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<ul class="summary-list"><li>An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation</a> has found that some of <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>'s highest-ranking <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="education">education</keyword> officials and leading public universities worked closely with a swaggering entrepreneur who launched a private high school, <keyword id="11428559" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pegasus-california-school">Pegasus California School</keyword>, for elite families in <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>.</li><li>Pegasus also developed a relationship with the <keyword id="11458199" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="val-verde-unified-school-district">Val Verde Unified School District</keyword>, a public school district in Southern California.</li><li>That relationship included all Pegasus students in China receiving <keyword id="11458198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="val-verde">Val Verde</keyword> diplomas. Experts consulted by Insider said that a public school district giving high-school diplomas to private-school students in another country raises red flags. </li></ul>A public school district in Southern California bestowed its diplomas to students at a private high school in China, Insider has learned.That school district, the Val Verde Unified School District in Riverside County, developed a close-knit arrangement with the school, Pegasus California School, based in Qingdao, China. In addition to the diplomas, the arrangement also drew resources and teachers away from Val Verde, a struggling school district, for the benefit of wealthy Chinese students. Experts consulted by Insider said that a public school district giving high-school diplomas to private-school students in another country raises red flags."We're not for sale here, and so you can't sell diplomas because of a relationship you have," said Delaine Eastin, who served as California's state superintendent of public instruction in the 1990s and early 2000s. "You're not a California student [and] you're not entitled to a California diploma, so if they are doing that it's wrong."An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation</a> into the elite Chinese boarding school has found that <a href="https://www.insider.com/emails-obtained-by-insider-show-how-californias-top-education-official-helped-a-private-school-for-wealthy-chinese-kids-2021-6">some of California's highest-ranking current and former education officials</a> - including <keyword id="1431239" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tom-Torlakson">Tom Torlakson</keyword>, then the state superintendent of public instruction, and <keyword id="5210048" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-Long">David Long</keyword>, who previously served as the state secretary of education before becoming principal of Pegasus - worked closely with the school's founder, a swaggering entrepreneur named <keyword id="11428558" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="steven-ma">Steven Ma</keyword>, to help set up Pegasus as a California public school in China, and give its foreign students preferential treatment that seemed to elude American public-school students.Ma's school officially opened in 2016 based on the premise that - by mimicking the curriculum of a public high school in California - he could increase the chances that his wealthy Chinese students would gain admission to top U.S. colleges and universities. The school even guaranteed parents, in writing, that every graduate would gain admission to one of the top 100 US universities.The public servants, records show, burnished relationships with leading public universities and a California school district - Val Verde - to establish that school, which was advertised to elite Chinese families as a California high school in China.<div type="image" title="Val Verde" height="1266" width="1689" msid="83575612" hostid="261"></div>But, Ma had a problem: to open a California high school with students graduating each year, he needed to figure out a way to bestow them with credible state diplomas. That's where Val Verde proved helpful. In the spring of 2017, The district <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20743728-boarddocsr-agenda-item_-n6-approval-of-three-year-diploma-pilot-program-for-pegasus-california-high-school-located-in-qingdao-china">approved a three-year diploma pilot program</a> for Pegasus, authorizing all Pegasus graduates to receive a Val Verde diploma and pledging at a school board meeting to "continue to serve the students of Pegasus California High School in various administrative and teaching capacities." The Val Verde website was updated to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20744938-pegasus-on-val-verde-website">include Pegasus</a> in the list of the district's schools.<div type="image" title="The Val Verde Board of Education approved the diploma pilot program for Pegasus in April 2017" height="541" width="2401" msid="83575615" hostid="261"></div>An Insider review of <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20743735-pegasus-california-school-diplomas">Pegasus diplomas</a>, provided by a source and through a records request, has confirmed that the documents were indeed conferred by Val Verde."The bottom line was they needed a school district that would provide a high-school diploma," one former Pegasus employee told Insider. "I thought it was odd that an American public school was giving a diploma to clearly what was a private Chinese high school. I could not get my head wrapped around that one. I never did understand how that worked." In addition to the diplomas, the district superintendent, Michael McCormick, encouraged Val Verde staffers to leave their posts in California for China, offering some sweet benefits: furnished apartments, meals, excellent pay with health benefits, and - perhaps most noteworthy - a promise from the district to hold their positions while they were abroad. Over the years, at least 13 Val Verde employees left the district to work at Pegasus.By February 2018, Val Verde and Pegasus signed a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20743742-memorandum-of-understanding-between-val-verde-and-pegasus-california-school">memorandum of understanding</a> to further formalize their relationship: In return for receiving diplomas from Val Verde, Pegasus agreed to bring 10 students from the district to China each year for only $300, with all other expenses paid by the private school. The agreement also provided for McCormick and two Val Verde board members to travel to China for the annual grand opening event, to observe class instruction, and to award diplomas at graduation - with travel, lodging, and meals paid for by Pegasus. The memo explicitly stated that Torlakson was in full support of the arrangement.<div type="image" title="Citrus Hill High School" height="1266" width="1688" msid="83575616" hostid="261"></div>Two former Val Verde board members who voted to authorize the relationship with Pegasus said that they felt the district benefited from the arrangement because of the opportunity for Val Verde students to participate in the international exchange program, and that they were reassured because of Val Verde's long-standing relationship with Long, who previously served as the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools."My impression was that it was unusual...for a California school to provide diplomas to foreign students," Suzanne Stotlar, one of those board members, acknowledged. "But...the idea was to foster international cooperation between our two countries, and I'm in favor of that." The Val Verde Unified School District declined to comment for this story.<h1>READ OUR FULL STORY: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation reveals officials helped sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite</a></h1>

