The founder of Democracy Prep Public Schools, a national charter school network, made a big splash in late May when he announced an ambitious plan to create, from the ashes of Marlboro College, a first-of-its-kind institution of higher education.
Seth Andrew, a former White House advisor under then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan, sketched out a bold new vision for the southern Vermont campus. The 500-acre spread would host a low-residency, two-year associate degree program tailored to low-income, first-generation students.
By bringing students on campus for just three, two-week sessions over the course of a year, the school could keep costs low. And by providing career-track degrees and partnering with businesses to offer apprenticeships, Degrees of Freedom, as the initiative was called, would provide relevant workforce credentials.
“Everything we’re doing here is new. We’re not changing one variable, we’re changing all the variables at the same time,” Andrew told VTDigger when he announced his intention to buy the Marlboro campus. The sale price has not been disclosed, and the deal has not yet closed.
His timeline was as aggressive as his plan – he hoped to bring students to campus as soon as September. But with just months to go before the school is supposed to open, it’s unclear whether Democracy Builders, the nonprofit group helmed by Andrew, has secured regulatory approvals to operate a school in Vermont.
Andrew is also facing an anonymous social media campaign claiming to come from former staff and students, who say Democracy Prep Public Schools’ practices in other states were racist and abusive.
Andrew stepped down as Democracy Prep CEO in 2013, and the network’s current leader, Natasha Trivers, in a letter to the Boston Globe last month, took issue with Andrew’s suggestion that the schools’ graduates were not succeeding in college — and sought to distance the charter network from its founder.
“Neither he, his organization (Democracy Builders), nor Degrees of Freedom have any relationship to Democracy Prep, the charter school network he founded,” Trivers wrote.
Andrew did not reach out to the state’s Agency of Education until shortly after 7 p.m. on May 27, the night before he and Marlboro College publicly announced his intent to purchase the campus, according to documents provided in response to a VTDigger public records request.
State approval is typically a prerequisite for accreditation, which colleges must obtain in order to access federal financial aid. Accreditation is also a basic standard of quality, and most schools will not accept transfer credits from unaccredited institutions.
“I’m working to bring an institution of higher education to vermont and I’d love to speak with someone ASAP about the process to be recognized as a college in the state,” he wrote to Emily Simmons, the agency’s general counsel, in a three-line email.
Several days later, Pat Pallas Gray, an independent school consultant to the agency, replied, asking for basic information about the type of programming the school intended to offer. Andrew answered that those details were not yet settled.
“We’re exploring a number of different options, so would love to start with an introductory phone call about the possibilities in Vermont,” he wrote to Pallas Gray on June 1.
There have been no further communications between Democracy Builders and the Agency, officials said this week. Ted Fisher, the agency’s spokesperson, said the State Board of Education has the authority to grant approval to post-secondary institutions. An application to do so would first go to the Secretary of Education for review, he added.
“It’s been a while since the SBE has done one of these, so it’s not certain how long it would take. Six months is an estimate,” Fisher wrote.
Andrew has told reporters he intended to seek accreditation with the New England Commission of Higher Education, a regional accreditor, or the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, a national accreditor for online schools. If he could not secure independent accreditation in time for a fall opening, Andrew has also said he could partner with another school that already has accreditation.
Barbara Brittingham, the president of the NECHE, said Wednesday that the organization had had “no official communication” with Democracy Builders. The accreditor has also not yet heard from any institution interested in partnering with the group, she said.
Andrew referred emailed questions to Kevin Ellis, a public relations consultant and a member of the board of trustees for the Vermont Journalism Trust, VTDigger’s parent organization. Ellis, in an emailed statement, said that Degrees of Freedom would “launch in 2020 with accredited college and high school partners.” He did not name the partners or their accreditors.
Andrew declined to make himself or anyone else with Democracy Builders, other than Ellis, available to speak with VTDigger on the record, and instead repeatedly insisted that any conversation take place “on background,” which typically means a journalist does not attribute information to any particular person or organization.
“We are all working overtime to try and launch a innovative new model of higher education right now. That’s our #1 priority. Some teammates and I can talk with you on background for 20 minutes today to help insure you have the relevant documents you need to report accurately,” Andrew wrote.
