A federal judge in Misssouri has fined Imagine Schools $1 million. See here for the story in the Columbus Dispatch. Imagine is one of the largest for-profit operators in the nation.
According to the Columbus Dispatch:
Under the complex deal, Imagine Schools negotiated the pricey lease with SchoolHouse Finance and presented it to the school board of the Renaissance Academy for Math and Science for approval. Imagine Schools owns SchoolHouse Finance and directly benefited by the agreement.
“This clearly constituted self-dealing,” U.S. District Judge Judge Nanette K. Laughrey wrote in a blistering 29-page ruling.
Sound familiar? The Dispatch in October reported about a North Side charter school spending more than half of the tax dollars it receives on rent in a very similar lease deal with Imagine Schools and SchoolHouse Finance. The board of the Imagine Columbus Primary Academy asked Imagine to renegotiate the lease but that has not happened.
This story appeared on a blog in Ohio:
COLUMBUS – A federal judge in Missouri blistered Imagine Schools, saying the lease it forced on a local school it managed constituted “self-dealing.” The judge ordered Imagine to pay the school more than $1 million.
School board members at the now-closed Missouri school sued Imagine, insisting that it acted in its own best interest, not the best interest of the school.
The facts of the case mirror arrangements in Ohio and other states where Imagine schools pay exorbitant rent to an Imagine subsidiary, SchoolHouse Finance. The high lease payments leave little money for classroom instruction and help explain the poor academic records of Imagine schools in both states.
“This self-dealing is out of control and has to end,’’ said ProgressOhio Executive Director Sandy Theis. “Legislators who are working on charter school reforms should make prevention of these types of abuses a top priority.’’
Theis announced a package of Imagine-specific reforms. They include:
*Place a reasonable cap on the percentage of state money that can be used for rent.
*Improve accountability by requiring the State Board of Education to sign off on the leases.
*Improve transparency by requiring schools to make leases readily available to the public.
*Render leases null and void if Imagine fails to disclose specific financial ties between Imagine, SchoolHouse Finance or any future entity receiving rent for school buildings.
*Require charter school boards to have an independent attorney and financial officer.
Any capital money for buildings must be accompanied by reforms on transparency and accountability, and must be allocated using a formula similar to the one used for traditional public schools.
Gary Miron, a professor from Western Michigan University and an expert witness in the Missouri case, said, “This ruling will hopefully empower charter school boards to take back control and responsibility for their school from their for-profit education management organizations (EMOs). There are a lot of charter schools operated by Imagine and other for profit EMOs that are having public revenues intended for students siphoned off into corporate coffers. I hope the Missouri ruling will be a signal to these organizations to halt such practices. “
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I might suggest simply ending the Charter School “experiment.”
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Let’s borrow an idea from the Republican playbook of the 1980’s. We can strangle the beast of charter schools by demanding accountability legislation. When charter school operators discover they cannot make a profit and educate to a decent level at the same time, maybe this issue will go away.
This might be the best way to take back our public schools. Logical consequences. Sound familiar?
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7th grade teacher in a Texas title 1 public school :
TAGO!
Like Chiara’s deciphering of the charter “choice” slogan as actually meaning “choice not voice” we need to be aware of how another charter mantra has its shortened and full forms as well:
The expanded version of “charters do more with less” is “charters do more [profit making at the expense of the kids] with less [fiscal transparency and responsibility].”
Thank you for your comments.
😎
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The charter school industry: just honest, non-greedy folk, who are trying to do right by kids.
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The New York Times profiled the Bakkes back in 2010 and outlined some of their sleazy business practices and their dirty political connections to the Clintons and the the neoliberal political bosses. Even then they were the largest charter company scammers in the country.
These people, along with the Broads and Gates’s, should not be let anywhere near the school children of the USA. They should be shunned, prosecuted, and sentenced to hard labor for their scams sucking up taxpayer money meant for schools and using it to further enrich their already rich selves.
Shameful. Disgusting. Dangerous.
When will the teachers of the USA rise up and stop this madness?
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What I love about these stories is how this couple appointed themselves to positions that are 100% publicly-funded.
It’s as if I announced tomorrow I would begin collecting a salary as superintendent of the school district I just created. They’re inventing positions for themselves that are publicly-paid.
Would either of these people have ever been hired to run public schools in a competitive, transparent hiring process like that where they hire superintendents? No.
It’s kind of amazing to watch it happen. Can anyone do this with any public entity?
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I’m pretty sure there’s more than a $ million worth of self-dealing, right on the table here.
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“The Cost of doing Business”
A slap on the wrist
A minor fine
Such is the cost
Of corporate crime
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Here is another interesting expose by MadFloridian that details some of the Bakkes criminal enterprises:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/4784
“Typically, after an Imagine-managed charter school gets approval to open, Schoolhouse Finance, Imagine’s real estate arm, purchases a campus and charges the school rent. After the school begins to pay that rent, Schoolhouse sells the campus to a real estate investment trust, which then leases it back to Schoolhouse. The charter school eventually sends rent payments – in one case upward of 40 percent of the school’s entire publicly funded budget – to two for-profit companies.
“The arrangement is very lucrative because it’s a direct conduit to public funds. The school property is paid off with public funds,” said Gary Horton, who oversees charter school funding for the Nevada Department of Education. Nevada’s charter schools include Imagine’s 100 Academy of Excellence in North Las Vegas.”
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And here is a compilation from the Charter School Scandals blog that date back to 2005:
http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/05/imagine-schools-inc.html
I look forward to religious bigot Joe Nathan showing up to defend Imagine Schools and charters in general in light of this overwhelming proof that charters are designed to scam taxpayers and have been from the very beginning.
From 2010:
“An F-rated St. Petersburg charter school stands on the verge of collapse, mired in debt and losing enrollment. And most of those debts — around $1 million in public tax dollars — are owed to the same private company that founded it.
