many state officials believe the "unrecoverable" laptops (approximately 8,666) constitute "gifted" laptops, resulting in more than $7 million illegally gifted to private individuals. The number of unrecoverable laptops (over 8.000) match up remarkably similar to the number of transfer students which check in to Epic, then leave within a short period of time (2 or 3 months). Epic collects the state aid (around $4,000 per student) for educating the student, and provides the $900 for a laptop or karate lessons. The corporate profit becomes $4,000 - $900 = $3,100 or thereabouts. It's a win-win for both Epic and gift recipients, and it's all perfectly legal.. This is the predicted legal "loophole" we spoke about in More Questions.
   Most people who attended public schools or worked in them remember checking out school-owned textbooks, laptops, and other non-perishable items from the school or to students. At the end of the school year, the items were always checked back in. When a federal or state owned item was not accounted for, the student or teacher was told the item must be paid for. Every now and then, a textbook was lost and the student was deemed responsible. Most students and school employees did pay for the lost school items, but did not know the items could be "written off" as unrecoverable. (Traditional public schools do not make a habit of writing off state-owned equipment as unrecoverable, en mass.)
   It would be a safe bet to say that over 8,000 state-owned laptops have been illegally gifted to individuals and written off as unrecoverable. One may also be correct in believing the 8,000 + student recipients would say that Epic officials did give them the laptops, and the students believe the laptops were never to be returned to the state.
   One virtual charter school, Connections Academy, has not written off computers (laptops) as unrecoverable, but simply states that it "maintains no inventory purchased with state funds" as it relies on donations from Pearson, (the contracted education provider for Connections).
   
 

Competitive Equity in the OSSAA #3

   We are on the verge of providing yet another  (#3) competitive equity plan for the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA) to consider allowing a membership vote. The first two proposals were shot down, so we assume this plan will be also. Our competitive equity rule change will be heard on Wednesday, January 16, at 9 AM..

Following Virtual Money

   It becomes very convoluted and complicated to track Oklahoma tax dollars through the maze of virtual charter schools "expenditure reports", unless one has a thorough knowledge of the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS). All Oklahoma public schools must utilize OCAS in coding revenue and expeditures as they report their budgeting. Expenditure dimensions include the Fiscal Year (FY), Fund (General, Building, Activity, Bond, etc..), Project, Function (Instruction, General Administration, Operation of building services, etc..), Object (salaries, staff travel, electricity, textbooks, etc..), Program, Subject (Art, business, math, language arts, etc..), Job Classification, and Operational Unit (elementary school, high school, etc..). Numbers are assigned for each "expenditure dimension" such as FY 19, Function XXXX - 2300 or 2500 for General Administrative functions, Function 1000 for Instructional functions. For Object dimensions XXX, 320 is assigned for "Professional Education - Services. We will focus on the Function XXXX and Object XXX dimensions for the purpose of tracking virtual tax dollars through OCAS coding.
   For Administrative Services 2300, Object 320 (salaries, etc...) for the 2014-2015 school year, Epic spent $2,243,165 which amounted to 15.4% of total expenditures. For Instructional Services 1000, Object 320, Epic spent $3,379,498 in '14-'15. Nothing extraordinary about '14-'15 Epic expenditure coding, except it exceeded the allowable administrative limit (5%) by 10.4 percentage points.
   During the 2015-2016 school year, Epic spent $0 in Administrative Services, Object 320, which amounted to only 3.4% of total expenditures when combined with other administrative costs. It spent $5,958,269 for Instructional Services, Object 320. It appears as if the $2,243,165 for administrative expenses in '14-'15 was combined with the $3,379,498 for Instructional costs, for the partial total of $5,958,269 for Instruction in 2015-2016.
   As we examine the 2016-2017 expenditures for Epic, 2300 Administrative/320 Object is still at $0 dollars spent, while 1000 Instruction/320 Object has ballooned to $8,903,954. It appears as if Epic has found a way to code the CEO's salary to Instruction without raising suspicions. Administrative costs, with the newly found coding loophole, remain low.. at 3.2% of total expenditures.
   The 2017-2018 school year found Epic to have coded $0 again to 2300/320, and only $752,128 to 1000/320. The $8.9 million spent for Instruction in '16-'17 mysteriously was coded to Administration in '17-'18, expanding Administrative costs to 8.1% of total expenditures. This 8.1% figure, once again exceeds the allowable limit of 5%. A 3.1% ($1.5 million) penalty should result from Epic's administrative overage, but it's a pretty sure bet that Epic won't be penalized by the State Department of Education, as Epic donated more than $30,000 to the current State Superintendent's election campaigns.
   Beginning in '17-'18, the Epic Virtual Pyramid (EVP) started another school: Epic Blended Learning Center (EBLC), located at 4101 NW 122nd St. in Oklahoma City - the same address as its companion Epic One Virtual Charter (EOVC). For the 2017-2018 school year, EBLC coded $91,976 to Function 2300 (Administrative)/Object 320 (Professional Education Services), and $488,750 to Function 1000 (Instruction)/Object 320. It's administrative expenses were only 1.1% of total expenditures, less than any traditional public school in Oklahoma. The addition of this new Epic school has muddled "following the taxpayer dollar" even more.
                                               
