Shawgi Tell is a professor of education at Nazareth University in New York. He has taken note of states where charter schools are given ownership of public property, where they buy property and supplies with public money but keep title to their purchases if their charter should close. He has seen states that require districts to hand over empty buildings to charter owners for $1, which then becomes their private property. He thinks these transfers of public assets to private ownership are wrong.
He bases his argument on the belief that public property belongs to taxpayers, but charter schools are privately owned.
He writes:
Public facilities and infrastructure are produced by the working class and people and belong to the public. They exist in order to serve the common good and to contribute to the extended reproduction of society.
This collectively-produced wealth must not be handed over to competing owners of capital who are only concerned with maximizing profit as fast as possible, regardless of the damage caused to society and the environment. Socially-produced wealth must be off limits to narrow private interests. The aims and purposes of the private sector and public sector are not the same.
Non-profit and for-profit charter schools are not public entities. It does not matter how often they are called public, the fact remains that they are inherently privatized arrangements owned-operated by unelected individuals and companies. Yet they siphon billions of dollars a year from public schools and seize billions more in public facilities and assets. Most state charter school laws are deliberately set up to facilitate this massive transfer of pubic wealth to narrow private interests. Charter schools have long functioned as pay-the-rich schemes masquerading as “schools” that “benefit kids.”
Charter school owners-operators have never stopped piously demanding that public school facilities worth millions of dollars be freely and automatically handed over to them. They righteously declare that they have an inherent right to public facilities produced by the working class. The consequences, of course, are disastrous for public schools and the public interest. For example, a new report shows that in 2018 more than $100 million was spent by New York City alone on charter school facilities.1 This is wealth and property that no longer belongs to the public that produced it; it is now in private hands, essentially for free.2 Even worse, existing institutions and arrangements provide the public with no recourse for effective redress.
One of the most recent surges in antisocial demands from charter school promoters for more public property comes from Washington D.C. where charter schools have a long record of serious problems. Charter school promoters in D.C. have launched an intense effort in recent months to lay claim to “vacant” or “unused” public school facilities worth millions of dollars. They have even cynically claimed that efforts to block them from seizing public facilities that belong to the public is tantamount to denying parents “school choice” and undermining “opportunity.”
But whether public school facilities are vacant or not, whether they are being used or not, they still belong to the public, not private sector actors who own-operate segregated and de-unionized contract schools plagued by racketeering, poor performance, low accountability, discriminatory enrollment practices, high employee turnover rates, inflated administrator pay, large advertising budgets, and frequent closures. How does any of this benefit the public?
It is amazing that private entrepreneurs have situated themselves to demand free public property, but they are doing it “for the kids.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Public schools are often taken for granted as parts of local communities. Many members of the public do not understand that these schools are public assets and part of the common good paid for by public taxes. Good public schools raise property values for home owners, and they are often the hub of community life. When a competing charter sets up shop, the result is generally a diminished public asset for the community. In smaller communities the results can be devastating.
It would be interesting to compile a list of public assets across the country that have been transferred to private entities. Publishing that list would be an eye opener for many tax payers. Real estate acquisition is one the hidden agendas of many charters that the public is largely unnoticed by the public. Many people have bought into the disrupters’ lie that competition is good for public for public schools. They need to understand the private charters operate like a parasite off public money taken from public schools, and public real estate acquisition is another means to fleece tax payers.
the fact that people have lived with the social paradigm of legally having local neighborhood schools expected to offer services for all children is sadly problematic: few people now know the political logistics — thus they cannot see the attacks coming or feel motivated to stop them
“Many members of the public do not understand that these schools are public assets and part of the common good paid for by public taxes.” Could this be true? Surely taxpayers see that they pay for new schools, and improvements to their older schools; who do they think built and owns the unused ones? There must be public reports where the market value of the district’s assets figure into the discussion from time to time. And newspaper articles detailing the cost to the public of letting empty school bldgs deteriorate, or reporting on efforts to rent them.
Yet I sense you’re right on some level, for how else could laws be passed that allow such a giveaway? My answer: laws passed in back halls by legislators exchanging public assets for campaign donations, public & media as usual distracted/ persuaded by political & ideological smokescreen, ignoring the money , asleep at the wheel. And– as we’ve seen recently in NJ– gross profits to real estate interests can be so well hidden that it takes enterprising investigative reporters years to parse out the legal tangle.
” He thinks these transfers of public assets to private ownership are wrong.”
When schools and other publicly owned property are transfered to private entities, it is not just wrong. It is criminal and the people who take part in this ,– either as facilitators or beneficiaries are criminals.
Thank you. But how do laws get passed that legalize criminal activity? Whole lotta that going around.
The charter schools in my area fence off and lock their playgrounds and rope off their parking lots after school hours. Public schools aren’t allowed to do that. Makes me so furious, especially now that we have to pay a separate part of our property taxes specifically for charter schools.
Ooh, that’s a dead giveaway. https://www.enjuris.com/children-accidents/injured-at-school.html Public schools have “sovereign immunity… they are treated as political subdivisions… so [in the event of injury] the first thing to check is whether it’s a public or private school… The private school can be sued directly… If students are on a playground and get hurt, but it’s a Saturday or not during school hours, the school will not be held liable.”
Just another example of how charters are not public schools no matter what anyone says. They are private schools subsidized by the public in exchange for… ??