This public California school district bestowed diplomas to students at a private high school in China

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An Insider investigation has found that some of <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>'s highest-ranking <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="education">education</keyword> officials and leading public universities worked closely with a swaggering entrepreneur who launched a private boarding school for elite families in <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>.</li><li><keyword id="11428559" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pegasus-california-school">Pegasus California School</keyword>, in Qingdao, billed itself as part of the Val Verde Unified School District in Riverside County, California, and bestowed Val Verde diplomas on graduates to help them get into the <keyword id="73593" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="University-of-California">University of California</keyword> system.</li><li>Val Verde's superintendent said at a school board meeting that the University of California at Riverside had guaranteed admission to every Pegasus graduate, a charge the school denies. </li></ul>An Insider investigation has found that some of California's highest-ranking education officials and leading public universities worked closely with a businessman named <keyword id="11428558" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="steven-ma">Steven Ma</keyword> to help set up an exclusive private boarding school in Qingdao, China, called Pegasus California School. The school, which cost roughly $34,ooo per year, purported to be a replica of a public high school in California, and was nominally a part of the Val Verde Unified School District in Riverside County, California.California's former top education official and a former state secretary of education were involved in the effort, as were senior Val Verde officials and a retired senior staffer within the University of California Office of the President, the headquarters of the UC system, who continued to work as as a contractor for the University of California at Irvine even as Pegasus was paying him to help its students gain admission.The public servants, records show, gave Ma and his associates official state appointments and helped grease the skids to give Pegasus students a leg up in the increasingly cutthroat University of California admissions process. Not only did UC Irvine offer summer-school programs specially arranged for Pegasus students, it dispatched admissions staffers to the school's China campus to talk to students and their parents, and specifically monitored Pegasus students' progress through the admissions cycle. At UC Riverside, the ties were even closer: The university pledged to work with Pegasus students to help them become competitive applicants and offered them special permission to submit applications after the deadline had passed.Val Verde's superintendent publicly proclaimed that UC Riverside guaranteed admission to all Pegasus graduates, according to the minutes of a public-school board meeting. One former California education official described the arrangement, if it exists, as "appalling."In an interview, Ma said Pegasus students never received preferential treatment from California education officials, and said the notion that any Pegasus students were guaranteed admission to UC schools was "ridiculous and false." In a statement, a spokesperson for the University of California Office of the President said that UC admissions staffers do not "guarantee, nor would our campuses honor, any promise of admission. Applicants are evaluated based on a comprehensive review of their record.... It is concerning that an individual not affiliated with the UC system may have misrepresented those discussions without our knowledge or authorization."In response to Insider's inquiries about Pegasus, a California Department of Education spokesman said the department has referred the matter to the state attorney general for investigation."State Superintendent [of Public Instruction Tony] Thurmond was not aware of these allegations before they surfaced in . . . Insider's reporting, and asked the California Department of Education on May 6 to refer this matter to the state Attorney General's office and the Fair Political Practices Commission for further review."It is imperative that these serious allegations of misuse of state funds and conflict of interest during or after the former Superintendent's term, or whether the relationship between the school district and the Chinese school are legal, be reviewed by the appropriate outside agencies with authority to investigate this matter."<h1>READ OUR FULL STORY: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation reveals officials helped sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite</a></h1>

California's top education official helped an exclusive private boarding school in China aimed at getting the children of elite families into American universities

