(May) New evidence surfaces on charter school scam

[Hannah Bell]

CLEVELAND - New evidence that charter schools provide inferior education but lucrative opportunities to scam the public has surfaced in a report issued Wednesday. The report, "Public Good vs. Private Profit: Imagine Schools, Inc. in Ohio" by Policy Matters, a highly respected research group based here, details operations of Imagine, the largest for-profit charter school management company in the U.S.

According to the report, Imagine runs 71 schools in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Its CEO, Dennis Bakke, former chairman of AES, a global electric power company, has been a long-time leader of efforts to privatize public education and a major contributor to John Kasich, Republican candidate for governor of Ohio. Bakke is also a member of "The Family," the right-wing Christian cult of prominent businessmen and politicians embroiled in scandals surrounding its "C Street spiritual haven" in Washington.

Since the 2005-2006 school year the performance of these schools has been dismal. The Ohio Department of Education has so far rated six Imagine-run schools. Five of the schools have received the lowest possible rating of "Academic Emergency," while one has gotten the slightly better rating of "Academic Watch." These ratings are "substantially worse" than nearby neighborhood public schools, the report charges.

The proportion of its funds spent on actual instruction is far below national standards, the report states. Teachers are paid less than in charter schools without for-profit management, and about half what union teachers in Cleveland public schools receive. On the other hand the proportion spent on rent and maintenance paid to Schoolhouse Finance, Imagine's real estate subsidiary, is twice the national standard. In one case, the report cites a church building Imagine acquired in Fort Wayne, Ind., where it charged its charter $90,000 a month, eight to ten times the appraised value...

http://www.peoplesworld.org/new-evidence-surfaces-on-charter-school-scam/