Arizona has celebrated its role in the charter gold rush and is often considered “the wild west” of chartering. The laws are lax, the schools are deregulated, and there is little or no oversight.
A new report by the Grand Canyon Institute says that as many as 100 charter schools in the state are at risk of closing.
The Arizona Republic reports:
Following the abrupt closure of at least three Arizona charter schools over the past year, a new report concludes more than 100 of the state’s charters are in danger of closing because of excessive debt and other financial troubles.
It’s a “near certainty” that more than 50 of the state’s 544 charter schools will close in the near future, according to the report by the Grand Canyon Institute, a self-described centrist think tank.
As a whole, Arizona’s 544 charter schools owe more to creditors than they’re worth as businesses contracted with the state to educate kindergarten to 12th-grade students, the report states. “Like any business, an overleveraged charter is financially vulnerable and could fail if it then suffers an income loss,” the report states.
“You will see a bunch of charters folding suddenly,” said Curt Cardine, the study’s main author and a former charter executive for EdKey Inc., a large Arizona charter chain that had a $7.74 million net deficit as of June 30, 2018.
Here is a link to the Grand Canyon report.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charter ripoffs are there by design and with the approval of the state legislature. This is result of marketing gone wild and plain old fashioned greed.
I have friends — very intelligent ones — who believe market forces would improve our nation’s education system. It’s enormously frustrating.
Please ask your friends to read Sam Abrams “Education and the Commercial Mindset” about the Edison Schools’ disaster and others.
Also, “Class Clowns” about billionaires who invested in education ventures and lost their money.
Or “Reign of Error,” my last book.
Sending your book, Diane!
Just like on building projects, charters should be made to buy performance bonds, in case they don’t deliver, the bond funds will be there to complete the project of educating the students for the year.
In Florida, anyone who wants to open a charter can apply to win a federal grant of $550,000 for “implementation.” If things don’t work out, well, tough, they can keep the money and walk away.
They are not in financial trouble. They are operating according to their financial plans. They are very suckcesspooly funneling money into the pockets of those whom they were created to funnel money into the pockets of.
I suspect these charter operators all read Trump’s book that he didn’t write even though his name indicates he is the author, “How to Get Rich” that must teach them how to make money even when your business goes bankrupt by paying yourself a huge salary as the CEO of a company that never makes a profit.
That’s why Trump has done six times through six bankruptcies that cost US banks almost $1 billion.
And not soon enough.
Funny…2 people I know who went to charter schools agree they should have attended their neighborhood public schools. Never thought I would hear this.
There are reasons public schools are paid for with taxes and have oversight by a district school board, a county board of ed, a state board of ed and the federal department of education. If you want throw all that out and do your on thing – this is the result.
The result is chaos and a breakdown of our culture, its democracy, and a subversion of our legal system and our Constitution.
Exactly what the Koch brothers libertarians want.