Hello!Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-weekly">Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.</a>What we're going over today:<ul><li>Subway cofounder Fred DeLuca ruled the company like a demigod and pursued wives of franchisees. Here's how one man sent the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6">world's biggest fast-food chain into a tailspin</a>.</li><li>Top VCs share 46 of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-name-most-promising-startups-of-2021-6">most promising startups of 2021.</a></li><li>The first new Alzheimer's drug in decades <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biogen-new-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-criticism-testing-better-drugs-2021-6">has raised concerns in the healthcare industry.</a> </li><li>An Insider investigation reveals that officials helped <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite.</a></li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6"></a>What's trending this morning:<ul><li>At least 20 executives have left Nike in the past seven months: We have a running list of the departures, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-execs-depart-join-lululemon-columbia-brands-ceo-changes-2021-6">and what they could mean for the future of the swoosh.</a></li><li>A jet-setting superdonor to both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump says he was secretly a spy for the CIA: Imaad Zuberi claims the agency <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/imaad-zuberi-convicted-for-illegal-campaign-donations-alleges-cia-ties-2021-6">used him to illegally meddle in domestic politics.</a></li><li>Amazon Prime employees say women get few promotions: A Prime employee accused the group of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-management-is-aggressive-dominated-by-men-leaked-memo-2021-6">being "institutionally biased against women" in a March memo.</a></li><li>Inside BlackRock's powerful consulting arm: It's made the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-blackrock-financial-markets-advisory-business-consulting-aladdin-2021-6">most influential money manager an advisor to world powers.</a></li><li>Forget bitcoin and other hypervolatile cryptocurrencies. For everyday transactions, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stablecoins-could-start-replacing-traditional-money-within-a-few-years-2021-6">the future of money is stablecoins.</a></li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6">How Fred DeLuca sent Subway into a tailspin</a></h3>By the time he died in 2015, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6">Fred DeLuca had created a secretive, complex multibillion-dollar enterprise,</a> and ensured no one knew Subway the way he did. We spoke with 20 of DeLuca's employees, business partners, and friends to understand why a man obsessed with his company failed to protect it:Despite an estimated net worth of $3 billion, DeLuca eschewed designer suits, flew coach, and berated his daughter-in-law if she dared to pay up for organic produce at Whole Foods.Frugality didn't always translate into modesty, though. As DeLuca grew Subway from a tiny submarine chain into a behemoth with 27,000 locations and $17 billion in global sales in its heyday, he refused to relinquish much control. He ran Subway like a titan, maintaining a tight grip on the company operations and surrounding himself with employees who loved and feared him. DeLuca devised a system that gave him the final say and even philandered with some franchisees' wives, two sources said. And he got away with it. Read our full profile on the man who built - and ultimately hobbled - the Subway empire:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-founder-ceo-fred-deluca-inside-story-2021-6">Subway cofounder Fred DeLuca ruled the company like a demigod and pursued wives of franchisees. How one man sent the world's biggest fast-food chain into a tailspin.</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subway-franchisees-push-back-against-new-agreement-2021-6">Subway franchisees say a new contract forces them to sign away their ability to criticize the struggling chain</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/workers-rage-quitting-jobs-in-a-tightening-labor-market-2021-5">Workers are 'rage quitting' their jobs as a tightening labor market forces employers to take note of unfavorable conditions and low pay</a> </li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-name-most-promising-startups-of-2021-6">The 46 most promising startups of 2021</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-name-most-promising-startups-of-2021-6"><div type="image" title="Li Jin, Hans Tung, Gabby Cazeau, and Mike Duboe on a purple background." height="1249" width="1666" msid="83483137" hostid="261"></div></a>We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising US startups so far in 2021. The result is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-name-most-promising-startups-of-2021-6">an exciting list of rising startups</a> at every stage from a range of industries:Anis Uzzaman of Pegasus Tech Ventures and Hans Tung of GGV Capital both highlighted a sleep and meditation app Calm.The pandemic shone a spotlight on wellness and mental health. Calm was already one of the biggest names in wellness tech, and it's poised to expand as the world emerges from pandemic lockdowns, Uzzaman said. Before the start of the year, it scored a $2 billion valuation in its Series C round."Mental health is often overlooked yet is among the most important aspects of healthcare," Tung said.Get the full list here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-name-most-promising-startups-of-2021-6">46 of the most promising startups of 2021, according to top VCs</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-miami-mayor-is-worried-about-tech-vc-startup-scene">How a tweet sparked a feud in Miami, pitting Silicon Valley tech transplants against the city's old guard</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-music-backs-live-streaming-platform-maestro-in-15m-fundraise-2021-5">This pitch deck persuaded Sony Music and Twitch's cofounder to back a new company aiming to disrupt the multibillion-dollar live-streaming industry</a> </li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biogen-new-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-criticism-testing-better-drugs-2021-6">Why the healthcare industry is skeptical about the new Alzheimer's drug</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biogen-new-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-criticism-testing-better-drugs-2021-6"><div type="image" title="alzheimers research 4x3" height="1124" width="1499" msid="83483139" hostid="261"></div></a>Biogen's new Alzheimer's drug stumbled through testing, but will nonetheless become available in the US <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biogen-new-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-criticism-testing-better-drugs-2021-6">with a price tag of $56,000.