Arizona was long known as the Wild West of charters, but that was before Ohio, Florida, and Michigan jumped into the game.
This charter scandal was so bad that even the president of the state charter board denounced it.
“This is probably one of the most egregious, most outrageous things I’ve ever read about a charter school,” Kathy Senseman, President of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, said in a special session Tuesday.
“The board was made aware of an investigation by a bankruptcy court and U.S. Department of Justice into potential fraud at the Starshine Academy. Investigators allege founder Trish McCarty used taxpayer money for personal expenses. Recent records show the school nearly $3 million in debt.
“I’ve done absolutely everything that I can do in every single case to do everything right,” McCarty told ABC15 by phone.
“Investigators questioned a cash advance made at a Sante Fe casino, car rentals and Walmart purchases paid for by the school. McCarty said the purchases were legitimate because Starshine had a location there. Still, the state board said many financial records were missing or incomplete.
“According to the most recent overall academic rating in 2014 by the charter school board, Starshine ranked 48.96 on a 100-point scale, classifying it “does not meet standard.” The school fell from a 70 out of the 100-point ranking in 2012.
“McCarty said around half of the school’s 90 students are refugees and Starshine faced dropping enrollment, accounting for the low rating.
“Starshine filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016 after failing to keep up with payments on a $12-million expansion.
“This case “is the poster child of basically what’s wrong with charter schools in Arizona,” said Jim Hall, Founder of Arizonans for Charter School Accountability.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They had plans for expansion into New Mexico, too:
“A review of expenses for the school found that McCarty had used school money to pay for her home electricity bill and had racked up thousands of dollars in car rentals, Wal-Mart purchases and cash withdrawals, even taking out a cash advance at a Santa Fe casino. McCarty said those were all related to the opening of a school in Santa Fe.
McCarty told The New Mexican in August 2017 that she planned to revive the Secondary Learning Center, a small, private school on St. Francis Drive that closed abruptly last spring amid child sexual abuse allegations against a tutor. Parents of two students later filed a lawsuit accusing the tutor, Joel Abraham, of having sex with a 14-year-old female student and making sexual advances toward another girl. The complaint also named former principal and owner Antony Berzack as a defendant, saying he did nothing to stop Abraham’s behavior and retaliated against a teacher who had voiced concerns about him.”
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/school-founder-who-had-plans-for-expansion-in-santa-fe/article_1cbcb141-2260-5170-8df8-aae069eee90a.html
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This one raises a really good question. Should an Arizona charter company use public money collected in Arizona for schools in Arizona to expand into New Mexico?
Because that’s what she says she was doing. Do Arizona citizens know this? That they could be paying for a New Mexico expansion? What does state law say about that?
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BASIS schools has also built an international empire of charter and private schools, none of which would have been possible without the AZ taxpayer, a state with one of the lowest per pupil expenditures and teacher salaries. Talk about gaming the system.
https://www.revealnews.org/article/public-school-inc-when-public-education-turns-into-big-business/
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What are the regulations around that? If charters collect money in one state to educate children in that state can they take some portion of that funding and expand into another state?
Are they doing that? Does anyone know?
Charter Schools USA is a national for-profit chain. Can they pull funds from charter students in Pennsylvania to subsidize expansion into Florida?
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posted at Oped Newshttps://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Phoenix-Starshine-Academy-in-General_News-Charter-School-Failure_School-Reform-180323-110.html#comment694182
with his comment, which has embedded links to posts here. Too bad embedded links to don’t work here.
THE FRAUD IS NATIONWIDE…but with 15,880 separate school systems in 50 states, the billionaires who support the privatization of our public education are killing our schools.
Jeff Bryant, writing for the Education Opportunity Network, analyzes the U.S. Department of Education’s recent award of $253 Million to the Failing Charter Industry. He is especially appalled by the funding of charters in New Mexico, whose state auditor has identified numerous frauds in the charter sector, and whose public schools are shamefully underfunded.
Here are but a few of the scams. see my series here
https://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html?f=15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
for more, or go to the Ravitch blog.
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=CHARTER+SCHOOL
In the report, Fraud and waste in California’s charter schools,In the Public Interest reveals that total alleged and confirmed fraud and waste in California’s charter schools has reached over $149 million. Yet this is likely only the tip of the iceberg, as the state lacks the oversight necessary to proactively identify fraud and waste.”
Community activist Tamar Manessah wrote an eloquent plea in the New York Times to save public schools in Chicago–from Rahm Emanuel and the charter industry.
Texas Charter Schools Have No Effect on Test Scores and a Negative Effect on Earnings “This is a favorite of mine,” says Diane. Roland Fryer is an economist at Harvard whose work has been heavily subsidized by Eli Broad and Bill Gates. He is a great believer in incentives and choice. Thus, it was quite surprising to read this study (which I wrote about here).”
“This is the key finding: We estimate the impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas. We find that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically insignificant impact on earnings, while other types of charter schools decrease test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earn- ings. Moving to school-level estimates, we find that charter schools that decrease test scores also tend to decrease earnings, while charter schools that increase test scores have no discernible impact on earnings”
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