ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange Net News /O/N/N/
Former Orange Unified attorney Mark Bucher and religious lawyer behind proposed new charter school for OUSD
Tustin Attorney Mark Bucher and a circus of Machiavellian associates return to Orange Unified with a request for a proposed charter school called the Orange County Classical Academyon the September 12, 2019 OUSD Board Agenda Action Items 12 A and 12 B.
For those readers unfamiliar with Mr. Bucher, well hang on.
Bucher was the mastermind behind the Education Alliancetake over of Orange Unified twenty years ago under the reactionary Jacobson Board Majority. Bucher then became the Jacobson Board Majority district hired attorney running up fees paid for by OUSD taxpayers. The Jacobson Board was recalled in the Orange Recall and then were defeated a second time when they re-ran for the seats they were recalled from. Bucher handled the political lawsuits of the Jacobson Board as a hired OUSD attorney.
The Orange Recall was the end of the Educational Alliance, but not the end of Bucher and friends. Bucher was instrumental in the founding of the "shell" think-tank called the California Policy Center. Bucher serves as the organizations CEO. The Center for Media and Democracy's corporate watchdog SourceWatch describes the California Policy Center this way:
"The California Policy Center (formerly the California Public Policy Center) is a right-wing pressure group based in California. Founded in June 2010, it is a state affiliate of the $83 million right-wing State Policy Network (SPN), a web of state pressure groups that denote themselves as "think tanks" and drive a right-wing agenda in statehouses nationwide."
For more information click on:
SourceWatch California Policy Center
State Policy Network
Mark Bucher California Policy Center
Mark Bucher Lowdown
California Policy Center
Enter the California Policy Center puppet group-the Parent Union and the proposed Orange County Classical Academy,
The first public mention of the Orange County Classical Academy was on the Parent Union Facebook page and the website events page for a "Recruiting in Orange" event on Tuesday July 15, 2019.
The information (in both English and Spanish) states:
Tuesday, July 15, 2019 – Orange, CA
This week, the Parent Union continues recruiting new members in Orange, CA and supporting Orange County Classical Academy.
*Priority admission and scholarships to eligible students who graduate and wish to attend Chapman University.
For more information click on
Parent UnionParent Union Facebook
Yes, a school that does not exist is offering "Priority admission and scholarships" for Chapman University.
Santa Ana Councilwomen Cecilia Iglesias ( a former Santa Ana Unified Trustee) is listed as one of the three leaders of the Santa Ana based pro-charter Parent Union.
Igeleias and another Parent Unionleader Magda Gomez both have California Policy Center contact emails listed at the end of their Parent Union bio's. Gomez is listed on the California Policy Center website as their "Assistant Director of Parent Union".
The Parent Union website domain was registered by Bucher Palmer LLC - Mark Bucher's business name- and the Orange County Classical Academy was incorporated on August 20, 2019 with the address of Bucher's law firm:
ORANGE County Classical ACADEMY was incorporated on 8/20/2019. Address: 18002 IRVINE BLVD STE 108, TUSTIN, CA 92780
For more information click on
Orange County Classical Academy
Bucher and Palmer
Not only is the Orange County Classical Academy registered as a non-profit at the Bucher law offices, but the "agent" named for the company is Santa Ana Trinity College Professor Myron Steeves-who also happens to have a law practice called The Church Law Center. Steeves private practice counts as one of its specialties Church and Religious Law.
For more information click on
The Church Law Center
Mr. Steeves Linked-In page describes him as:
Myron's work with the Church Law Center of California is dedicated to supporting the work of churches, para-church organizations and other nonprofit organizations fulfill their mission within the law. The Church Law Center helps ministries carry out their mission more effectively. As part of the word of nonprofit law, Myron works with political organizations as well, assuring that they conform to the highly regulated world of lobbying and political endorsements.
For more information click on
Myron Steeves Linked IN
The Orange County Classical Academy is not the only company Mr. Steeves has registered. Public documents show 13 other organizations- mostly religious- that Mr. Steeves is the agent for including the Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy. He was also the President of the Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy.
For more information click on
Steeves companies
The Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy has an FTB Suspension by the California Secretary of State.
THE NEWPORT INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS, LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY
Corporation No. 2257625 Status: FTB Suspended
THE NEWPORT INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS, LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY was incorporated on 7/27/2000
Address: PO BOX 5199, NEWPORT INSTITUTE, CA 92662
Corporation No. 2257625 Status: FTB Suspended
THE NEWPORT INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS, LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY was incorporated on 7/27/2000
Address: PO BOX 5199, NEWPORT INSTITUTE, CA 92662
For more information click on
Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy
FTB Suspension
The Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy was another shell entity for reactionary causes including being a proponent of teaching Intelligent Design (ID) in public schools. Intelligent Design is a form of creationism that pretends to be a science. ID uses pseudo-science logic but is not able to present the needed scientific empirical evidence and does not present or offer any testable hypotheses needed to be classified as science.
Intelligent Design defender and author Francis Beckwith acknowledges Newport Institute for Ethics, Law and Public Policy President Myron Steeves' help with his 2002 pro-Intelligent Design legal book called Law, Darwinism, and Public Education: The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent Design.
For more information click on
Francis Beckwith acknowledges
Steeves also has writings that shed light on his reactionary far right ideas. In the Fall 2004 edition of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought his article Healing the Breach Between Law and Virtue , Steeves begins by calling out the European Renaissance (which marked the end of the religiously dominated Middle Ages and the beginning of the current Modern Era) this way:
"the worldview paradigm shifts that occurred during the 18th century Enlightenment created a fracture between law and moral reasoning".
Steeves then goes on in the article to connect that European Enlightenment moral and virtue fracture to the late 20th Century civil rights and women equality issues than on to the morality of the early 21st Century "Critical Gay Studies" ( gay rights and marriage equality) and "Critical Gender Studies" ( transgender acceptance and equality). The Steeves' article then questions Christians who support those equality issues with this:
"under the increasingly nebulous heading of “Christian” fall voices from those that are decidedly postmodern and united with the Critical Studies perspective, o those for whom “hater” is perhaps an apt description."
Steeves' connects his Enlightenment fracture to the 21st Century with this:
"The emphasis shifts from eliminating laws that regulate homosexual activity (for those laws have been eliminated) to a new charged rhetoric of the Critical Gay Studies movement toward society-wide endorsement of homosexual activity. That is, it becomes an increasingly explicit moral cause"
Healing the Breach Between Law and Virtue
Summary
The September 12, 2019 OUSD Board Agenda Action Item 12 A and 12 B are legal requirements concerning an application to OUSD for the Orange County Classical Academy, That charter is being sponsored by a front group of parents organized by Santa Ana Councilwomen and former Santa Ana Unified School Board Trustee Cecilia Iglesias in coordination the right-wing pressure group California Policy Center that is affiliated with the State Policy Network.
The charter proponents have recruited local parents to support the new charter promising "Priority admission and scholarships to eligible students who graduate and wish to attend Chapman University."
The California Policy Center is led by former Mark Bucher who was the leader of the Educational Alliance that was instrumental in taking over the Orange Unified School Board under the Jacobson Board Majority. That majority stated a culture war against local public education an was ultimately recalled in the Orange Recall of 2001.
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING Thursday September 12, 2019
CLOSED SESSION 5:30 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 7:00 pm
For the AGENDA-CLICK ON: AGENDA
For more information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at 714-628-4015
ARCHIVAL Information and direct news can be found at:
the Greater Orange News Servicehttp://greaterorange.blogspot.com/
ORANGEUnified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Orange Net News
