Consulting firm track record with schools causes concern

Here’s information on the firm Kansas legislators have hired to look for more “efficiency” in Kansas, including Kansas public education. We are wary that we will see cuts rather than efficiencies.

“A & M had a similar charge in 2003 when it was hired to take over management of the troubled St. Louis public school district, which had been shedding population for the previous 40 years and was running financial deficits in the range of $60 million to $70 million a year…

“A former CEO of Brooks Brothers, a clothing retailer, Roberti had no background in managing a school system, but he was nonetheless granted a temporary license to work as a superintendent by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“’They pretty much destroyed the district academically,’ said Ray Cummings, vice president of St. Louis branch of the American Federation of Teachers. ‘We were two points away from accreditation when they brought them in. They had no particular concern about academics. It was just about cut the budget. Cut, cut, cut.’…

“Soon after leaving St. Louis, A & M was hired to turn around another troubled urban school district, this time in New Orleans, which had many of the same problems as St. Louis: high poverty rates, poor test scores and a declining population fueled by the flight of middle-class families to the suburbs…

“But Alvarez & Marsal — which again brought in Bill Roberti to take charge — did play a significant role in the process.

“On its own website, A & M cites the New Orleans project as a ‘case study’ for its style of turnaround management…But Shane Riddle, a lobbyist for the Louisiana Association of Educators, one of the state’s two major teachers unions, remembers A & M primarily for the way it handled laying off more than 7,000 teachers…

“Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that the layoffs were handled improperly because many teachers were not afforded due process and were entitled to be hired back as jobs reopened.

“Total damages that could be owed to those teachers, including back pay and benefits, have been estimated at about $1.5 billion.”

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