</a> Experts say the drug's approval could make it more difficult to enroll people in tests of better treatments, and are worried about its effectiveness: The arrival of the first new Alzheimer's drug in two decades should have been a moment of celebration. But so far, the healthcare industry is feeling concerned.On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new medication called Aduhelm. The drug, made by the biotech company Biogen, is designed to remove a sticky plaque that builds up in the brains of some people with Alzheimer's, which it did in clinical trials. But it isn't clear that using the drug to clear this plaque leads to an improvement in memory and cognition."I don't believe that the drug provides benefits," Dr. David Knopman, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, told Insider. See why the new medicine has the health community worried:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biogen-new-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-criticism-testing-better-drugs-2021-6">The first new Alzheimer's drug in decades costs $56,000, probably doesn't work, and could stand in the way of better treatments</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-resign-from-fda-panel-after-aducanumab-biogen-approval-2021-6">Two doctors have resigned from a prestigious panel after the FDA approved a controversial Alzheimer's drug</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biotech-stocks-big-winners-after-biogen-aduhelm-approval-2021-6">Here are the 9 biggest biotech winners after the FDA took an entirely new approach to approve Biogen's Alzheimer's drug</a> </li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">How officials helped sell public school access to Chinese elite</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6"><div type="image" title="Steve Ma with the Pegasus California School emblem and school and California and China flags next to him on a pale yellow background" height="1800" width="2400" msid="83483142" hostid="261"></div></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Pegasus California School seemed impressive.</a> The class sizes were significantly smaller than other Val Verde schools, and it offered dedicated evening study sessions overseen by faculty. The school guaranteed parents, in writing, that every graduate would gain admission to one of the top 100 US universities. But there was a hitch:Even though it was a part of an American public-school district, tuition and fees at Pegasus added up to more than $34,000 a year. And even though it was largely staffed by Val Verde teachers and administrators, it was actually a boarding school. And even though it conferred a Val Verde diploma to graduates, Pegasus California School was really a private academy exclusively serving Chinese students in Qingdao, China.How it got there, and how it leveraged the resources and personnel of a middling public-school district for the benefit of private investors and wealthy families halfway across the globe, is the story of one businessman's quest to monetize American public education with the help of California's most powerful education official.Read our full exclusive report on Pegasus California School here:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation reveals officials helped sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite</a></li></ul>Also read:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/legal-nonprofits-hiring-big-law-firms-to-block-union-organizing-2021-5">Big law firms are donating pro bono hours to block unions at legal nonprofits where their partners are board members</a></li></ul>You're invited: Join us and learn how to navigate the <a href="https://info.insider.com/master-your-money?utm_campaign=Master%20Your%20Money&amp;utm_source=email&amp;utm_content=EditorialNewsletterwsletter">complicated process of buying a home</a> in today's hot market on Tuesday, June 22 at 12 p.m. ET - during a free, hour-long virtual event presented by Fidelity. <a href="https://info.insider.com/master-your-money?utm_campaign=Master%20Your%20Money&amp;utm_source=email&amp;utm_content=EditorialNewsletterwsletter">Register here.</a>Finally, here are some headlines you might have missed last week.- Matt<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paypal-women-early-employees-tech-investors-fintech-payments-paypal-mafia-2021-6">PayPal's origin story is male-dominated, but these 20 women played key roles in building the payments giant during its early days</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-fintech-bankers-deals-ipos-morgan-stanley-goldman-sachs-citigroup-2021-6">12 bankers running fintech groups at firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs give an inside look at dealmaking in the red-hot sector</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/names-credit-suisse-bankers-traders-leaving-archegos-greensill-bonuses-hiring-2021-6">Credit Suisse has lost at least 44 execs, bankers, and traders in recent months. Here's a running list of who left and where they're going.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-blackrock-financial-markets-advisory-business-consulting-aladdin-2021-6">Inside BlackRock's powerful consulting arm that's made the most influential money manager an advisor to world powers</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/power-players-26-people-stockx-leading-growth-heads-ipo-2021-5">StockX Power Players: Meet the 26 execs - including recent hires from Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo - leading the resale marketplace as it eyes an IPO</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-departures-tied-to-tobi-lutkes-management-employees-say-2021-6">Shopify has seen a sudden rush of departures despite massive growth. Insiders say CEO Tobi Lütke's temper and 'robotic' personality are partially to blame.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amc-stock-surge-veteran-options-trader-breaks-down-potential-drivers-2021-6">A veteran options trader breaks down 3 potential drivers of AMC's 2,500% surge this year - and shares how long the retail-fueled rally might last</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-mafia-real-estate-proptech-startups-founders-spencer-rascoff-2021-6">Meet the Zillow mafia: These 9 former execs are raising hundreds of millions for their own startups and taking over the real estate tech world</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trucking-tech-startups-uber-freight-convoy-pandemic-gains-2021-6">6 trucking-tech startup CEOs reveal how they plan to hang onto the huge gains they made amid pandemic turmoil</a> </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-america-business-needs-cop-regulator-or-it-will-implode-2021-5">No one is policing corporate America, and white-collar crime is on the rise. What comes next could be a full-scale financial meltdown.</a></li></ul>