Pinellas County district officials say they’re battling with Virginia-based Imagine Schools, the nation’s largest commercial charter operator, over the future of the Central Avenue school.
The school was $963,572 in deficit last spring, according to auditors. It’s paying $881,179 to lease a half-empty building from Imagine’s real estate affiliate, plus thousands more for equipment, administration and fees, on income of just $2 million a year.
“It’s a death spiral,” said district charter supervisor Dot Clark.
Pinellas officials are now joining districts across Florida — including Hillsborough and Pasco — in raising doubts about whether the company is running its schools as nonprofits, as required by state law…”
Why are these crooks still in business? Why are they allowed to be associated with any public school in the USA? Why aren’t they in prison?
Ask your bought and paid for legislators from both parties . . . .
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“Catch Us If You Can” is the new accountability.
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The real losers at Renaissance Academy for Math and Science are the students. The parents of the children should sue Image for the loss of their children’s Education!
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Gosh, I wonder what state regulators and sponsors and authorizers and board members were doing while this was going on. These people had to file a private lawsuit?
Missouri has an interest in how charters spend public money. Why didn’t the people we’re supposedly paying to regulate and police these schools do anything? The only way to hold a charter management org accountable for taxpayer money is to hire a lawyer and sue them on the contract?
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Missouri education press simply will not say much about charter schools that is not puff piece in nature. They established a state board in a charter bill a couple years ago which made it possible to go beyond KC and STL in establishing charters….the board is supposed to have nine members…more than the state board, but six less than KIPP….two white women are the two top officers, including Alicia Herald, a former teach for America executive, who also founded a corporation for placing teachers just where they should be….myEDmatch….the post dispatch reporting is sloppy and erratic…..the public radio is better usually, but has huge overall influence from wealthy sources……and they restrict what we are told about charter schools as well as other matters. Is under reporting regarding charter schools a nationwide problem
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Tim Eby of public radio will furnish a list of donors, including those who gave more than 25,000 dollars
…..it includes anonymous in some cases…….it is a strange offering of information…..Tim Eby
Our annual report lists all donors of $1,200 or more to St. Louis Public Radio. Here is a link to that report: http://www.stlpublicradio.org/…
So far as I know, the public has not been told the entire membership of the Missouri charter commission…..1) One member selected by the governor from a slate of three recommended by the commissioner of education;
(2) One member selected by the governor from a slate of three recommended by the commissioner of higher education;
(3) One member selected by the governor from a slate of three recommended by the president pro tempore of the senate;
(4) One member selected by the governor from a slate of three recommended by the speaker of the house of representatives; and
(5) Five additional members appointed by the governor, one of whom shall be selected from a slate of three nominees recommended by the Missouri School Boards Association.
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Imagine schools operate a charter in Baltimore. They got free legal services from Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service as “indigents”. They fed the kids in a catering tent year-round to cry poor mouth for a grant for building improvements from Mayor Sheila Dixon (later convicted for stealing gifts cards from families, a felony which forced her resignation), tried to outlaw teacher’s unions in public schools in the city, and always seem coiled and ready to strike politically with rallies, etc. And the other charters. just as self-serving, self-promoting, and self-righteous, especially the non-profits, just assert that at least they’re “not that bad”.
Another interesting development, with all the progressive political activism charters outwardly promote, they did nothing to motivate support for a Democratic governor in Maryland, in fact helping to split the democratic vote, strengthening the wave of apathy to even more privatization.
Slowly killing a free press gets us this crap, thankfully, the judiciary is still kicking. Thank you, U.S. District Judge Judge Nanette K. Laughrey.
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“Imagine Chea>strike>rters”
Dealing themselves a straight-flush hand?
Imagine that? I simply can’t
The charter school”s an Wild West scam?
Imagine that. Well, I’ll be damned
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ooops
“Imagine Chea
rters”LikeLike
Have you read this?
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/01/ravitch-continues-to-dissemble-and.html
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Thanks, Pat. I had not seen it. Jim Horn doesn’t like me. I don’t know him. I think people fighting for the same cause should stick together.
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I do not like the disrespectful tone….but the reporting of educational issues in the mainstream media is very narrow……things we go to a lot of pains to challenge are taken for granted……so if it is discovered than within the ranks of the people who believe “so-called” is usually needed in front of reforms…..that it is something which deserves more detailed study…..that might be better than to be boxed off in a disposable category…..we are not unanimous in all things…..but we are numerous and informed.
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http://my.firedoglake.com/dougmartin/2011/03/30/fbi-investigating-gulen-charter-schools-gulen-leaders-lavish-gifts-and-dinners-on-mitch-daniels-and-other-indiana-officials/#at_pco=cfd-1.0&at_ab=-&at_pos=3&at_tot=8&at_si=54c43ec06327c1a6
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Every Christmas, my nephew and his wife, Matt Grossmann and Sarah Reckhow, give me a book about education……A very big present for me….yours was the first a few years ago, and this year it was the Teacher Wars by Dana Goldstein…..they just did a study together……hope some see it as constructive advice……http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/01/michigan_state_study_finds_cha.html they found that “Charter school opponents make less effective arguments than supporters” I hope you find time to talk to them about it…..I am sure It would be a major league honor to them if you did.
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During the housing boom of the 2000s, the government celebrated just how much growth was occurring. We now know this deregulation led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Fueled by high-risk investments, deregulation created a bubble bound to burst.
Today’s educational equivalent are charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Charter schools and vouchers are no more than a deregulated, high-risk investment with our most precious assets – our children.
Be ready for another bubble to burst.
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[…] Imagine Schools’ underperformance, discrimination settlements, and financial issues across several states, locally the private charter school company has some […]
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