Like many small, tuition-dependent private colleges, Marlboro’s finances have been in trouble for years as the region’s aging demographics translated to steadily declining enrollments.
Marlboro College officials announced last year that the school would close shop at the end of the year and transfer its $30 million endowment and real estate holdings, valued at about $10 million, to Emerson College in Boston. In exchange, Emerson has promised to honor all tenure agreements and take on all Marlboro undergraduates at a comparable price point.
Dick Saudek, the chair of the Marlboro board of trustees, said Monday that the Emerson deal was contingent on Marlboro finding a buyer for the southern Vermont campus.
Marlboro and Democracy Builders have signed a purchase agreement, but the deal has not yet closed. Both the campus sale and Marlboro’s endowment transfer to Emerson must also be reviewed by Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan.
Officials with the AG’s office say their regulatory role is limited, and that they may only evaluate the transactions to ensure the college’s assets go to entities aligned with its mission and donor restrictions. The AG’s office has until July 19 to do so, according to Charity Clark, Donovan’s chief of staff.
“I don’t view our role as ‘signing off,’” Clark wrote in an email on Monday. “Our role is to either object or not object to the transaction or certain aspects of it in light of state laws governing charitable organizations and their assets.”
The dissolution of Marlboro College is the subject of fierce opposition from members of the Marlboro local community and alumni. The claims made by a collective calling themselves Black N Brown at DP, are now being amplified by those who would rather see the southern Vermont college remain independent.
In a letter released last week, Marlboro’s alumni council expressed concerns about allegations of “racism, bullying, and manipulative behavior towards people of color at Democracy Prep” and called on the board of trustees to withdraw their agreement with Democracy Builders.
“We believe that the values (Seth Andrew) has displayed in the past are not the values of Marlboro College,” the alumni wrote.
Black N Brown’s Instagram, Facebook and Medium posts are all anonymous, and VTDigger could not independently authenticate them. But they echo criticisms leveled at other so-called “no excuses” charter schools, which often serve predominantly low-income students of color, emphasize strict discipline, test prep, and high academic expectations.
Amy Grillo, a former Marlboro dean of students, called “no-excuses” charter schools “an inherently racist model masquerading as a sort of social justice.”
“You don’t find no-excuses charter schools catering to middle class white kids,” said Grillo, who is now a professor of education at Wesleyan University. “Because the whole design of these schools is to teach kids compliance, under the guise of giving them the so-called discipline they’re going to need to succeed in the world.”
In a now-deleted post to Medium.com, Andrew said that his “mistakes” during his tenure at Democracy Prep had “come into sharper focus through the national conversation prompted by the murder of George Floyd and too many others; social media posts; difficult but necessary conversations with conversations with alumni, students, faculty, families, and staff.”
He expressed regret for such practices as making children who misbehaved wear their uniforms inside out, and for making students walk in hallways and eat meals without talking. “To the students who felt like these actions were similar to the inherently racist criminal justice system, your feelings are valid,” he wrote.
J LeShaé, a former Democracy Prep teacher in Harlem who now works as an education consultant in Texas, described the school’s discipline practices as “psychological warfare.” Students, she said, had to walk in single-file lines, eat breakfast and lunch silently, and were given “demerits” if their uniforms were on incorrectly.
“The worst of it is watching somebody like Seth red-face yell at children and parents, like they’re not human,” she said.
LeShaé left after being passed over for a promotion, and said she was asked to interview for a dean role while non-Black staff were offered similar posts without needing to do so. And she added that she frequently clashed with leadership at the school over their discipline practices.
“I dealt with a lot of scrutiny for pushing against systems. I did not like using the demerit system and often did not. I was reprimanded a couple of times for that,” she said.
Ellis, in an email, provided a statement from Marcellina Blow-Cummings, a Democracy Prep parent and Democracy Builders board member, who noted the schools had won plaudits from researchers for improving test scores and encouraging students to vote.
“Seth Andrew has dedicated his career to using privilege to support all students. The data and his track record, with my children and thousands more, speaks for itself,” Blow-Cummings said.