Fred DeLuca ran Subway like a titan, sleeping with franchisees' wives, micromanaging, and penny-pinching. Insiders say he set it up for failure.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation</a> has found that <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>'s highest-ranking <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="education">education</keyword> official and leading public universities worked closely with a swaggering entrepreneur to give special accommodations to students at a private high school for elite families in <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>.</li><li>UC Irvine offered summer school programs specially arranged for students at the private academy in Qingdao, China, dispatched <keyword id="49587" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="admissions">admissions</keyword> staffers to its campus to talk to students and their parents, and reported on the students' progress through the admissions cycle.</li><li>At UC Riverside, the ties were even closer: The university pledged to work with the school's students to help them become competitive applicants and offered them special permission to submit applications even after the deadline had passed.</li><li>The superintendent of a Southern California school district that worked with the Chinese school publicly proclaimed that UC Riverside guaranteed admission to all of its graduates, according to the minutes of a public-school board meeting.</li></ul>The infamous 2019 <keyword id="1958698" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Varsity-Blues">Varsity Blues</keyword> <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/college-admissions-scandal">college-admissions scandal</a> revealed that wealthy parents will do whatever it takes to ensure their children are admitted to elite colleges.Dozens of prominent parents - including the actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, as well as actress Felicity Huffman - took part in admissions counselor Rick Singer's criminal scheme to game the admissions system so that their kids could attend the University of Southern California, Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, and other elite institutions.But Americans weren't the only targets - indeed, <a href="https://www.insider.com/college-admissions-scandal-biggest-clients-were-reportedly-from-china-2019-4">wealthy Chinese families</a> were some of Singer's most lucrative clients involved in the scandal. As Varsity Blues grabbed headlines, though, Insider has learned of another scheme that, for years, quietly helped wealthy Chinese students seeking admission to top American colleges, particularly at the highly touted <keyword id="73593" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="University-of-California">University of California</keyword> system.An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation</a> has found that admissions staffers at at least two University of California campuses - UC Irvine and UC Riverside - as well as a retired senior staffer within the UC Office of the President, the system's headquarters, worked with a swaggering businessman, Steven Ma, who sought a leg up for the students at his elite private high school in Qingdao, China. The help offered to Ma's students, records show, included specially tailored summer programs, a written pledge to work with students so they'd be competitive applicants for admission, special permission to apply even after the university deadline had passed, and - at least according to one local school official in California who worked closely with the Chinese school - guaranteed admission to UC Riverside for all graduates.One former California education official told Insider such an arrangement, if true, would be "appalling."<div type="image" title="UC Irvine" height="1266" width="1688" msid="83557065" hostid="261"></div>Ma's school was called <keyword id="11428559" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pegasus-california-school">Pegasus California School</keyword>, and it officially opened in 2016 based on the premise that - by mimicking the curriculum of a public high school in California - he could increase the chances that his wealthy Chinese students would gain admission to top U.S. colleges and universities. The school even guaranteed parents, in writing, that every graduate would gain admission to one of the top 100 US universities.Ma worked with <a href="https://www.insider.com/emails-obtained-by-insider-show-how-californias-top-education-official-helped-a-private-school-for-wealthy-chinese-kids-2021-6">some of the state's highest-ranking current and former education officials</a> - Tom Torlakson, who at the time served as the state's superintendent of public instruction, and David Long, who previously served as state secretary of education before becoming the principal at Pegasus. With Torlakson and Long's help, Ma forged critical relationships with leading California universities and school districts to legitimize his operation - advertising to Chinese families that their children would be attending a school with a California curriculum. He also fostered a relationship with a struggling school district in Riverside County that issued official public school diplomas to his students.Ma worked to establish what he called a "favorable relationship" with UC Irvine and UC Riverside, both of which embraced the Chinese high school. That included paying a retired UC staffer who continued to work for UC Irvine as a contractor. Daniel Aldrich, a retired staffer for the UC Office of the President (as well as the son of UC Irvine's founding chancellor) worked for both UC Irvine and for Pegasus, Insider has learned. Records show that Aldrich contacted UC campuses on behalf of Pegasus, and he also supplied UC Irvine officials with a list of Pegasus students interested in attending the university, so those staffers could monitor the students' progress through the admissions cycle. One senior admissions staffer specifically told Aldrich that the students looked like competitive applicants for UCI. Aldrich communicated with UC personnel about Pegasus using his active University of California email address. <div type="image" title="David Long sent Daniel Aldrich a list of Pegasus seniors" height="2106" width="2401" msid="83557068" hostid="261"></div>Long told Insider that Pegasus paid Aldrich as a consultant. "Especially with international students and parents, it's helpful to have someone that has had or is connected with, previously or currently [with the University of California]. We try to stay away from the current, but he's a consultant so it's not that big of a [deal]," Long added.Aldrich confirmed to Insider that he was paid to consult for both UC Irvine and Pegasus, and that the high school also paid for him to travel to China. He said he never did anything improper in his work for Pegasus, which "produced quality students, and we look for quality students in the University of California."UC Irvine told Insider in a statement that Aldrich contacted the university to see if Pegasus students' applications were missing transcripts or other necessary documents, and never discussed admissions.