BASIS is a corporate charter chain with about 20 charters, mostly in Arizona. The chain is known for high test scores, high attrition, and high returns to its owners and operators, Michael and Olga Block. It also owns private schools, and these have run into problems.
Parents Voice Concern Over Sale of Basis Independent Schools
New York City families say they worry about possible curriculum, tuition changes following the purchase by a company backed by China-based investment firm
More than 190 New York City families at the private Basis Independent Schools sent a letter to its leaders Monday to express concerns about its recent purchase by a company backed by a China-based investment firm.
The letter from parents at the Brooklyn site of Basis questioned whether the sale might prompt the school in Red Hook to change curriculum, lose teachers, boost tuition, increase class size and lose its reputation among top college admissions offices.
Basis has five for-profit schools in the U.S., including sites in California and Virginia. It also has a charter arm run by a nonprofit, which wasn’t part of the purchase.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
BASIS is the publicly funded selective private school that we all pretend is a public school, right?
Oh, well. I guess the parents who object will now find out that it’s a private school, so they have no process or remedy.
They can vote with their feet if they object to the new corporate ownership. Isn’t that what ed reformers tell us? These parents wanted a commercial marketplace for schools. Now they have one.
BASIS has a charter chain, mostly in AZ. It also has five private schools. The latter were sold. All are very selective because the academic pressure is so intense that most students don’t survive.
They are trying to expand rapidly in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Last year, they opened one school in the city with a contract for 3 or 4 more schools. Last month they submitted an application for at least one new school in the city.
They may be primarily in Arizona right now, but they have their claws in Louisiana.
I can understand how the BASIS model of exclusivity fits with the Chinese drill-skill mentality. I hope parents are upset as well they should be. When schools are privatized, they can be sold to the highest bidder. Public schools represent communities that cannot result in a marketplace blunder such as this. Public schools teach civics and democratic values, and they are accountable to state rules and laws. Considering the Chinese penchant for propaganda, parents and the US government have good reason to be concerned.
Do we see a new form of Gulan-type school forming in the US but instead of being Turkish, it will be Chinese? I can see it happening that the white, black and latino children will be pulled out of Basis and the American Chinese will flock to Basis for Chinese style learning here in the US under the guidance of Chinese teachers. Boy…another tin foil hat moment for me today!!!
Schools in the U.S.- an opportunity for North Korean and Russian investment.
Proud moment for CAP, the DINO’s who love charters
To BASIS parents and all charter school parents: Charter schools are not public schools. Don’t believe the hype. And GET OUT now!
OMG … the Chinese in China have a depressing and authoritarian system of education.
I had a student from Shanghai tell me how much he hated going to school in China, because all he did was memorize and be tested. He told me that when it rained would go outside to play in the rain so he would get sick and not have to go to school. One of his grandparents was an educator, too. Finally, he just REVOLTED and refused to go to school anymore. There was nothing they could do to make this child go to school. None of the whippings, bribes, and threats would make him go to school in Shanghai. In desperation, the mother moved and left the father and the rest of the family to save her child. That took courage. The mother also had the financial ability to move.
I have to say: This kid has guts. He knew what was being foisted upon him was wrong. I wonder how many others have this kind of courage and self-worth?
This boy told me that he will never return to China, because it’s so repressive there. He talked about the pollution, the greed, the sexism, and much more. I was shocked he was so honest. Guess he needed someone to tell.
As an aside, there’s a huge problem in Hawai’i, esp. in Honolulu re: Chinese developers. They are building MEGA homes with 20+ rooms to rent out and no parking facilities for cars. So, the streets are crammed with cars and there is no where for the local people to park their cars and they are being squished. Though the Chinese developers claim they need these mega homes for family, this is not true. The Chinese developers are renting the rooms via websites for tourists. So SICK. One of my aunts is living this nightmare. Many more will be affected, too.
GREED!
Yvonne,
When Shanghai placed first in one of the international assessment a few years back, Arne Duncan said we had to do whatever Shanghai was doing. Mark Tucker wrote a book called “Surpassing Shanghai.” Tom Loveless called attention to the fact that the kids tested in Shanghai were atypical of China’s population. They tested their best. And the Chinese government has pushed most poor people out of Shanghai. Rural folk were not tested.
Not only that, but China has instituted a national system of social control. Similar to credit scores consumers are assigned in the United States, your Sesame Credit score rises or falls based on your behavior. Low scores result in losses of privileges and opportunities, such as the ability to travel via rail or air, and exclusion from top schools.
A Social Credit system is something that repressive regimes can only dream of. Couple it with a narrowed education curriculum (say good-bye to concepts such as freedom and huge chunks of history) and the oligarchs’ dream will be realized: a tightly controlled, poorly educated populace.
Great for the billionaires. But for progress and democracy, not at all.
Or are the Chinese Developers renting the rooms to pregnant Chinese tourists? If a baby is born on US soil, they have US citizenship and have all the rights of a US citizen. There was something like this going on in San Francisco (?) a few years ago. The idea was that the child would be born in the US and then raised in China, but then come to the US for college admission.
Damn parents! Never happy. Now they’re complaining that their absurdly robotic, poorly conceived, propaganda fueled, schools will be hampered. It’s rather like the badly abused 1956 Chevy I owned a while back that would probably have benefited from a few more collisions, as it might inadvertently straighten it out.
The guy referred to as the godfather of REIT’s is Beto O’Rourke’s father-in-law.
BTW- who owns the charters formerly owned by REIT Entertainment?