Why? Because (1) we need more investigative reporting and (2) Students here in Arizona are getting short-changed by a system that can do better to deliver achievements results'
Charter schools are big business.
Who’s making money?
Trevor Huxham/KJZZ
< Craig Harris.
"An Arizona charter school held an emergency budget meeting over the weekend after criticism over a lack of public comment that may have violated the state’s Open Meeting Law.
American Leadership Academy Director Glenn Way is also under scrutiny after earning millions of dollars for building his campuses.
An investigation by the Arizona Republic found Way took advantage of Arizona’s favorable charter school laws, and made about $37 million on real estate deals associated with the charter school chain.
To explain what is happening, The Show reached out to the Republic’s senior investigative reporter, Craig Harris. . . "
- You can read that post from July by clicking on this link
_________________________________________________________________________
Here's are the results published by investigative reporter Craig Harris
Unlike their brick-and-mortar counterparts, online schools don’t have to build classrooms or buy textbooks. They have no lunchrooms or sports teams.
But they do hire teachers, furnish curriculum and pay for a lot of computer equipment.
There are at least 41 districts and 20 charter schools operating online programs, state records show.
So how much should it cost to provide a publicly funded education to students who pursue it online?
Comparing the online operations of the state’s largest public district, Mesa Public Schools, with Arizona’s largest virtual charter school, Primavera, gives two very different answers..."
- Published on Brinkwire News
_________________________________________________________________________
The answers from investigative reporting by Craig Harris are presented in some of these details in the report published yesterday:
State records show:
The bottom line: Mesa operates an online program at roughly one-eighth the cost of Primavera.
Why such different costs?
Again,. . . The Motive For Private Profit It's working well for most public taxpayer-funded corporate charter schools
_______________________________________________________________________
The difference here in Mesa, other than grade-performance:
“We are not trying to make tons of money,”
said Jennifer Echols, Mesa’s online school director.
“The priority to run a school should not be to make people wealthy. It should be to educate students.”
QUESTION:
Are Mesa Public Schools doing enough to do more to expand more cost-effective online education, rather than ask for a whopping $300,000,000 to maintain, operate and repair "brick-and-mortar" schools that are only used 5 days a week/9 months-a-year?
_________________________________________________________
"One reason for the big disparity in total cost between Primavera and Mesa: Mesa doesn’t divert state education funds to investments in stocks, bonds and real estate, or make multimillion-dollar shareholder distributions like Primavera has to its founder, CEO Damian Creamer.
The for-profit company that runs Primavera last year awarded Creamer an $8.8 million shareholder distribution, The Arizona Republic found. . . Charter CEO gets $8.8M despite having third-highest dropout rate . . ."
YOU CAN READ THE HARRIS REPORT >> https://en.brinkwire.com_________________________________________________________________________
Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com
or 602-444-8478 or on Twitter @charrisazrep.
ABOUT THIS REPORT: Throughout 2018, investigative reporter Craig Harris examines the finances of some of Arizona’s most prominent charter schools to reveal how they spend the tax dollars they receive, who profits off the operations and what those deals mean for the future of education.