<h2>"I'm not an expert in education"</h2><div type="image" title="The University of California at Irvine" height="1266" width="1688" msid="83557071" hostid="261"></div>Beyond Aldrich, Pegasus was close to UC Irvine in other ways. The university hosted an annual three- to four-week summer program specifically tailored to Pegasus students, and sent representatives to the school's China campus to meet with students and parents. And in an interview, a former Pegasus headmaster told Insider that Long said that UC Irvine pledged to accept at least some Pegasus graduates."Dave Long always spoke about his connections with UC Irvine and with the president there," Allen Riedel, the former headmaster, told Insider. "[He] told us...if they wanted to, they could go directly to UC Irvine no problem." When asked to clarify, Riedel said: "Dave Long reported that to me that they wouldn't take all of our students but they would take some of them."Long denied that he ever made that statement. "I don't even know the president," he said. "And about a statement to say if you just come from Pegasus you can get in automatically, that's not correct. You have to reach the minimums to even be considered."Yet, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20743606-allen-riedel-email">in an August 2018 email obtained by Insider</a>, Riedel explicitly invoked "Dr. Long's connections" as he pressured the school's guidance counselor to meet admissions goals: "These kids need to go to their top universities," he said. "We need to...get some of these kids at least accepted in Ivy League schools. Accepted, not necessarily that they go there. We imagine our next 16-28 will go to UCI (or comparable) with Dr. Long's connections and my visit to some universities." <div type="image" title="An email from the former Pegasus headmaster to the school's counselor" height="790" width="2401" msid="83557076" hostid="261"></div>Ma acknowledged that Pegasus worked to establish what he called "a favorable relationship" with both UC Irvine and UC Riverside. But he insisted that the goal was to help "bring educational insight to Pegasus California School students" rather than secure them a leg up in admissions, which he said would be "impossible" anyway. Asked why Long might say that his connections could help Pegasus students applying to UC Irvine, Ma replied: "I don't know. I'm not an expert in education."In a statement UCI said it never guaranteed admission to anyone.<h2>"According to the <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> this Pegasus school reports, the student from this school can get privileges when they apply to UCR"</h2>At UC Riverside, the favorable relationship that Ma described seemed especially obvious. During a May 2019 school board meeting for the Val Verde Unified School District, a Southern California school district that developed a close relationship with Pegasus, the district's superintendent, Michael McCormick, went so far as to publicly proclaim that UC Riverside guaranteed admission to all Pegasus graduates, according to the minutes of a public-school board meeting."Essentially what this means," he explained, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20744830-val-verde-unified-school-minutes-may-7-2019#document/p3">according to public meeting minutes</a>, "is that UCR and Pegasus will have an agreement to exchange professors and students. What UCR has agreed is that every student that graduates from Pegasus will have admission to UCR."<div type="image" title="Image of public Val Verde board meeting minutes" height="411" width="2401" msid="83557080" hostid="261"></div>"The goal of public education in the state of California is to support California children, and higher education does allow [students] from other countries, but we don't guarantee them admission," said Delaine Eastin, who served as California's state superintendent of public instruction in the 1990s and early 2000s. "I find it appalling if it is true that UC Riverside has guaranteed admission for these graduates." In a statement, a spokesperson for UC Riverside said McCormick was mistaken. "It appears that an individual made some incorrect statements at a Val Verde school board meeting, about which statements the University had no knowledge until they were later brought to the university's attention."<div type="image" title="UC Riverside" height="1266" width="1688" msid="83557084" hostid="261"></div><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20744862-uc-riverside-emails#document/p95">According to records obtained by Insider</a>, UC Riverside admissions staffers also offered Pegasus students the opportunity to submit late admissions applications to the university, giving them an advantage over students who abided by the UC-wide November 30 deadline.In December 2018, Long sent the school a list of 18 late Pegasus applicants who wanted to apply to UC Riverside. <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20744862-uc-riverside-emails#document/p95">Emails show</a> that the university's interim associate vice chancellor of enrollment services personally authorized a late application through December 15 - giving Pegasus students an extra 15 days to apply.The spokesperson for UC Riverside said that of the 18 applicants sent to the school, 13 had actually already applied on time, and that none of the remaining five ended up submitting late application appeals. Both Ma and Long said that it was not uncommon for students to apply to universities after the admissions deadline.At least one prospective Pegasus student, however, was confused by the high school's arrangement with UC Riverside. A Chinese student living outside of Qingdao <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20744862-uc-riverside-emails#document/p25">contacted the university</a> and expressed interest in transferring to Pegasus. she had read online about an official cooperation between the college and high school, and was under the impression that being at Pegasus would bolster her chances of being accepted to UC Riverside. She wanted to know if what she read was true."According to the news this Pegasus school reports, the student from this school can get privileges when they apply to UCR," she said. "If it is true, I am considering to transfer into this Pegasus school to get the priority offer from UCR."<h1>READ OUR FULL STORY: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-education-public-school-children-chinese-elite-colleges-2021-6">Insider investigation reveals officials helped sell access to California public schools to Chinese elite</a></h1>

