I have never understood the idea that anyone can run a school, even people who have never been educators, even people who are high-school dropouts (think Andre Agassi).
So it comes as no surprise when a school run by a football great runs into trouble. In this case, it is the charter school opened by professional star Deion Sanders. The New York Times wrote about the school last year. Opened in 2012, the school quickly had a world-class basketball team, its games broadcast on ESPN, but its academic quality was far below par. According to the Times, the lower grades were rated F by a respected nonprofit group, and its high school had no rating due to missing data.
Now the school is in deep trouble and might even lose its charter in charter-friendly Texas.
The Dallas school founded in 2012 is in financial straits after years of management disputes that led to a state takeover. Prime Prep could close in the middle of the semester if found insolvent.
Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams earlier this month announced that he would appoint a board of managers to run the school, effectively placing it under state control.
The sports programs of Prime Prep have faced scrutiny for recruiting and eligibility allegations. The school also has fought employee turnover, and last April had to repay more than $45,000 it received for providing subsidized meals in 2013 because the school provided no documentation those meals were served.
You might well wonder how a school founded in 2012 has been in “financial straits after years of management disputes.” I wonder too.
According to Forbes, the school is operating under “crushing debt” with finances that are in “utter chaos.”
Sanders was among those in 2012 who opened the school with the goal of combining a college prepartory curriculum with a high-powered athletic program. The school, with two locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, did develop a big-time basketball program, but most of what it produced was chaos and headlines. Through the course of its two-plus years, Sanders was fired, hired, re-fired and re-hired as school leaders and administrators fought with local media, with the authority that runs Texas public high school sports, and with each other (sometimes physically).
As the chaos mounted, so did the bills, which got harder to pay as enrollment fell by half to about 300 students, and eventually the state of Texas stepped in to oversee things. Sanders claimed a merger with another charter school was imminent (it wasn’t). He also seemed just as concerned with his latest reality show, refusing to grant an interview to a local TV station regarding the school when it refused to allow the show’s cameras to film the interview that was being filmed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
An inside look at the chaos caused by non-educators, boasted false promises and corporate greed. Another Michelle Rhee. How many Michelle Rhees have their been?
It seems that the pattern is boasted promises with fancy titles that usually sound too good to be true and then a few months or years later, few if any of those promises are delivered as the liars slip off the stage hoping to be forgotten.
Hmm, maybe a post listing the false promises that the media hyped and the failures that the media all but ignored—repeatedly—is worth exposing in print.
Diane, I am sorry the children of your home state have been swindled out of needed funding by these idiots.
Peter Greene links stories that say it’s a done deal, even if the proverbial fat lady has yet to sing.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/01/prime-prep-ends-with-whimper.html
As the Charter Bubble expands…
Add it to the Housing Bubble, Used Car Loan Bubble…
How many of these schemes can we survive? The American Way?
Notice, the group paying the highest price are those who can least afford it.
Oh yeah, let’s blame it on the Poor & their teachers.
That way they can proceed and create more bubbles.
There are many more $M to be made: $B out there for Pensions. Chomping at the bit!
dot com bubble
Lloyd, how could I forget the dot.com bubble?
The Pension bubble appears to be in full swing – throwing millions of retirees into poverty & Medicaid.
I read that about one third of all public pensions have been handed over to Wall Street with no transparency.
So the state is going to rescue the charter? Why doesn’t it just get shuttered like they do to public schools? Silly charters; when will they learn that its all about the kids and not the money?
No, actually the state is just waiting for a judge to sign the revocation order. The only thing to be determined is if the school can stay open until the end of the year. It’s that bad.
The idea that success and/or expertise in one area (e.g. NFL Pro Bowl selection cornerback, CEO of a convicted predatory monopolist software empire, or a multiple ATP Grand Slam Singles champion) translates to all others (namely K-12 education) was discussed and debunked beautifully by National Education Policy Center’s Dr. Gene V. Glass. See “High Button Shoes and Education Reform” http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/high-button-shoes-and-education-reform
This post says so much about this country. Thank you, Diane. So sad. Egads.
They closed yesterday. Did not meet payroll. Teachers were probably not reimbursed.
Chances are, somebody got a “payroll” out of this, just not the teachers.