For some reason, charter operators just don't want to be transparent about how they're running their businesses and what they're doing with the money.
This story from the Philadelphia Inquirer gives us an idea why transparency scares charter school operators silly:
One Philadelphia charter-school operator runs a private parking lot on the side. Another rents out apartments and collects the rent at his school. Yet another rents property to herself, signing her lease as both tenant and landlord.
These are some of the findings in a draft of a city controller's report on 13 Philadelphia charter schools obtained by The Inquirer that cites excessive salaries, compliant boards whose members are handpicked by school chiefs, inflated rents, and rampant conflicts of interest.
It "is abundantly clear that taxpayer money is at risk," according to the draft report, which is expected to be released within two weeks.
City Controller Alan Butkovitz declined on Friday to comment on specifics because the completed report has not been made public, but he confirmed that the document The Inquirer obtained was his final draft.
"Charter schools are an experiment in using private business models in the educational field, but this is not private money," Butkovitz said. "Charter schools are spending tax dollars as if it's nobody's business - as if they were private fiefdoms."
Indeed.
One of the charter operators claimed she worked more than 365 days a year, charged over $100,000 on her school’s credit card for undisclosed expenses, and ran the charter school as a nightclub on weekends.
No wonder charter school operators do not want transparency or outside accountability of their “businesses.”
Many of them are crooks.
And Mayor Moneybags and Uncle Joel, along with President Accountability and Secretary Arne, want tens of thousands of additional charter schools around the country.
But of course they do not want any outside accountability for how they're run or what happens with the money.
That would stifle their "innovation" and "creativity."
I'm not a fan of charter companies' influence on the charter movement, but I support school choice and work at a Virginia charter school - http://k12albemarle.org/cpcs. We're accountable to our school board, we use the same ratio of public funds per student as other division middle schools, and we raise and bring into our division hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. We serve students who struggle in traditional schools.
ReplyDeleteCrooks shouldn't be allowed to prey on children or embezzle from others in charter schools or traditional schools. However, the charter movement isn't made up entirely of crooks, nor are the charter companies.
Tradition is holding back our schools and children. Innovation and creativity will help our schools and children lead the world.
We don't need to betray the public trust, but we need to design schools that do more than prepare students to pass tests.