These two University of California campuses gave special perks to students at a private high school in China

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="9842885" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gina-ortiz-jones">Gina Ortiz Jones</keyword> is the Democratic nominee for <keyword id="15710" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="texas">Texas</keyword>' 23rd Congressional District, an expansive border district that is politically competitive.</li><li>Jones first ran for the seat in 2018 and narrowly lost to Rep. Will Hurd, who is retiring at the end of his term.</li><li>Healthcare is the biggest issue that Jones hears about from voters, especially rural residents.</li><li>"There are 29 counties in this district, and 18 counties have three or less doctors," she told Insider.</li><li>"There are three counties that have no doctors. It's so important that we invest in the pipeline of talent into rural healthcare."</li></ul>For Gina Ortiz Jones, the second time might be the charm.Just two years ago, Jones, a Democratic candidate running in Texas' 23rd Congressional District, nearly defeated GOP Representative Will Hurd, falling short by only 926 votes out of nearly 206,000 votes cast. The initial results were so close that Jones <a href="https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/politics/article/Ortiz-Jones-attends-freshman-orientation-in-13392058.php">even attended the House freshman orientation</a> for new members when the final tally was still in doubt days after the election. In May 2019, Jones announced that she would run for the seat again. Three months later, Hurd decided to retire from the House at the end of his term.Jones, a Iraq War veteran and former Air Force intelligence officer, suddenly became the nominal frontrunner in the sprawling, majority Hispanic border district that stretches from San Antonio, where she grew up, to the Rio Grande and the outskirts of El Paso. In 2016, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the district by 4% and then-Representative Beto O'Rourke carried it by 5% in his 2018 Senate race.However, the race is still expected to be highly competitive. Hurd always won the district by narrow margins, and Jones faces a new Republican opponent in Tony Gonzales, a conservative Navy veteran.When Jones has traveled throughout the district, she said that healthcare is the defining issue for voters, especially in the vast rural regions."There are 29 counties in this district, and 18 counties have three or less doctors," she told Business Insider in a recent interview. "There are three counties that have no doctors. It's so important that we invest in the pipeline of talent into rural healthcare."If elected, Jones would be the first Filipina-American in the House and the first openly gay representative from Texas to serve in Congress.Below are edited excerpts from Jones' interview with Business Insider.Q. During the final presidential debate, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said that he wanted <keyword id="124780" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="immigration-reform">immigration reform</keyword> passed within his first 100 days. What would your ideal plan look?A. I'm a proud first-generation American. I fully support a clean DREAM Act. [The act allows for conditional residency for qualifying immigrants who came to the US as minors and creates a pathway to citizenship if several requirements are fulfilled.] I live right down the street from the University of Texas at San Antonio, which has one of the largest student "Dreamer" populations in the entire country, and we should keep the promise that we made to these young people who are American in every sense of the word. They are our frontline workers, military officers, and teachers. I appreciate the vice president's commitment to immigration reform and that absolutely includes a path to citizenship.How would you tackle the issue of border security?This is a district that includes 800 miles of the US-Mexico border. I do not support a <keyword id="874262" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="border-wall">border wall</keyword>. When I speak to leaders in our border communities, they do not want a border wall. They very much want infrastructure that helps strengthen those communities given the economic, social, and cultural ties between cities on this side of the border as well as cities on the Mexican side of the border.