The largest charter chain in Utah is American Prepartory Academy. It is operated by a for-profit entity. The schools are very profitable. The owners keep their operations secret, as they probably assume that the public would not be happy to learn how much tax dollars go into their bank accounts, not the schools.
One of its founders and its Executive Director, Carolyn Sharette, is also the registered agent of a for-profit management company, American Preparatory Schools, Inc., which will charge the school $5,805,200 for the 2018-2019 school year. That’s a bump up from the $4.6 million the company got last year.
Where’s the money going?
State funding, your taxpayer dollars, comprise 88 percent of American Prep’s budget. But what do the students get with that money?
Sharette isn’t telling – and she doesn’t have to. The State Charter School Board does not demand accountability from contracted companies working for the school.
The Board told KUTV’s Beyond the Books that it monitors a charter school’s student performance and adherence to its charter and state and federal rules. But Sharette’s for-profit company is beyond its reach.
It’s also a family affair. Two of Sharette’s siblings, brother Howard Headlee and sister Laura Campbell, are co-founders of American Prep.
Sharette and Campbell sit on its executive board. Headlee registered three 501(c)3 companies that own the school’s property and buildings and lease them back to the schools. And at least two of Sharette’s children have been employed by the for-profit management company, American Preparatory Schools, Inc.
Where’s your tax money going, Utah citizens?
None of your business!
Once it goes to this charter chain, there is no accountability.
Satisfied?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’d bet good money that there is at least one state legislator connected somehow.
That’s always the way it works, especially in Utah.
How can I be sure? I know from having lived there.
Back when I was there, one of the state senators was also the owner/operator of a charter school that got public dollars. It was a joke. Basically a home study program where kids could get credit for doing almost nothing and showing up almost never. The state senator probably became a multimillionaire off the school.
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Not sure about APA, although you’re probably right that a legislator is involved.
But I could tell the station about Academica West up my way. One current and one former senator are involved in that one. The station acted like this was unprecedented. They haven’t been paying attention.
This station is owned by Sinclair. Frankly, I’m amazed that the station could even run this report.
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It’s worth repeating again and again: Charter schools get public taxpayer money and must be required to file the same comprehensive public domain financial reports as public schools file so that taxpayers know in detail how tax money is being spent. That requirement alone would doom charter schools. Time to get taxpayers riled up on this issue so that they demand to know where their money is really going. It’s their right.
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I really wish there was more of an outcry after this report. It hasn’t started yet. I’m going to contact the reporter and tell him about the Gulen school in the state, and the huge number of Academica schools.
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I just read three articles in your blog about deregulated cheating charters in Utah, Indiana and Nevada and then found this short Bloomberg article on page A-9 of our local paper: https://westlebanonvalleynews-nh.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=2a32d896e
It seems that China is willing to crack down on for profit schools when they fail. Why? Because they want to protect consumers. And who opposes this? The investors who complain about a country that is “…rife with regulatory risk”.
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The Trump administration is dedicated to the proposition that the corporations should be protected and the consumers are on their own. Same with for-profit higher ed, same with rape victims, same with students who have been cheated, same with civil rights. The government, in their view, exists to shield the predators from blame.
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When the FTC rules that it’s fraud to refer to charters as “public” then, Main Street communities will have a champion in the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
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Sharette brag about the fact that they have multiple family members on payroll that don’t work for the school or management company at all.
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