|
This is the transcript of a note to the readers of Heather Idoni's newsletter, The Homeschooler's Notebook, publication date August 12, 2010. Virtual Homeschool Fraud Alert - Part IIDear Readers,Exactly a year ago, on August 13, 2009, I published a Virtual Homeschool Fraud Alert that you might remember reading. My reason for sharing this information was to hopefully minimize the amount of families who might fall victim to these companies and their deceptive tactics. Little did I know that so many of you would share this information with so many others -- including your homeschool support groups, state leadership, HSLDA, etc. I had only hoped that some families who were considering one of these companies might find and read the alert and still have time to preserve their limited budgets for homeschool curriculum resources for the year. Some Background At the time I first shared this information, I honestly thought it was mostly common knowledge. For years there have been complaints against Mimi Rothschild's companies. Whenever I read a forum where a newbie was asking advice about signing up for one of her "academies", someone quickly jumped in to point them to lengthy online discussions with multiple grievous complaints -- and warn them away. I honestly didn't realize how many thousands of families had no clue that anything was amiss with Mimi Rothschild and her companies. I was only really thinking about families who were just beginning to homeschool -- those who would not have been around long enough to have seen the dozens of testimonies of families who had been defrauded over the past few years. I had also been advised not to make any negative public statements regarding Mimi Rothschild (or any of her various entities), because she had intimidated so many homeschool webmasters (who have forums hosting open discussions about her fraudulent companies) into removing the content from their websites. (If they do not comply, a lawsuit is threatened.) I have firsthand knowledge of several websites who refuse Mimi's requests to advertise for her cyber academies -- or who simple ignore inquiries from her companies' representatives. They value their own reputations, yes, but first and foremost they want to be able to have a clear conscience before God that they have not in any way mislead their readers or visitors. They know the readers of their newsletters and visitors to their websites are mostly single income homeschooling families -- many of them new to homeschooling. They are devoted to building trust with these families. But when it comes to dealing with Mimi Rothschild and her educational enterprises, the price of maintaining their integrity has run high. Many have been harassed and degraded for refusing her money. My website/newsletter is not even a 1/10 as large as many of these other sites and I have personally given up thousands of dollars in potential revenue by refusing to acknowledge requests to run lengthy ad campaigns for Rothschild's interests. Over the past few years I have received several emails from Mimi herself, as well as representatives from her "academies". In addition to refusing to contract direct advertising, dozens of homeschooling related sites (who host "Ads by Google") routinely block any advertisements related to Mimi's companies from appearing on their websites. The Unexpected Fruit While I was not surprised to be threatened with a lawsuit by Rothschild, I was completely taken aback to find out, by Mimi's own admission, that (supposedly as a result of my newsletter issue last August), there were at least 4 major homeschool conferences who refused to allow one or more of her companies to be vendors at their major state conventions recently. Some of these she had been admitted to in past years; at least one had already accepted her application and payment. I have never spoken or had any correspondence personally with any of these decision makers -- I can only believe that they made their decisions based on what they read independently on the Internet; heartrending stories of despair and desperation from Christian homeschooling families who realized, too late, that they had been taken. The Lawsuit So now, glory to God, I get to go to court! In Philadelphia, of all places!! :-) I find it funny that I bought plane tickets for 2 trips with my family before I had any clue about a lawsuit. I had the really cool blessing of visiting the old Philadelphia City Hall while there recently -- and I got to visit (and anoint and pray over) the actual courtroom and Judge's chambers. God is on the throne and He will be glorified. Mimi and her husband, Howard Mandel, have demanded a jury trial because the amount of money they hope to be awarded exceeds $50,000. (Mr. Mandel is also suing me for charges of "loss of marital consortium".) The Accusations I am being accused of defamation and/or slander/libel. A thing is only considered defamation if the "victim" is proven to be innocent of the claims against him or her. Here is a summary of just a few of the claims folks have made against Mimi's companies that you can find fairly easily in any public Internet search: 1. Charging customers' credit cards, sometimes repeatedly over long periods of time, for items that were either advertised as "free" or should have been charged only once. 2. Refusing to respond to customer concerns, often with unreasonable "hold" times of an hour or more on the phone with customer service. Most customers give up after several attempts at contact. 