<div type="image" title="Big-Bend2" height="3648" width="4864" msid="78961843" hostid="261"></div>I will always listen to our border patrol and the experts. I was actually just in Del Rio [a border city in Val Verde County], where I met with the county sheriff and the mayor. They showed me exactly where fencing makes sense. However, there are also parts of the district like Big Bend [National Park], for example, where it would be a travesty to have a border wall running through that national treasure. We know that the vast majority of contraband comes through ports of entry, so I want to make sure that our agents have the resources to do their jobs and do so as safely as possible.If elected, what are some of your highest priorities for fighting the coronavirus? Over 800,000 Texans have gotten COVID-19, and now that's 800,000 folks that have a preexisting condition, if they didn't have one already. We know that more testing, contact tracing, and PPE [protective personal equipment] is critical to addressing this pandemic, along with ensuring that people have access to quality, affordable <keyword id="6378833" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health-care">health care</keyword>. <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Bexar-leads-coronavirus-deaths-Texas-15517271.php#:~:text=Antonio's%20grim%20distinction-,The%20city%20has%20the%20highest%20COVID%2D19%20death,among%20Texas'%20major%20urban%20areas.&amp;text=Bexar%20County%20has%20suffered%20more,to%20state%20and%20federal%20data.ata.">San Antonio has the highest coronavirus-related fatality rate</a> of any major urban area in Texas. It's just critical that we get this pandemic under control so that we're not needlessly losing lives and needlessly losing small businesses and jobs.What are the top issues that you hear from rural Texans when campaigning?The issues that I hear about are in this order: Health care, health care, and health care. I'm committed to making sure that people have coverage by expanding Medicaid so that they can show up to these rural clinics and hospitals and get the preventative care that they need. It's critical that we invest in broadband, which helps address these inequities with telemedicine and tele-psychiatry. We also need more doctors. Even if every rural medical who student graduated from medical school and returned to a rural community, we're still only meeting 25% of our country's rural health care needs.How would you tackle the rising cost of college tuition?We're seeing a large number of students not reenrolling in community college here in San Antonio. That's a critical issue, because at two large universities in the city, Texas A&amp;M University-San Antonio and the University of Texas at San Antonio, almost half of the student body spends time at the community college here. If folks aren't reenrolling now because they don't have an internet connection or can't pay their tuition, that'll hurt us down the line. We have the resources as a country to make sure that we're preparing our young people for future economic opportunities, and that starts with investing in community colleges and supporting our colleges and universities.

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This public California school district bestowed diplomas to students at a private high school in China

Nicole Einbinder

California's top education official helped an exclusive private boarding school in China aimed at getting the children of elite families into American universities

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Fred DeLuca ran Subway like a titan, sleeping with franchisees' wives, micromanaging, and penny-pinching. Insiders say he set it up for failure.

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These two University of California campuses gave special perks to students at a private high school in China

Nicole Einbinder

Texas Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones could become the first Filipina-American elected to Congress

John L. Dorman

COVID allowed Raquel Esquivel and 4,500 others to be released from overcrowded federal prisons. So why is she back behind bars?

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