                                             Function 2300/Job Class 110

   The Epic superintendent salary is coded the same way that all public school superintendent salaries are coded - Function 2300, Job 110. If we follow the money: In '14-'15, the Epic superintendent earned $207,056; '15-'16, $187,670; '16-'17, $372,935; and '17-'18, $100,000. The question that arises is not why the Epic superintendent earned over $370,000 in '16-'17, but why did the superintendent earn only $100,000 in '17-'18. Even when the Job 110 for EBLC ($60,000) is added to Job 110 for EOVC ($100,000), the total Job 110 salary is only $160,000.
   While Epic's private management company CEO salary is unknown, it is probably between $5 and $10 million - a portion or all being paid by Oklahoma tax-payers. It is certainly understandable that Ben Harris personally donated more than $100,000 to elected official campaigns, but not so for David Chaney.
   The Epic profitable non-profit CEO reported that all Epic campaign donations (more than $150,000 in '17-'18) originated in private accounts. In other words, Epic school officials donated personal funds to elected official campaigns. The next question is: If the Epic school superintendent earned, at most, $160,000 in 2017 - how and why did he donate more than $62,050 in personal funds to elected official campaigns? The answer may be that he didn't... he donated public funds (taxpayer dollars) to more than 100 campaigns... Epic's motto may be To make money, one must invest money, only in this case, it may be investing public money...

                                            More Tracking Complications

   It becomes very difficult for anyone not familiar with OCAS to track taxpayer dollars through public schools, especially from year to year. Epic officials are very knowledgeable of this fact, and evidence indicates that Epic has taken advantage of the convoluted nature of OCAS. For instance, Epic Virtual school hired a government relations director (GRD), assistant superintendent in charge of lobbying government officials, at some point between 2014 and 2018. It is unclear when the government relations director was hired because his salary could be coded to Function 2300, Function 2500, or Function 1000... and to Job Class 310 or Object 320. There are six possible combinations of coding using the Function, Job, and Object classifications, but maybe many more when other categories are utilized. In 2014-2015, Epic spent $30,000 for State and Federal Relations Services Function 2330, Object 320 Professional-Education Services. This may have been the GRD salary for 2015. The same year, however, Epic spent $3,379,498 for Instruction Function 1000, Object 320 Professional-Education Services, so it is unclear how the GRD was paid... if he was hired that year.
   The changes in coding continued through 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and up until 2017-2018 when the GRD could have been coded: $39,000 to Function 2330, Job 310 or $752,128 to Function 1000, Object 320. It quickly becomes very clear that Epic, through OCAS coding, can hide questionable expenditures in plain sight. It also becomes crystal clear that Epic may be spending public funds instead of personal funds... to lobby lawmakers.