Obama Knew but So What? & Enough w/The Charter School Nonsense – Top 3 Takeaways July 24th, 2025
Takeaway #1: Obama knew but nothing changes
On Wednesday DNI Tulsi Gabbard released new evidence in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that did two things. First, it illustrated that in fact, President Obama did personally collude with deep state actors, led by then-CIA Director John Brennan, to peddle the discredited Steel Dosier, aka the Hunter Biden tales, to undermine the Trump presidency and all the nonsense we’d eventually see that played out. The direct knowledge of Obama in this conspiracy was new evidence in this. That led to the second thing, which is that Trump’s talk on Tuesday of Obama having committed “treason” without having provided evidence – was quickly backed up with the evidence to support the claim. The definition of treason for those who may need a refresher is this: the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government. Well, if the shoe fits... But here’s the thing. Nothing changes. No one is going to jail over this. I’ll be surprised if anyone new is charged with anything from this and most certainly Barack Obama won’t be. As I’ve recently said. I spent hundreds of hours over the course of a few years investigating and reporting on all of this only to see it go nowhere. D.C. juries wouldn’t convict the deep state actors that John Durham brought charges against four years ago. It’s most definitely not going to happen now – not to mention there’s likely a huge issue with the statute of limitations in attempting to bring charges anyway. If you want to jump down that rabbit hole you can start with my 30-Count Indictment on this from February 2nd, of 2018. It offers easy to follow names, dates and times for how they went about performing the conspiracy. As for me, I’m done until and unless there’s actual accountability (which, as I mentioned, isn’t coming).
Takeaway #2: Enough with the nonsense
This week, parents of 170 students in West Palm Beach were sent scrambling. Rather than preparing to send their kids to West Palm Beach’s University Preparatory Academy on August 11th, which is when kids are due back at school, they’re now looking into new schools for their kids with less than three weeks to go before the start of the new school year. That’s due to the sudden announcement by the underperforming K-8 Charter school, that after three consecutive years with a school grade below a C, they were closing. Under Florida law if a school receives a grade that’s under a “C” for two consecutive years – an intervention plan for improvement is put in place. If it continues for three or more drastic measures are taken. In this case the measures meant an end to the underperforming school. Which, despite the last-minute fire drill, may work out best for their children in the end. But this development, with this now former charter school, isn’t why this topic is my top takeaway today. It’s due to the response by the Palm Beach County School District to CBS 12 when they inquired about the closing. The district’s response quoting 12’s story: The school district did send CBS12 News a statement, assuring families that the district is "ready and able to welcome every student back to our A-rated schools." Based on a response like that you might think these students were part of some sort of foreign exchange student program. The fact of the matter is that this now failed charter school was part of the Palm Beach County School District. The response clearly reflects an imbedded hostility that’s long existed within the District towards charter schools. Notably, it was just last year that the Palm Beach County School District was found to have illegally withheld $54.9 million dollars due to charter schools. The Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court reaffirmed that charter schools are public schools and therefore should be treated equitably under the law by the Palm Beach County School District (something that was never in doubt btw). As the Florida Charter School Alliance said after the ruling: Taxpayers in Palm Beach County, whether their son or daughter attends a traditional public school or a charter school, those are still public school students, and should be funded equally. Sure enough. But what does it sound like to you when an outlier charter school fails, and the school district speaks of “welcoming students back”. Does that sound like a school district that acknowledges its role with its charter schools? Does that sound like a school district that’s accountable to its charter schools...but more importantly to its students? If it were one comment in a vacuum, I’d let it go. But against the backdrop of a school district that’s been found to be so hostile to its charter schools that courts had to step in as recently as last year because the district was illegally withholding funds from them – this deserves more attention.
Takeaway #3: Charter schools perform better too
Remember how the school district’s comment was about “welcoming students back to our “A” rated schools”? Well, a funny thing about that as it pertains to the charters. 47% of Palm Beach County’s charter schools received “A” grades last year which was the same percentage as in the district’s traditional schools. What’s more, is that across the state, charter schools continued to significantly outperform traditional public schools. For the 2024-25 school year, 50% of Florida’s charter schools received “A” grades, compared to 33% of traditional public schools, with 77% receiving at least a “B” grade compared to 61% with traditional public schools. And the outperformance wasn’t limited to the way the state grades schools, it was measured in outcomes too with 31% of charter schools producing perfect graduation rates compared to about 10% for traditional public schools (though it is often the case that the graduating classes in charter schools are smaller). Given the outperformance of charter schools across the state, and the good overall performance of the school district in Palm Beach County, it makes me wonder what might be possible locally if we had a school district that embraced its responsibilities with charters as opposed to treating them as liabilities.