Andre Agassi was a great tennis star. Although he never finished high school, he decided to open a charter school in Las Vegas. He talked it up as a model for education in America, he predicted that all its graduates would go to four-year colleges, and he downplayed the results, which didn’t live up to the hype. Like the revolving door of principals and teachers, and a host of other problems, such as a cheating scandal and the coach of the cheerleading squad who was charged with prostitution.

But in this society, you can count on journalists to swallow hype and ignore investigation. (For more about Agassi’s charter in Las Vegas, see “Reign of Error,” pp. 170-171.)

So now Agassi is an “education capitalist,” sponsoring charter schools in many cities despite the troubling experiences of his showcase charter.

Agassi has teamed up with a hedge fund, partners who know as little about education as he does:

“But some parents don’t buy the sales pitch.

“It kind of makes my stomach turn,” says Brett Bymaster, a parent in San Jose where the Agassi-Turner fund has been active.

“He’s taken it upon himself to dig into their business model, though one can only dig so far. While they’re building public charter schools, there’s very little disclosure, including what they charge tenants.

“We need to partner with people outside, but I don’t think the solutions to problems in my community are one-percenters getting filthy rich,” he says.

“Bymaster wonders what happens to one of these buildings if the charter has to shut down, and many do. So far, all 39 schools built by the fund are still up and running. A spokesman says if one closed, the building could be rented to another charter operator.

Even among charter school advocates, there is some quiet suspicion of partnering with hedge funds. First, there’s cost. One charter founder said a deal with Agassi was 25 percent above any other option.”