3. Refusing refunds for customers who are devastated that they just spent $1,000 or more for inappropriate* materials they just received. 4. Significant and/or statistically high amount of server "down time" for the online portion of the curriculum, teachers consistently unavailable and unwilling to answer parent emails, inaccurate logging of students' online study time/days. 5. Unreasonable deadlines to complete curriculum or for parents to be able to print out transcripts, etc. needed for reporting. 6. *Materials received that were not on grade level or mixed grade levels. 7. *Materials received that appeared to be used curriculum from a garage sale, etc. -- torn, outdated, overly secular with evolution (not Christ-centered, as advertised), and, in more than one case, pornographic and/or highly offensive in nature. 8. *Curriculum full of spelling and/or grammatical errors, missing pages, etc. In addition, here is how Mimi has treated several leaders in the online homeschool community: 1. Constant intimidation and threat of lawsuits against ANYONE who dares to publicly question her activities, motives, etc. or allow negative information about her companies to exist (in any form) on their website(s). 2. Relentless harassment by phone of those who deny her the opportunity to advertise because they are uncomfortable with the reputation of her companies. 3. Buying up derivatives of domain names of those who disagree with her (for instance if someone has a website name with a ".com" extension, she will buy up the .org and .net of their name), then forwarding the domain to another website which is not family-friendly, degrading the reputation of the owner of the original website. (Actual examples withheld due to privacy issues.) I've left out many more complaints, but you get the picture. If you are unsure whether you are dealing with one of Mimi's companies, you may want to check the list compiled by Helen Hegener of Home Education Magazine. There are literally hundreds of domain names registered to her. The New Jersey Homeschool Association has a list of virtual (online, cyber, distance learning) homeschooling options that are generally assumed to have good reputations, as well as a page for those generally considered to be fraudulent. Mimi's companies alone occupy the Fraud Alert page at this time. (They also list other companies associated with Mimi Rothschild that I wasn't aware of -- Cambridge Academy and National Academy for the Gifted.) The main (active) ones are Jubilee Academy, Learning by Grace, Grace Academy, Morningstar (Morning Star) Academy, and Southern Baptist Academy. Two more that I didn't mention in the post of about a year ago are www.k-12freehomeschool.com (not to be confused with William Bennett's www.k12.com) and Narnia Academy. Thank you for taking the time to read my "notes" for today's issue. I would appreciate your prayer for me as I prepare to go to court. God has given me a wonderfully light spirit about the whole situation and I look forward with great anticipation to see His hand move. I feel a bit like David up against Goliath -- but I also know the end of that story. ;-) Blessings, -- Heather P.S. If you or someone you know has been harmed by one of Mimi's companies, please contact me. I would be honored to present your story to the jury and see justice done! Related Links: Two Offices of the Better Business Bureau Assign "F" Ratings to Learning by Grace, Jubilee Academy, Morning Star Academy http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/schools-academic-second-and-elementary/the-jubilee-academy-in-chicago-il-88016264 http://www.dc.bbb.org/report.html?national=y&compid=80019540 What Educational Controversy was Mimi Rothschild Involved in Before Starting Learning by Grace? (This first 8-page 2002 article is a MUST read. Read to the end, even though it is painful.) http://articles.mcall.com/2002-05-13/news/3407574_1_mimi-rothschild-public-education-public-schools http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2002/08/54737 http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2002/04/51489 A Typical Online Forum Discussion Regarding Mimi's Companies http://forums.kpdq.com/The_MorningStar_%28Jubilee_or_Grace%29_Academies/m_4493847/mpage_1/tm.htm Entries at "Rip-Off Report": http://www.ripoffreport.com/private-schools/morningstar-academy/morningstar-academy-unkind-un-9a9ba.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/private-schools/jubilee-academy-morn/jubilee-academy-morning-star-cb8e2.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/private-schools/jubilee-academy-lear/jubilee-academy-learning-by-g-dfbe9.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/questionable-activities/the-morning-star-aca/the-morning-star-academy-does-2aw45.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/private-schools/morning-star-academy/morning-star-academy-my-worst-en74f.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/private-schools/jubilee-academy/jubilee-academy-learning-by-3d5fd.htm This transcript may be shared in its entirety via email or in any publication - website, newsletter, etc. - provided the link below is included in the publication. http://homeschool-fraud-alert.educationforthesoul.com |